Everyone’s been talking about the importance of content… so you’ve been listening. You hired an in-house creative team, you built a network of freelance content creators, and you’re researching best practices on creating killer content for your social channels.
But … what if all this great content isn’t getting to the right audience? Clicking that magical ‘post’ button is not an automatic guarantee that your carefully-curated content will every actually make its way to your followers’ news feeds. Between ever-changing social algorithms and users’ abilities to hide sponsored content and customize their feeds, the battle for eyeballs has never been more serious.
So why not give your content the respect it deserves? With a little bit of goal-setting, strategic thinking, and creative spending, your brand’s content can finally find its way back into your audiences’ social spheres.
Don’t set yourself up for failure, but don’t play it safe either. Think of your paid media goal-setting kind of like investing in the stock market. You’ll always have those tried and true platforms that deliver a trusty CPM and provide complex targeting options (here’s lookin’ at you, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest) but you might also be tempted to experiment with spending money on some of those newcomers, with their flashy smiles and daunting CPM (think Reddit, Snapchat, and Instagram).
Use the majority of your budget to invest in those nest eggs that you know will deliver results and hit the broadest cross-section of your target demographic. Then use the money you have left to test out some of those penny stocks. Don’t be afraid to experiment with boosting and syndication plans across different platforms, just don’t count on them to meet all of your goals.
Once you have your target channels in mind, you can use each platform’s reported CPM to generate your impressions goal and start defining KPIs across your boosting campaign. Of course, you can also work in the opposite direction by assigning impressions goals at the front end of your project and then selecting those platforms which meet your needs.
As you’re busy selecting which platforms you plan to boost from, don’t forget about the people you’re trying to reach. Your target demographic can be determined by your current social following and customer base, but it can also be defined by those audience(s) that you want to reach. Is your goal fan acquisition? Perhaps you should tailor a paid media plan that boosts your content to an entirely new subset of people. Want to promote a new product or promotion? Maybe you’re better off targeting brand loyalists.
Audience targeting can be tailored to fit almost any need. Of course you can create guidelines based on standard demographic information (age, sex, location, etc.) but did you know that you can target down to a person’s brand affinity, interests, and relationship status? Sprout Social put together a handy guide that breaks down the basics for boosting on each social platform.
Once you’ve clearly defined your target audience, use this information to inform the rest of your decisions. To start with, it should definitely impact your channel selection. For example, don’t waste money boosting on LinkedIn if you’re trying to reach people ages 13-17. Additionally, you can use these insights to actually start optimizing content at its very source.
If you’re hiring influencers, freelancers, or any other outside partner for your content creation, make sure you’re working with people whose content will resonate with your target audience. Whether that means asking an influencer for their audience insights, or finding people who are (themselves) a part of your target demo. Content that’s an organic fit for the audience you’re promoting it to will naturally perform better and, ultimately, give you more bang for your buck.
In conclusion, no social campaign is complete without a boosting strategy with comprehensive audience targeting. Don’t keep your content locked in a closet. Set it free… and give it an allowance!
Exhausted just reading this blog post? Don’t worry! Carusele campaigns offer a hassle-free solution to all of your problems. Click here to find out how our model tackles each of these steps and to learn how we can work for your brand. When you’re ready to talk to us, contact us here.
All images from original Carusele campaigns by influencers:
