10 Social Media Advertising Common Mistakes

Here are some examples of what not to do with your advertising. If any of them sounds familiar, be careful.Social media advertising, if not effective, can bring your company down. The good news is that even the big brands have made those mistakes in the past. Just learn from them and move on.

1) Targeting an audience that is too narrow

Yes, you should always be targeting your website’s audience because they know your brand and are more likely to consume it than a general audience. However, if you are prospecting for more customers, you don’t want an audience that targets only 25 to 35 year-old females in Atlanta. You will never find out if your ads are meant for a specific audience if it is too small.

2) Targeting an audience that is too wide

You need to find a balance between wide and narrow audiences. When targeting a huge audience, try including declared or deduced interests (like hobbies or purchases) on top of your lookalike audience.

3) Using wrong image size for your platform

Do some research on what each platform`s strength is in regards to images. Different social media applications allow for different image sizes. For example, twitter only allows very small images while Pinterest allows for massive ones. You don’t want to throw an image into your ad that cuts off people`s heads.

4) Not using text overlay

Text overlay is the “hook” to your net because it catches the eyes and gives the consumer an idea of what they are in for if they keep reading. Facebook and Instagram limit the amount of text you can overlay on your image to 20%. Follow this rule!

5) Leaving your campaign on too long

Make sure you are watching your frequency on your social media platform month-to-month, or even week-to-week if you are running a specific time-frame campaign.

6) Click-baiting

If you are click-baiting someone to click through to your website, you are wasting money. You will not only have to pay for an initial ad to them, but you will also have to do a lot of remarketing in the future.

7) Not providing enough information

Give people enough information so they don’t have to guess at what your company is all about. It will also used to weed out irrelevant users, optimize impressions and save you money.

8) Providing too much information

Again, it is all about balance. People are not going to read a huge paragraph; they don’t have time to do it. Shorten your sentences, use visual content and make the recipient feel compelled to read your ad!

9) No call to action

Tell people what to do. Using phrases such as “sign up” or “shop now” will make people assume that they are supposed to do more than just read the ad.

10) Sending people to your home page in every ad

Direct your audience instead of making them search around. If you are telling them to “shop now”, show them the specific product and guide them to that product page.