There is no one-size-fits-all spending formula for social media, just like one brand’s failed content is another brand’s big win. It really all depends on an individual brand. So when it comes to budgeting, it can be hard to determine if you are throwing money in the trash or building up your social presence.
Luckily, there are steps to make trackable progress with your social media dollars. Here are 8 ways to make sure you are spending with tip-top efficiency:
- Master (and maintain) audience targeting. Custom audiences, look-alike models, geo-based targeting, and interest-based audiences are just some techniques. Make the most of individual platform targeting capabilities.
- Actively manage paid social media spend. Don’t leave your campaigns to simmer too long. Review your individual campaigns frequently and your social media investments quarterly.
- Expect disruption … forever. Apple and Google have made big changes to the privacy and tracking. Try your best to account for new tracking and measurement methods ahead of the ever-changing data landscape.
- Create content where your engaged users are. Brand-engaged users use a given social media platform at least once a week, and enjoy seeing content from brands. Target these users where they’re most abundant by building platform-specific social content.
- Budget for TV advertising to complement your paid social. Guide media investments into over-the-top (OTT) TV, connected TV (CTV) and YouTube in ways that work well with your social campaigns.
- Pair your paid social and earned media. The volume of consumer posts about brands continues to grow. Take advantage of this built-in engagement and use it to fuel your paid content as well.
- Don’t be afraid to stray from the pack. While the big dogs like Facebook and YouTube are tried and true, set aside media budgets for emerging platforms. Don’t be afraid to experiment placing ads with smaller, growing platforms.
- Develop a pipeline of relevant social content. One of the biggest lifts for SMMs and brands is successfully optimizing your assets, scaling your production, and building a robust pipeline of content.
Check out the full article by Gartner for more pieces of budget and tracking advice.
