So, while everyone pretty much agrees social advertising is a wise investment, what’s the best strategy when marketing budgets are squeezed?

The short answer is to continue to invest in a combination of brand awareness ads and conversion (sales / leads) ads.

Following Meta’s ISO14 update, it’s more difficult to accurately evaluate the success of conversion ads to driving sales or leads, or feel confident that the ads are effectively targeting the right audience.

Brand building ads can feed into the conversion ads, making the bottom of funnel activity more finely targeted. This lowers the overall cost and increases the ROI.

Many brands are opting to allocate as much as 70% of their advertising budget to brand building due to the lower cost of these ads (brand ads are approx. 57% cheaper per 1,000 impressions, and 37% cheaper per ad click, compared to conversions ads).

According to Sprout Social, 34% of social media users use it to learn about or discover new products, services or brands. With Meta planning to recommend more posts based on AI, users will see less posts from friends and family and more posts based on their interests. This is now an essential way to build your brand.

How can Vista help to build your brand through social platforms and social advertising?

-         We offer strategies to lead customers through the purchase funnel. We create posts and stories to introduce followers to your business.

-         We leverage formats that showcase your brand to customers who are more likely to be interested and use metrics to measure and improve performance while running bottom of funnel conversion ads.

-         Our campaigns are designed to deliver an improved ROI for your conversion ads.

Meta’s new Brand Lift and Conversion Lift Tests poll an independent audience to understand the perception of your brand, as well as the impact of your brand marketing. It’s a robust tool that enables brands to define the most successful framework and investment for their business.

If you are an ecomm business, then you have to sell through social media and while other businesses pull investment, the cost of running ads will reduce for those staying in the game.

While it’s considered that digital adoption has not yet reached 50% of its potential, brands that have a clear digital strategy now will be ahead of the game when the economy recovers.