Tis the season for reflection and it’s no secret times have drastically changed since Just Media kicked off its first paid social media campaign back in 2012. At this time targeting was extremely limited, spends were less than minimal and most B2B marketers, and even some B2C marketers, never thought they could see their brand appealing to their target audience on Facebook. Fast forward to present day, our specialized and ever-growing paid social team of experts handle everything from the complex interactive ad deployments, intricate audience set up using first and third-party data and interpreting immense data reports across a myriad of platforms both large (as in Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn) and more niche (as in Reddit or Xing). Below, our social team gives their thoughts on the various platforms and what exciting developments they hope to see come to fruition in 2019.
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While social listening and brand monitoring are not new concepts, they are certainly on the rise for 2019. Using competitive research, keyword tracking, and social listening tools, we can monitor the impact of campaign programs on brand sentiment and market share-of-voice. Great, right? Well it doesn’t stop there! 2019 will be the year of growth and expansion. With that in mind, social listening will be a vital way for us to keep an ear to the ground for lead gen and social selling. Social media is a great place for people to express their thoughts, recommendations, and frustrations– so we should be ready to address them with potential solutions quickly.
Contributed by
Nikki Lee Anderson
We are seeing Instagram rise in the third quarter as Instagram stories are becoming more and more popular. Stories are taking up 25% of the total Instagram spend in Q3 as advertisers are realizing that through stories we are able to reach audiences in a more personal way. Cost metrics have stayed at roughly the same which indicates users are effectively engaging with the Instagram story content. IG stories will become a way for businesses to show their fun and creative side to engage users in a much more informal setting to build positive brand experiences.
Contributed by
Misa Rasmussen
In 2019, brands should capitalize on having a multi-channel communication approach across LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. But should B2B companies take a step back from Facebook? 2018 was a turbulent year for the platform due to data scandals and backlash from its users. Unfortunately, as a consequence, Facebook removed detailed targeting options that B2B advertisers heavily relied on. Companies also feared having a presence on Facebook would, in turn, tarnish their brand’s image. As a result, companies began channeling marketing efforts towards LinkedIn. Just Media believes that more companies will begin shifting their marketing dollars towards LinkedIn not only for brand safety, but due to the platform’s wide array of detailed targeting options. The platform will keep brand voices safe while providing more cost-efficient resources.
Contributed by
Tyler Price
Influencer marketing can be controversial among brand practitioners, but in reality, the tactic of paying a content-creating celebrity to represent a brand is extremely effective and cost efficient. While traditional commercials and medium screens (computers) are getting pushed out of the equation, the best way to reach a consumer nowadays is through mobile with influencer marketing. Today 81% of consumers regularly purchase items after seeing them shared on social media. Plus 70% of millennial consumers make purchases from recommendations from their peers. Influencer marketing helps your brand expand reach, drive sales, increase brand awareness, boost brand reputation, and have the highest impact on increasing ROI. What does the rise of influencer marketing do for the future of advertising? In reality, tech is changing along with the approach to advertising. As society shifts to regularly use mobile, the smartest tactic to reaching out to them is go to where people are spending their time naturally. It’s time for marketers to embrace the future.
Contributed by
Frances Tao
Once unique to Snapchat, Stories is becoming a social standard as now almost every major platform is jumping on the bandwagon. Facebook has been pushing brands and advertisers to utilize Stories throughout 2018, across both its Instagram and Facebook properties. With recent news that YouTube and LinkedIn are adopting this same technology, that push will only grow in 2019. Advertisers will need to customize creative for this placement to keep up with the movement and engage audiences through all the clutter, especially on Instagram where Stories is quickly surpassing the Feed in how users share on the platform.
Contributed by
Leslie Beightler
Many of today’s social media platforms are offering seamless purchase transactions without the friction of landing pages and shopping carts. Platforms participating in this trend include Instagram, with its shoppable product tags (now extended to stories), Facebook’s Marketplace, and Pinterest’s buyable pins, just to name a few. As consumers become more accustomed to this easeful customer experience, their patience for the clunkier aspects of traditional ecommerce will continue to diminish. Many online businesses with a social media presence can get ahead of the curve by strategically utilizing their social platforms to sell their products and services as this trend continues to grow in 2019 and beyond.
Contributed by
Cory Halberstadt
In 2019, brands will be keen to introduce the Facebook Attribution Tool to better quantify and understand the impact your Awareness Campaign is making for your business. Facebook Attribution is an advanced measurement tool designed to give you a more complete picture of your customer journey, so you can understand which of your ads are driving business actions. Once the tool is connected through your Facebook Pixel and Business ID, you will be able to assign credit based on the incremental impact of all your marketing efforts across Facebook and Instagram. For example, a percentage of conversion credit will be accurately awarded to a branded advertisement if a Conversion in the demand campaign occurs after the individual views that piece of branded content. This tool in 2019 will assist marketers in closing the loop between Brand and Demand efforts and finally be able to view the impact of your Awareness Campaign beyond common cost-metrics.
Contributed by
Jon Funnell
In 2019, Social Media will become even more global with challengers entering the arena to battle for the top spots. As part of an agency striving to be experts in global marketing strategy, we need to respond to new developments in ad platforms outside of the main four (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram). LINE is an exciting opportunity to learn more about how to reach users where they live online. If we want to stay relevant, we need to adapt to popular platforms outside of the US. Brands advertising on LINE will be uniquely positioned to reach these markets with less competition—and how exciting is that?
Contributed by
Joseph Gudino
This year, Facebook rolled out its Asset Customization by Placements feature, which allows advertisers to format where their ads are displayed (i.e. Facebook Newsfeed, Audience Network, Messenger, Instagram Stories). This feature will help improve both the relevancy of your ads and improve campaign performance. The placement asset customization feature allows you to tailor your image or video asset to the most effective format for various placement options. You can now have different creative variations within a single ad.
Contributed by
Kristina Wong
In 2019, we will be able to have a more streamlined creation process on LinkedIn, which would be similar to Facebook. This will create more efficiencies within the platform. We can now report based on the types of objectives (brand awareness, talent leads, etc.) The new objectives we will be able to utilize are: Brand Awareness, Engagement, Lead Generation, Video Views.
Contributed by
Amandeep Robinson
What trends do you anticipate will take the industry by storm in 2019? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. If you are interested in scheduling some time to discuss your paid social media needs, our team would love to geek out with you.
