Social Media News October 2021

October 4, 2021

20 ideas for e-commerce ads 

 

It is clear now that e-commerce is becoming more and more important, especially on Facebook and Instagram. Both platforms have been working on it for the last months and will keep developing different features to offer companies and brands more opportunities.  

With the help of Facebook and Instagram Ads and the right know-how, you can easily jump on the e-commerce train. 

 According to Philipp Kammerer from allfacebook.de, the success of a campaign depends to a large extent on creativity. That is why he summarized 20 creative ideas: 

 

1.Product carousel 

With the product carousel, you can show the user different products or present the application areas of a product.  

      2. Product images 

Simple product images are the easiest way to attract potential customers to your product who don’t know about it yet. Simple image ads are most effective to show your product in action. Since customers can’t experience the products as they would in a retail store, the products need to be brought to life in the ad.  

       3. Animated images 

If a product image shows good results, it is a good idea to animate the image. Why? Moving images often attract more attention. 

       4. Infographics 

Infographics are particularly suitable for products that require explanation in prospecting. Your customer needs to understand the product before he buys it. 

       5. Explanatory videos 

Another method to explain products is explanatory videos. Make sure that your videos look professional. Half-hearted explanatory videos do not serve their purpose properly. 

       6. Application tips 

For products that are supposed to display the desired effect, you can give your potential customers application tips to represent your product three-dimensionally 

      7. Announcing blog articles 

It doesn’t always have to be direct sales. One way attracts potential customers who are undecided is to write a blog article on your topic and link to your products in it. 

a)Place ads on the article. 

b) If you succeed in picking up the users who are not directly ready to buy, you can achieve direct sales, even though the users would not have been ready to buy.

Re-engagement: 

Re-engagement addresses users who have interacted with an ad or post but have not yet visited the online store. Perhaps they have liked a post, written a comment or watched a video. These users already know the brand and the product, but they still have too little trust to buy.  

       8. Testimonials 

One way to build that trust is through testimonials. The most effective testimonials are video testimonials, but these are also the hardest to get. If you don’t have videos of customers, you can also have customer testimonials in text form.  

       9. Influencer Content 

Influencers are trusted by their target audience. You can leverage this trust for yourself by campaigning with them and playing out the ads in re-engagement. 

      10. Unboxing Videos 

One way to present your products three-dimensionally are by unboxing videos. Unboxing videos work best when a customer unboxes the product. 

       11. User-generated content 

In addition to the forms of user-generated content already mentioned, other forms such as application images, specific motto images, competition entries, etc. are also suitable. 

       12. Show product variety 

In re-engagement, the user probably doesn’t know all the products you offer. Maybe he saw an ad for a product in prospecting that he doesn’t need right now, but he likes your brand. Then now is the ideal time to show him more products – for example in a product carousel. 

Retargeting: 

In retargeting, the user has already been to your online store, but he hasn’t bought anything yet. Here, a small reminder is often enough. 

        13. Promotions 

An efficient method to get users to buy in retargeting are promotions, which create occasions to buy immediately. Here you can work with discount codes, for example.

         14. Reminders 

In retargeting, a small reminder is often enough to get the user to buy. Many users put products in their shopping cart as a kind of Wishlist, but then cancel the order. With a reminder, you can remind these users to buy. 

          15. USP 

In retargeting, show your customer again the most important benefits of buying from you. 

         16. Dynamic Product Ads 

With dynamic retargeting ads, you can show the user the exact product they have already looked at. 

Existing customers: 

Most advertisers invest a lot of money in attracting new customers and forget about existing customers, even though an existing customer is much more likely to buy than a new customer. With the help of existing customer campaigns, you can retain customers and increase your customer value. 

            17. Refills 

If you sell consumable products, refills are a way to motivate your customer to buy again. Refills benefit you, your customer, and the environment. 

            18. “Thank you” video 

Immediately after purchase, customers often regret it in e-commerce. You can counteract this with a “thank you” video. Record a short video telling your customer why they made a good decision. 

            19. Founder Story 

The customer has purchased your product. Now you want to convert the one-time buyer into a fan so that they will buy from you again. Tell your founder story so that your customer can identify with your online store. 

            20. Promotions for existing customers 

If you want your customer to buy from you again, create reasons for them to do so. For example, implement special promotions for existing customers or create bundles for existing customers only. 

 

Pinterest tests sharing of Idea Pins in Facebook and Instagram Stories 

 

Pinterest is currently testing the sharing of Idea Pins in Instagram and Facebook Stories. This way, users may maximize the promotional value of their Idea Pins and reach a bigger audience. The Pins will still have the Pinterest watermark 

According to Andrew Hutchinson from SocialMediaToday, this could be a big boost for eCommerce brands looking to raise awareness, with direct connection to their Pin presence. Idea Pins have some practical functions like the Ghost Mode which allows framing each shot and there is also the recently stocked music tool.  

The reposting of Stories on different platforms can help boost the value of your efforts but you should also remember to create unique content for each platform. That’s why the watermark is so important here because it shows the viewers that there is more content on Pinterest which will hopefully lead them to your Pins.  

 

Instagram introduces “stories montage” 

 

A new montage feature from Instagram now makes it possible to compile reels from stories that have already been posted. With this, Instagram is expanding the abundance of reels and making them more interesting and easier to assemble. However, it might be difficult for users to assemble individual stories. As the name suggests, stories are made up of individual narratives and are perhaps less likely to provide a functional overall picture. 

According to Jan Firsching from futurebiz, the new function could also limit the actual character of reels – creativity. Stories are indeed a creative way of expressing oneself, but they work in a different way. 

Perhaps the new Instagram feature can also provide a way for businesses to create straightforward reels from existing content.  

 

New Instagram map feature 

 

With the new map featureInstagram creates better visibility for businesses. From now on, there will be a focus on the local search functions. According to Jan Firsching from Futurebiz, this was a major weakness of Instagram for a long time. Now businesses can benefit when users search for local companies via the search functions. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, it stood out how important Instagram can be for the visibility of individual businesses. 

Initially, the new function will be tested in Australia and New Zealand. With the hashtag search, all kinds of places can be searched for – for example, #takeaways. 

In addition to the location, further information such as photos, prices and opening hours are displayed. Here, you can also follow the respective shop with one click. Instagram thus also opens up a new level of in-app shopping. The linking of search and sale succeeds very well. 

 

Snapchat introduces Snapchat scan 

 

Augmented reality is supposedly the future of social media. Now Snapchat is also trying its luck. In addition to scanning QR codes, filters can now be applied even better. The Snapchat camera can now scan your surroundings and find the right lens for you. This allows more lenses to be found and introduces opens up new creative paths for your Snapchat story. In addition to aesthetic and fun filters, there are also very helpful filters. Now even mathematical formulas can be solved with the help of a filter. Not only objects are captured with the new scan function, Snapchat can also recognize music in the background. According to Jan Firsching from Futurebiz, Snapchat is once again offering an exciting connection between information and entertainment. 

 

8 SMM trends for 2022 

 

Even though it’s not the end of the year yet, there are some early predictions for 2022 already. If you want to be prepared and learn about the newest social media marketing trends for next year, Mark Walker-Ford from red website design has prepared 8 trends that might help you plan ahead.  

 

1.Social media emerges like a shopping platform 

During the pandemic, shopping became more virtual and social media turned into shopping outlets. The number of social commerce buyers is increasing and will continue to increase. For example, the number of buyers in the US has increased by 25.2%, reaching over 80 million people.  

 

2. Proliferation of short-form video content 

TikTok is THE platform when it comes to short-form videos. The app was downloaded 315 million times worldwide in the first quarter of 2020, which is a new record. To compete with that, Instagram introduced Reels in 2020. According to a study, 82% of online content will consist of videos by 2022.  

 

3. Social media becomes part of daily life 

The number of social media users is growing and so is the amount of time they are spending on those platforms. Right now, people spend approximately 145 minutes on social media every day.  

 

4. Facebook remains on top (for now) 

Facebook is still the most used online platform in the world, followed by YouTube. Currently, the platform has about 1.8 billion daily users who each spend about 58 minutes on the social network every day.  

 

5. Shorter attention spans result in more bite-sized content 

Even though people are spending more time on social media, they are engaging less with content. According to studies, the attention span of a person is 8 seconds today. Because of this, brands and advertisers are increasingly offering short-form videos or disappearing content.  

 

6. More augmented reality options 

AR is becoming more and more important and mainstream. Of course, social media networks are adapting to the trend by including AR in Instagram filters since 2017. In 2019, Instagram also offered the option for users to create their own filters. 

 

7. Growing utilization of User-generated content (UGC) 

UGC is a big part of social media marketing strategies. Brands that use UGC have a 20% increase in return visitors and a 90% increase on the time spend on their websites.  

 

8. The “unbundling” of Reddit 

Reddit is spawning new platforms e.g., Discord. This platform developed through the needs of the League of Legends gaming subreddit and grew off the back of that community.   

 

 

Authors:

Johanna Leffers & Anna Lemke