There are now over 3.5 billion active social media users worldwide. In other words, nearly half of the world’s population is on social media. The average American even has 7.1 different accounts.

Over 90% of marketers say social media helps them gain more brand exposure. With effective social media ads, you can expand your reach online, too.

Make sure you’re avoiding these mistakes as you develop your social media marketing strategy, though. Otherwise, you might fail to generate results. You could waste valuable time and money in the long run.

Read on and learn how to avoid these costly mistakes today!

1. Not Outlining Goals

One of the biggest mistakes you can make, even before reviewing your advertisement options, is neglecting to establish goals.

Creating SMART goals can help give your social media advertising campaigns direction. It can help you determine the messaging that will help you accomplish your goals. Meanwhile, establishing goals with key performance indicators (KPIs) can help you track your progress.

If your KPIs indicate you’re not accomplishing your goals, you’re likely wasting valuable time and money. You’ll know to make adjustments to your campaigns before you blow through your entire advertising budget.

Platforms like Facebook Ads and Google Ads will allow you to set goals at the campaign level.

Setting goals per campaign can help you achieve different objectives simultaneously. For example, perhaps you want to:

• Generate brand awareness
• Direct traffic to your website
• Boost brand credibility
• Generate leads and sales
• Encourage app downloads
• Gain new followers
• Improve your cost-per-acquisition
• Improve your ROI

You can track impressions to determine how much brand awareness you’re generating. Otherwise, track KPIs like cost-per-conversion, conversion rate, impression rate, and followers.

If you use these marketing strategies and still struggle to accomplish your goals, consider working with an agency this year. A social media advertising agency can set your campaigns up for success. With their help, you can accomplish your goals without wasting time or money.

2. Never Defining Your Audience

You can also waste valuable resources or blow through your budget sooner than anticipated if you’re not researching your audience. You can specify a specific audience at the campaign level. Specifying your target audience will ensure your ads appear in front of consumers who want and need your offerings.

You’ll have an easier time converting these customers, improving your cost-per-acquisition and ROI.

Researching your target audience can also help you create personalized ads. Personalization will make it easier for you to appeal to your target audience. Again, you could have an easier time generating conversions.

When researching your target audience, consider both demographic and psychographic details. For example, you might consider their:

• Age
• Gender
• Household income
• Pain points
• Location
• Hobbies
• Interests
• Buying behaviors
• Online behaviors

For example, you should consider which apps your customers use most. If you’re targeting younger consumers, try TikTok and Snapchat. Older consumers often use Facebook instead.

Segment your broad audience into distinct personas. Then, target different audience groups using separate campaigns.

3. Not Establishing Your Budget

Ad spending on social media could reach over $173 billion in 2022. In 2022 already, social media ad spending grew by 20.1%, reaching $24.35 billion.

Annual ad spending could experience a 17% increase year over year, too.

If you want to avoid making costly mistakes with your social media ads, establish your budget ahead of time.

Are you new to social media advertising? First, consider your monthly budget. Then, divide your budget by 30 to determine your daily budget.

Split your daily budget between the campaigns you’re creating. You might want to begin with one campaign to start.

Then, track your progress to determine which campaigns help you generate the most leads. You can adjust your campaign budget to allocate more money to your more successful campaigns.

4. Selecting the Wrong Placements

Choosing the wrong advertisement options, placements, and platforms can impact your success, too.

First, make sure you’re appearing on the platforms your customers use most. Then, experiment with different ad formats. For Facebook Ads, you can use:

• Facebook’s right-hand column
• Newsfeeds on desktop or mobile devices
• Facebook Messenger
• Instagram
• Instant Articles
• Instagram Stories
• The Audience Network

Limiting your ad placement can limit your reach. However, you might find some placements better appeal to your target audience than others.

Use your data to determine which placements will help you generate more leads and sales.

5. Poorly Written Copy

Ineffective ad copy can also impact your ability to generate results from your campaigns.

First, make sure your ad copy is concise. Trying to cover too much information can confuse the consumer.

Write headlines that are short, sweet, and engaging. Convey valuable information about your product or service, too. Make sure to highlight the unique value proposition consumers can’t find anywhere else.

Then, use a strong call to action that encourages the reader to take immediate action.

6. Neglecting Visuals

You’re not limited to creating text-only ads on social media. Instead, make sure you’re choosing eye-catching visuals when creating your display ads.

Don’t use stock photos, which can make your brand look cheap or ingenuine. Instead, choose visuals that will blend with organic content. Then, highlight your products or services to attract people to your ad.

Consider experimenting with Instagram videos, animations, and other eye-catching visual elements as well.

7. Not Testing Ads

Don’t make assumptions about which CTAs, headlines, or visuals will best appeal to your target audience. Instead, take the time to create A/B (or split) tests. A/B tests can help you determine which ad elements best appeal to your target audience.

Create an ad and duplicate it. Then, change on elements within the ad. Run both simultaneously.

Review the results to determine which ad was more effective. Then, change another element.

If you changed the imagery the first time, change the headline or CTA next.

Keep A/B testing to improve your campaigns over time.

Avoid These Mistakes: Create Effective Social Media Ads Today

Don’t make these costly mistakes when developing your social media ads. Instead, take the time to develop stronger advertising campaigns to boost your business. With these tips, you can generate results to boost your ROI.

Remember, you don’t have to develop your social media marketing or advertising strategy alone.

Contact us today to get started.