My Journey with Acadium (Part 1)
- Tramaine Berry
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
Through the course of 3 months, I will be undertaking more training on Marketing, filling in the gaps and experience Im lacking from the recent level 3 multi-channel Marketing course I've undertaken - there is always more to learn, right?
The Free Courses //
My first impression of these courses is that it is a good way to introduce people to basic information on what each social media platform is good for from a marketing perspective. My only criticism is most statistics are US based, so if you want to truly understand UK based audiences within each platform, you need to outsource this information somewhere else.
Paid Advertising via social media
Ads need to be mobile friendly; 98% Facebook users acess via the app
Target audiences based on interests, hobbies, behaviours, location, etc.
Pros
Formats include - photo, video, carousel and story content
Messenger ads creates conversations between the business and users
Offers an easier way to reach audiences at lower prices
More college-educated users are on Facebook, creating an oportunity to market higher price-based products
Cons
Facebook is the second lowest user growth out of all social media platforms
The Cost per Click for Facebook ads has increased by 6% year over year
UK Audience - 36% Millennials, 31% Gen X, 24% Gen Z, 10% Baby boomers. 30% women
Format - Image Ads, Video Ads, Carousel Ads, Moment Ads, Text Ad
3D ads coming soon - rotating products from different angles
Moment ad is a collection of posts for a single storyline or narrative. This can be in the form of behind-the-scenes images, videos, GIFs, polls, live commentary, and influencer/User Generated content. This is often used to engage with trending conversations or news, product launches (teasers, launch events and early reviews), and real-time event updates.
A user has to watch your video for 2 secs before it charges you
Pros
A brilliant platform for discovering new audiences for the business
Lowest Cost per Mile out of all the major platforms
Compared to Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, Twitter has a higher clickthrough rate
Twitter ads are 78% lower than Pinterests CPM
Cons
No Direct messaging ads - less personal engagement
LinkedIn ads
Audience - Business owners & professionals. Can be categorised via Company size, industry, degree and current profession.
Choose your Objective - Awareness, consideration or conversion. Awareness ads - get audiences talking about your product or services.
Consideration ads - helps qualify leads already familiar with the brand.
Conversion ad - generating leads or conversions
Format - Sponsored content (shows up on the target audiences' feed as 'promoted' content), message ads (InMail), dynamic ads (personalised ads), text ads (ideal for primary desktop users). Global average Click-through-rate is 0.44-0.65% for sponsored content (low CTR=high Cost-per-Click), which increases to 20% with imagery - headlines and copy need to be short and punchy.
Pros
Text ads offer a cost effective option, and provides brand visibility without cluttering someone's feed. Text and brand logo is all you need.
Dynamic ads are mobile and desktop friendly and offer personalised ads in the audiences' feed.
Cons
InMail ads are limited to a certain number of messages per month depending on membership type.
Text ads do not display on mobile ads
LinkedIn is more expensive than other social media platforms, and doesn't garuantee a higher return on investment. The price is justified through its type of audience (b2b) - businesses have larger budgets compared to B2C.
Youtube
Formats - Video discovery ads, TrueView In Stream ads (Skippable Ads), Non-Skippable In-Stream ads, Bumpers, and Overlay Ads.
Non-Skippable ads are mainly seen by non-premium subscribers, which means the product value needs to be affordable.
VD Ads show up on the YouTube homepage, search results page and as featured related videos.
TrueView ads are only charged if viewed the ad for 30 secs or until end of ad, or if the ad is clicked on. Length of ad is usually between 12 secs to 6 mins.
Non-skippable ads are typically between 15 to 20 secs long. CTA needs to be included.
Bumper ads cannot be skipped, shortest ad type, plays before the main video.
Overlay ads are banners ads that hover at the bottom of the main video
Pros
TrueView Skippable In-Steam Ads - customisable with different CTAs and Overlay text.
Non-skippable In-Stram Ads - can play before, during and after the main video, compared to bumper and TrueView ads that can only play before the video starts.
Youtube can target ads based on consumer Google search history
Similar costs to running Facebook ads
Cons
Creative constraints
Tiktok
Audience - All ages. 30% aged 20-29, 16% aged 30-39, 7% aged 50 plus
Format - In-Feed Ads, Brand Takeover, TopView ads, Branded Hashtag Challenges, Branded Effects, Influencer Marketing.
In-Feed Ads - 9 to 15 secs long. On the user's 'For You stroll section.
Brand Takeover - Appear when the app opens (first thing user sees)
TopView ads - 60 secs long. Appears 5 seconds after the user opens the app.
Branded Hashtag Challenges - Featured in the Discovery strolling section. Clicks redirect users to the landing page.
Branded Effects - Customisable ads using AR filters (for example, try beofre you buy or before and after effect), stickers, lenses, and branded shareable stickers. It's an opportunity to co-collaborate with users (user generated content).
Influencer Marketing - Brand awareness and getting inflencers to try the products creates user trust in the product.
Targeting - gender, location, age, languages, interest category, connection type and OS versions.
Standard or accelerate ad delivery method - spread the budget evenly throughout the campaign or spend it as quickly as possible.
Goal options - Conversion, Clicks or Impressions. Conversion option will be shown to an specific audience that will most likely follow the CTA. CMP (cost per mille or impressions). CPC (cost per click).
Pros
Access to in-purchase app
Fastest and newest growing social media network
TopView ads - links to external and internal pages can be added
Cons
Brand Takeover ads - Users only see one Brand Takeover ad a day, making this option costly.
Branded Hashtag Challenges - costs thousands of pounds to operate
Format - Ads featured throughout the app with a Sponsored label (feeds, stories, explore tab,etc.).
Video ads - up to 60 secs long, recommend under 30 secs.
Carousel ads - up to 10 images to swipe through (Feed and Instagram Stories).
Collection ads - catalog of your products with a direct CTA link to the products.
Explore ads - within the Explore tab, ideal for brand awareness, based on user's Instagram usage habits.
IGTV ads - vertical video ads up to 15 secs, shows up in the user feed.
Instagram Shopping ad - takes users to a product description page within Instagram.
Reels ads - up to 30 secs, organic/less polished performs better in engagment.
40% users access social media without sound - include captions and text overlay
Majority of users access the platform via app, make the add mobile friendly
Budgeting options - CPC or CPM
Pros
Image and Video based
Stories ads has a CTA with link and is mobile friendly. Higher engagement rate.
Collection ads - Users can purchase products directly from the ad
Reels ads can include sound or music
If you have a post that is outperforming other content, you can push the post to non-followers with the 'promote' button.
Draft campaigns can create a better understandign of the results you can expect to see with the given budget.
Cons
Shopping ad - takes time to setup the product page within Instagram
Pinterest Ads
Ideal for E-commerce ads; Users use the platform for inspiration and to discover new products. More likely to take action on ads compared to other platforms (higher conversion rate) because they are purposefully seeking a product that meets their needs.
Audience - Gaining popularity with Gen Z as a visual search engine rather than a social platform. 39% aged 18-24, 31% aged 25-34, 29% aged 35-44, 30% aged 45+
Formats - Idea Pins, Try On Pins, Collection Ads, Carousel Ads, Promoted Pins, and Shopping Ads.
Idea Pins - Typically how-to videos or demonstrations up to 20 secs long. Similar to Instagram stories. Includes user tagging, interactive stickers, text graphic overlays and more.
Try on Product pins - virtual fitting rooms only experienced via Pinterest.
Collection Ad - One hero video/image with 3 sub images below.
Carousel Ads - appear like organic pins but contain a group of images, used to showcase a product.
Promoted Pins - simplest type of ad to run, and video/image within the home feed.
Shopping ads - Can be connected to Shopify, images pulled fron your product catalog similar to collection ads, except this provides real time prices and product details.
Ad Objective options - Brand Awareness, Video Views, Consideration, converstion, catalog sales
Budgeting - Automatic Bids, Custom Bids. Automatic bids automatically adjust bids on a day to day basis for efficient ad spending.
Pros
Shopping ads can redirect customers straight to the purchasing page.
Social Media recommendations for B2B & B2C
Once the courses are completed, I will be assessing my findings and conclusions, indicating which platforms are a perfect fit for B2B and B2C.
B2B - LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube, TikTok, Pinterest LinkedIn is only recommended if the value of the customer is above £750.
I wouldnt recommend using TikTok if you are a small company due to the upfront costs of paid advertising and smaller bsuinesses might not have the time to create professional video ads, alternatively user generated content could be an afforable approach via branded effects or influencer marketing.
B2C - Facebook, Youtube, Tiktok, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Facebook ads get 40% more engagment than Youtube ads - Youtube ads are better as awarenss campaigns rather than click through. However, it might be possible that Youtube will be the better option in future due to the decrease in Facebook popularity and the rise in video popularity.
Brand awareness - Instagram's Explore ads.
Consideration - Instagram and Pinterest shopping ads gives the user an opportunity to look at product details in details before purchasing.
Conversion - Instagram's Collection ad feature gives the opporunity to showcase a collection of products or services whilst shortening the user journey - users can purchase the product from the app straight away! Tiktok also offers this option
Things to consider
Captions and text overlay are a must
Video advertising is becoming popular - Tiktok, Youtube
Unpolished advertising -
Unpolished ads tend to be more popular amongst social media platforms TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. With the digital environment being so crowded, users have developed banner fatigue. Raw organic posts tend to recieve more engagment in comparison to traditional polished ads that automatically get strolled past. Is graphic design dead in
How to make ads more mobile friendly?
Less text heavy imagery and high contrast colours.
Enlarge text and button
Vertical formats using 4:5 or 9:16 aspect ratios
Limit videos to 15 secs for better engeagment
Is Graphic Design dead on social media?
According to World Economic Forum (WEF), graphic design jobs will be one of the fastest declining roles by 2030 due to the rise in AI. That's why it's important for graphic designers to think beyond visual content and become a visual strategist (thinking strategically about how design works within digital and physical busienss environments).
Whilst AI is capable of producing simple social media templates, it is important for designers to add strategic thinking into their creative process. - to understand how to create video content, improve conversations, utilise AI tools, copywriting, and combining business objectives with consumer psychology, ie. what drives people to engage with content and purchase the product.
It looks like ads are becoming less corporate and more authentic, resembling organic feed - even professional business platforms like LinkedIn show higher engagement levels through authentic content; advertising has moved from selling something to starting a conversation. However, polished design can still play a functional role within the consumer's journey (particularly the consideration stage) through the use of infographics and B2B product demos. Additionally, even the simplest image with text overlay requires knowledge of the brand guidelines to ensure content is clearly associated with the brand, as well as ensuring the image communicates the brand values, tone and messaging.
Back tracking to Tiktok's Branded Effects, both designers and users collaborate with each other through polished assets and user generated content, which seems to drive conversation, brand trust and conversion rates.
Is moment marketing increasing in popularity?
Real-time engagement has increased in popularity. A brand's ability to have relevent information on current trends and events helps allign brand messaging with relevant conversations that are happening in the moment, and humanises the brand. In comparison with traditional marketing, moment marketing is spontaneous and requires quicker content creation. A brilliant example is the 2013 Super Bowl power outage where Oreo tweeted in real-time 'You can still dunk in the dark', and Tide tweeted “We can’t get your #blackout, but we can get your stains out. Another example is Burger King responding to Shrek 5's trailor with 'we're not the only ones who upgraded our buns this year...'.
Popular platforms to track conversations include Google Trends, Twitter and Instagram Explore.
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