Social media is a great platform to advertise your business around the world. It provides a huge audience that you can reach. A proper social media advertising plan can increase your leads and conversions. According to a report, there were around 4.48 billion active internet users until October 2019 and there are 3.484 billion active social media users in the world. This number will increase with an increase in internet coverage in the future.

It is said that social media advertising will see a 21% growth this year. But why? What makes social media advertising so powerful? Well, most advertising methods take time to give a return. For example, advertising through content takes a lot of time in SEO.

Some are not consistent enough to run smoothly. AdWords are very tough to learn and master. On the other hand, social media marketing has no limits. You can spend as much as you want. You can reach whatever the number of users is in your mind. Also, you do not have to worry about keywords or wait until someone reads your content. You can have leads following in virtually every day with social media advertising.

But the thing about social media is that people are looking for human interaction. They are here to spend their free time. They want to meet new people. Some are looking for friends, others for love. They want to browse content that feels personal to them. They like pages and brands that they are interested in. This makes social media advertising different than the rest.

It’s unlike other marketing channels where a customer is shown all sorts of ads. It doesn’t work if you advertise basketball products to a football lover. In short, personalization is the best advertising method on social media.

Let’s see five ways to personalize your advertising campaigns on social media.

#1. Study Your Audience

The first thing you need to do is to study your target audience. Figure out who your customers are, what age groups they belong to, what is the ratio of male to female users, and what regions do they belong to, etc. These are some of the questions you need to have answers about.

Once, you have understood your audience, the next step is to collect this data using social media advertising tools. Facebook Pixel is a good example of it. You can get other important data from Facebook. For example, you can find out the things you like and the pages you follow. You can also know which influencers are interested to hear from you.

They can let you create an effective social media advertising. You can deliver personalized content to your audience’s screens via the people they follow religiously. Once you have all the data, feed it to your advertising campaign. This way you will be more effective on social media.

#2. Retargeting

Retargeting is another way to personalize your advertising campaigns on social media. It is one of the unique things about advertising campaigns on social media. So, what happens is that a customer checks some products on your website. The website collects data using cookies. You then use those cookies to advertise similar products on social media.

This way you only show ads about things that your customer is interested in. Showing ads to customers who have already checked your products is highly effective. For example, a customer searched online for carpet cleaners London.

You can figure out what this customer is looking for. You target this customer with ads for carpet cleaning services in the London area. Retargeting also reduces the rate of abandoned carts which stood at 69.57% in 2019. This way you are advertising your product to a customer who already knows about it. Instead of a customer who doesn’t know anything about your product.

#3. Social Proof

Social proof is when a customer purchases something and recommends it to their friends. The thing is, Social proof works for both online and offline businesses. Getting industry experts to review your products is one form of social proof. Similarly, using influencers to share your brand story is also social proof. A survey shows that 88% of social media users trust reviews of other users.

It is natural for customers to seek the advice of their family and friends when buying something. Similarly, 63% of customers are encouraged to buy from a website that has product ratings and reviews. Social proof can drive your advertising campaigns to great success.

But make sure that you share real reviews instead of paid ones. Social media users are quick enough to point out fake content.

#4. Personalized Recommendation

Online stores and entertainment websites study user behavior very closely. Youtube has recommended videos and Netflix also has recommended shows. Both these sites study what you watched previously and offer personalized recommendations.

These recommendations are based on your previous activity on the website. For example, if you have watched Narcos, Netflix would recommend watching Breaking Bad. Facebook also has friend recommendations based on who your friends are.

Shopping stores show you ads for products that are similar to your previous purchases. It is a great way a brand can show commitment to customer experience.

#5. Polls and Quizzes

Last but not least, polls and quizzes are effective in running a personalized ad campaign on social media. Many businesses ask customers to play a fun quiz. They make sure that the quizzes are interactive. This way they get a lot of responses from their followers. Businesses use this method to learn about their followers. For example, they would create a poll for product A vs product B.

Local restaurants create a poll to find out the demand for a specific lunch deal. They might ask you about your favorite or least favorite dish. In 2018, M&M’S create a poll that looked like a silly question. A lot of social media users responded to this poll. M&M’S used this poll to learn about the inner psychology of their followers.

This way social media users share valuable information with the businesses. Businesses can use this information to create a more personalized advertising campaign on social media.

Wrapping Up

Social media has been a powerful tool for businesses around the world. It is a lot cheaper than other channels of advertising. You can reach millions in a quick time. Just as it can spread a good word for your brand, a bad word can reach the entire world in no time.

It is up to you to accept the challenges that social media offers. Businesses are making new strategies. They are bringing new ideas to this industry. Personalized advertising campaigns will help you gain an edge. The question is, are you ready?

Originally posted at RuhaniRabin.com
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