14 savvy ways to spend leftover social media marketing budget
Introduction
Don’t let your social media marketing budget go to waste. Use it up!
Brand Awareness Campaigns
Social media marketing campaigns are a great way to promote your brand, but if you don’t plan them out correctly, they can be costly and ineffective.
One of the most important things you should do is create a strong call to action (CTA). Your CTA should be clear and concise so that people know exactly what they’re signing up for when they click on the ad. You also need to make sure that there’s no other options available except for the one you want them to take. For example: “Sign Up Now” or “Learn More”.
Next, it’s important to create landing pages where users can be directed after clicking on an ad banner or link. Landing pages are designed specifically for each campaign so that users have an experience similar as if they were visiting your website directly through social media ads (e-mails/messages). This allows businesses who are unfamiliar with creating their own landing pages access – plus it makes it easier than ever before!
Facebook Ad Split Testing
Facebook Ad Split Testing is one of the best ways to increase your conversion rate.
To set up a split test, you will need to create two identical ads that have different variations of an image or copy. You can then select which version performs better by using Facebook’s “Narrow casting” feature, which enables you to show one ad version only to certain types of people (for example: women ages 18-25). Once you have narrowed down what works best with these tests, it’s time for some analysis!
You can learn a lot from this simple exercise; even if an ad doesn’t perform as well as expected in terms of click through rate or conversions, it seems likely that there is still something interesting going on here that could be capitalized upon later on.
Dynamic Product Ads
Dynamic product ads are ads that show up on Google Search, YouTube and the Google Display Network based on your customer’s search history. For example, if you sell a lot of camping equipment and the user has already searched for “camping gear” in the past, then you can target them with an ad for your brand. This is a way to increase sales by showing relevant products to users who have expressed interest in similar products.
Cultivate Partnerships
Cultivate Partnerships
The most obvious way to maximize your social media marketing budget is to partner with other brands. There are two main benefits of this approach: 1) You can expand your reach by working with established companies that have large followings, and 2) You can create new content through collaboration, as well as get access to new audiences, which will help you build brand awareness.
For example, if you’re an online fashion startup called “BetchaWannaKnow,” you could partner with an existing clothing store like Forever 21 or H&M—or even another startup in the same space that’s looking for exposure—and ask them if they’d be interested in posting about each other’s products or services on Instagram or Facebook. You could also ask if they’d be willing to share a blog post from your company’s website (if there was one).
Explore New Marketing Channels
If you’ve been doing social media marketing for a while and are looking to expand your reach, there are several channels that may be worth exploring.
- Consider new platforms. Google, Facebook and Twitter have long been the go-to places for social media marketing efforts but there are new platforms popping up all the time—Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest and more—that can help you reach audiences who weren’t previously accessible without expanding your reach. Your existing data will help you get started with these new channels; use Google Analytics or other analytics tools to gather information about how people interact with your content on these sites so that you can tailor future campaigns accordingly.
- Try different times of day. If you’re already posting at specific times of day (e.g., Monday-Friday from 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM), consider changing up those times in order to maximize engagement with audiences who might only check their feed once a day or twice a week rather than multiple times each day as many marketers assume based on personal experience using popular apps like Instagram or Twitter where users often refresh their feeds several times per hour during business hours when posting occurs most frequently.)
Develop Your Social Media Content Plan for the Next Quarter
The last quarter of the year is a great time to start planning for the next quarter. You can use this moment to define your social media goals and create a content strategy, as well as create an editorial calendar that will help you meet those goals.
- Define Goals for Your Social Media Strategy
- Create a Content Strategy for Your Social Media Strategy
- Create an Editorial Calendar for Your Social Media Strategy
Expand Your Target Audience
If you’re trying to reach a specific audience, it’s important to expand your target audience. For example, if you’re launching a new product for teens and want to reach them with marketing messages about the product, consider expanding your target audience by adding new interests and demographics. This can help make sure you’re reaching as many people as possible with the message.
In 2013, Pepsi launched a campaign called “Live For Now” that aimed specifically at Gen Z (or those born between 1995 and 2012). The campaign featured celebrities like Kendall Jenner and JoJo Siwa—the latter of whom has over 10 million subscribers on YouTube—and also included tons of social media content like GIFs and memes. The goal was to capture the attention of Gen Z viewers by appealing directly to them through social media channels they use most often. If you have any budget left over after allocating funds toward Facebook ads or other marketing tools like retargeting pixels or Google Display Network ads, consider using some of those dollars toward expanding your target audience so that more potential customers see what your brand has to offer!
Create a Lookalike Audience Campaign
When it comes to social media marketing, one of the most cost-effective ways to increase your reach is through lookalike audiences. If you don’t know what a lookalike audience is, then I’ll just tell you.
A lookalike audience is a type of audience that targets people similar to your existing customers. It’s created by uploading a list of your customers’ email addresses or phone numbers, or by uploading their contact information via Facebook Business Manager. You can also target people who match key demographics (like age and gender) or behaviors (like interests and activities).
Email Marketing
When it comes to reaching your customers, email marketing is still the most effective way to do so. It’s cheaper than social media and other digital advertising, yet it still gets you in front of your customers on a regular basis. You can reach them quickly, and get responses in real time.
Email marketing is also easy for you to track and measure so that you know what’s working and what isn’t—and can adjust accordingly.
Plus, having an email list means that you have a direct line of communication with people who’ve already shown interest in your product or service—which means they’re more likely to respond when they receive an offer from you!
Lead Generation Campaigns
Lead generation is a great way to get more information about your audience, which you can use to better target them and provide more value in the future. Lead generation campaigns allow you to collect emails, phone numbers, social media handles and other information from people who are interested in your product or service.
There are many different ways you can set up a lead generation campaign:
- Use landing pages with forms
- Place ads on social media platforms (e.g., Facebook) that link back to specific landing pages
- Use retargeting ads that link back to specific landing pages
Increase Brand Exposure Via User-Generated Content (UGC) Campaigns
A UGC campaign is a great way to increase brand exposure. It’s user-generated content, where consumers create the content rather than your brand. There are many different ways to incorporate UGC into your social media marketing campaigns, including:
- Sharing user videos of your products in action
- Creating contests that reward people for submitting their own photos with a branded hashtag as part of an Instagram contest or as part of a Facebook contest
- Finding people who have already posted about your products online and reposting those images onto your own channels
Host a Contest or Giveaway to Build Your Brand’s Presence on Social Media Platforms Like Facebook and Instagram.
Hosting a contest or giveaway can be a great way to increase the number of followers you have on social media. Running contests and giveaways is also a great way to engage with your audience and increase brand awareness.
There are many ways you can host a contest or giveaway:
- The first step in hosting a contest/giveaway is to decide what you want for the prize. Your prize could be anything from cash, gift cards, products from your store, etc. You might want to consider offering something that relates directly back to your business so that it makes sense when they win the prize because they already know what it’s worth! For example, if my business was selling shoes, I would probably offer shoes as my prize since it’s related directly back into what I do every day! The more detailed information about this process will come later in this post but hopefully these initial ideas give you an idea of where we’re going with this one.
Sponsored Content
Sponsored content is a type of paid advertising that can be used to promote your brand or business. Many people don’t realize that when they read articles, watch videos, and/or scroll through their social media feeds—they are being exposed to sponsored content.
- Sponsored posts on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are often targeted to specific users based on their interests, demographics and location. This means that if you have an audience who likes what you do (and wants more of it), sponsoring posts will help get your information in front of them-allowing for even more views than normal organic posts!
Use it up!
If you’re planning to spend your budget on social media marketing, here are five savvy ways to use up the leftovers.
- Use it up!
The first thing you can do with your extra social media budget is use it all up. If you have a ton of money left over after paying for ads and posting on Facebook and Twitter, then spend it all on one big post that gets shared by everyone. Or use all of it to pay for one really expensive ad that goes viral like an Oreo tweet or Old Spice video did years ago. The point is: use up your marketing budget before the year ends so that you don’t have any leftover funds come tax time!
Conclusion
When you’re looking for ways to spend your social media marketing budget, it can be tempting to just throw away any money that’s left over. However, there are a lot of ways that you can use this money and make sure that it’s put to good use. These tips and tricks will help you get the most out of your social media budget, so you don’t have any regrets when it comes time for next quarter!