In today’s digital world, people are bombarded with information and advertisements at every turn, with social media at the epicenter. Because social media has become a central component of many businesses’ marketing strategies, paid social media advertising has evolved into one of the most popular ways to reach new audiences and drive conversions. But is there really a secret to making your paid social advertisements profitable? Yes.
So, what’s the secret? It’s that your paid social ads can only flourish with a well thought-out creative strategy that can evolve and adapt. Shhh, don’t tell anyone … but this secret to profitable social media ads doesn’t have to be complicated; it just has to be strategic. With a solid creative strategy, your ads will stand out and capture the shopper’s attention amid all the information and noise they come across daily.
An effective strategy enables your brand to create more compelling ads that can increase engagement, drive conversions, and ultimately achieve your business objectives. In this blog post, you’ll learn about the questions to consider when creating a strategy, some key elements of creative strategy, and more.
Creative Strategy Is the Secret Weapon Your Social Media Ads Manager & Social Media Designer Need
To put it plainly, creative strategy is the driving force behind your paid social advertising campaigns. It provides the clear path needed to achieve your goals because it considers all elements, including brand voice, target audience, market research, and more. It’s also the best friend to both your social media ads manager and graphic designer. Without creative strategy, all of your designer’s efforts may fall short, and your social buyer won’t be able to create a great social media strategy effectively.
Besides, just throwing your money at social media advertising campaigns isn’t going to guarantee your brand’s success. You need to dedicate time and effort to create great ads that connect with the right audiences and convey your brand’s messaging. To effectively do this, you need to develop an ongoing creative strategy. Now let’s dive into why it’s important—its key elements.
The Importance & Key Elements of Creative Strategy
If you’ve worked in the digital advertising space, you’ve probably heard some variation of “70% of targeting is driven by creative.” It’s ingrained in every advertiser’s mind that creative does much of the heavy lifting in an ad account, yet very few ad agencies offer creative strategy.
Why? Because, more often than not, an agency’s capabilities will be limited to a paid social buyer and a graphic designer, with an account manager there for client concerns and some strategy. At Omnitail, we’re changing this and incorporating creative strategy into every aspect of paid social. Some of the key elements of creative strategy (and the elements we consider when partnering with our clients) include:
Clear and compelling messaging: Ad messaging should be clear, concise, and compelling. It should communicate the value proposition of the advertised product or service and provide a clear call-to-action.
Eye-catching visuals: The visuals of an ad are critical in capturing the audience’s attention. The imagery should be high-quality, visually appealing, and relevant to the message.
Consistency with brand identity: Paid social media campaigns should be consistent with the business’s brand identity. This includes using appropriate brand colors, fonts, and other design elements to ensure that the ads are recognizable as belonging to the brand.
Personalization: Personalization is becoming increasingly more important in social media advertising. Effective creative strategy should take into account the audience’s interests, demographics, and behaviors to create ads that are highly relevant to them.
A/B testing: A/B testing is an essential part of optimizing for creative strategy. By testing different messaging, visuals, and formats, businesses can identify the ad elements that are most effective in achieving their goals.
Questions a Social Media Ads Manager & Social Media Designer Should Consider When Crafting an Effective Strategy
Instead of just barreling through and hiring a freelance digital marketer or social media designer to create a social media advertising campaign that you think will catch the eye of online shoppers, it’s important to partner with an agency that will work with you to create an ongoing creative strategy that meets—and exceeds—your specific goals and objectives. Some of the key questions you and your agency should consider when creating your strategy include the following:
What’s your target audience?
It’s useless to spend time creating ads for those who won’t convert. Research market trends and use website analytics to help you determine your target audience so you can focus and simplify your efforts.
For example, If you’re a women-only athletic clothing brand, you don’t want to target teens in your advertising because they won’t fit your intended target audience. Expanding your audience beyond your actual target may result in wasted resources and ad spend.
What’s your brand voice?
Your brand voice is your company’s personality, and it literally tells shoppers how you want them to feel about your products and/or services. Are you looking to create more of a formal and technical tone, or do you want to give off a fun and casual vibe? Whatever you choose, it’s essential to stick to it with all your branding (including your paid social media ads) to build awareness, familiarity, and trust with your targeted audience.
What are your primary objectives or goals?
These are the business goals you want to achieve with your ad campaign. Do you want to increase your sales for a specific sports bra during the winter season, are you looking to generate new leads, or are you looking to improve brand awareness? Regardless of what you need, defining your objectives and goals will help you build out the remaining parts of your strategy.
What’s been tested, and/or what’s worked for you before?
Knowing what’s been tested and whether or not it worked will save you a lot of effort and time. Comb through past reporting to determine if you can use these strategies for your new campaign. You need to pivot your resources accordingly, figure out what strategies have worked best, and use these learnings as market research as you create new campaigns.
What are the unique value propositions (UVPs) that set you apart from your competition?
What is the one thing that makes your brand better than others? What are you able to solve for your customers that others aren’t? Understanding what makes your brand unique gives you an edge over the competition. If you can clearly state why you’re the best, or that you offer the best product or services for your target audience, will help you effectively develop a strategy around these UVPs.
The Omnitail Difference
It’s easy to pour money into social media ads without fully understanding the impact their performance has on your business. That’s where The Omnitail Difference comes in: A transparent, full-service paid social media agency that focuses not only on media buying, but also on creative strategy and creative ad development. Our unique, multi-faceted approach will scale the success of your campaigns—and your business.
We are committed to making your paid social advertising work for you and your bottom line through data-driven and creative strategies, continuous testing and optimization, and honest reporting that measures success through overall profitability instead of vanity metrics.
Let Our Experienced Team Elevate Your Paid Social Efforts
When your paid social efforts have fallen short in the past, and you’re searching for ways to improve them, consider implementing creative strategy to boost and unlock your brand’s full potential. By partnering with Omnitail, you get a team of experts that work seamlessly together to elevate your paid social efforts; your creative strategist, social media ads manager, and social media designer will develop a well-crafted strategy to help you capture the right attention and engage your targeted audience while ensuring your brand remains relevant and memorable.
Are you looking for a social media advertising agency that can truly take your marketing efforts to the next level? Our expert team is ready to provide your brand with a paid social media strategy, strategic blueprints for creative development, and compelling content that drives results. Reach out to our experienced social media advertising agency today to talk shop and learn more about how we can make your brand more profitable using paid social advertising as part of your growth marketing strategy.
