The Covid-19 pandemic has rocked all spheres of life and led to a conscious awakening that has not spared the digital content world. Many marketers have found themselves considering what they do, how they do it, and what impact they generate.

Things are certainly changing everywhere, and with content, we see new trends gaining a foothold, like the strong emerging role of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tools in content creation, creative process, and strategizing. 

People no longer have time to spend on content that doesn’t speak to their needs, problems, and goals. It has resulted in a vigorous drive towards personalization. This is the opportune time to re-strategize and pick up new digital content strategies. Let’s get started: 

Why Is a Content Strategy Important? 

Let’s start by defining what a content strategy is. It’s a plan of action that ideates the processes, workflows, timelines, and guidelines for creating and producing helpful content. 

Your content strategy may be as detailed as possible, including content ideas & types, assigned roles, content plans, design specifications, publishing schedules, content objectives, preferred writing styles, target audiences, and publishing platforms. 

It may dive into the post-production processes, such as the periodic auditing and updating of the content. You may also focus on the governance of the content, including assigning roles to different team members. 

The content strategy often culminates into a calendar that contains publish dates for various pieces of content. Because the calendar is a big part of the content strategy, many may simply assume that a calendar is the only thing they need. For instance, a simple content strategy example may look like this: 

Well, the calendar is only one part of the equation.

Digital Content Types 

What is digital content? It’s any content distributed through electronic means via the internet. 

Publishing blog posts offers the lowest barrier of entry for most businesses. But there is a wide range of content types that businesses need to focus on as part of their content strategy for the web. 

Let’s discover more content types, with a focus on what you need to do going forward: 

• Web pages: You probably have your main website pages, such as the About us page or homepage. As part of your strategic content strategy, think of creating more useful landing pages. For instance, you may consider comparison pages, “Us vs. Them,” to target customers at the decision stage. You may create lead capture landing pages to gain email subscribers organically. Landing pages may also contain useful tools like calculators. 

• Emails: With over half of the world’s population expected to have an email account by 2023, emails must take center stage in your digital content marketing strategy. Don’t just share blog updates as it’s the norm. Think of enriching the subscriber’s experience by sharing exclusive newsletters to make their time more worthwhile. 

• Display ads: Often referred to as banner ads, display ads contain a short piece of text, image, and URL. They are shown on third-party websites that have signed up to advertising networks such as Google AdSense. Display ads have often received a bad rep for being annoying. It may be time to reconsider them and focus on native display ads, which don’t exactly come across as intrusive. 

• Videos: With better engagement rates than all types of content online, it’s essential to plan to create videos when you’re building a content strategy. Don’t just plan for marketing videos. Consider educational videos that teach customers about your services, such as tutorials. Host live webinars and repost them on your website or YouTube. Try collaborations with influencers and authority figures in your niche. 

• Podcasts: It’s hard to talk about digital content without mentioning podcasts. Many acclaimed businesses now publish podcasts from the Fortune 500 companies to Mom-and-pop stores. Think of generating a unique idea in your niche, finding a good host, and interviewing industry professionals 

• Blog posts: if you are trying to grow your organic search visibility on Google for various keywords relevant to your business, there is no better way to do it than publishing articles, guides, news pieces, etc. Blog posts make up a huge chunk of most digital content strategies, but don’t just write articles for the sake of it. Offer a new perspective on a topic with insightful reporting and fresh ideas. 

• Social media posts: Your social media posts also fall into the digital media content category. The best advice regarding posting on social media entails making 75% of your posts unrelated to your services and products.

• Case studies: What results have you achieved for your client? Has your business undertaken unique research to ascertain a particular cause of a problem? Well, case studies are highly shareable, and linkable pieces of content that you should consider creating that are part of your content strategy for the web. 

• Infographics: Infographics utilize a combination of images, graphics, and short texts to present information in a highly visualized way. They are still relevant in 2021, with the right infographic having a chance to go viral and attract many backlinks. 

• E-Books and white papers: You can use e-books to grow your email subscriber’s base. Create insightful E-books with exclusive and detailed content. Ask users to provide their email in return for downloading the e-book. You can also consider writing a white paper. It offers an in-depth look into challenges facing a particular topic and advocates for specific solutions.

One of the most successful website content strategy examples comes from HubSpot, an online platform that provides CRMs, among other tools. They follow the inbound content marketing methodology to create content targeted at different stages of the customer lifecycle. They have gone as far as publishing marketing courses complete with certificates. 

Understand Your Audience 

The motivations, behaviors, and preferences of the populace have changed in light of the pandemic. Long-held assumptions about what people want may not hold. 

Facebook noted that more consumers want advice and information that will help them enhance their financial health. The drive towards financial literacy resulted from the financial nervousness brought about by lockdowns, layoffs, and complete disruption of major industries. Financial businesses with this insight can find ways to create valuable content and utilize more engaging formats instead of primarily relying on ads to pass their message. 

You need to have a firm understanding of your audience before you create digital content. It means having specific details about who they are as individuals. Relying on gut feeling and old-fashioned guesswork will not cut it this year. All the insights about your audience need to be factual and backed by hard data from market research. 

What is a Persona? 

A persona is like a fictionalized profile of a character meant to represent your core target demographic. You need to build a highly detailed persona because having someone with tangible attributes makes it easier to personalize and tailor your digital media content. 

The best way to build a persona entails carrying out in-depth research about your audience. You can give your fictional character all the attributes of a real person, including a name, age, occupation, hometown, educational background, likes, hobbies, motivations, and background. It’s like creating a fictional Facebook profile populated with all details. 

The New Paradigm in Content

Is content marketing broken? Many brands are struggling with their content marketing. They are falling prey to common pitfalls such as:

• Using too few tactics;
• Not correctly overseeing the content marketing strategy;
• Lacking a detailed plan;
• Failing to produce engaging content; 
• Spending too little; 
• Focusing on few platforms; 
• Failing to update their content strategies to adapt to emerging situations. 

Additionally, most marketers find it hard to attribute the ROI of their content marketing efforts. Based on a marketing survey featuring 600 respondents, only 39% stated that they successfully tracked their content marketing ROI. 

Brands need to adopt a new way of doing things focused on innovation and the creation of valuable content. Here are some focus areas to consider going forward: 

Augment Reality (AR)

Augmented reality, in simple words, refers to the technology that superimposes digital visual elements on a user’s view of the physical world through the use of devices such as a smartphone camera. 

The technology has proved useful in certain fields, such as real estate, where buyers can use virtual staging apps to render 3D furniture in living spaces. It has permeated into advertising, with platforms such as TikTok offering AR Ad formats through branded effects. 

The barrier to entry has become lower as several platforms have popped up to help content creators build augmented reality content without coding. 

Virtual Reality (VR)

While AR renders digital elements in the real world, virtual reality is entirely virtual, not physically existing but digitally simulated. Users can fully immerse themselves into virtual reality environments by using headsets. Smartphone and desktop users can also enjoy VR content such as 360 videos. 

Is it possible for ordinary brands to add VR to their marketing content strategy? Yes, it’s entirely possible, and the most accessible gateway is to create 360 videos such as walkthroughs, explainers, etc. Such videos offer better interactivity than regular videos. 

You can similarly supercharge your marketing efforts with the 360° video ad format offered by Facebook. The format is fresh and dynamic and may attract more engagements. That’s what Aitarget found out when it helped Forex4you, an online broker platform, experiment with 360-degree videos. 

Following A/B testing against regular videos, the VR videos reduced the cost of registering new customers by up to 20% and improved other key metrics. 

Strong Personalization 

So, what exactly is personalization, and how does it fit into your marketing content strategy? It’s all about tailoring the message based on user attributes such as their interests, geographic location, language, parental status, life events, household incomes, gender, and age range.

Up to 61% of people expect brands to customize their experiences to fit into their preferences. Many marketers also believe that personalization can boost business profitability. 

Start by personalizing your user experience. Think of creating digital content that accommodates different users and their needs. For instance, if your solution targets various verticals, you may publish several landing pages to showcase your products’ value. Consider localizing your websites by showing a translated version of the website based on the user’s preferred language. 

Personalize your digital ads to boost their effectiveness. If you have not installed tracking codes from different platforms, take this as the best time to start. You can record customer interactions and build custom audiences for remarketing. 

When running ads, you may tailor the message based on what you know about them. For instance, an e-commerce fashion website may decide to show suggestions for more shoes after someone views the shoe category on their website. 

The only limitation with personalization is that teams may need to create a huge volume of creatives with personalized messages to cater to different audiences. Aitarget has addressed this problem through the automation of the creation, testing, and upgrading of creatives. Its AI-infused solutions allow brands to leverage their existing assets, such as product images, to build effective overlay ads and videos. 

Content must be dynamic 

Dynamic content is simply not static. It changes following specific factors such as user’s behaviors, preferences, interactions, and characteristics. For instance, e-commerce stores implement dynamic content through product recommendations. Users receive suggestions for similar products based on items they have previously viewed or added to their carts.

Similarly, you can include dynamic content as part of your website content strategy by showing ads or content relevant to the user’s lifecycle stage, awareness, consideration, or decision. It’s also possible to implement dynamic pop-ups to pass different messages or offer personalized incentives. 

H3 Mastering multiple touchpoints 

Don’t expect that all users will interact with your brand through your website. The average user runs through various platforms and devices on a given day. It’s vital to master multiple touchpoints as part of your content strategy. For instance, a customer may first encounter your brand through an online advertisement. 

Before they visit your website, they may decide to check what you post on social media, and it helps to have a solid social media content strategy. The customer may check out your website and subscribe to your email. 

Before they purchase your products, they may check product review sites. It helps to enhance this touchpoint by asking past users to leave reviews. Additionally, the customer may have a few questions to ask before making the purchase decision. Offering them a live chat option can be an enhanced touchpoint. 

Innovation & AI 

As you build your content strategy, take advantage of recent innovations such as the proliferation of artificial intelligence tools. Your writing team can speed up its workflow by using AI copywriting tools to create draft articles and social media posts. 

Some AI tools can help generate a digital content marketing strategy complete with keywords and topic clusters. If you are having a hard time generating creatives for your campaigns, you can similarly use AI-driven creative management platforms. 

With Aitarget Tech, you can solve many of your creative challenges, including:

• Creating dynamic ads from static assets such as product feed data and images; 
• Generating ads for omnichannel marketing without the need for extensive editing; 
• Automating campaign management following a rules-based approach; 
• Improving ads for the best performance as the tool gathers insights by utilizing its advanced ML algorithms to find correlations between the best performing elements of ads. 

To see the full capability of the AItarget platform, you can find your relevant vertical here. 

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.

If the world is a global village, Facebook has to be its largest shopping mall.

Facebook has changed from a social media platform for connecting with friends to the world’s most visited online marketplace. 

With that new status came the realization that every serious business had to make selling on Facebook seriously, and they did. Presently, almost everyone is advertising their products on Facebook. Unfortunately, they mostly use generic adverts that turn out to be ineffective. To solve this problem, Facebook developed an in-house solution: Facebook Ads.

This helps businesses create cost-effective, targeted ads that have higher chances of converting prospects.

Why Should You Use Facebook Ads?

Facebook is the largest single market in the world. With Facebook Ads, you can make sure that you are advertising to the right category of people. The amazing range of targeting options means you can target potential customers by location, age, gender, and even their behavior. 

More importantly, organic reach has been on a steady decline over the last few years. To get best business results from Facebook, you have to run ads.

The best thing about Facebook Ads is the full autonomy it grants you. You get to select the maximum cost per click, budget and persuade consumers even before they have even made a conscious decision about what to buy.

With Facebook Ads, control meets the simplicity of use.

Facebook offers several ad formats and placements with images, videos, and text to achieve your objectives. Different ad formats, however, have different specifications for image and video formats and sizes. 

Since you are spending money to generate leads and conversion, it is important that your preferred Ad type leverage the best image specifications for optimum performance. 

Keep reading to discover the optimal specifications for each ad type.

Facebook News Feed Image Ads – Facebook Ad Specs & Size

Also known as Photo Ad, this is perhaps the easiest type of Facebook Ad you can use to spread your brand awareness. It comprises a single image that captures the Facebook users’ attention as they scroll through their feeds. 

Usually, your ad must contain:

• A single image.
• A catchy call-to-action (CTA).
• A link to a landing page or a blog for conversion purposes. 

You can create a new image to suit the ad’s purpose or choose to boost the existing image of a previous post. 

Your image should tell a story and contain visually appealing elements that capture users’ interests immediately. This will help you lead them to a landing page that converts them with a powerful call-to-action.

News Feed Single Image Ads are simple to create but very powerful because they are nonintrusive and can take your targets to your landing page in a second with one click. 

For best results, invest in a good photo creation tool or engage a professional to design a great picture for you. 

Specifications:

• Facebook ad dimensions: 1080 x 1080 pixels
• Minimum width and height; 600 pixels
• Recommended Facebook image size: 1.91:1 to 1:1.
• Recommended image type is JPG and PNG
• The maximum file size is 30MB

Character Limit:

• Your headline shouldn’t exceed 25 characters
• Your text shouldn’t exceed 125 characters and 20% of image size

Image Specs

Tailoring your pictures to suit Facebook ad dimensions saves your ads from poor cropping or pixelation. In all, your image ads stand out from the multitude of Facebook ads published daily. Facebook ad dimensions are, however, not one to the set-and-forget. You need to constantly monitor them to stay on top of trends and best Facebook ad specs practices. 

• Best Facebook ad image size: We recommend using at least 1080 x 1080 pixels. But since there is no maximum requirement, you can choose the highest resolution that best matches your image ad’s ratio requirements. 
• Best Facebook ad aspect ratio: Generally, your image’s aspect ratio should fall between 1:91:1 to 4:5. For best results, our recommendation is 1.91:1 to 1:1. This comes with a caveat, though: if you include a stock image, input a link, or launch an offer Ad, you get limited to a 1.91:1 ratio. 
• Least Facebook ads dimensions: 600 x 600 pixels.
• Suggested file types: JPG or PNG.
• Maximum file size: 30 MB.
• Your aspect ratio tolerance should be 3%. 

For the text in your Facebook ad image, here are our recommendations:

• Your primary text should contain no more than 125 characters. You can include more than 125 characters, but viewers will only be able to read them when they click ‘view more.’ 
• Your headline should not be more than 40 characters. If you do otherwise, your text will appear truncated. 
• The description of your Facebook ads image should be 30 single-byte characters or less. On a mobile news feed, your description might appear if only it resonates with the viewer. 

Facebook Feed Video Ads

Videos, particularly if they’re interesting, are one of the easiest ways to capture your target audience’s attention. You can optimize feed video ads to increase your brand awareness. 

Making a video is, however, not enough. Your video also needs to be of good quality. To achieve this, get a good camera or employ a videographer if you cannot do the video content creation yourself. 

Specifications:

• The file format: MP4, MOV, or GIF.
• The Instagram size ratio should be 1:1 (for computers or mobile phones) or 4:5 if you’re using only a mobile phone.
• Regarding video settings, compression is H.264, square pixels, progressive scan, stereo AAC audio compression, and fixed frame rate at ≥128kbps.
• Instagram video resolution should be more than 1080×1080 pixels.
• Captions aren’t compulsory, but we recommend them.
• The main text should be about 125 characters.
• The title should be about 40 characters.
• The description should be about 30 characters.
• Video length should be 1 second to 241 minutes.
• Facebook’s maximum video size is 4GB.
• The minimum width is 120 pixels, and the minimum height is 120 pixels.

Facebook Carousel Ads

Facebook Carousel ads are an engaging form of ads that are perfect for advertisement. They can showcase multiple products in just one ad unit, which makes it easier for marketers to advertise more than one product simultaneously. 

Carousel ads can display up to ten videos and images in a single ad. They are great at maximizing screen real estate when they combine multiple ads into one. The best part is, every single ad in the carousel ad has its call to action, link, description, and headline. 

A customer can quickly scroll through the carousel by swiping down if they are using a mobile phone or clicking the down button if they are using a desktop. You can also use carousel ads for advertising more than one product; with each of them having its pages linked, showcasing a particular product’s features, describing a procedure, showcasing your business more extensively, and showing the clients just how beneficial your products are.

Always ensure your links drive your clients to a landing page. Organize the videos and pictures in the carousel in an organized manner and add interesting titles, call to action, and descriptions. You should also use easy-to-use videos and/or images.

The specifications for images in a Carousel Ad (e.g., Facebook ad dimensions, Facebook ad size, Facebook ad image size) are similar to Facebook Feed Image Ads’. 

Instagram feed carousels 

Similar to Facebook carousel ad dimensions, Instagram feeds also support between two to 10 cards per carousel. The chosen cards are then shown on the homepage of the user’s Instagram feed. 

Instagram ad specs include:

• Text: Maximum of two rows of text 
• Hashtags: Up to 30 
• Instagram portrait dimensions: 1080 x 1080 pixels 
• Instagram size ratio: 1.9:1 (for landscape)
• Instagram video format: video 
• Instagram video resolution: 600 x 1067

Instagram Stories Carousels

You can use carousel ads on your Instagram stories to display more than an image in the same story. Here are the recommended dimensions for an Instagram carousel ad:

• Suggested image resolution: 1080 x 1920 pixels 
• The video duration should be at a maximum of 15 seconds per card. 

Facebook Right Column Ads

This ad format is available only on desktops. They often appear in the right column of Facebook pages. If you want to advertise your products with Facebook column ads, use attractive content that highlights the best features of the brand or product you want to advertise.

Generally, it is not advisable to include texts in the ad as it is rather small.

Specifications

• The file format: JPG or PNG.
• The aspect ratio should be 1:1.
• The standard video dimensions should be ≥ 1080 × 1080 pixels.
• The title should be about 40 characters.
• The minimum width should be 254 pixels.
• The minimum height should be 133 pixels.

Facebook Marketplace Ads

The Facebook marketplace enables the easy discovery of products. Despite this, posting a paid ad that appears whenever users buy at the marketplace and posting a standard ad for a product you are selling are two different ways to advertise. Creating a marketplace ad means that you place an ad where people are already interested in buying products similar to yours. So, you are making it easier for them to reach your product.

You can use the Ads Manager tool on the Facebook marketplace to create and design ads. You will have to specify a budget and then decide on the placement of your ad. 

Your ads will then be visible to users whenever they use the mobile Facebook app to buy products on the Facebook marketplace. The ads open alongside other products being sold on the marketplace for easy visibility. As soon as a user clicks on your ad, they will then gain access to your marketplace details, app, or website for more information. Marketplace ads are also mentioned in the Newsfeed. Your ad can either be in image or video formats.

Specifications for images

• The recommended resolution is 1080 x 1080
• The aspect ratio is recommended to be between 9:16 to 16:9, but if it includes a link, it gets cropped to 1.91:1
• If the text on your image is more than 20% of the image size, the chances of a failed upload are higher

Specifications for videos

• The recommended aspect ratio is 4:5
• The recommended resolution is 1080 x 1080
• The recommended Instagram video formats are MP4, GIF, and MOV
• The maximum video length is 241 minutes, and the maximum size is 4GB
• Captions are not allowed, but they can be embedded in the video as subtitles

Facebook Instant Article Ads

Interactive articles drive publishers’ traffic by 44% globally. Also, 65% of the top 100 most clicked domains leveraged instant articles at some point. You can increase your traffic and CTR by filling instant articles into your ad inventory. 

You can also use the video format to display your products, brand, or services. Sound can also be added to increase interest and exhibit the best qualities of the product that you are offering.

Specifications

• The video format should be 9:16.
• For videos, the file type should be in MP4, GIF, or MOV.
• The video setting includes stereo AAC audio compression ≥ 128kbps, progressive scan, fixed frame rate, square pixels, and H.264 compressing.
• The resolution should be ≥1080×1080 pixels.
• There should be no video captions.
• You could add sound if you want.
• The main text should have about 125 characters.
• The title should be about 40 characters.
• The description should be about 30 characters.
• The length of the video should be from 1 second to 241 minutes.
• The video sizes should not exceed 4GB.
• The minimum width is 120 pixels.
• The minimum height is 120 pixels.

Facebook Sponsored Message Ad Specs

These ads give advertisers the opportunity to send updates, promotions, and offers to their audiences on Facebook messenger. This opportunity defiles the Facebook messenger policy that prevents businesses from messaging their contacts after 24 hours of the user’s previous contact. 

Here are the recommendations for sponsored message ads images:

• Suggested image size: minimum of 1080 x 1028 pixels
• The image ratio should fall between 9:16 to 16:9
• Minimum width: 254 pixels
• Minimum height: 133 pixels
• Suggested image formats: PNG and JPG

Beyond your sponsored message ads images, we recommend the following:

• Text limit: up to 125 characters
• Headline: UP to 25 characters 
• Description of link: Up to 30 characters
• Facebook messenger file size limit: The maximum Facebook messenger file size is 30MB. 

F.A.Q 

How do you advertise on Facebook?

Facebook has one of the largest audiences globally, and it is a fertile ground for marketers. You can advertise on Facebook by using a fan page to create a business presence, have an active and interesting online presence, be involved in many Facebook groups, or create a Facebook group to reach a larger audience. 

You can also host a webinar to generate interest in what you’re all about and use live videos to expose your products. 

But by far, the best way to advertise on Facebook is through Facebook Ads, which are cost-effective targeted Ads that are more likely to generate lead conversion for you. 

Apart from having total control over your campaigns and budgets, Facebook also has an interactive Ads manager tool that greatly simplifies the process for you. 

How do Facebook ads work?

Facebook is on track to make over $60 billion from ads alone this year. The best part about Facebook advertising is it leverages users’ demographics, profiles, interests, and behaviors to determine what ads to show them. This means that your ads are going to people with a high chance of being interested in your brand or products.

Depending on the type of ads that you use, Facebook makes sure that when people scroll through their news feed, they come across your offerings and are subtly persuaded to take a further look at your offerings.

By matching your ad to the consumers most likely to patronize your product based on their previous search history and feed items, Facebook ads ensure that every dollar spent on advertising is a dollar well spent.

How much does a Facebook ad cost?

The average Facebook Ad costs between $0.50 – $2.00 per click. That means each time your ad gets clicked; you have to pay that amount. In each campaign, you also get to set a budget that Facebook will never exceed. Luckily, Facebook Ads Manager also gives you full control over every aspect of the campaign.

Could I create my Ads company with Aitarget?

Yes. Having a Facebook partner badge for more than five years, Aitarget is uniquely positioned to help you set up cost-effective, targeted ads that can boost your brand’s presence and image online. Our tools has flexible settings that enable you to quickly launch Facebook and Instagram ads. Manage your ads automatically, keep your ad bid and budget under control, and scale your campaigns.

New Panoramic Videos capture user attention and boost advertiser results

Juris Leznins, Head Of Marketing at E-Global Trade & Finance Group, Inc.:

“We, as an open-minded broker, are always looking for opportunities to increase the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. With this particular campaign we wanted to see if 360 video ad will be more attractive compared to the simple video ad.”

Forex4you operates worldwide, but this campaign focused on Thailand.

As a demonstration of the effectiveness of 360 Video, Aitarget and Forex4you ran a A/B test campaign for a fortnight, with two types of ad sets both focused on the same broad audience of 25-50 year old male Android users in Thailand. The first ad set included a standard (non-interactive) video with app demonstration. For the second, 360 Video was utilised.

The A/B test for the first two weeks of the ad sets impression showed that panoramic video cut the cost per new user registration by 20%. Use of 360 Video not only made the company stand out in a crowded market, it significantly improved core metrics.

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.

Aitarget explains how to utilise a new feature – Business Assets Groups – to join a variety of brand assets together and simultaneously assign them

If you’re managing ads for a large advertiser or advertising agency, then you’re likely to have dozens of assets in your Business Manager. From pages and advertising accounts for each brand, to their pixels, Instagram profiles, apps, catalogues, events, and more.

The new Business Assets Group feature is located in the Account section of the Business Settings in your Facebook Business Manager.

Here’s how to use it.

1. Start by creating a new group and deciding how you want your assets to be organised. Choose from the list the structure that suits your business best.

2. Name the asset group (Brand, Client, Region, other relevant name).

3. Collect in the business asset group all the resources you want to manage simultaneously.

4. Set the permission or skip this step to complete it at any later time.

5. Congratulations, you’re all done!

How a navigation app doubled installs with Aitarget’s automation tool

How do you stand out from the crowd and increase brand awareness in a market that’s saturated with a variety of similar products? That was the challenge facing MAPS.ME, a mobile application that offers offline maps of all the countries in the world, for free.

The map app market is dominated by Google Maps, which is favored by 70 percent of iPhone users. MAPS.ME partnered with Aitarget to increase awareness of their brand, to scale and amplify its reach. We launched a campaign to strengthen its acquisition rate among mobile users, and spread its reputation as a trusted offline map source to a much larger audience.

Why a brand awareness campaign?

Brand awareness campaigns target people who are most likely to be interested in a business, as Facebook connects brands with users who are similar to their current clients.

Such campaigns help businesses introduce people to their brand and products, by promotion “in the places where people discover new things” – among Facebook and Instagram communities who watch videos and are looking to discover new things every day.

A well-executed campaign can prompt an audience to explore a businesses website, page, or app, and encourage them to remember the creative ads, and therefore the brand or product.

The challenge

In a saturated market for map applications, the main challenge for Aitarget and MAPS.ME was to increase their app’s market share and establish its position as the most popular product in their niche.

The solution

A success story about promoting a mobile app for learning foreign languages ​​on Facebook and Instagram

Edutainment is a trendy interactive learning method. Put simply, it is educational content served in an entertaining format. Edutainment is gaining particular popularity among developers in the fast-growing category of educational mobile apps. In 2018, educational apps hit first place on Google Play with a share of 8.29% and third place in the Apple App Store with a share of 8.5%.

Source: Top-10 Google Play App categories as of 1st quarter 2018, Statista

Source: Top-10 Apple App Store categories in September 2018, Statista

Among edutainment apps, Lingo Vocabulary Trainer from Easy Language is growing rapidly. It is an assistant for memorising words in English, French, German, Spanish, and seven other languages. Within the app, users either readily learn languages or practice online with other players from all over the world.

Source: Lingo Play – English Lessons Online

Lingo Vocabulary Trainer set up a promotion on Facebook and Instagram. First, the goal was to increase app installs, then the founders went further and tracked product payback metrics, aiming to increase in-app purchases. We applied Aitarget’s tunnel budget automation strategy at both stages and got a positive performance results in both cases.

Stage 1: double growth in installs with reduced CPI

Lingo Vocabulary Trainer app earns money from subscriptions. Users from Russia, the US, the UK, Spain and other countries can learn languages with their monthly subscription to the Lingo app.

App developers from Easy Language searched for a way to increase app installs globally in the long-term with a cost per install not extending beyond a fixed number.

The success of the tunnel automation strategy is even clearer in the results for the second stage, where it helped to achieve almost two-fold growth of in-app purchases.

Stage 2: automatic growth of purchases by 170%

Together with Easy Language, we identified four marketing objectives:

• Get as many in-app paid subscriptions as possible;
• Keep cost per purchase at the same level as before to keep the margin;
• Help Service during a Facebook campaign teamwork; and
• Achieve stability – important to predict installs, costs, and LTV for a growing business.

We provided sustainable traffic to the mobile app within the first stage when the campaign experienced a halving of CPI and install numbers grew up to 50%.

So in Stage 2, we focused on in-app purchase cost. Without the rules of automation, the number of purchases per day did not exceed 50, while the cost per purchase was unstable.

To improve the results, we set up three optimisation rules with different action scenarios for each. In Facebook Ads Manager, we set the CPM bid and optimisation for CPI.

We also chose a narrow band for the cost of in-app purchase between Х_max and X_min, setting up the bid for cost per purchase.

Ruleset 1

If the cost of at least one in-app purchase exceeds Х_max, while the bid starts increasing from 0.31 USD, then the robot reduces the bid by 0.05 USD.

The output: if traffic is expensive for us, we’ll turn off the ad set.

Ruleset 2

If the cost of at least one in-app purchase is less than Х_min, while the bid doesn’t exceed the set maximum of 3 USD, then the robot increase the bid by 0.05 USD.

The output: when the cost of purchase is acceptable, we are likely to buy such cheap purchases more.

Ruleset 3

Our third ruleset was an Accelerated Delivery. For this spend, bid, and a particular hour of performance should be set. Depending on whether the ad is shown before a certain hour or after, we limit spending for the previous hour and increase the bid so that ads perform faster.

For example, if the amount spent and a bid are less than 2.3 USD by 7am, then the bid will grow by 0.05 USD. We will also grow the bid if the amount spent and a bid are less than 3.1 USD after 7am.

The output: we accelerate the delivery of ads depending on the time of day, and therefore, user activity with the corresponding spend.

With Aitarget automations, Lingo Vocabulary Trainer sales increased by 170%. At the same time, the cost per purchase inside the app was kept within the set tunnel.

Thus, Lingo Vocabulary Trainer generated sales with a high scale and buoyant profit with Aitarget advertising on Facebook & Instagram.

“This is a great tool for Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns optimisation,” founder of Lingo Vocabulary Trainer. “It helps to achieve your KPI in a way you cannot approach via Facebook tools. Thanks to Aitarget’s solution, our CVR went up to 10%, we see profit growth, and two-times ad cost reduction.”