Paid Social Planning: The Pocket Companion
August 15, 2016Feeling a bit bitter about your social media campaign results? It’s time you started planning ahead.
Why Immediate Gratification – Strategy = No Results
Digital directors are too often lured by the immediate gratification of real-time marketing without the understanding of what makes those moments work. Case in point? Oreo’s Dunk in the Dark tweet during the Super Bowl XLVII blackout. While a stunning display of creativity — and proper staffing during a national event — no direct line to sales has ever been drawn from the timely tweet.
Why Giving the Strategy Time to Brew = Better Joe
While it’s easily to want to emulate such a high-profile show of quick-mindedness and imagination, successful brands are forgoing unpredictable real-time activations as major marketing moments on social media and instead scheduling their important timeframes.
Part of that preparation involves giving your internal employees, agencies, lawyers and buying partners more time to craft and build campaigns — up to 8 weeks for major activations!
If you think that sounds excessive, simply consider the possible troubleshooting that must be done for each campaign, as well as the time spent per issue, a few of which are detailed here à la Candyland:
- Creative Complications. Your creative doesn’t adhere to the social platform’s specifications: Bubblegum bummer! Lose two days.
- Lawyer Up. Assets had to be revised to make it through the legal team: Stuck in syrupy swamp. Stay here seven days or until a canvas ad is built.
- Website Tracking. Proper analytics was not installed and tested properly for your campaign: Melted M&Ms! Wait three days for completion.
Simply Put: People + Planning + Process = Success
For a more comprehensive view of troubleshooting time, see the original post.
And there’s a lot more that needs to be considered when building social campaigns. So instead of running ads last-minute and feeling like things are going “wrong,” why not back out your start dates a few weeks to account for the time it takes to properly set up a successful campaign?
By not rushing your partners, you’ll see a boost in vision, measurability, and overall process!
Plus, there’s nothing sweeter than results.
