The 8 Golden Rules for Crushing Your Social Media Ad Campaigns

ad campaigns main Rule: Remember, You’re the VIP Customer!

Before we dive into this game-changing advice, let’s nail down the most crucial rule: social media platforms want your ad campaigns to succeed even more than you do. Sure, you need them to attract new customers, but for these platforms, it’s their bread and butter. When you launch a campaign, you’re not just an advertiser; you’re their prime target customer.

The algorithms these networks have developed are nothing short of engineering marvels. They’re the result of an army of developers, marketers, and other experts, with years of fine-tuning under their belts. Their endgame? To give you a system that’ll knock your socks off and keep you coming back for more.

Why Is This A Big Deal?

After years in the trenches, we’ve spotted a common rookie mistake among entrepreneurs new to social media advertising. When they first get their hands on campaign creation tools, they’re often blown away by all the bells and whistles: scheduling, geo-targeting, audience profiling, you name it. But here’s the kicker – that’s where the trap lies!

As a savvy entrepreneur, you’ve probably spent time crafting your prospect personas, which is great. But the classic blunder is trying to tailor your first campaigns to match these personas to a T. WRONG MOVE! You’re forgetting the second rule…

2nd Rule: Social Media Isn’t Your Local Mall!

Sure, many platforms have e-commerce features, and plenty of folks use them to sell directly to their prospects. Ask them to show you their ad spend, and take a gander at their conversion rates. Watch how their budget evolves from one campaign to the next. If you’ve got an unlimited ad budget and you’re still coming out on top despite these expenses, then kudos to you – this article isn’t for you.

But if you’re looking to optimize your spend and get more bang for your buck, don’t fall into this trap. Make your campaigns the starting point of a well-oiled sales funnel that taps into how social media users really behave.

When someone logs into Facebook, TikTok, or any other platform, they’re not there to shop till they drop. They’re there to unwind, learn something new, catch up on their interests, see what’s new with their friends and network. Shopping? That’s the last thing on their mind. If you come on too strong with your pitch, you’ll get more scrolls than a medieval library. And if you go overboard with intrusive ads, you’ll be about as popular as a telemarketer at dinner time!

Before you hit ‘publish’ on that ad post, ask yourself:

• Does it grab attention at first glance?
• Does it strike an emotional chord or solve a problem?
• Is there a clear, engaging call-to-action?

If you’ve got three yeses, you’re good to go.

3rd Rule: Never Put All Your Eggs in One Ad Basket

There are stats and benchmarks out there that can help you pick the best ad format. Video’s king of the hill, especially short-form. But even if you’re all in on video, it’s tough to know right off the bat which format, background music, copy, or duration will hit the bullseye.

To crack the code, there’s no magic wand – it’s all about A/B testing. You’ve got to launch multiple versions of your ad simultaneously.

Even if they’re all videos, throw in some image ads with text, a carousel… At first, mix it up to figure out what clicks with your audience on each platform, depending on your industry and target market.

4th Rule: Don’t Go Overboard with Targeting Out of the Gate

Even if you’re selling men’s razors, let the ladies see your ad. They might snag one for their guy. Even if you’re aiming for parents over 40, let the youngsters catch a glimpse. They might share it with mom and dad.

To start, ditch the super precise settings and stick to the bare necessities. For instance, if you’re gunning for prospects in Boston, no need to target the whole of America. Once you’ve got your first batch of results, you’ll spot patterns among the profiles that showed interest in your ads. You’ll see who followed your sales funnel. From there, you can zero in on similar profiles with the versions of your ads that converted best.

5th Rule: Go Big or Go Home with Your Initial Budget

If you’re thinking of running an ad for three days with a $5 daily budget, save it for boosting your page and gaining followers without much fuss. Honestly, you might as well not bother. Pump up that budget until you’re hitting a few hundred bucks over at least a week to reach a wide range of people.

This approach lets you touch base with all sorts of profiles using the maximum number of ad versions possible, and gives you solid data to understand who to target with what content and when.

Plus, social media algorithms favor clients with deep pockets. If you’re hoping to get the same TLC from them with a $50 monthly budget as someone dropping $500, you’re in for a reality check! Even if they tell you otherwise, put yourself in their shoes and ask what you’d do.

6th Rule: Nothing Lasts Forever

Once upon a time, handing out flyers was all the rage, but those days are long gone! Same goes for social media. A text post on Facebook with a $500 budget won’t give you as much bang for your buck today as a 30-second video with a $100 budget on the same platform. You might even hit the jackpot on TikTok with $75, or better yet, on LinkedIn with just $50 and a text post disguised as an article.

Sure, you should learn from your past campaign results, but never set them in stone. Always keep your finger on the pulse of trends to avoid throwing good money after bad strategies. If you ever catch yourself wondering, “Why aren’t my ads performing like they used to?”, you’ve fallen into this trap!

7th Rule: Master the Art of Analysis and Custom Reporting of ad campaigns

Running your ad campaigns is only half the battle. The real power of your strategy lies in your ability to crunch the numbers and extract golden insights. While social media platforms serve up detailed reports on a silver platter, it’s crucial to go the extra mile and whip up your own custom dashboards.

Why is this such a big deal?

1. Tailor-made visibility: Off-the-shelf reports don’t always cut it for your specific needs. By creating your own spreadsheets, you can spotlight exactly what matters to your business.
2. Efficient comparison: Tracking the evolution of key performance indicators (KPIs) for each ad version lets you quickly identify what’s working and what needs a tune-up.
3. Continuous optimization: A deep dive into your data helps you fine-tune your future campaigns, maximizing your ROI.

What should you keep tabs on?

• Visibility rate per version
• Cost per click (CPC) or cost per view (CPV)
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Performance based on time of day
• Conversion rate
• Engagement (likes, shares, comments)
• Reach and impressions

How to tackle it:

1. Regularly export your campaign data to your own spreadsheets.
2. Create pivot tables and custom charts that highlight trends and relationships between different KPIs.
3. Set up a main dashboard grouping your most important KPIs for a quick overview.
4. Schedule regular analysis sessions to pore over this data and make informed decisions.
5. Use these insights to tweak your future campaigns and A/B tests.

Remember: setting up your campaigns correctly and running A/B tests is only truly valuable if you milk every last drop of data they generate. A thorough and regular analysis is what will transform these efforts into tangible results and continuous improvement in your ad performance.

By mastering the art of analysis and custom reporting, you’re not just launching campaigns; you’re evolving them strategically, giving yourself a significant competitive edge in the long run.

8th Rule: Your Brand is the Ultimate Goal

Sure, you can run campaigns to promote a product or service from your catalog, but if you want to stretch your ad dollars for the future, you’ve got to aim to make your brand a household name. Your name, your logo, and other elements of your visual identity should become more and more recognizable to the people who see your posts. Make sure your visual image is on point and associated with the feeling you want to give your customers.

Take a page from the big players:

• What does Nike sell? Excellence.
• What does Coca-Cola sell? Happiness and togetherness.
• What does Starbucks sell? Experience and community.
• What does Red Bull sell? Adventure and adrenaline.

And you? What does your brand sell?

Now You’re Ready to Roll

Obviously, there are other aspects and rules for optimizing your ad campaigns, but most of them require industry specialists. If you have the chance to bring in a real pro, we highly recommend it. This investment will pay for itself. They’ll not only apply the rules we’ve covered but also bring know-how that’ll help you spend less and get more bang for your buck.

However, knowing that’s not in everyone’s budget, keep these rules in mind, and you’ll be on the right track.

Does PulseWeaver Handle Ad Campaigns?

Not yet, but stay tuned! We’re excited to announce that the testing phase for ad campaign creation features is scheduled for September 2024, with a target integration in 2025.

Our dev teams are hard at work implementing processes and best practices established by social media advertising experts. PulseWeaver promises to give users access to professional-grade tools in an automated way with minimal involvement while respecting their brand image and audience.

These features will be rolled out as soon as our internal tests meet these requirements. In the meantime, you can count on PulseWeaver to create and publish content on your pages and use this content as a foundation for your ad campaigns.

As long as you’re a PulseWeaver user, you’ll have a rock-solid partner for your digital marketing.

If this is your first time on our blog, head over to pulseweaver.com to discover our features.