SocialToday 2020: 5 insights for better social campaigns

Don’t trust yourself: trust the algorithm - and your KPIs

A good briefing is fundamental for a good campaign. Even though this sounds obvious, it still goes wrong. A lot. Proper KPIs are a key ingredient in a solid briefing. First, ask yourself what really matters. We all want to measure real impact. 

“Getting a thousand likes on your post is nice, but it’s like getting a compliment from your mom: feels good, but you don’t know if it means anything”, says Ashley Vinson (Facebook). What will the amount of likes or impressions tell you? It’s time to take a critical look. Take more time formulating relevant, measurable KPIs. For example, how many sales did this campaign generate? Now that’s something you actually need to know.

“Getting a thousand likes on your post is nice, but it’s like getting a compliment from your mom: feels good, but you don’t know if it means anything”, says Ashley Vinson (Facebook).

Now on to your audience. You know who you want to target, right? So you simply set up your targeting for paid ads for this specific group, and voila: maximum results. Wrong! Vinson: “Your target audience is everybody who might be interested in your service. Facebook’s algorithm will do the job for you in finding those persons.” 

So, set up a broad audience and let Facebook find the relevant people for you. Bonus, you don’t need a higher budget. According to Facebook’s data, this approach will spend your money more efficiently.

Thank you for your kindness, Facebook. 

To Tik, or not to Tok?

TikTok videos are annoying. People dancing? Doing weird challenges? Please, no. We might feel this way, but more than 1 million children in the Netherlands think otherwise. 

It turns out that TikTok isn’t really for us big people (yet). The main portion of content is made by kids, for kids. But is it any good for companies? Yes. TikTok is perfect for organic posts. Through tags, posts can get viral relatively easy - just make sure to make your content fun, and not too serious. The various advertising options the platform offers might be interesting for some companies - think about buying a hashtag or AR filter. But the true power of TikTok lies in organic reach. Just make sure to make funny and authentic content, don’t copy stuff.

If you have a young target audience, then yes: do Tik, and do Tok.

Fxck the rules

If you’re a marketeer, you basically just want to make cool shit so people will buy your stuff. Did we just say shit? Yes, we did. Because Valtech is an awesome company and we just don’t give a damn. While this is not entirely true (the part about not giving a damn - we are cool), it is the main learning we got from both RUMAG and Vjeze Fur: be yourself, be authentic.

RUMAG grew big by putting funny quotes on Facebook. Vjeze Fur grew big by... doing weird cooking stuff on Instagram (being a famous musician probably helped too). They both have one thing in common: they just don’t really care about any rules. They post what they want, when they want.

Not every company can get away with this (we’re looking at you, old fashioned corporates), but it is what the public loves. Real stories from real companies. Nothing too complicated or over marketed. People quickly spot phonies, so stay true to yourself. 

Go ahead. Tell your company’s tale - everyone loves a good story.

We know what you’re going to do 

Every marketer’s wet dream is to be able to look inside the brain of their target audience. What makes them tick? Well, guess what. We’re getting close to that! Unravel Research (neuromarketing) can test ad campaigns by analyzing brain activity. “People don’t do as they say and don’t say what they do”, says co-founder Tim Zuidgeest.

“People don’t do as they say and don’t say what they do”, says co-founder Tim Zuidgeest.

People are driven by emotions and that’s exactly what you need to capture. One of the most important emotions? Desire - it correlates to cold hard sales. Tim’s advice: “Show your brand identifier in the first few seconds of your video, shorten the amount of negative moments and show something positive after showing your logo or product (Pavlov effect).”

We can hear you think: “We don’t have the resources for neuromarketing research.” Say no more. The insights we got from the Van Gogh Museum can help. They use of the FOGG behavior model:

behaviour = motivation x capacity x prompts

Use this formula as a checklist. Optimise each factor to get the desired behavior. Key tips: increase motivation by using social motives, increase capacity by using simple and clear CTAs only and offer prompts to get people to act, now.

In short, this is what you’ll tell your team

Marketing is not rocket science (but can be neuroscience!). You can use our simple template to share your new knowledge with your team (it’s completely free, no worries):

Team, listen up. Valtech gave me some cool new insights today. This is what you need to know:

1. In our briefing, we should set KPIs that focus on metrics that matter.
2. Our Facebook campaigns shouldn’t narrow down the target audience too much. Have faith in the algorithm.
3. We can still use influencers in our campaigns, we just need to spend some more time on selecting the right influencer and allowing them their creative freedom.
4. Communicate authenticity, people don’t like over marketed stuff.
5. Our videos should come to the conclusion quicker, focus less on the negative and show something positive after showing our product. Plus, we can use the FOGG-model: behaviour = motivation x capacity x prompts.

Let’s go to work!