You’re likely familiar with the way social ads can sit alongside organic social media content and other forms of direct-to-consumer marketing – but when was the last time you considered how social ads can best serve your brand within a funnel approach?

When harnessed effectively, social ads can significantly increase lead generation and brand-building activities, reaching your target customers with the right message at the right time. When they’re approached with a ‘set-and-forget’ mentality, however, social ads are far from leveraged to their best potential.

We approach social ads as a part of a strategic whole, integral to a cohesive digital marketing strategy. Here’s how we strategically leverage social ads within a funnel approach to build brands and generate leads.

First things first: how do social ads fit within a marketing funnel?

Spend more than two minutes in the marketing landscape (digital or otherwise), and you’ll hear the term ‘funnel’ used in all kinds of manners. A marketing funnel, much like a physical funnel, is designed to guide potential customers through distinct stages, strategically moving them from first contact to a committed, converted relationship.

Social ads can sit within a larger marketing funnel or can represent a funnel on their own, taking considered approaches to moving leads along a defined pathway. The stages of these funnels are:

• Awareness – this is the stage where leads are first introduced to your brand, product or service
• Consideration – during this stage, leads are learning more about your brand/product/service, and potentially comparing different options
• Conversion – this may take the form of a first purchase, the initiation of a trial, or handing over personal details
• Loyalty – here, brands have opportunities to increase the satisfaction of their existing customers or to upsell across products and services
• Advocacy – at this point, leads have converted into advocating customers, and are now acting as ambassadors for your brand

Each stage of this funnel represents an opportunity to not only reach your potential audience but to continue to progress them throughout your funnel. Social ads can play a key role in this journey, targeting this audience with critical messages at each funnel stage.

Of course, in reality, customer journeys are rarely linear, with potential leads dropping off, or moving in non-linear directions through the funnel. Clear measurements of insightful metrics can help to refine this funnel as data is received, ensuring paid social ads are strategically implemented to align with the goals of your overall marketing campaign.

Building social ads within a marketing funnel

In order to effectively leverage social ads within a marketing funnel, a deep understanding of your target audience is required. At RealClicks, we work strategically to deliver real results that aren’t disguised within fancy industry terminologies but are instead grounded in this granular understanding of who you need to reach, when, and with what message.

This process includes:

Defining your target audience

Who do you need to reach? What do they want, and what are they looking for? Where are they spending time online?

A strategic social ad campaign is far more than just fancy graphics and great copy – it’s about understanding exactly where your target audience is, how they’re behaving, and where they’re most likely to engage with your brand.

Each platform offers significant differences when it comes to effectively targeting your audience. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok – each platform requires a unique understanding of audience habits, usage patterns, and the kinds of messaging that will cut through the clamour within the nuances of each platform’s environments.

Creating tailored content for each funnel stage

A potential customer who’s bought from your brand three times this year is going to respond to different content than a new lead who’s never heard of your product. Social ads need to be directly related to each stage of your marketing funnel, creating messaging that’s suited to that element of the customer’s journey. At RealClicks, we build strategic content tailored across awareness, consideration, conversion, loyalty, and advocacy stages, making the most of each opportunity to communicate with your leads and customers.

Measure, analyse, and refine

In the world of social ads, data is king. Consistent monitoring of the performance of your ads is critical in ensuring your investment is achieving the desired return for your brand and lead generation activities.

We ask key questions, such as ‘who are the ads reaching?’ ‘are they converting as anticipated?’ ‘how are leads behaving after engagement with the ads?’. By paying attention to crucial metrics, we’re able to optimise the performance of social ads, drawing on data to refine and adjust as needed.

Engagement and nurturing

Of course, social ads are just one form of communication within a sea of conversational tools. Our social ads campaigns are complementary to strategic marketing investments within organic social media activity, website optimisation, alternative marketing campaigns, and more. Social ads can be much more effective when they’re less about a one-way message and more about fostering a conversation, opening the door for potential customers to comment, engage, ask for information, and build an evolving relationship with your brand. By managing social ads within a larger marketing strategy, we bring the best of each method’s capacities into furthering your brand and increasing your lead generation results.
Updated insights

With so many changes within the digital landscape, what worked yesterday isn’t guaranteed today. Our team of digital marketing experts are continuously building their knowledge of new platform features, algorithmic changes, and movements within audience behaviours. Through collaboration within our expert team and the robust data pools we have across our client activities, we’re able to leverage up-to-date techniques that make the most of evolving patterns within the social ad landscape.

Conclusion

Building social ads into your funnel can be a powerful way to grow your brand and increase your lead generation activities – but great results don’t happen by accident. Connect with our RealClicks team today to learn more about how we can build a funnel that leverages the very best of social ad opportunities within your larger marketing activity, creating results that truly move the needle.