My Journey with Acadium (Part 1 - Paid Advertising)

Through Acadium, I will be undertaking more training on Marketing, filling in the gaps and experience I'm lacking from the recent level 3 multi-channel Marketing course I've undertaken - there is always more to learn, right? For those of you that may not know, Acadium is a free platform designed to educate and mentor people in the creative industry. I will start off exploring the free courses, and explore the possibility of taking on a mentor.

Social media //

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.

Facebook

• 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

Twitter

• 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

https://www.youtube.com/@darrelwilson/videos

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

Instagram

• 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...'.

Another brilliant example includes Aldi's conflict between Marks and Spencer. Marks and Spencer has had a history of taking legal action against Aldi for their Caterpillar cake, which resulted in the campaign #FreeCuthbert as a way of promoting the product whilst poking fun of the competing brand. Since 2021, Aldi have continued to clash with M&S using Kevin the carrot, a macot who appears on M&S Christmas ads was brought to Aldi in 2024 - and just to add salt to the wound, the carrot is seen watching a football match titled 'CUTH 1 - COL 0'. Below is a screenshot of a moment post from Alid, using the international day of friendship as a form of irony, inspiring conversation from the public.

Popular platforms to track conversations include Google Trends, Twitter and Instagram Explore.

Search Ads //

This module will introduce me to Google Ads (formally Adwords) and Microsoft Advertising and inspire ways to make the most out of these tools and reach new audiences.

Google Ads

Google ads are sponsored results that pop up at the top of the search list, presenting users with ads relevant to the search engine request.

• Purpose - Lead Generation, Brand Awareness & to Drive Traffic to the website.

• Campaign length - 3 months minimum recommended to see campaign results and optimise the campaign accordingly.

• ROI (Return of Investment) = Revenue / ad spend x 100

• Things to monitor - campaigns (objectives, budgets and settings), ad groups, keywords and Ads

  • Campaigns - aligned with business goals.

  • Ad groups - Inside each campaign contains the ad groups with a set of keywords (5 to 20 per ad group recommended). Testing out different versions of the same ad is recommended. Ad groups should be organised via themes.

• Format - Search ads, Display ads, Video ads, Shopping ads, App, Local, Smart, Performance Max, Discovery

  • Search ads - Text ads on SERP

  • Display ads - Media-rich ads on websites

  • Video ads - on YouTube

  • Shopping ads - Product ads on Google search results next to paid and organic search results.

  • App - Mobile app-specific

  • Local - ads that are specific to a physical location

  • Smart - Automated or simplified campaign builder

  • Performance Max - AI driven, all-in-one campaign builder

  • Discovery - Image ads across Google's feed

• Google's network settings - ad is shown in the most relevant places. Both network types can be used at the same time or seperately

  • Search Network - includes Google search results pages, Google Maps and Google Shopping, and partnered Google sites

  • Display Network - includes Google site like Youtube, Blogger, Gmail and partnered websites. Ads will show up on websites related to targeting options

• Keywords - Words or phrases used to trigger an ad when searched on Google. The more specific the keywords, the better the customer:product match. It is important to include keywords closest to the target audience's language: such as, heels, shoes, sihoutelles. Make sure keywords include what you offer - 'gym equipment' rather than 'fitness company'. Keyword planner can be used to discover new keywords.

  • Short-tail - This is a generic search response designed for a wider audience

  • Long-tail - In comparison to the short-tail phrase 'women's shoes', a long-tail phrase would be more specific 'women's red velvet heels'

• Quality Score - impacts where the ad will appear in the Google feed. 3 factors are considered. If advertisers have the same quality score, the ad with the highest bid will have the strongest placement. If the quality score is too low, the ad will not be displayed.

  • Factor 1 - The expected CTR (click-through-rate) is considered for ad placement.

  • Factor 2 - landing page experience and how easy it is to navigate

  • Factor 3 - Ad relevancy. Do the keywords match the messaging?

• Match types - how closely the ads match keywords (broad match, exact match, modified match and phrase match)

  • broad match - wider audience. Matches ad to synonyms, however, this might risk higher costs due to the ad not being relevant to a user's search (use negative keywords to exclude a keyword from your ads).

  • exact match - only the exact keyword or phrase will show the ad. In the eact order - 'sports car' will not be the same as 'car sports'. Less traffic but helps reduce costs and keep conversion rates high.

  • Modified broad match - across between a broad and exact match type. Wide audience with a '+': 'Luxury+' would include close variations to the specific keyword (luxuries, luxurious, etc.).

  • Phrase match - similar to modfied broad match but with more control: 'gym equipment' can appear anywhere in the user's search i.e. 'free gym equipment' or 'best gym equipment'.

• Ad Extensions - Add information to ads such as phone number, reviews and business address. Types of extensions include Location, Affiliate, Call, Callout, Sitelink, Structured Snippets, Price, App, and Leadform extensions.

  • Location - helps users find your store location or give a call.

  • Call - a button in the ad that users can click on to give you a call

  • Callout - showcases additional offers by adding descriptive text to your ad

  • Sitelink - add additional links (different sections of the business website) in the ad relevant to the user search. Improves ad performance.

  • Affiliate - locations of retailers that sell your products

  • Structured Snippets - highlights specific features, benefits, services or products

  • Price - Add products or services to the ad with starting price points for each item

  • Leadform - Adding a CTA in the ad, opening a lead form the user needs to fill out

Pros

• Small to large businesses can use Google Ads - would need to focus on products/services that have a high profit margin and high in demand to the market.

• Audience - You can find out about customer habits and requirements in detail: keywords used to find the website, location, device type, peak search times, etc.

• Ad extensions are ideal for both small and large campaigns; call extensions can be added on live campaign ads.

Cons

• Not suitable to a small niche (sectors unique to the market) that has no brand awareness; CPC would be too expensive to generate revenue

• You need to use paid tools like Google Keywords to access the best short and long-tail keywords for the campaign.

Microsoft Advertising (formally Bing)

• Performance depends on quality of keywords

• Recommended - 20% marketing budget should be allocated to Microsoft advertising; doesnt have the same reach as Google and not all potential customers can be found here.

• Launch campaigns on Microsoft one month after launching one on Google Ads - insight results gained from google can be used for Microsoft

• Audience -

Pros

• Ability to import exisiting campaigns from Google Ads

• Better for companies unable to commit to a 3 month campaign

• Average CTR on Microsoft is higher than Google

• Less competitive platform for advertising space

• Similar interface to Google Ads

Cons

Less advanced features available in comparison to Google Ads - no remarketing, shopping feed integration or display ads

Landing Pages //

• Outline on landing page - benefits of what you are offering, how you help them solve a problem

• Optimise videos and images for quick loading time

• CTAs -

  • Leadpages and Unbounce is used to testing landing pages - A/B test variations of CTA

  • It is important to send users to a landing page rather than a homepage because it lets users know what action to take, and a landing page converts better than a homepage.

  • Purpose of a landing page - to generate leads

  • Always test - designs, CTAs, and content

  • Exclude from landing page - header and footer so it doesn't distract from the CTA

  • Needs to be one objective / CTA per landing page

  • Keep CTA on the lower right side - users look at websites in an F shape (upper left to lower right)

    

• Headline -

  • Two goals is to make a great first impression and get people to take action

  • Avoid vague language or metaphors - tell users clearly what they can expect from your offer

  • It should highlight problems faced by users and benefits of the service/product. Customers today already know the solution they are looking for, your job is to highlight the important features they are looking for.

  • Adding urgency to the tone encourages users to take action

  • Subtitles are recommended for extra detail on content: 'How to increase your Online traffic' followed by '36 strategies to boost your traffic by 50% in 90 days'

• Copy -

  • Understand how users think is key

  • Mention the benefits

  • Clear and straight to the point. Simple sentence structures, no industry specific words unless the customer already specialises in that industry.

  • Thinking of your landing page as a conversation creates authenticity and increases conversion rates.

  • Presenting information - Specific numbers rather than generic or rounded up makes the reasoning more persuasive. Also, if the product or service promises to benefit you, is there a proven metric to go with that or how long will it take befor they see the benefits? How is your service add value?

• Tracking Codes -

  • UTM codes show up at the end of the landing pages URL, and they can indicate where users have come from and which campaign they have been directed from.

  • Generating a UTM URL to track the performance of offline marketing campaigns using Google's URL Builder > entering