During the last year, social media platforms have witnessed a massive spike in attraction. It has been a year like never before, characterised by tough local restrictions, national lockdowns & stay-at-home demands. With little to do, consumers have increasingly turned to social media to socialise and stay connected with the world. Just as we realised last year, social media remains the most cost-effective way for F&B brands to reach their isolated audiences.
Our previous posts have shown the advantages of utilising organic social media management when trying to reach out to your consumer, but this blog will focus on paid ads.
Advertising on social media provides a direct link between yourself and your target audience. Wishing to retain the relationships you have always cherished, or are you taking this as an opportunity to develop a new clientele? Either way, each platform has its own advertising options, and it is important to select those which work best for you. With that in mind, let’s delve deeper into the magical world of social media advertisements, and discuss 5 reasons why you should consider running some paid ads during lockdown!
1. More People Are Using Social Media During Lockdown
This one is pretty simple – being cooped up indoors, bored; has resulted in more people now using social media to remain entertained. It is highly unlikely that your audience will be seeing your billboards, storefront or ads in the newspaper. According to Bazaarvoice’s Influenster report, 82% of consumers have increased their social media consumption since the outset of the pandemic. In fact, during lockdown 67% of consumers expanded their use of Instagram. If this is not an important and growing market, then we don’t know what is!
Managed correctly, social media advertisements allow you to tap into these expanding markets. When used alongside your organic marketing material, you could be in for a winner. We here at Double Up Social pride ourselves in the ability to maximise the possibilities that come with an in-depth, amalgamated social media strategy. Feel free to drop us an email after finishing this blog if you have any further questions!
2. Facebook and Instagram Ads are Cost Effective and Low-Risk
Evolving and moving away from traditional marketing methods, the era of social media marketing is upon us. Not only does this allow you to broaden your reach in your advertising campaign, but social media advertisements also provide good bang for your marketing buck. Highly cost-effective, social media ads reach further, meaning what you may have budgeted before on a newspaper advertisement can now significantly increase your outreach.
Providing you with real-time information, social media ads allow you to monitor, examine and provides conclusive evidence as to results that you are receiving. If the results are not as you were expecting, you can simply pause and reconsider your strategy. Still a little cautious about switching? Keep in mind that you can begin running these advertisements for as little as £1. This allows you to test the water, using a small budget at no-risk, no signup fees and minimal ad expenditure. You should also remember that many nearby restaurants may have currently reduced their marketing budget. This provides you with an amazing opportunity to take advantage whilst your competition has its guard down. In the current climate we must do all we can in order to survive, so why not utilise the minimal upsides that are currently available to you.
3. You can Target Potential Customers Based on Interest & Local Location
One of the fundamental differences between your organic material and social media ads is the ability to target your potential customers. Providing you with an array of resources, you should firstly consider the clientele of which you are trying to reach. With this, you can narrow your audience set to those within a selected distance of your store or restaurant. If you are wishing to increase deliveries, many platforms even provide the ability to target by postcode.
Another interesting approach is to utilise the interests of your consumers. If you’re a local independently run Mexican restaurant – you are able to target those with an interest in fajitas, burritos or nachos for example. Otherwise why not select an audience which is more inclined to ordering from locally run operations, rather than one of the big chains out there. This way, you will ensure that your ads are reaching the right people, which will likely increase your return on ad spend (ROAS).
4. You can Direct People Straight to your Delivery Partners
Unlike traditional marketing techniques, potential customers can click directly through to your website or delivery partners without the need for scanning or typing anything down. BCG’s research on the impact of your chosen touchpoints shows the significant impact that can be obtained through a well designed yet streamlined approach. By prioritising your consumer pathway - making it easy for those interested to place an order, your market share can increase by as much as 25%. Adversely, a misaligned touchpoint approach can reduce this by 13%.
During lockdown you are most likely pushing for delivery sales, so make it prominently known who you are partnered with. Using Facebook and Instagram ads, you are able to embed buttons and direct links to your website or delivery partners. This can be different from your usual organic material, whereby links need to be placed in bios for consumers to select. One click away from Just Eat, Deliveroo, Uber Eats or any other partner can significantly assist in bringing in those quick, impulse orders; and as we know, once you have their loyalty it is a lot easier to bring in new orders!
5. Facebook and Instagram Algorithms Require You To
Social media platforms have become more and more a “pay-to-play” arena. Where once organic material, hashtags and shares were sufficient in getting your name out there, social media platforms have been altering their algorithms - forcing advertisers to invest in their ads. It is now fundamental to have a calculated approach. This does not mean you cannot organically succeed, but in order to obtain your full potential, we recommend including social media advertisements to your marketing strategy to boost your success.
So, what do you think, will you give it a go? We have outlined the fundamental reasons why we believe investing in social media advertisements will benefit you greatly in the weeks and months ahead. We always recommend that you plan and design your marketing strategies; not only aimed at reaching the most people, but with a filtered approach in order to gain attention from those who will love and cherish your brand.
Social media advertisements do just this, and however much we love to show the cost saving benefits of organic material through our blogs, sometimes we all need a little extra help in order to succeed. Setting up paid social ads can be a bit overwhelming for a first-time user, feel free to shoot us an email at mark@doubleupsocial.com if you need any advice or support!