Consumer behavior and social situations are ever-changing, as we have especially learned during the Covid-19 pandemic, and companies need to adapt.
Many consumers are continuing to shop online, or they’re at least looking for products or services on online platforms, including social media. It is not a surprise, then, that digital advertising has become more important.
Smartly.io and the WBR Insights made a study to reveal how brands plan their social advertising for 2022. They surveyed 100 respondents in North America, who are business leaders and occupy roles in media, digital advertising, performance marketing, eCommerce, and brand marketing.
Here are some of their findings on the trends for social advertising.
Instagram is growing more popular when it comes to ads.
Just like any other market, social media advertising changes based on consumer behavior. For example, a channel could´ve been a primary driver for a business years ago, but over time this channel lost its popularity. On the other hand, the demographics of certain platforms may change over time as well.
However, social media advertising has only increased as a priority. 51% of respondents dedicate between 50% to 75% of their marketing budget to social media advertising. Most businesses are buying ads on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Twitter.
The study found that 44% of the respondents are devoting more of their budgets to Instagram, which is a considerable increase from last year (29%). Facebook decreased its priority for advertisers, from 36% to 19%.
Almost half of the respondents consider Instagram the platform with the best “Return on ad spend”, or ROAS.
Instagram is especially beneficial for those businesses whose target audience age is between 18 and 34, which is the age when people typically begin to gain buying power. This platform is ideal for companies that sell products to consumers since it is a channel where images and videos take center stage.
Automated social media ad creation.
Automation tools have enabled advertisers to reduce the number of steps in their processes. This can be done through AI, which can optimize advertising spend, targeting, and ad deployment to optimize the campaign.
69% of respondents say that they don´t use any type of automation tool for social media advertising creation. This may seem high, but it is actually a decrease from the 81% reported last year, which means that more and more advertisers are looking to automate at least parts of the process.
A lot of people would like to automate as many aspects of the content creation process as possible, but they are also interested in tools that help them post and manage their social media ad content. This would free up staff to focus on other strategic objectives.
Branding campaigns and video ads.
This year, only 19% of the respondents say that they will increase usage of static creative such as photos. Instead, advertisers will prioritize motion creative like animations and videos (47%) and data-driven creative, which refers to assets like images and videos produced through automation based on data inputs.
Respondents reported that they will focus their budget on branding campaigns instead of performance campaigns, created mainly on social media. Branding campaigns focus on creative storytelling and brand identity.
Companies struggle with talent.
Social media advertising requires working with multiple teams. A lot of respondents (45%) feel their social media advertising and creative teams don´t collaborate effectively. Similarly, 36% say that a lack of talent is their biggest challenge to the social media advertising process.
If you are in a similar situation or if you are simply looking for ways to optimize your company’s social media strategy, Miss Ink is here to help you. Miss Ink´s digital marketing services cover everything from planning content to managing comments, to ads and beyond.
Let our team become a member of yours. You can call (305) 537-6465 or contact us online.
