ShareWe’re thrilled to welcome yet another new addition to our growing Display and Paid Social team. As a highly skilled digital specialist, Tom joins Coast with a wealth of valuable knowledge about all things display and paid social.
Read on to find out more about Tom!
Welcome, Tom! What attracted you to Coast Digital and what are your first impressions?
Paid social has been a significant part of all my marketing roles, but this is the first opportunity I’ve had to focus entirely on Paid Social and Display. Coast offers me the opportunity to share my knowledge with, and learn from, Paid Social and Display experts, taking my well-rounded marketing experience to the next level.
Since this is my first agency-side role, I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but everyone at Coast has been super supportive and welcoming, which has helped me feel at home and settled very quickly.
What got you into display and paid social advertising in the first place?
My first role in marketing was at a B2B Fire and Security company where I was running their PPC campaigns as well as Email marketing and a few other channels. They wanted to expand their marketing efforts and I looked into Facebook Ads, knowing the capabilities of the platform and how many of our potential customers were on that platform each day. From there, I also looked into LinkedIn and Twitter Ads and in each of my positions since, they have all played large roles.
You have a history in B2B lead generation, what are your top tips for a successful B2B strategy?
A holistic approach is often most effective. By this, I mean all the marketing channels working together in harmony to achieve the same goal. For most campaigns, targeting people that are already aware of you and your product/service will likely get you the most conversions.
A structure that has helped me generate more leads at lower CPAs in many of my past roles is having campaigns that are focussed on driving traffic to the website, then separate campaigns driving conversions from these website visitors. Since these users have been to your website and have chosen to consume your content, they’re more qualified than someone who has never seen/heard of you before and therefore more likely to convert.
In your opinion, what are the biggest mistake advertisers can make?
Asking for too much from their prospects without building up enough trust, interest, or desire for their product or service. I have come across the scenario many times in the past where a great ad is being shown to the right audience, showcasing some killer benefits and USPs of the product or service. ‘It’s a no-brainer, surely our prospects will love this!’ But when the ads go live… nada. You might get traffic to the site but getting the prospects over the line to convert into a lead, or sale requires a little more TLC.
Breaking down the prospects’ awareness of both the product/service and the business/brand, then creating ads to target these different awareness levels will allow you to show specific and relevant ads to not only the audience, who is brand new to your business or product/service and may need a little more info, but also the audience that has warmed to you/your business and is most likely to convert.
Another crucial mistake is not testing. It’s all too easy to assume you have the secret formula to win over your ideal customers once your campaign goes live, but the reality is often that it needs refining once it’s up and if you run tests, the market will show you how to refine and optimise. Test different audiences, different ad creative or even different advertising platforms. Never stop learning from your campaigns.
What do you think paid social can offer than other channels can?
With the degree of detail available in most paid social platforms’ targeting capabilities, you can target almost anyone in the world within minutes. Using just Facebook Ads alone, you can put your ads in front of nearly half the world’s population. Paid social also offers advertisers the ability to be specific, and I mean really specific.
To give you some examples of how detailed the targeting can be on paid social channels, here are some interesting audiences you’re able to target:
- ‘Friends of people who recently moved home
- ‘People who have been using a mobile device for less than a month’
- ‘People who enjoy painting with Bob Ross’
… you get the picture .
What can make the difference in achieving success in any advertising campaign?
When planning a marketing campaign, there are strategies that can help you achieve success such as the 3 Ms; Market, Media and Message. Market, as in knowing who your ideal customer is and understanding why they buy/don’t buy. Media refers to the platform that you’ll use to advertise. And Message is what you’d like to say i.e. the copy that explains why the prospect should buy the product/service, it’s benefits, USPs, CTAs it also includes imagery and creative. While these are very top level, they are a great starting point for most campaigns.
I do, however, also believe there’s a 4th dimension to this. Dare I say a 4th M. And that is Moment. Is it the right time for your customer to be buying right now? Is your advertising reaching them at the right moment? I’m not just talking about the time of day or whether or not your product is seasonal but consider whether your ads will be reaching your prospects at the right phase in their buying cycle/customer journey. Take this into account and cater your ads to the right moment for your customer and this could be the edge that puts you ahead of the competition.
If you’d like to talk to a member of the team about our display advertising and social media marketing services here at Coast, give us a call today!
