Advancing Social Media Advertising

The clutter now present in social media advertising is forcing companies and platforms to advance and get creative.

An educated personal take from the blog of Ryan Rickard as of November 2020.

Social media advertising has become so mainstream, it now takes up just as much space in the news feeds of users than actual news posted by their friends. This clutter in advertising is forcing new trends in strategies as simply posting photos, videos, or weblinks to a business may no longer suffice. Typically, these types of ads have forced ad fatigue, easier skip-ability, and the eventual outcome of being overlooked. To solve these issues, companies are now being forced to advance their strategies with more advanced, dynamic, and direct social media advertising. Here’s a few examples of ways businesses are attempting to follow these rules on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Facebook – New Personalized and Moving Ads

Combining the techniques of photo and video advertising, new mediums on Facebook are helping businesses become more interactive with users while staying dynamic and direct. This is done through the carousel, the collection, and slideshow ads. While also found on Instagram, Facebook was the pioneer of these advertising techniques having started using them early last year.

A carousel ad lets the business include up to 10 images or videos, each with their own link, all in one ad. Carousel ads work well to show different features of a product or to present multiple products or services. Collections and slideshow ads are sometimes called a “digital storefront” as they are direct like the carousel, yet aren’t always as creative or constantly updating as carousel ads.

Here's a carousel ad example from Facebook by a clothing company. This example shows how a company can continue to have the “digital storefront” directness of typical ads while also being dynamic for viewers.

Here are collection (left) and slideshow (right) ads from Facebook published by two more clothing companies. These examples show other ways businesses can continue to advertise on Facebook while advancing their techniques and standing out in the clutter of the now heavily populated social media advertising world.

Instagram – Linked Photos with Purchase Buttons

According to bigcommerce.com, Instagram’s engagement rates are 58% higher than Facebook’s and 2,000% higher than Twitter’s. This is mostly likely due to Instagram being heavily based on photo and video content, a rising trend in popular content. This means businesses that can incorporate more visual media into their strategies will likely perform better on Instagram than any other social media site. This means Instagram can sometimes take impulse buying to the next level with creative advertising strategies. While carousels, collections, and slideshows are present on this platform, the ability to directly link photos to purchase buttons has recently helped businesses grow on Instagram.

With Instagram, businesses can provide direct links to the products and services they provide. This technique is made noticeable to viewers with a small shopping bag icon located on top of uploaded media. Viewers can click this shopping bag and follow a link directly to the businesses website in order to view the product available for purchase or sometimes even add the item directly to an online shopping cart. With unique and engaging content on Instagram, businesses can quickly reel viewers into viewing and/or purchasing products and services in an aesthetically pleasing way and at a very fast pace.

While carousels, collections, and slideshows are present on this platform (left), the ability to directly link photos to purchase buttons (right) has recently helped businesses grow on Instagram.

LinkedIn – GIFs

With LinkedIn being a more serious and business-forward social media platform, it can often be difficult for companies and organizations to be fun while staying professional. This is because service businesses and businesses to business relationships often have more success on this platform than business to consumer relationships. Luckily, some changes in advertising suggestions from LinkedIn have given opportunities for more creative options.

The recent inclusion of GIFs in advertising have allowed businesses to appear more friendly, personal, and fun with their target audiences rather than strictly businesses professional. While other social media platforms allow for more creativity, this small change allows even the smallest bit of personality to shine through for a company. It will be interesting to see how this trend continues for LinkedIn advertising as it may become over-used being one of the few ways businesses can be visually creative on this platform.

This GIF posted by a company named “Spoke” allows a bit of their business-professional creativity to be shown on their LinkedIn profile. Written information or still images may not stand-out or connect with other businesses as well as a moving GIF could in the newsfeed tab.

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