Scroll through a basic social feed and ads will likely appear at an increasing rate. Brands and retailers have fled to the social sphere, invading a venue once maintained for users’ personalized posting. And though brands are now integrating social into holistic advertising strategies, these efforts face the risk of turning off potential customers before they even complete a purchase.
Brands and retailers have clamored vigorously to approach social media as the apparent golden ticket for consumer approval. “We’re really excited to announce today that 65 million businesses are using our free Pages product, and five million are using Instagram business profiles. More and more of these businesses are becoming advertisers with over four million advertising on Facebook and over 500,000 on Instagram,” said Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer and director and member of equity subcommittee at Facebook in a recent fourth-quarter earnings review. This presents a complex paradox: Marketers are charged with unleashing strategies in the ecosystems in which shoppers reside — social — and yet consumers prickle at the first detection of inauthentic or oversaturation of said campaigns.
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It’s a tightrope to toe. “The most important thing marketers can do is not bucket social into its own silo. Advertisers need to approach social as just another activation within their broader cross-channel strategy,” said Ian Monaghan, special operations consultant at Adobe Digital Marketing. This requires a robust plan of attack — especially when considering multigenerational marketing and the various platforms available for advertising schemes. This unto itself has contributed to the flooding of social ads: one brand might have three Instagram posts for the same product targeted at different demographics when other channels might suffice.
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Social marketing strategies are most successful when deeply rooted in data. “Marketers must ensure they’re using bespoke creative for each respective social channel,” said Monaghan. “Data is equally important as the creative. Social data is some of the most robust data available for digital advertising, with personal and contextual data combining to create an ad experience that is unique and relevant.”
Social platforms are answering the market demand for actionable insights, which assist in tailoring posts for specific demographics and run immersive ads. Instagram Stories has 150 million daily users, its web site noted. That’s a lot of potential customers, if utilized correctly.
The web site goes on to say that “Seventy percent of Instagrammers are following a business — it’s no surprise that one-third of the most viewed stories are from businesses.” Instagram is doing its part to assist businesses with procuring the data for improved alignment with users with its latest feature, Instagram Business Tools.
But video ad length in particular might be part of the problem in waning customer intrigue. The window for consumer connection in video ads gets narrower as the shoppers get younger. This is especially a problem because Generation Z holds disdain for advertising methods they can’t control. The skip time for a video ad is 9.5 seconds for Generation Z, nearly 11 seconds for Millennials, and a whole 12 seconds for Generation X, says a study conducted by digital branding agency Kantar Millward Brown.
It’s not for lack of understanding the shopper. Retail Perception’s 2016 Industry Insights report says that 78 percent of Generation Z shoppers prefer retailers to share new products on social media. Though challenging, it might be best to let these consumers do some of the work for the brand after the initial product introductions are made. The report goes on to state that 65 percent of Gen Z-ers will share product quality reviews on social media platforms.
Social will only continue to become more bloated, instilling the need for captivating content developed with a specific shopper — and her preferred social platforms — in mind. Marketing strategies are no longer one size fits all.