5 Reasons Your Social Campaign Isn't Performing

Whether you're a small business or managing a big brand - there's a chance you have boosted a social media post and likely been somewhat disappointed with the results. Maybe you're not familiar with how to interpret the results, or maybe you are just unsure where to start with a social media campaign. Regardless of your situation, brand, size and familiarity with social, the following five reasons describe why your social media campaign isn't performing.

Reason number 1: You don’t have clear campaign objectives

Chances are you’ve heard the saying, "you cannot manage what you cannot measure". Well, luckily for us social media is highly quantifiable, if you know what metrics are valuable to you/your organization. Before you begin any social media campaign, no matter how simple or complex, you must absolutely have clear objectives so you know what success is and isn’t.

Here’s a quick example of a technique I use to really hone-in the root of what our objective is… or at least why we are launching a campaign. With every campaign, ask “why” five times to understand the root of your objective(s) - Why are we creating X campaign? Now after each answer, ask why until you hit approximately 5 whys... A little awkward, yes, but you'll thank me later for it. This process will set you and your campaign up for success and make choosing the right objective in a social platform like Facebook (example below), a lot easier.

REASON NUMBER 2: YOUR AUDIENCE TARGETING ISN'T WELL DEFINED

Too hot, too cold, too broad, too narrow... sounds a lot like a bedtime story. Targeting your audience on social media is a science. Careful calibration, planning and research are necessary to make sure your story gets seen by the people that matter most to you. Remember, on social media, your competition is everyone and anyone distracting your target audience from seeing/engaging with your content or campaign.

We hear our clients say things like "we want to reach homeowners". And the key to any successful campaign is to drill down the audience segments that really matter to them. As an example, if you want to reach homeowners, you have to understand that the needs, wants and pain-points of a homeowner wildly vary across geographies, consumer behaviors and psychographics or demographics.

There are nearly infinite ways to target people on social - let us take your campaign to the next level.

REASON NUMBER 3: YOUR SOCIAL CAMPAIGN BUDGET ISN'T OPTIMIZED

According to a recent blog post by Hootsuite, ad spend on social media will likely grow past $35 billion this year (2017). That's a lot of ads... and a lot of people trying to get their audience's attention. There's a lot to consider in setting a budget for a campaign - which is why having your audience well defined will help set your budget. We know every marketing dollar is a critical resource... and the good news is, social media is the most affordable medium to get in front of your target audience(s) - if you're setting it up right. Research shows that businesses that earn more than $25 million in annual revenue spend an average of 9 percent of that revenue on marketing. Those that earn less than $25 million generally spend an average of 11 percent of revenue on marketing.

Our goal is to always get the right eyeballs on our clients content. Remember, there's a lot that goes into the reach, and effectiveness of your campaign - and budget isn't always the problem or solution. So how much of your marketing dollars should go to social as a whole, and your campaign? On average, the daily social media campaign spend is $350. A point to keep in mind is that with so many variables, two campaigns with the same ad spend will undoubtedly will yield different results.

REASON NUMBER 4: YOUR CREATIVE ISN’T "RIGHT"

A picture is worth more than a thousand words, it's what your audience immediately notices. If it's not relevant to them, or the story you're telling is just completely uninteresting, then your campaign is in trouble... There's a a lot of psychology behind the colors, placement, text, imagery, icons etc., therefore, your social media creative should not be an afterthought. Your creative should elicit an emotion or invoke a response that compels your audience to want to engage... i.e. to click-through.