Why Aren't Your Social Network Ads Working? (And Where You Should Be Spending Your Money)
Ads—and the software that blocks them—are becoming a serious bone of contention among internet providers, consumers, and marketers. The open source development community has been playing a ping pong game with sites such as Facebook, who are vocal opponent to ad blockers. Every time Facebook releases a new indicator to prevent ad blocking software from working on its desktop site, the community volleys back with a new workaround.
Consumers, for their part are increasingly frustrated by the prevalence of internet-based ads and their feelings towards them have become increasingly negative. Nowhere is this attitude more prevalent than on social media, a space consumers feel should be free of ads.
Marketers are caught in the middle: On the one hand they see social media as the perfect medium to reach their target market. On the other, they are worried about turning off a large segment of their audience.
It is a dilemma we see often. Clients fear their Facebook ads are not working. They have a right to be concerned: Not only are ad blockers a contributing factor to marketers' concerns, but some consumers have often trained themselves to ignore the ads on the side of the page. What can be done to address these issues?
While the advances made to ad targeting are impressive and have yielded positive results to overcoming these hurdles, Facebook and other social media platforms offer an equally, if not more, effective alternative in the form of “boosted posts.”
Boosted posts are posts that you have executed on Facebook that you can “boost” or pay to have displayed on timelines of people who don't follow you. You can choose your audience for these posts in the same way you can position an advertisement, but unlike an advertisement, these appear just like another post in your target market's timeline. The organic nature of the post has a less abrasive and disruptive feeling to consumers. It also encourages more engagement with the post than a normal ad. The same is true for promoted tweets on Twitter and ads on Instagram, which appear just like an Instagram post and offer that same organic impression.
As an added bonus, while social media ads may not reach cross platform, they can offer a cost effective alternative to Google Display Ads for small businesses.
For more information on our social media solutions and a full list of services, visit lyncserve.com/services.
