How to Create a Social Media Campaign in 2023

Now is the best time to shift your marketing efforts to social media. Social media marketing is considered the end-all-be-all in the advertising world. Aside from half of the world’s population being on it, people’s time and attention are mostly spent on social media. For advertisers, this means reaching more of their target audiences, getting acquainted with new leads, and possibly getting more conversions. But advertising on social media isn’t all rainbows and butterflies. Your advertisements will only work if you create an effective social media campaign. Let’s dive in. 

Social Media Marketing Statistics in 2023

First, let’s start with some vital statistics to convince you why social media networks are brilliant platforms:

• Social media ad spending reached $173 billion in 2022
• Social media ad spending grew by 20.1 percent
• 33 percent of digital ad spending was invested in social media in 2022
• Instagram’s reach in 2022 is around 1.8 billion people
• Social media ad reach in men and women were an even split, 50.7 and 49.3 percent, respectively
• Facebook Meta ad has a 24 percent YOY increase
• Advertisers spent over $50 billion on FB ads in 2022
• Facebook is still the most used social media advertising platform worldwide
• Twitter has a majority of millennials than Gen-Z users
• Snapchat was the fourth most commonly used social network in 2022
• LinkedIn reached 62 percent of the U.S. population
• 89 percent of B2B marketers rely on LinkedIn for lead generation
• YouTube’s average CPC is approximately $3.21
• TikTok can reach over 885 million people worldwide
• 18 to 24-year-olds are TikTok’s biggest advertising audience

How to Create an Effective Social Media Campaign in 2023

Social media advertising is easy if you follow a step-by-step process. Being such a cut-throat network, advertisers find it hard sometimes to reach their audience due to the lack of research, analysis, and planning. That said, follow these steps in creating a social media campaign that converts.

1. Identify your social media campaign goals

Identifying your social media campaign goals let you craft better advertising messages and visuals. It also helps determine the metrics you will track after publishing social media ads. Having a plan and recording it manually or virtually will provide a guideline if you get sidetracked. It’s always better to have a reminder to ensure your marketing efforts don’t go to waste. 

Some of the most common social media advertising goals are:

• Increasing leads
• Increasing sales and conversions
• Improving customer engagement
• Enhancing brand awareness
• Augmenting website traffic
• Getting customer feedback
• Strengthening brand community
• Diversifying content distribution
• Offering customer support

2. Determine your target audience

Putting social media ads and content out there is futile if you don’t know who you’re selling to. Knowing who your target audience is will outline your overall marketing strategy. It wouldn’t make sense to promote lingerie to a male demographic, would it? That said, think about who you’re marketing to, their interests, their age, etc. This stage is categorized into demographics and psychographics.

Your target audience is a specific group of customers likely interested in your offers. Sometimes, this term is interchangeably used with target market. However, there is a stark difference between the two. 

The target market is the overall group of customers that companies sell to. On the other hand, your target audience belongs to the target market’s umbrella, which means it’s a segmented group of customers within that target market. 

3. Create buyer personas

Once you’ve identified your target audience, it’s time to create buyer personas. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of the kinds of people you’re advertising to. It’s a vivid picture of a particular customer or customer group based on data and research. Creating a buyer persona for an effective social media campaign will allow you to gauge their interest in your product. 

Some factors to consider when creating a buyer persona are:

• Gender
• Age
• Location
• Income
• Hobbies
• Education level
• Professional 
• Marital status
• Interests
• Pain points

4. Choose the right platforms

No social media network is created equal. Each has various users with different demographics and psychographics. The most crucial step is to know where your audience hangs out online. 

This reiterates why knowing your target audience is vital because it helps you reach the right people. Plus, it enables you to choose which social media platforms to prioritize. 

5. Create a content calendar

When you’re new in social media marketing, managing various aspects of your campaigns can be time-consuming. And one of the most time-consuming steps is content creation, which is why creating a content calendar improves your overall game. A social media calendar defines the types of content you publish for the week or month, the frequency of posts, visuals, copywriting, and more. 

Here are some benefits of a social media calendar:

• Keeps you organized
• Great for brainstorming sessions
• Maintains consistency
• Keeps track of your performance
• Tracks the post schedules

6. Plan social media campaign strategies

Your social media campaign strategies must hook your audiences and align with your goals. It’s vital to sit down with your team or stalk the competition to know what methods are working. 

Some social media marketing strategies are:

• UGC campaigns
• Social media contests and giveaways
• Brand partnerships
• Influencer marketing
• Surveys
• Live videos
• Brand storytelling through videos
• Exclusive discounts
• Shoppable features

7. Automate social media advertising

Social media marketing is easier if you automate some tasks that require frequency. Automation ensures you’re not missing anything significant for the week or month. And with so many social media advertising tools, you can use free or paid options. Here are the most commonly used tools. 

Scheduling tools:

• Sprout Social 
• CoSchedule
• Airtable
• Feedly
• Planable

Analytics tools:

• HubSpot
• Google Analytics
• BuzzSumo
• Snaplytics

Engagement tools:

• Macsocial 
• Animoto
• Tint

Listening tools:

• Buffer
• Falcon.io
• Hootsuite
• Agorapulse
• Keyhole

Monitoring tools:

• Meltwater
• Brand24
• Cyfe
• Talkwater

Automation tools:

• SocialBee
• Sendible
• StoryChief
• NapoleonCat
• PromoRepublic

8. Monitor performance and analyze results

The only way to succeed in social media advertising is to monitor your campaigns’ performance. Use analytics tools to assess the results of every campaign. This is helpful so you can modify your campaigns and not spend money on strategies that don’t give you conversions. 

Another benefit of analyzing results and monitoring campaign performance is it allows you A/B test campaigns on segmented audiences. Finally, it keeps you in the know of industry trends and the audience’s interests and behaviors.