Paid social is absolutely vital to your social media success. All too often while browsing Instagram, I have come across brands with excellent feeds and product photography, BUT, only around 30 likes per post.
Clever captions – check! Decent following – check! Optimized bio – check!
So what gives? How can a brand with relatively solid social get so little engagement?
Let’s look at the facts. To start, organic reach has quickly declined on nearly all social networks (besides Tik Tok). Each social network has created some form of paid advertising studio that promises participants more reach, engagement, and followers. It may seem unfair, but social space is valuable ad real estate, and these networks know it. Thus, algorithms are designed to favor those who put a budget behind their campaigns. If you’re a small business, you may be thinking, “how can my small marketing budget even begin to compare to larger brands online?” The good news is that paid social doesn’t have to be daunting, or expensive. An informed content strategy, paired with even a conservative budget, can drastically increase awareness and online sales when compared to organic social alone!
Now you know the not-so-dirty secret of social in 2020: money talks. Actually, I should say money reaches. It makes sense, with so many businesses and influencers in the social media space, competition is high. Each follower’s Instagram or Facebook feed is a fight for attention between hundreds of brands. Companies that rely on organic reach alone can guarantee that their posts won’t be seen by the majority of their current followers. In fact, in 2015, studies showed that Facebook posts were generating only 2% organic reach. According to Forbes, “…that means a page with 100 fans could potentially only reach two people”. Advertising organically to such a low percent of existing fans is a waste of time and effort – and doesn’t even consider the largely missed opportunity of reaching users outside your list of followers.
So how can YOU best reach potential customers and engage with current fans?
At Gossip Genie, we specialize in paid strategy on all social platforms. Typically we start with an audit to gauge where your dollars would be best spent to get you the most engagement and reach for your budget. On Facebook, ads targeted to a specific, pre-determined group of potential fans can increase your follower numbers with even a small amount of money behind it. These fans are real and will engage with your content genuinely, unlike bots purchased by some social agencies. We also will likely put boosts behind high-performing posts – taking into consideration which content is resonating best organically, and then bolstering them with an ad budget to make sure that the message reaches as many users as possible! On Instagram, paid strategy can span story ads, which reach customers as they’re tapping through their friend’s stories, to sponsored posts that show up in targeted feeds or the discovery page. The opportunities are endless, and even these little efforts will help build engagement, reach, and sales, so your social strategy becomes a money-generating machine! For paid social efforts, the most important factor is consistency and expertise, and the Genies are standing by to provide both.
Let’s work some MAGIC on your social – contact us today ✨
