Maximize your way to success - The importance of optimizing campaigns
When it comes to serving advertising spaces, all social media networks rely on a type of programmatic media buying based on Real Time Bidding.
The massive amount of data that these platforms store, the fierce competition and the fast-paced response of the users make necessary for every advertiser that strives to drive efficiency while keeping control of the spend to rely on all the superb data technology tools and analytical insights at their own disposal.
The social media world is a dynamic and fluctuating marketplace, optimizing an advertising campaign means monitor, learn and stay on top of both the current trends and the users’ feedbacks but more importantly smash down ad costs while increasing results.
Given the objective fact that marketing is just a vehicle to success but more important is the product the we sell and the values that we represent, an advertising optimization effectiveness depends on the most powerful combination of three different layers: economic, analytical and contextual.
Once we establish a clear and achievable objective, we are called to set an economic budget and a monetary bid that should give an idea both on the volume of results we can get and what is the cost per result we are then strategically thinking to achieve and, moving forward, re-adjust accordingly or scale. Increasing or randomly decreasing is going affect the campaign prominently, a wrong decrease will hinder delivery while a generous increase will burn your money having you pay at an inflated price what you could get at a cheaper cost.
One of the hardest part in paid social is how to translate who your customers are into precise information, what’s their job, interests, hobbies, geo-localization, the device they use, things that matter to them and what’s the best place to catch them at the right time, then set up your targeting strategically through a data-driven analysis.
Focusing on the right KPIs is just one of the many things to have your eyes on, an ad set that is pacing the best within a campaign doesn’t necessarily mean is the best one, especially if there’s a high auction overlap rate, an incorrect budget dosage (different objective or different audiences require tailored budgets and bids) or a bid constraint. If your CpA is within target you’d rather concentrate on the volume of acquisitions because there is probably room to improve for example by first removing all possible constraints and only then draw definite conclusions for equal comparisons amongst assets.
Adjustments may be analytically weighed based on demographics, devices, users’ behaviors and optimization types investigations, properly reconnecting with people left along the funnel is of paramount importance so is the ability to master granular analysis, use the correct attribution window and make cost-impacting evaluations on the right periods of time.
Even though the behavior of the users is unpredictable and so are most markets trends, we tend to forget that back-end everything is converted into data and the creative part is not set aside. Imagery must be contextual and inherent to what you are trying to communicate but also who to. Analyzing how much time is spent on watching your video ads on average may help understand what’s the amount of time your customers want it to be long. Jump rates, dwell time, negative and positive interactions, shares and numbers of comments matter ! What did your creative the converted the most have? Ad Fatigue is strictly connected to how big your audience is and CtR. There must be a genuine proportion between CtRs and CVRs, iterating and A/B testing key elements it’s a must-do for businesses of all size and generally leads to unexpected results.
Figuring out what works the best and improve delivery accordingly is a crucial part of every winning advertising strategy. A smarter campaign management requires a small amount of money for a cost effective investment. Timely moving with machine-learning predictions means maximizing the chances of staying relevant, increase useful viewability and end up ROI positive.
Dario was an Account Manager for Facebook for almost 2 years guiding EMEA SMBs to establish successful Facebook strategies and increase their ROI. He then worked as Account Strategist at AdGlow - a Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Snapchat and Pinterest Marketing Partner - scaling the online advertising activity of big brands and media agencies mostly on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. He then founded TechSounds where he currently helps various businesses globally to make their brands resonate on social media platforms through online advertising.