Once upon a time, when social was still in its infancy, advertisers who were innovative enough to take the risk of plunging into the social media ‘trend’ were rewarded by establishing themselves as the first brands to truly embrace direct online relationships with their customers. Back in a simpler time, organic reach and engagement were plentiful. You could post an image or a link and Facebook would allow your post to reach a substantial amount of people.
Unfortunately for brands (but great for Facebook’s wallet!), this is no longer the case. Brands are starting to see a massive decline in the reach and engagement from marketing tools such as Facebook Pages and Twitter. The new era of ‘pay to play’ has officially begun.
Facebook claim that this is an attempt to make sure that their users are being shown content that they want and can actually relate to. The truth, is that social networks are trying to make money out of you. SHOCK. Unfortunately for brands, this has made organic social media marketing extremely difficult.
A recent study found that 80% of marketers will have paid social campaigns taking place over the next twelve months. Results also found that of that 80%, 42% will be starting paid social media campaigns for the first time ever.
This doesn’t mean that brands have to start churning cash into Facebook or Twitter campaigns, but it will mean that brands not taking part will have less visibility than their competition. Nobody wants that.
It’s not only visibility that you buy with paid social advertising, but highly targeted posts. By boosting or dark posting content, you can target your posts towards certain demographics (age, sex, location etc.) or behaviours (shopping, Italian cuisine, Manchester United etc.). You can even optimise your campaigns so that people are more likely to click, or more likely to engage, dependent on the objective of your social marketing campaign.
So don’t be scared to tackle the monster that is paid social advertising. Or simply get us to do it for you 😉
