Social media marketing services for small businesses help companies flourish. Discover some of the most effective tools in our guide. Whether you are a newbie or a seasoned veteran, you will find what you need here. So, how to use social media for small businesses?

What are Social Media Marketing Services?

The strategy tool most used by businesses is social media. Professional services allow brands to leverage platforms like Instagram to reach a broader and more multifaceted audience. Social media marketing services for small businesses let them establish recognition, attract and retain customers, and achieve other goals. Companies reach their prospects where they spend their time online and drive sales. 

Generic advertising does not work anymore. Social media is a space for engaging and targeted ads that get users talking about products and services. Forget unsolicited DMs from companies trying to showcase their products. Effective campaigns are complex, focused on relevance and trust-building. 

You cannot expect remarkable results without giving a lot of thought to your goals or methods. Professionals help businesses avoid the typical pitfalls and maximize output. Social media marketing services include:

• the choice of the right channels — sites and apps that drive traffic and demand in your niche,
• data-driven strategy planning based on the goals, channels, and target audience of your brand,
• account/profile setup if the company has not used social media before, 
• creation and publishing of content and ads,
• campaign management,
• monitoring and analysis of the results,
• education and consulting, 
• and more! 

The Value of Social Media Marketing Services for Small Businesses

In many small organizations, marketers have to be the jacks of all trades. They are tasked with graphic design, press releases, and anything remotely connected to communications. With so much on their plates, they are often unable to devote time to all relevant channels. Some employees are not even sure how to use social media for small businesses. When it falls off their to-do list, this is a big mistake.

These networks have become so important that no company can afford to ignore them. Social media allows businesses to boost sales and the bottom line. Positive interaction between brands and users prompts purchases — 90% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand they follow online. 

Social media marketing for small businesses allows them to forge and reinforce relationships with customers through targeted engagement, build trust, drive awareness and sales. It is also a place where news of poor customer experience spreads like wildfire. This is particularly dangerous when the business does not have a social media presence, so it is oblivious to the damage until it is too late. Negative media content can disrupt trust in a brand quickly. So, how can you harness the power of social media in businesses? 

Small Business Pain Points

Social media marketing for small businesses requires thorough planning and marketing expertise. Here are some of the most common challenges in any industry and digital marketing services that resolve them. 

• We are not able to get new customers

Social media connects you with people who do not know about your brand and can benefit from your products or services. For example, entrepreneurs can use Biteable to create video pitches. Engaging, entertaining, and informing the audience helps them build credibility and drive sales.

Make sure your ads are shown to the right users. They can be targeted based on interests, behaviors, and other demographic data. The Aitarget Video Ad is a social media tool for businesses that lets you showcase goods to the audience that needs them. 

• We are not able to keep existing customers

Offering great products at low prices may not suffice to turn customers into brand advocates. You need to keep track of conversations about your company and fix any issues quickly. Mention can monitor references to your brand, products, or competitors in real-time.

Aitarget will help you present exclusive offers and loyalty programs through well-designed ads. Retargeting is also crucial, as it lets businesses reach 98% of non-returning users and potentially turn them into customers. Our QMODERATION social media marketing service lets you take care of the comment section, so users will feel heard. 

• Our website sucks

Social media ads can drive traffic, but what if the potential customers do not like what they see? Poor design and navigation are detrimental to the user experience. Free tools like Responsive Design Checker let companies check the responsiveness of their sites on different screens. Did you know that 47% of consumers expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less?  The Aitarget experts will suggest the best ways to optimize your platform, so leads turn into paying customers.

• Nobody knows who we are

Boosting brand awareness is the number one goal for 80% of businesses that advertise on social networks. As people learn about your brand and mention it to friends and followers, you will get more referrals. This is the new word-of-mouth. The Buzzsumo research tool shows how your content is doing and who is spreading the word. Marketing services for small businesses provided by Aitarget help them create memorable ads that spark conversations. 

• The competitors’ advertising is way better than ours

Users are inundated with ads, so you have 3 seconds or less to capture their attention. Boring design and generic messages will get you nowhere. The Aitarget social media marketing service ensures the ads stand out, and you can customize successful designer videos to your brand quickly. 

Success also requires consistency. Marketers should follow a schedule based on the best time for their audience. Automated services like Hootsuite Scheduler let companies plan hundreds of posts based on the best time for the audience. Bulk posting is a great time-saver.

• We don’t show up for anything relevant to our business when people search in Google, Bing, or other search engines

Website content must be optimized via different SEO methods, such as keywords for the niche. Handy tools like the Yoast plugin boost the performance of WordPress platforms. Meanwhile, the Drupal SEO Checklist suggests the necessary changes for sites built on this CMS.

Sharing the right links across social platforms increases brand exposure. The look of the URLs also matters, which makes link generators like Rebrandly popular. The Aitarget team will provide a review of your site and pinpoint areas of improvement to help you climb to the top. 

• Sales are down 30% from last year

The lead-to-close rate on social media is twice as high as for outbound marketing.  The Aitarget team will provide a comprehensive review of your campaigns, including ad delivery and optimization methods. We will help you make the most of social media in businesses by advertising on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat simultaneously. Using Google Analytics, you can see how much traffic comes to your site from each of the networks and measure social ROI.

• There’s some new competition in town, and they look like they really know what they are doing

Any company can gain an edge with an effective strategy. Aitarget will help you outshine and outsmart your rivals. For example, aside from creating memorable and engaging content, you could target users whose interests include your competitors. The Ubersuggest tool lets businesses reverse engineer their rivals’ SEO, content marketing, and SMM marketing.

Setting Social Media Advertising Goals for Small Business

Without clear goals, you cannot determine if your tactics are working. Setting the objectives is crucial, but it is also challenging. Here are three ways to identify relevant targets for marketing services for small businesses.

Based on Your Funnel

This is the path your potential customers travel through. What is their first impression? What can you do to lead them all the way to the purchasing stage? Overemphasis on sales is the reason why 45% of users unfollow brands on social media. Your content must drive brand awareness, generate demand, and drive conversion. Digital marketing services for small businesses drive engagement, so you can get positive mentions and inspire customer evangelism. 

Based on Peer Analysis

Many other marketers are facing the same challenges as you. Look at your counterparts and their goals. According to Sprout, most professionals focus on increasing brand awareness, boosting community engagement, and attracting web traffic. These objectives are probably aligned with your own! 

By industry

Educational institutions may use social media to recruit new students or increase event attendance. Software providers are interested in leads, loyalty, and competitor analysis. Retailers want to drive sales and expand reach. Healthcare providers can attract more patients, build trust and relationships in the local community. Look at your industry to figure out what goals to pursue.

Time to Start Selling Globally With Aitarget Social Media Marketing Ads Tools

Aitarget is a marketing partner for Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. We help brands create engaging and transferable ads across digital platforms. Our social media marketing services for small businesses help them reach a global audience using:

• The Aitarget eCommerce is a social media tool for businesses that generates powerful video ads for Facebook on the basis of product catalogs. It is packed with eye-catching templates that bring proven results. Just pick the colors, fonts, and effects, and your video will be ready in 45 seconds! 
• The Aitarget Automation small business tool lets you launch ads on Facebook and Instagram quickly. Using versatile settings, you can automate and copy your campaigns to save time and effort. The tool gathers stats, facilitates A/B tests, and supports automation strategies of different complexity. It allows easy scaling and ensures you stay within budget.
• The Aitarget Video Tool creates personalized video ads based on your design, catalog, and audience splitting. Target users by country, demographics, or interests. Update and format videos for different platforms methods, such as Instagram stories, Facebook news feeds, or YouTube.

The First Step for Selecting the Right Social Media Tool

Before choosing social media services for small businesses, collect data on your audience. Its technological preferences will define tailored methods that work for it. For example, Facebook is used by 2.7 billion users, most of whom are between the ages of 25 and 34. It is also used by boomers who have more money to spend.

Many social media platforms have built-in insights. For example, the analytics option on Twitter allows you to get a breakdown of your audiences. You can understand where these users are based, whether they are mostly male or female, there are lifestyle preferences, buyer styles, and more. Make no mistake — the first step for selecting the right social media tools is always studying your audience. 

Aitarget Automated Ad Tool Helps Small Businesses to Achieve Social Media Goals 

With Aitarget, enterprises forge ahead in the digital space through video creatives, management, automation, and scaling of campaigns. We are passionate about social media technologies and help companies of any size reach and engage customers on the biggest and fastest-growing platforms. Our social media services for small businesses help them streamline, automate and manage promotional efforts across this vibrant digital space. 

Our digital marketing services for small businesses help companies make the most of social media tools, as our automation and tracking solutions reduce the workload. You can monitor your spending and performance in one place, and make changes to campaigns at any time. Smart automation by Aitarget allows you to copy ads and UTM tags from one ad set to another. Make your brand stand out on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube! 

Another component of online marketing services for small businesses is expert support, which helps clients optimize their catalogs. Aitarget will turn your product feed into Dynamic Ads that will catch the eye and drive conversions across social media. We assist clients at every stage and monitor the results with them. Customizable metrics let us adapt the insights from web and mobile traffic to your needs. As our tools integrate data from 200+ CRM and offline conversion sources, you can build a robust retail channel quickly. With Aitarget, you will:

Increase Brand Awareness

This is the top priority for small business marketing services. Through ads, you will get the word out. Aitarget will help you choose the right platforms for your audience. Outstanding ads are not just viewed — they are also shared, which means even more people learn about your brand. 

Users repost values-driven content that affects them emotionally. This is impossible without targeting. Aitarget lets you target users by country, demography, or interests to hit the bull’s eye. We provide all prerequisites for an awareness boost: the right platforms, the right strategies, and the right formats. 

Increase Community Engagement

Brands that overlook this aspect set themselves up for failure. After all, social media is all about being social. Users are not impressed by overly promotional content. Online marketing services for small businesses are not a one-way street: aside from showcasing your products, you should also bring value to the audience. Answer questions and manage feedback in real-time using our moderation tool. 

Target your ads, so what the user sees resonates with their interests or buying patterns. Aitarget will help you create ads focused on value, rather than features. Such content gets the users talking, so your ads will be shared and discussed.

Increase Website Clicks

With social media marketing services for small businesses from Aitarget, you can create attractive and relevant ads with a clear call to action. Automated campaigns will drive traffic, as they will resonate with your target audience. Did you know that adding a CTA on Facebook can boost the click-through rate by 285%? 

We will also analyze your website’s Facebook Pixel to help you boost conversions, optimize ads, and adjust targeting and retargeting. As more users will click on your ads, you will get more leads and customers. This helps to boost the bottom line in any industry, which is why the information strategy tool most used by businesses is social media.

Target, one of the best omnichannel retailers in the country, recorded its most impressive quarter in Q2 2020 with sales increasing 24.3 percent thanks to the digital section soaring 195 percent. The omnichannel – a unique integration of digital and physical – made this possible for the company.

Target found out that multi-channel consumers typically spend 4x as much as consumers that only visit physical stores and 10x more than consumers that only shop online.
By integrating both physical and digital channels, the company made huge sales while offering a consistent brand experience.

Omnichannel Means Transformation, Integration, and Collaboration

Omnichannel can be defined as a multichannel approach to sales that focuses on providing flawless customer experience whether the buyer is at a physical store, using a mobile device or computer.

About 73 percent of all consumers use multiple channels during their journey. It is common for consumers to search for a product on a mobile device as they hear from it then research more as they reach their computer. Omnichannel makes this transformation easy and allows consumers to switch between two or more devices without any trouble.

It should also be noted that more than 50 percent of buyers search the web before visiting a physical store. Integrating the two allows businesses to retain more consumers. It doesn’t focus on individual experiences but the entire customer journey.

Online Retail in an Omnichannel Reality

Approaches to retail marketing are fast changing. In these times, success means the ability to reach consumers no matter where they are or what device they’re using. You need to concentrate on omnichannel retail and not traditional methods.

According to reports, more people now use mobile devices than desktop computers. This is why purchase decisions are often made on the go, whether people are in their bedrooms or the shop.

Today, digital is not only driving e-commerce, it’s getting people in stores. It would not be wrong to call smartphones the new ‘shopping assistant’, whether people are inside or outside the shop. 

Retailers are working to ensure customers convert no matter what channel they’re on. Companies seem to have realized the importance of consumers who use both online and in-store channels as they have a 30 percent higher lifetime value (LTV) than consumers who use a single channel.

Retailers need to have a full understanding of consumer behavior in order to attract and win these consumers.

Sellers don’t only need to be aware of consumer demographics such as gender and location but also buying behavior. Despite so much data out there, it is still easier said than done.

Purchase Online and Pick it Up Offline. Everything Becomes Hybrid

You can’t excel in a single environment as things have become hybrid. Companies need both virtual and physical presence as this is the era of omnichannel retail.

Online-to-offline (O2O) hybrid can improve the experience for your consumers. It refers to acknowledging the fact that there will be several online and offline touchpoints during a customer’s journey.

A business must be able to take advantage of all these touchpoints and ensure they work together and not separately. Sellers must understand why consumers intend to buy online and pick from the store.

Consumers are in a hurry and they can’t always wait for companies to ship products. They’re not only afraid of delays and additional charges but also goods getting damaged during transit, hence a large number of buyers are now shopping online and choosing to pick products offline by visiting the store or desired destination.

This offers buyers great ease, especially when it comes to rare products that require consumers to stand in queues to make a purchase. They can book products online, make payments, and pick when time permits.

Businesses need to use this opportunity cleverly by pushing more products when consumers visit the store. This can help increase the worth of a consumer and make them buy more.

Products that a consumer shows interest in (online or offline) can be pushed more when they visit the store physically or on the web. You will need the help of a company like Aitarget to ensure you show the right product to your consumers.

Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs are designed to ensure consumers don’t choose competitors and keep coming back to you. They were once only offered by big companies like hotel chains and airlines but now even small businesses have points systems that reward consumers for making purchases. 

About 52 percent of consumers are willing to participate in loyalty programs with 92 percent agreeing that rewards can make them buy more. However, loyalty programs today are more dynamic as they take into account multiple actions and not just ‘purchases’.

Businesses are rewarding consumers for sharing content, posting reviews, taking quizzes, and referring friends. Rewards include discount codes, free goodies, cash prizes, and more.

Since more consumers are buying online, traditional loyalty programs may not always entice them. Businesses can use omnichannel discounts to turn consumers in their desired direction, i.e.: by offering online-only discounts they can discourage people from visiting physical stores.

Remember that about 74 percent of consumers choose a brand after looking at its discount program. Moreover, about 71 percent of companies that use omnichannel loyalty programs see an increase of nearly 50 percent in transactions.

You must, however, make it easier to win and utilize rewards. For example, consumers shouldn’t be forced to carry multiple cards to redeem rewards. Technology can be used to identify consumers and apply discounts automatically.

A Consistent Pricing and Discount Policy

An omnichannel pricing strategy can be a little tricky to handle. You have to look at several factors when deciding a strategy. First of all, understand your customers and think about how you want to be different from your competitors. 

Your cost may differ based on the channel you are on. In-store sales, for example, can be more expensive due to additional costs including electricity and rent. On the other hand, online sales are usually more affordable since you do not have to worry about a presentable office or store.

Customers, however, don’t understand these factors and they expect a consistent pricing policy no matter what channel they use. Most companies choose one of the following strategies:

• Omnichannel Price: In this strategy, it’s uniform pricing on each channel. This option removes purchase barriers.
• Channel-specific Price: In this strategy, pricing varies depending on the channel. This one can be used to optimize the price/margin in each channel you use.
• Combination: This one uses the same omnichannel pricing but with a few exceptions. It can help provide a unified experience to users.

Businesses can use any of these strategies and offer ‘channel specific’ discounts to make buyers use more of a specific channel. For example, special discounts for walk-in customers if they wish to attract more in-store buyers, or ‘online only sales’ if they want more online customers.

Social Media 

It is possible to integrate social media into your omnichannel strategy. Social media gives you access to millions of people including your target audiences. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram now even let buyers shop directly on the platform. 

You can use this as an opportunity to improve customer experience by offering the best services without forcing consumers to go to another platform. 

Be consistent with your brand message so that customers can easily recognize you. You can use special media not only to sell directly but also to build loyalty and increase your consumer base.

Unique Experiences Within Physical Stores 

Despite what everyone says, physical stores are here to stay. They have evolved over the years and it is no longer about a boring shelf and products resting on it. Experimental retail is the future.

Fashion labels are using technology to help people see how a piece of clothing or accessory would look without having to physically try it. The concept of AR-clothing has revolutionized the fashion world. However, there are several more ways to keep things exciting.

Product building is a great way to keep people coming back. You can have them create their own product. Magnum’s Make My Own strategy proved to be a success and now many stores are replicating it.

Target appears to have done an excellent job as well. It offers unique experiences by investing in omnichannel, BOPIS, and curbside. The idea is to make it easy and exciting for users to visit your physical stores even if they’re used to the online channel.

Integrate Your Offline Store with Your Online Presence

As mentioned earlier, it is now possible to integrate your offline store with your online presence. 

Make it possible for users to find your physical location through your website or social media pages. This can be done by adding Google maps to your site. Also, use one to promote the other and make sure to tie up your online and offline data because users may not stick to a single channel.

You can use social media to promote not just online but offline events as well. Also, store reps must be aware of both in-store and online prices and deals.

Handling Returns, Complaints, and Exchanges Easily

Some people argue that omnichannel makes returns, complaints, and exchanges difficult to handle since users who buy from one channel may choose the other channel to return or exchange a product.

At the end of the day, consumers want ease. Your return and exchange policy should be the same no matter what channel a buyer uses. Also, pay attention to all kinds of complaints, whether they’re related to online payments or in-store customer service.

The experience should be the same and your buyers should not feel that you prefer one channel over the other. Your agents should have no trouble accessing the information of a client no matter what channel they used to purchase.

Consumers who visit physical stores to make a purchase often file online complaints. Your system should be quick to identify consumers and provide solutions to their problems. If such isn’t the case, they may end up picking one channel over another causing your omnichannel strategy to fail.

Is Omnichannel The Future of E-commerce? No! It is a NEW Reality 

Omnichannel is the future of e-commerce. It is a new reality that counts on data and analytics. With an emphasis on consistency and efficiency, omnichannel has proven to improve customer satisfaction and keep buyers coming back.

Omnichannel doesn’t just benefit buyers but sellers as well. It allows buyers to enjoy a positive experience while sellers enjoy a larger share of the market and make more profits. 

Both big and small businesses have started to adopt this technology by offering more personalization, integration of offline and online channels, etc. 

Mobile is Critical for Omnichannel Marketing

People are ditching computers and using mobile devices to not only know more about a product but also to purchase it. They can watch demo videos, check reviews while on the go. Buying a product online takes a few minutes. Plus, with the option to save payment details, buyers don’t even have to worry about feeding card numbers and other such data again and again. Mobile has revolutionized the world and we know that even people who shop offline choose to use mobile devices at some point in their journey. 

You cannot have a successful omnichannel strategy without integrating mobile. There are several things to take care of including a mobile-friendly website, mobile app, etc.

Digital Touchpoints In-Store 

Most consumers who enter your store will be holding a smartphone. You can make them use the device by offering digital touchpoints such as QR codes to know more about a product.

Remember that it takes around 8 touches to get an initial meeting. You need to make every touchpoint count. Give people reminders about your social media pages, mobile app, online discounts, digital card, etc.

Make it easy for them to find you on the web when they visit your store. This way you will get the opportunity to reach them more often and build a stronger connection.

More About Omnichannel in E-commerce

Is e-commerce an omnichannel?

E-commerce can utilize different omnichannel strategies to make more sales, find loyal customers, and increase the consumer base. This includes offering customized deals, integrating online socials at offline stores, and more. An e-commerce store, however, must work on an omnichannel supply chain to get the best results.

What are omnichannel trends? 

The latest trend is to use social media to promote not only online but also offline events. It improves the omnichannel distribution and bridges the gap between online and offline. Moreover, we have also seen excessive use of scanning technology, i.e.: QR codes to help people reach a specific platform. These trends will continue to increase as companies work to integrate the latest technology to blend multiple channels.

Why will omnichannel retail in 2022 with the surprising comeback of the physical store?

We’re seeing omnichannel retail give a new lease of life to physical stores. You can sell more retail articles by utilizing omnichannel distribution channels. 

With a perfect blend of online and offline channels, omnichannel is revolutionizing retail making it possible for buyers to choose any channel they wish to purchase without compromising on user experience. Experts believe that omnichannel retailing will beat out multi-channel retail as it offers more ease.

Ready to use omnichannel marketing to win more clients and make higher profits? Let Aitarget help you. We can meet creative challenges and create campaigns that offer good returns. 

We can help solve many problems that you’re facing with Instagram advertising by helping to: 

• Create videos and overlays from product feeds (suitable for E-Commerce, Travel, Auto, Trading, and other verticals); 
• Incorporate data from third-party sources into dynamically updated Instagram creatives;
• Test different creative designs and messages to find out what works best; 
• Implement rules-based automation strategies. 

We are a Facebook and Instagram marketing partner. Our team consists of dozens of experts who have poured over 75,000 hours into developing our unique suite of tools. We have collaborated on notable projects for brands such as LG, Adidas, and L’Oreal. 

But today is not all about us. It’s all about what we can do for you. You’ll be getting a full introduction to Aitarget’s tools for advertising on Instagram: 

Overview of Instagram Ads tools

The heart of any Instagram campaign is the message you want to convey. Now, Instagram presents you with various engaging formats to pass your message. Let’s take a look at what they are and the opportunities that exist. 

Photo Ads

With single image ads, it’s all about capturing the viewer’s attention and connecting with them on a personal level. So, the biggest challenge marketers face is creating visually appealing and personalized creatives. 

If you have a few products to promote, it may be less challenging to pull this off. But what happens if you have dozens, hundreds, or thousands of products to show off to your potential audience? 

How we can help with photo Instagram ads

We have an effective solution for brands with many items to promote. You can use your existing brand assets, including images from your product feed, to create data-infused overlays. The overlays can incorporate information such as pricing, labels, and discounts.

Rather than manually creating visuals for every item, you start with one smart template that contains variable inputs. Our tool can dynamically update and re-upload your creatives as the information changes. 

Don’t worry if your product feed is not optimized for overlays. We can help customize and prepare the product catalog to function as a data source for dynamic ads. 

Carousel Ads for Instagram Stories

We have been big fans of Instagram stories carousels since Facebook introduced the format for advertisers in 2018. It has consistently delivered excellent results in previous ad campaigns.

For instance, in a brand awareness campaign by FBS, using a 3-card carousel in Instagram stories resulted in CPA dropping and conversions doubling. MegaFon similarly saw their CTR results tripling and their CPC reducing. 

Why is it effective? The carousel format for Instagram stories works because of its powerful storytelling capabilities. For instance, the first and second image or video can introduce the brand, present the problem, and build up excitement. The third card can offer the solution: the advertiser’s product + CTA. 

How we can help with Instagram stories carousel 

We empower you to create more meaningful feed-based videos by using first-party and third-party data to incorporate a bit of storytelling. For instance, you may start your ad campaign for winter accessories by first showing the latest weather data for a particular city. 

You can then have a video showing the most popular winter accessories from your product set. Your third slide may be a call to action with your latest discount. 

With weather data constantly changing, Aitarget can keep generating updated creatives. The creatives can be highly personalized for different audiences in different cities. Instagram even expanded the number of cards for carousels from 3 to 10. The possibilities are now limitless. 

Additional ad formats

Aitarget’s creative Instagram advertising solutions are applicable for other formats such as collection ads, shopping ads, reels ads, single video ads, and IGTV ads (*not available for all regions). For instance, you can personalize your shopping ad by incorporating a map that shows users your nearest store based on their location. You can create single videos from product images and info. 

How to advertise on Instagram

You start advertising on Instagram by selecting your objective. There are three main campaign objectives: increasing awareness, generating leads, installs, or visitors, or driving conversions. 

The second key aspect of campaign setup is specifying your budget and schedule. Facebook’s algorithms can help in optimizing the delivery of Instagram ads based on your budget. 

Audience targeting is usually the third step in setting up Instagram ads. You can now create custom audiences by gathering information about your website visitors. Facebook offers the Dynamic Creative tool to help you test different ad variations such as the CTAs, text, or images to find out what’s performing best.

The fourth step is choosing the ad placement. Facebook can help out here with automatic placements based on where the ad may perform best. Because Facebook owns Instagram, ads may be shown on the two platforms and Messenger. 

The last part of advertising on Instagram involves creating the actual ads. Ads are typically structured as single images or videos, carousel, or collections. You can track conversions by installing Facebook Pixel on your website, and this offers additional insights into actions people take once they click on your links. 

The role of Aitarget is to build on and enhance the capabilities of Facebook’s algorithms and tools, not to replace them. 

Engage, Measure, Optimize Your Instagram Ads with Aitarget Solutions

The tools we offer and how they can help you to engage, measure, and optimize your Instagram ad: 

Engagement tools: E-Commerce Tool & Video Tool

Our e-commerce tool is the go-to solution for creating promotional videos or overlays based on assets in your product catalog. 

You’ll not be working from scratch. We have a collection of templates following proven design strategies. You’ll have access to different colors, fonts, and effects. 

We don’t just leave you here. You can develop several creative variations, and our AI algorithm can facilitate testing to see what works best with different target audiences. Say goodbye to boring static product ads and guesswork. 

 Aitarget video tool expands the capabilities of the e-commerce tool. It allows for the enhanced personalization of videos. Your videos can now target audiences based on their interests, demographics, language, country, etc., with less effort. 

Generate videos for hundreds of products while incorporating third-party data. They will be tailored for different placement options, not only for Instagram but for other platforms such as Snapchat or Youtube. You retain complete control over the final result. If you imagine it, you can do it. 

Measurement & monitoring tools: Dashboard & QModeration

Connect Aitarget to your ads manager and receive metrics about your omnichannel campaigns on one simple dashboard. It supports notifications, allowing you to track changes on automated campaigns. It also generates automatic and curated reports. Our solution can integrate with about 200 CRMs for custom reporting. 

Our moderation tool makes it easier to manage comments from multiple ads, watch for reactions, and delete unwanted posts., 

Optimization tools: Creative improvement 

Do you often have to guess what colors or fonts will work best with your creative ads? Do you waste a lot of time implementing design changes after tests? Well, that changes today. You can have various creative variations tested under the hood without much involvement on your part. Our closed-loop solution can even upgrade your creatives to boost their efficiency. 

You will not be left alone to figure out the platform. Our smart and capable team is always on hand to help define your campaign objectives and tailor solutions to help you resolve your biggest pain points. You get custom pricing for our e-commerce tool, depending on the number of product SKUs you need to promote. 

Boost Your Marketing with Instagram Advertising Automation

Make Instagram advertising less of a chore with our automation solution. 

It is targeted at campaign management and allows you to automate tasks such as analytics & reporting, bid management, performance tracking, split testing, or duplication of ad sets. 

Why automate your campaign management? You can save a lot of time and effort spent checking and responding to changes. All you need to do is set up custom rules and responses in our tool kit. Automation will be essential if you want to scale your ad campaigns without hiring media buyers to manage them. For instance, we helped TwoDots, a gaming studio, scale its campaigns in new geographic regions while minimizing the need for new hires. 

Many brands also create playbooks to cut the poor performers early and scale the best-performing ad sets. Automation can help optimize your bidding and budget spent following ROAS-based rules and other complex strategies. 

The Facebook ads manager natively supports automation. Why use an external third-party solution such as AItarget? One key function that’s not available in Facebook’s ruleset toolkit is the ability to set up an Announcement rotation. 

This testing strategy is applied when testing many creatives one after another to minimize competition between similar creative ads in the Facebook ads auction. For instance, if you have 100 videos to test, you set up automatic rules that specify the sequence of running the ads. You can specify that an ad set should be turned off after achieving a certain number of impressions. After the testing phase, you can use metrics such as the CTR to determine the efficiency of each ad set and continue showing the best-performing ads. 

We pulled off this automation strategy during a campaign for OBI, one of the largest players in the European DIY market. Using our e-commerce tool, the team generated about 100 videos from selected product categories, following a branded ad template. Videos were automatically loaded to the ads manager for testing. The campaign lasted for two weeks. It would otherwise be time-consuming to execute, owing to the number of creatives tested. 

Our team can also work with you to uncover inefficiencies that automation may address if you’re new to campaign automation.

Marketing in the post-covid world can be tricky, as humanity has never been in this situation before, and the circumstances are changing quickly. Successful campaigns abandon salesy language, focusing on thoughtful analysis of the needs, perceptions, and expectations of the audience.

Even before the pandemic, consumer expectations were on the rise. Today, companies are not competing with one another — they are competing with the last best experience their customer has had. Generation Z has grown up with technology, and the shift to hyper-personalization was already noticeable in 2020. The preferences of the new generation have changed social advertising, and they continue to affect it. 

The outbreak accelerated digital transformation and sent consumer expectations skyrocketing. Today, users want anticipatory personalization throughout their customer journey. Meanwhile, tolerance for engaging with social media ads in such markets as the UK and France has grown substantially. Discover post-pandemic tips that will help your brand shine in 2021. 

Customers Must Be at the Heart of Your Customer Journey

The lockdown experience proves the old axiom — brands must target consumers based on their circumstances and perceptions. This requires a laser focus. Companies should conduct research country by country, ZIP code by ZIP code, to tailor their communications and services. Marketing requires the knowledge of both the segment and sentiment.

One of the key marketing tips to employ is that messages must be relevant both geographically and personally. They should speak to each customer’s situation and values. Targeting an age or gender on social media is not enough. Brands succeed if they create a deep human connection within commercial messages. This requires cross-field research into attitudes and psychographics. According to The EY Future Consumer Index, five distinct cohorts have formed since the start of the pandemic: 

• Almost a third (32%) of consumers are focused on affordability, so they prefer functionality over brands. 
• A quarter (25%) prioritize health and safety, so they opt for products they can trust.
• 16% of customers want to minimize their carbon footprint, so they buy from the brands they view as sustainable. 
• 15% are focused on the benefits for the community, so they purchase from companies with a reputation for honesty and transparency. 
• 12% of consumers live in the moment, so they are most open to novel products and experiences.

Based on segmentation and customer profiles, companies can make the most of their marketing spend. They can drive deeper insights for their creative promotional approaches. While coronavirus has changed social advertising, the old adage ‘Know Thy Customer’ is still relevant.

Transforming Consumer Behavior Insights Into Effective Ads

The above-mentioned insights can inform the entire customer journey. For example, Facebook offers a wide variety of targeting options. You can reach customers with a specific gender, location, interests, marital status, occupation, etc. Target parents with toddlers, new-vehicle buyers, people who donate to world relief organizations, expats, farmers, etc. The sheer number of options for social media is staggering. 

Such granular targeting ensures your ads are shown to people who can see value in your products or services. In addition, they are relatively affordable, even for small businesses. Use the digital space to show how your company has changed due to the pandemic, offer exclusive discounts or promotions related to COVID-19.

Everybody knows that visuals are more appealing than plain text, but video ads are particularly effective. They are 1,200% more successful in terms of engagement than text and images combined. Aitarget E-Commerce creates video ads in 45 seconds using only your product feed and customizable templates.

Lately, the CPM (cost per thousand impressions) has also declined, which means it is a great time to invest in Facebook ads. The platform will also let you reach users who have viewed your offerings in the past but left without making a purchase. Retargeting is a great strategy for post-pandemic times.

As so many consumers are focused on affordability, exclusive discounts and freebies attract new customers and get the old ones to come back. As companies are reopening, exclusive promotions help them regain their audience. This works for different industries, from restaurants to travel.

Change Your Ads to the New Reality by Fusing the COVID-19 as the Context

COVID-19 is one of the most widely read-about subjects. The words ‘COVID-19’ or ‘coronavirus’ now appear in content describing the effects of the pandemic on our lifestyles, habits, and behavior. Such content is highly relevant, as it helps consumers make the right decisions in the new normal. Companies cannot ignore this contextual change — instead, they can leverage it, which is one of the vital marketing tips to employ.

The pandemic has disrupted economies around the globe, but it has also brought new opportunities disguised as threats. They have changed social advertising. Marketers should not rule out uncomfortable topics — they can drive brand awareness and sales by helping users cope with the aftermath.

For example, consider advanced contextual targeting. Using semantic analysis, Google matches ads to specific pages based on keywords. Brands have been able to unlock new opportunities with messaging concerning the global changes during lockdown (for example, articles like Coronavirus: 6 Nutrition, Vitamins & Supplements Tips to Strengthen Your Immunity). 

Ads appearing in such content boost engagement and ROAS for the campaign. Consumers are more interested in news than ever, so coronavirus lets brands reach a wider audience and create ads that attract attention. AI helps them detect new trends and behaviors to maximize the results. The focus on keeping consumers healthy and advertising in the credible sources of news pays off.

Create New Market Opportunities Based on Changing Needs

Marketing practices are ever-changing to keep up with fleeting consumer preferences. Advertising strategies must be aligned with the needs of the target audience. Demographics are quickly changing, and personalization is now at the forefront, which is also reflected in the post-pandemic tips.

Brands have to respond to customer needs quickly. Over half of executives understand that trust-building is a priority for a campaign. At the same time, market data shows that many companies are struggling to engage their audience. 

Companies of different sizes tackle these challenges differently. Major brands focus on product innovation to meet evolving demands. Small businesses emphasize competitive pricing. Open innovation, when customer opinion is integrated into product development, helps companies learn what their customers want, establish a connection, and reinforce trust. 

This is the antithesis of the conventional vertical integration, where products are developed internally based on internal R&D and distributed by the firm. In this concept, ideas come from the outside, while underutilized technologies are transferred to other processes. Open innovation is all about inflows and outflows of knowledge. 

As consumers’ priorities and preferences change over time, businesses must adapt their marketing mix to suit the evolving needs. For example, environmentally conscious individuals are attracted to brands that announce a shift to sustainable packaging. During an economic downturn, customers spend less, so businesses must focus on lower prices and greater convenience. 

Use Your Brand Assets to Increase Effectiveness 

Brand assets are the distinguishing characteristics of a company — i.e., the tangible and intangible things that make it stand out from the crowd. This is one of the top marketing tips to employ. Assets provide marketers with the resources that facilitate finding leads and closing deals. If the team cannot leverage these elements during a campaign, its potential is limited. 

The category includes a variety of elements from the tagline and USP to the logo, visuals, packaging, and ads. According to the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute of Marketing Science, all of these things contribute to the brand identity if they are both unique and well-known.

First, the element must be automatically associated with your brand in the minds of the users. For example, consider the Nike “swoosh” symbol or the McDonald’s golden arches. An asset cannot be confused with your competitor’s identity. 

Secondly, the elements must be recognizable as a representation of the brand. They must reinforce the core values of your company and convey the benefits of using your products or services to the audience.

Not sure what your assets are? List your existing and previously used brand elements, along with any suggestions for the future. Survey your target audience to see how many customers associate a specific element with your brand, and how quickly they make this association. 

This will reveal the prominence of each component. Based on this research, you can create the Distinctive Asset Grid developed by Research Professor Jenni Romaniuk. You will see which elements should be avoided or tested, which of them can replace your brand name in ads, and which require further development. 

Genuine Generosity is Highly Effective

Generosity improves the brand image, making companies more attractive for consumers. According to Forbes, volunteer grant programs are used by such giants as Apple and Google. Many businesses offer paid time off for employees who volunteer at nonprofits, which boosts morale and loyalty. Meanwhile, engagement in sponsorships and product donations boosts sales. 

Such opportunities are plentiful. Businesses can support educational institutions, community organizations, and special events. When consumers see a brand’s logo displayed on the stadium or bulletin, this creates an instant association between the business and generosity. Participation in charitable auctions shows that your company has a heart. 

Generosity is increasingly reflected in marketing, and the benefits are two-fold. On the one hand, millions of dollars are raised for charity. On the other hand, brands see a rise in sales. Cause-related marketing, when a brand partners up with a charity to tackle social or environmental issues, builds business value. The collaboration of for-profit and nonprofit entities is powerful. 

The year 2020 was pivotal, as it exposed multiple social injustices and highlighted the role of brands in fighting the issues that governments failed to resolve. Americans gave a record $471 billion to charity. Some of the most efficient marketing campaigns were based on social causes, such as Black on Depop or Real Change by Persil. 

Soon after the outbreak, brands got to work helping consumers adapt to the changes. Many of them launched ads with phrases like “we’re here for you”, “times like these” and “togetherness”. Ads showing how your company helps can drive bigger long-term equity gains in comparison with ads that offer hope or encourage good behavior.

Your Brand Should Stand Behind Great Values

Our list of post-pandemic tips would not be complete without generosity. Stressing the benefits of your products or services is not enough to make them memorable. In fact, the vast majority of consumers (80%!) forget branded content in just three days. To leave a lasting impression on the audience, your content must resonate with their own values.

Brand awareness is hard to quantify, so here is a simple test. Are you sure that your brand’s messages, visuals, and strategies communicate its core values in a consistent manner? Do you even have a clear-cut set of values? If not, most of the users you have reached have already forgotten about your company’s existence.

Core values are the beliefs the brand stands for. They are a compass guiding decision-making and the entire brand story. Values are constant reminders of what truly matters for your business and the people it serves, and they help executives make the right decisions in turbulent times. Any choices a company makes must be aligned with its overarching vision.

Brand values determine customer perception and choices, as consumers tend to support companies whose values they share. According to Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman, 95% of buying choices are triggered by the unconscious, where values operate. The same works for employees, as values are crucial for engagement. 

Today, when consumer trust is lower than ever, values are critical for maintaining authenticity, as they let you connect to the audience on a deeper level. Finally, the right values will help you grow a brand you are passionate about and proud of.

We live in a time when consumer preferences are highly changeable, and technology marketing is developing at breakneck speed to keep up with them. Advertisers cannot rely on guesswork. They have to constantly manage the balance between proven methods and the latest fads to outpace the competition. 

Discover 18 hottest trends in digital marketing that will help your brand flourish in this age of innovation. From AR to video marketing to influencer marketing & geofencing, these are the things you can implement today to stay relevant in the future. They will boost the visibility of your website, drive traffic and sales. 

AR

According to Gartner, by 2022, almost two thirds of businesses will be experimenting with immersive technologies, and a quarter of companies will have implemented them in production. Despite the hype around virtual reality, augmented reality (AR) is easier to adopt. It also lets brands create a superior customer experience that drives sales.

For example, Sephora Virtual Artist by ModiFace shows the user how different types of make-up products would look on their face. Meanwhile, IKEA Place overlays the company’s furniture on a photo of a room. You can even move the items around and see how they look from different angles.

AI 

Companies hesitating to adopt Artificial Intelligence may soon find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. AI-driven systems analyze consumer behavior and search, aggregate and condense data from blogs and social media. These technologies help brands understand how users find their products or services and boost visibility. 

For example, the MasterCard chatbot on Facebook uses natural language processing to reply to queries and automate payments. ClickFlow’s Content Editor helps companies optimize content based on data from the top 20 ranking pages. It serves up keywords, subtopics, recommended word count, and more to help them climb to the top of organic search results. Aitarget uses powerful AI tools for cross-platform marketing on social media, including fluid creatives based on real-time insights. 

Voice Search Optimization

72% of consumers who own voice-activated speakers consider them an integral part of their daily routines. Systems like Google and Siri are getting smarter, and voice shopping is expected to reach $40 billion in 2022. As consumers are using such assistants to search for products, voice search optimization is becoming a must for any e-commerce site. 

This novelty can provide a unique experience that fosters brand loyalty. For example, Domino’s lets customers order pizza without phone calls or an app. You can even make PayPal transfers using Siri. Nestlé created a “skill” for Alexa that provides voice instructions as you cook.

Programmatic Advertising

This term refers to automated buying and selling of online advertising. The trend is strong: according to eMarketer, 88% of digital display ads in the U.S. will be programmatic by the end of 2021. A great example is real-time bidding, which is more efficient than manual methods. The format translates into higher conversion and cheaper customer acquisition. 

Brands do not have to use separate platforms to advertise on different channels, and they may use hundreds of targeting signals to tailor their ads narrowly. Manual campaigns consider 3-4 criteria, such as keyword or location. Meanwhile, programmatic advertising platforms may target users according to behavior habits or lifestyle. 

Social Messaging Apps

Did you know that WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat combined have over 4.5 billion users? In Facebook Messenger alone, 10 billion messages are exchanged between individuals and businesses monthly. As social messaging apps are so popular, companies use them to reach their target audience directly, providing a personalized user experience.

If your website has a live chat, customers are more likely to return to it. This is true for 63% of users. In addition, messaging apps will let you deliver valuable information and cultivate contact with your target audience, boost sales, involve customers in events, and provide support.

Shoppable Content

Any image, video, or article may be shoppable, which means it contains a direct link to a buyout portal. This simplifies the journey from discovering products to purchasing them on e-commerce platforms.

This is so much more engaging than standard product descriptions with details, images, and prices. Shoppable content is interactive, and it can tell a captivating story. For example, Instagram users may purchase products directly from a post or story. A similar feature is offered by Pinterest. Brands like H&M are filling their profiles with shoppable posts. Their followers get inspired, discover new products, and buy them directly.

Video Marketing

Research confirms that videos appeal to users more than static images or text. 70% of consumers have shared a brand’s video at least once, while 72% of companies have seen a substantial improvement in conversion rate thanks to video ads. 

This is the most popular way to learn about new products and services. Creating powerful videos is also easier than ever thanks to automation. For example, the Aitarget E-Commerce Tool can generate them from product catalogs in just 45 seconds!

Over half of consumers say that product videos give them confidence in their buying decisions online. This does not only apply to YouTube! Video posts and live broadcasts are now shared on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. 

Instagram Reels

The emergence of Reels was great news for a savvy marketer. They provide twice as much engagement as normal videos and are used for different types of content, from product reviews to behind-the-scenes processes. Instagram also lets you track the performance of these ads using its insights.

Louis Vuitton’s marketers create Instagram reels bound to go viral — each of their innovative videos receives 5 million views on average! When NFL teams’ launched their Reels, they saw 67% more engagement as compared to regular videos. Clearly, this is one of the best ways to grab and retain your customers’ attention. 

Personalization 

Generic advertising is a poor choice, as 63% of users find it annoying. In comparison, personalized emails, recommendations, and products attract 90% of consumers. Personalized videos created by Aitarget help companies maximize their results on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube. Personalization works across industries, as accurate targeting ensures relevance. 

For example, EasyJet found that emails with stories based on the user’s travel history had a 25% higher click-through rate. Cadbury’s achieved a 65% CTR when it launched a video campaign matching a Dairy Milk flavor with Facebook users based on their age, interest, location, and other information on their profiles. 

Conversational Marketing

Today, when a consumer has a sales-related query, they expect an immediate response. According to new research published on HubSpot, 82% of users do not want to wait. Conversation marketing caters to their needs, as it is all about building a real-time connection between brands and customers. Thanks to chatbots, brands can build AI-driven dialogue 24/7 across multiple devices and platforms. 

Conversational marketing boosts engagement, as it enhances the user experience through a feedback-based model. Eventually, this translates into higher brand loyalty. Businesses need to incorporate a wide spectrum of channels and adopt the manner of communication their audience prefers. 

Chatbots 

Chatbots that communicate by text and auditory methods are one of the biggest trends. Instant responses to questions from site visitors boost engagement and let companies reduce staff costs. For example, Starbucks’ MyBarista app lets customers place orders through a chatbot using Amazon Alexa or messaging.

Over half — 63% — of users prefer this format to other channels. Chatbots are also multitaskers, as they can provide 24/7 customer support dealing with hundreds of inquiries at once. Today, delegating repetitive tasks to AI is a no-brainer. Companies may also let the AiTarget QModeration tool moderate comments to their ads on social media.

Visual Search

Now, users can upload an image of a product to find where to buy it or find similar goods. Pinterest Lens, Google Lens, CamFind, and Bing Visuals Search turn your smartphone into a visual search bar. The method is used for many categories from fashion to travel. 62% of Millennials prefer it to other novelties.

Now, Pinterest Lens recognizes 2.5 billion objects, and it has been used over 600 million times. Pincodes found in stores and magazines open the brands’ profiles when scanned. Lens Your Look takes the guesswork out of wardrobe planning, while Shop the Look lets you buy products you see in a photo. 

Browser Push Notifications

Most e-commerce sites (85%) use push notifications to boost engagement. Enhanced with images and CTAs, they can bring twice as many sign-ups as newsletters. They let marketers increase the click-through rate despite short attention spans. Push notifications are also resistant to ad blockers, which are now installed on 615 million devices. Meanwhile, ROI may grow by as much as 2,200%!

These notifications are increasingly sophisticated and customized. Personalization shows higher conversions in comparison with generic messages (54% vs. 15%), and a higher open rate (7% vs. 3%). This is a popular way to re-engage users and remind them about abandoned shopping carts.

Automated Email Marketing

Emails are still the most reliable channel of online marketing. They are six times more likely to be clicked on than a tweet, while a CTA button in an email can boost the click-through rate by 28%, according to Backlinko. However, the abuse of mailshots has reduced the efficiency of conventional methods. 

Innovative systems let a marketer send personalized emails based on schedules or triggers. Automated email marketing campaigns show that the brand is not an impersonal entity, which makes customers feel special and brings tangible results. As we have mentioned, EasyJet achieved a higher conversion through email personalization based on every user’s purchase history. 

Interactive Content 

A whopping 91% of customers are actively searching for interactive content. One of the fastest-growing trends of 2021 signifies a shift from text to dynamic, engaging, and immersive forms. These include quizzes, polls, calculators, AR ads, and 360° videos. 

For example, the Single Grain’s Marketing Impact Calculator lets users see how much more money they can make by using the company’s services. Content built for interaction is more memorable, and it makes people feel connected to brands on a deeper level. This means interactive elements will help your brand achieve its goals better than a static image or article. 

SERP Position Zero

Position zero in search results is a great way to win eyes and organic click-through. It refers to the information shown above the first result (not including paid ads), which is also known as a “featured snippet”. It is the holy grail of modern SEO.

Now, you do not need a screen to run an internet search. This year, nearly a third of queries will be zero-click voice searches. In almost 41% of cases, answers come from a featured snippet. This brings VSEO (voice search engine optimization) to the forefront. Brands are competing for space in Google SERPs, as “zero-click search” is used for 62.5% of mobile searches and 34.4% of desktop searches.

Influencer Marketing & Geofencing

Cooperation with influencers helps brands amplify their messages, as these users (YouTube and Instagram personalities or celebrities) have a huge following. This form of marketing is perceived as more authentic, and 63% of consumers trust the opinions of influencers more than ads. 

Another trend is geofencing — the use of radio frequency identification, GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular data to trigger a text, email, or ad. Starbucks sends push notifications with great deals when the user is around one of its coffee shops. Meanwhile, Sephora’s “store companion” is activated once the customer walks into the store. It shows current promos, discounts, etc. 

Branding

Google aims to provide users with accurate, up-to-date, and authoritative content on any topic. Its E.A.T. (Expertise, Authority, and Trust) ranking factor gives strong brands an advantage, as it prioritizes pages with high-quality content that comes from experts and contains links to trusted sites. 

Over 65% of consumers feel connected to a brand they trust, and companies must focus on building their expertise. Some of the methods are guest posts on leading blogs in their niche, talks at conferences, and applying for industry awards. Author bio at the bottom of published content builds brand recognition and earns trust. 

When everything is set up, you will need amazing images for your creative ads. Let’s get in touch!

Our team of experts in e-commerce advertising will show you cool overlay technology to scale banner production process. Such companies as Adidas, Farfetch and Philips have already tried it, now it’s your turn. Contact us help@aitarget.com

With most countries easing lockdowns restrictions, consumer spending this holiday season is expected to soar. Sadly, if history is any indication, then you can bet that most business owners will remain unprepared in the weeks and sometimes days leading to the holidays. 

Why wait till there are days left to the holidays before you come up with hour thanksgiving marketing ideas? If you start coming up with ideas for campaigns and holiday marketing slogans now, you’ll find that there’ll be less pressure when the holiday season kicks off.

Did you know that holiday sales account for almost 20% of the annual revenue of most businesses? Well, no worries, with the holiday marketing strategies we’re sharing with you, you won’t just ride the holiday shopping wave, you’ll be in full control of the reins. 

Here are the top 9 successful holiday marketing campaigns you can use this holiday season:

• Audit previous holiday market campaigns

• Identify holiday marketing strategies.

• Create a schedule for syndication.

• Take note of the trends and events of 2021 (and how they’ll impact customer behavior).

• Use Aitarget tools to Prepare Your Holiday Ad Campaigns.

• Avoid false urgency.

• Don’t forget about your existing customers.

• Be ready to react and adapt quickly.

• Prepare for the competition.

1. Audit Previous Holiday Marketing Campaigns

Sometimes the best place to pick up new ideas for campaigns is by learning from the past. And how exactly do you do that? We’ve found that the simplest way is to audit your previous holiday campaign ideas. Not only will it help you understand your audience better, but it’ll get your creative juices flowing so you can come up with new holiday ad ideas.

Keep in mind that an audit isn’t the answer to everything. Consumer behavior changes regularly, and the events of 2020 definitely caused a massive shift. Not everything that worked for you in the past will work now. 

Also, with Covid-19 still a major issue, you can expect most holiday shopping to take place online. So, look out for digital marketing campaign ideas and holiday slogans for advertising as you run the audit. Your past sales campaign ideas may no longer apply today, but you can still pick up a thing or two from them. 

You can also get inspiration from previous online marketing campaign ideas to come up with your holiday ideas for this year. Focus on your best holiday social media campaigns, they can also inspire you to come up with winning ad ideas for 2021.

Your performance statistics are not the only thing you should be looking at. Your customer data also plays a part. Did your customer base change significantly? Have their values changed? Understanding your customers will help you create holiday messages that resonate with them. 

2. Identify Holiday Marketing Strategies

Having a well-planned marketing strategy can help boost your revenue and increase customer retention by improving customer relationships. When you put together the best holiday campaign ideas, techniques, marketing strategies, and innovations, you are sure to make some profit this holiday season. Here’s a look at some of the best marketing campaign ideas that can help boost sales and develop a long-term customer relationship.

Personalize Your Website

One of the best holiday advertising campaigns you can employ is to personalize your website for holiday shoppers. You can use catchy holiday slogans for advertising to personalize your website. These slogans can also act as promotional campaign ideas for your social media pages.

Add elements to your website that suit the holiday season. Redesigning your homepage for the holidays will help enhance your customers’ user experience. Try out a Halloween theme for your website to draw in Halloween shoppers. You can also switch things up and use different themes for Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

Try out Video Marketing 

Nothing conveys the holiday season better than a video. The best part about video marketing is that it helps promote your whole brand and not just specific products. Major brands like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and Amazon use video marketing to create campaigns that evoke emotions and delight customers. 

Are you looking for an affordable way to make memorable video ad campaigns? Then check out Aitarget’s video tool. With Aitarget’s video tool, you can create personalized videos that fit your needs and brand identity for different segments and format videos for various platforms. 

Offer Free Rewards

Holiday promo ideas are plenty, and one idea you can try is offering free rewards. Although the holiday is a time for gift-giving, many customers still end up making purchases for themselves.

Free rewards motivate shoppers to spend more money with your company. Examples of reward items you can offer include free shipping or free item(s) when they spend more than a specific amount. 

Why not create a challenge and offer the winner a prize? You can ask your customers to come up with thanksgiving marketing slogans and offer a gift to the user with the most creative slogan.

3. Create a Schedule for Syndication

Content syndication is a popular method of gaining online traffic to your website. It is the process of republishing your content on third-party sites. The beauty of content syndication is that it is scalable. You can leverage the same content multiple times. 

Here are some of the benefits of content syndication.

Improves Brand Awareness

A key benefit of content syndication is its enormous potential to help raise your brand’s reputation. By contributing niche content to third-party websites, you’ll be able to establish your brand as an authority within a particular industry. It also increases your credibility as other companies/websites will want to republish your content.

Affordable

Content syndication remains an affordable marketing strategy, especially for small businesses that don’t have the budget to launch a full-scale Christmas marketing campaign. Sometimes you may need to pay a fee, but even then, the opportunity for lead generation and to get potential customers into your marketing funnel more than makes up for it. As for the third-party site, they get free content for their website. 

Time-Saving 

It takes less time to republish content than to create a new one. As the content owner, you get more engagement and multiple benefits from republishing an existing article than you probably would if you took the time to produce new and original content for your website. The third-party site gets free content that they don’t have to spend time creating. They can then generate traffic to their site using both original and the republished content. 

So, how does content syndication help with promotional campaign ideas? Well, content marketing is a great way of reaching new and existing customers.

You can come up with different holiday article ideas that you can share on your blog and third-party websites. Examples of holiday blog ideas you can create are:

• holiday gift guides, 
• Christmas outfit ideas, 
• Thanksgiving outfit ideas, 
• gift ideas for kids, 
• top 10 holiday songs, 
• best holiday dessert recipes, etc. 

By republishing these articles on third-party websites, you’ll be able to do some free advertising and possibly convert some of their audience into buyers. 

4. Take Note of the Trends and Events of 2021

Marketing is a fast-paced business. You may be working on a new campaign strategy that you believe will take your company to the next level, but the slightest trend shift can turn your unique holiday promo ideas into yesterday’s news. 

New trends and events occur monthly, quarterly, and yearly. They often change how you interact, attract, and push products to your audience. Due to this ever-changing state of the marketing world, you must stay up to date with the latest trends and events of the year and use them to come up with your holiday marketing slogans. 

5. Use Aitarget Tools to Prepare Your Holiday Ad Campaigns

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your business is to leave the marketing to experts. You may not have the budget that larger retail companies do, but with Aitarget, you can get the same quality. 

Aitarget is your one-stop shop for omnichannel feed-based thanksgiving marketing campaigns. Aitarget can help you create unique ads that are both immersive and align with user preference. 

Create mass personalized video ads from your product catalog using Aitarget. Some of the tools you can employ for your thanksgiving marketing campaigns include:

• Video editing tools to create personalized video ads
• Customizable templates that make it easier to create attractive, high-quality video ads. 
• Scaling of ad campaigns in Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram. 
• Workflow automation and tracking of ad results. 
• Automatic update of product data in your ads. Any change you make to your product feed parameters (such as price) is updated instantly on the ad.

6. Avoid False Urgency

The holiday season brings out a sense of urgency in buyers as they rush around trying to complete their last-minute purchases. Some brands will capitalize on this and create a fake sense of urgency through countdown timers, ill-conceived giveaways, or discounts.

If there’s one thing the pandemic showed us, it’s that consumers are quick to panic buy. Creating a sense of urgency with consumers is okay if you don’t care about customer relationships and only think about your profit. But the holiday season is more than just a time to make a quick profit. It’s the best time to bond with new customers and deepen existing relationships with old ones, it’s the best time to form a relationship with new customers and deepen the one with existing ones.

Customers are more likely to make repeat purchases when they cherish the relationship with your brand. Instead of trying to whip buyers into a purchasing frenzy with countdown gimmicks, create a real reason to buy using incentives they’ll appreciate. You can offer online shopping and take it further by making sure your website is mobile-friendly. You can also offer same or next-day delivery, product reservation, etc. 

7. Don’t Forget About Your Existing Customers

You can segment your audience into new and existing customers and offer time-sensitive discounts to the existing customer segment. You can run ads that offer up to 50% off on purchases to existing customers. But make it time-sensitive, that is, set the ads and the offer to expire after a few days. 

Another campaign idea that is perfect for existing customers is to reward them for their loyalty. Customers want to feel appreciated, especially during this busy period. Rewarding their loyalty tells them that you care and that you don’t take their business for granted. You can show your appreciation to loyal customers by:

• Sending gift cards (print or e-cards) to them that offer up to 15% discounts;
• Inviting them to take part in private sales and exclusive offers;
• Sending personalized thank you cards.

8. Be Ready to React and Adapt Quickly

The holiday season is one of the busiest times for retailers. With so many people to respond to, it’s common for issues to arise. How you deal with them can make or break your holiday sales.

How effective is your customer service experience? Are they quick to respond? Do they provide solutions or show buyers the steps to solve the problem? More than 50 percent of people stop doing business with a brand due to terrible customer service. Your customer service team must be ready to respond to any inquiry and handle any issue that customers may have. 

Users talk, share reviews and recommendations with their friends and family. If they are happy with your customer service, they’ll help promote your brand through word of mouth. If the opposite occurs, then their reviews can discourage potential new customers from visiting. 

What about your website? How fast is it? Do you have a team on the ground to deal with any technical issues? Can it handle the number of people that may be shopping at the same time? If you offer a delivery service, make sure they are ready to move out once an order is ready to be delivered.

9. Prepare for the Competition

A lot of people started different side hustles last year with e-commerce business being one of the more popular side hustles. But what does that mean for your business? It means more competition. 

Your holiday ad campaigns will need to be unique. So, put on your thinking hats and develop sales campaign ideas that not only draw in potential customers but also convert. 

Another way to develop better marketing campaign ideas is to observe what the competition is doing. What successful holiday marketing campaigns are the bigger stores running? How can you scale that down and apply it to your holiday campaigns? Can you pick up any holiday marketing tips from them?

You can review their keywords and use that to come up with holiday article ideas. Use these keywords to generate holiday blog ideas as part of your content syndication strategy. 

Final Thoughts

There you have it, 9-holiday promotional ideas for small businesses that are sure to make your business have a profitable holiday season.

Which will you be trying out first? Why not try video marketing? You can share a video on your website and all your socials. If you’re thinking of video marketing, then you’re thinking of Aitarget. 

Social media advertising tips for beauty brands from a private business breakfast with Facebook, Aitarget, L’Oréal, and Scentbird

In late June, a private business breakfast for beauty was held by Facebook and Aitarget, with special guests of L’Oréal and Scentbird, in a Moscow jazz club.

We have collected the key insights from this event to share with you here.

If Facebook and Instagram don’t perform, change the product

Creatives are responsible for the success

Popov noted that the more precisely a product hits an actual need of the audience, the easier it is to do marketing for it. At the same time, strong analytics and creatives focused on performance are important.There are no hard rules for creatives, but there are several formats or approaches that perform better than others. “For example, video as a whole works for us,” says Popov. “Unboxing as a separate video format works for us worse than funny videos. Generally, humour for perfume is a bold decision, because perfume is a luxury category. The charisma of the person speaking determines much more than what he says.”

Smartphone rules the future of shopping

The industry is under constant pressure from a lack of user attention and the rising influence of mobile phones. Brands should set up their purchase funnel for mobile and adapt their advertising to this kind of consumption.

This is related to the preferences of Generation Z, a huge group of сonsumers (e.g. in the USA, Generation Z forms almost 28% of the population and is the largest generation group) who watch about 68 videos on social media platforms per day.

To grab the attention of this audience, brands should use their common language in videos.

Formats narrow the distance

Collaborative Ads is Facebook’s new ads format which connects brands and retailers.

Brands want measurable online sales and retailers need quality traffic and high conversions, so Facebook has launched this partner product. Now a brand can share their product catalogue with a retailer and track sales on their website, while Pixel data about the retailer’s audience is kept private.

All in all, this solution increases sales efficiency for both partners.

Personalisation and well-executed targeting reduce conversion cost

The Aitarget Video Tool created personalised videos which tripled reach, reduced cost per 10-second video view by three times, and reduced CPC by 25%.

The audience segmentation for creating personalised messages delivered the results and helped the brand to find consumers of beauty products sold in pharmacies, inform them about the issue of sun protection, and make individual offers.

How M·A·C Cosmetics helped lay the foundation for the new Instagram Collection ad format

Globally popular brand M·A·C Cosmetics teamed with Aitarget, Isobar Moscow, and iProspect Russia to become one of the first companies in Eastern Europe to run ads in Instagram Collection.

Instagram Collection is a new beta format that blends a title video or an image with a product catalogue below. It was created as an analogue of Facebook Collection.

This opens up a new advertising opportunity for brands, another chance to connect with Instagram’s one billion users.

Instagram/Composite. Source: Ad Age

From the user’s side, Collection makes it easy to search, browse, and buy products and special offers through a visually attractive interactive and organically built-in creative. Potential customers can then tap on a product in the carousel, learn about all the products in the inner catalogue, and visit the brand’s website for purchasing.

For Instagram, Collection has been slightly modified and optimised: it supports purchases inside the application itself. This allows users to complete the consumer funnel cycle without leaving the platform.

Another difference: whereas in Facebook Collection tapping on a particular product opens a new catalogue which prioritises that specific product, in Instagram Collection tapping on any of the product photos takes you to the same location in the Canvas.

The carousel for Instagram Collection has three product images, rather than the four in Facebook Collection. However, to launch an Instagram Collection ad you will need a catalogue of at least four products for the Canvas.

“Instagram is a business’s visual shop on mobile, and we’re seeing more people seek out businesses there,” says Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, commenting on the launch of Instagram Collection.

Instagram Collection is ideal for e-commerce, especially for beauty and fashion brands because they are particularly strong on Instagram in terms of content sharing and fan base.

More than 200 million Instagram users follow fashion-related accounts, and nine of the top ten accounts that beauty Instagrammers follow are beauty brands (statistics as at April 2018).

While news about Instagram Collection broke in February, the format is currently only available to certain brands through Facebook marketing partners, such as Aitarget.

“Instagram Collection is ideal for creating a store in which users can select products without leaving the favourite app. is new option is more fitting of the title Instagram Shopping. The emergence of the format is a landmark event for the e-com industry,” says Lead Customer Development Manager at Aitarget.

Thanks to a collaboration between M∙A∙C Cosmetics, Aitarget, and advertising agencies, the Russian audience on Instagram was first introduced to the breakthrough format.

The M∙A∙C Cosmetics campaign showed success after the first week of delivery: the CPC dropped by 20%, and the CPO decreased by 22% with a proportional growth of the CTR.

“We are pleased that M∙A∙C Cosmetics, the leading brand of professional cosmetics, was one of the first to test the Instagram Collection format. Special aesthetics and innovative brand concepts make M.A.C a trendsetter and a pioneer for the brightest and most promising innovations in marketing and promotion. The Instagram Collection format has seamlessly blended in the communication with our customer: from professional make-up artists to makeup amateurs and rookies, it also made the client’s way to purchasing much shorter and more convenient,” says Corporate Media Manager at Estée Lauder.

The new format may represent a shift in digital marketing strategies.

The interactive nature of such product branding strategy is not only convenient for consumers. Collection also allows companies to neatly connect social media content with sales and ROI that go through them. It provides valuable information about where the marketing assets should be focused, and where customers make their purchases.

These Collection ads validate a user before they go to a brand’s website, leading to conversion rates that are likely to be superior to other ad types.

Because of these advantages, the Collection format could become popular beyond Facebook and Instagram, adapted to replace traditional banners in online advertising.

Scentbird business model is similar to the Dollar Shave Club; they sell subscriptions to get a monthly supply of any luxury or designer perfume every month. For $14.95 per month, customers get a great 0.3 oz fragrance from 450 available products in stock.

The start of our growth journey

In January 2015 they had just started looking for scalable marketing channel and were fortunate enough to be part of Y Combinator Summer 2015, which meant funding was available to invest and scale, but they needed to make wise investments.

Facebook was showing some potential, but they couldn’t spend our budget effectively, while also controlling our Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). They were able to spend around $30K USD for our Facebook ad media buy per month.

One of the first changes they made was to switch from banner to video advertisements. After two months, they doubled the sales while reducing CPA. Then they discovered the slideshow format. Slideshow and video became the main ad content types. By June 2016, they had increased our Facebook ad spend to $100K per month.

Early challenges

• Most of our actions were routine, and they thought they should be able to automate them by setting rules.
• As Facebook works pretty unstably, they couldn’t just set up a campaign and then create more new ads in there. They had to tweak it constantly. The process was quite time consuming. If you’re running dozens of campaigns, it quickly becomes a nightmare.

The more they spent, the more data they collected during a work day, which meant more decisions to make each day. And that takes time.

Partnership with Aitarget

There are many solutions on the market: Nanigans, AdEspresso, Automated, Smartly, Aitarget, etc. Scentbird considered and tested automation systems of AdEspresso, Automated, Smartly, and Aitarget.

Finally they chose to work with Aitarget, because of their solution flexibility: they have more possibilities to set up rules, and they were ready to create some custom tools for us. After a month of testing, they’d found the perfect tool that manages our automation routine tasks. It allowed to grow our Facebook Marketing Budget up to $400K USD per month by October 2016, without scaling the team.

A guide to the process

Disclaimer: the rule set is not a universal set-up. It was developed through trial and error, constantly testing new ideas, and always analyzing the data.

Every business or advertiser will have to develop it’s own routine, but here is a basic guide as a strategic starting point.

Kill the poor performers early

With Facebook buying, an ad, or group of ads (ad set), may not perform as well today as it did yesterday. One main objective with automation is to understand as early as possible when an ad isn’t performing, so you can switch it off, leaving the better performing ads live. Apply this rationale to every ad you’re running, so the worst performing ads are all turned off.

Understand the History

Before you go in and change any settings for ad optimization, spend some time analyzing your historical data to understand conditions (Spent Amount/CPC/CPM/CPA/CPI), if the information is available.

The team downloaded and analyzed all statistics for the past six months to look for any correlations, so they could build rules around them.

Our automation rules

They established a rule set to determine when to stop running creative (all numbers are for example only).

When to shut down creative

Spend greater than $100 today + Purchase less than $1 today = Stop

It was noticed that if a creative ad spend is greater than 50% of our goal CPA, and did not result in any sale, then there’s a high probability it won’t perform well today, so they shut it off.

Spend greater than $30 today + Cost per click (Link) greater than $2 today = Stop

Keep Your Eyes on the CPC & CPM

The same rationale was applied to control the Cost per Click (CPC): the idea is to understand that a particular ad will have a high CPC for today and switch it off before waiting to see if it doesn’t perform on CPA basis.

It’s easier to catch a high CPC in the early stages, rather than the CPA. If you find a pattern, this also works for the Cost per 1000 Impressions (CPM). You can also set up optimization more accurately, if you estimate the price of middleway conversions in the funnel (for instance, authorisations).

Spend greater than $200 today + СРА greater than $75 today = Stop

Set the CPA in the tunnel

Ensure that the CPA is included in the tunnel under your KPI, while allowing the ad spend to continue to grow. Establish the rule so that it will react on your spend spikes because not all conversions can be tracked uniformly.

Spend greater than $75 today + CPA less than $75 today = Start

Timebox your data

There’s a common challenge in any analytics system where conversions are not tracked correctly due to delays in delivery (in our case, we set up a 15-minute period to check the rule set). You’ll need to establish rules that could fix the situation when a system turns off an ad, especially moments before conversions have increased.

The same rule set can be used in CPC control because clicks tracking can be delayed as well.

Spend less than $40 today + CPC (Link) less than $2 today = Start

Turn ads back on

It’s extremely important to remember to turn ads on again the next day. There are two methods:

• Turn on all ads (that you turned off the day prior) and then, in 3-5 days, exclude the worst of them from the automation.
• Establish the rule set of turning on ads with affordable CPA from the last 3 or 5 or 7 days.

The second way is more sophisticated, because it may not need your involvement, but it is quite complicated due to a high chance of unintended consequences. We use a hybrid method to exclude the worst performing ads from automation.

If your target CPA is $75, then set up a higher barrier, and reduce the CPA.

Impressions less than 10 today + CPA less than $85 last 7 days + Time greater than 1 a.m. + Time less than 2 a.m. = Start

Adding a New Ad to a Set

When adding a new ad to an ad set, you’ll need to timecode it, mitigating the chances of it turning off in the middle of the day (that may end badly if you have big budgets).

We’re also working with Aitarget on a solution, which could help analyze conditions to decide whether to activate the ad set or leave them until the next day, after the moment when all ads are turned off.

Play with your budget (conservatively)

The second rule set that may be used for a budget control is to increase the budget up to 20–30% if an ad set has a good CPA at the beginning of the day.

Spend/Daily Budget greater than 15% today + Spend/Daily Budget less than 25% today + CPA less than $70 = Increase budget on 20%

This rule set tracks the moment when the amount spent is enough, but before it’s too late to increase the budget.

The daily routine consists of these rule sets. Although the rules vary slightly, they are universal. The team was able to eliminate the need to scale the team because of daily routine automation managed by one person.

Iconic beauty brand L’Oréal teamed up with Aitarget to harness a fresh ad format for its cutting-edge hair makeup Colorista

With the help of Aitarget, L’Oréal created a campaign for Russian girls under 30 who had relevant interests, for example: fashion, beauty, style, etc.

Aitarget’s Lead Customer Development Manager says:

“It’s always nice to work with customers who are open to experimenting and testing new formats. We are very pleased it was with L’Oréal Paris that we were able to test this format. Thanks to the unusual creatives of Colorista, we were able to make a winsome and memorable campaign.”

The Carousel format is very popular in e-commerce, as it gives a targeted user an opportunity to choose the appropriate product. According to Facebook statistics, Carousels reduce CPA by 30-50%, and CPC by 20-30%.

By the end of the first week the CPC decreased by 40% in comparison to other Facebook and Instagram campaigns of Colorista with the same targeting.

Aitarget, the partner of Facebook and Instagram, keeps a keen eye on the latest SMM opportunities and we invite you to launch innovative campaigns with us.