Data obtained from Smart Insights, suggests that 60% of the world’s population uses social media and that daily usage is just under 2 and a half hours (2 hours and 24 minutes). Since their inception, social media platforms have developed from a space for friends, family, and colleagues to connect, to a space that provides businesses countless opportunities to connect and entice their target audiences.
In fact, the statistics don’t stop there. In 2022 Sprout Social estimated, that 98% of consumers planned to make a purchase on social media in 2022. Highlighting the essential need for businesses to consider the approach they are taking when it comes to their social media strategies.
Due to the change in consumer purchasing habits, many brands have decided to forgo retailers and instead adapt their business model to sell directly to consumers. This is particularly prominent in the FMCG sector. For example, 71% of global millennials purchased snacks via emerging digital channels, like online supermarkets or direct-to-consumer brands in 2021.
With this in mind, we share our best practice tips for optimising your social media channels for product sales and where to start.
Make sure your tracking is installed properly
By implementing social tracking such as the meta pixel into your website, you can collect data to help you track conversions from your paid social ads. This way, you will be able to more accurately understand which of your targeted audiences are working best for you, while also helping you collect a pool of individuals who may have shown an interest in your product but not physically purchased. Remarketing is a great way to mop up any conversions that did not happen the first time a potential customer visited your website, helping to drive up purchases.
Understand your attribution
Understanding your audience’s digital behaviours are key to successfully running any digital marketing campaign. In a post-iOS14 world attribution, especially from paid social has become increasingly difficult therefore it is important to ensure that you employ an integrated approach across multiple platforms to get the most accurate view possible.
To get a better view of attributed results in platform, the best practice is to apply advanced data matching features such as a Conversion API into your social tracking. Advanced data matching allows the platforms’ social tracking to gather as much data as possible from your web servers allowing for better data feedback to be matched with user behaviours. Integrating tracked links into your ads is also a great way to gain a wider understanding of how your social activity has impacted other possible digital marketing activities.
Intergrate your product feed with Social Shopping
Social shopping is fast becoming a prominent eCommerce channel with the continued development of features like TikTok Shop. This feature is not exclusive to TikTok however with multiple other platforms integrating product catalogues into their advertising features. Catalogue integration allows you to promote your products directly to users through your selected ad placements, these products can also be integrated into a shop front linked to your profile that can also be used in organic posting. Each item listed features important details about the product, whether it is the name, description, or price, so this handy feature instantly tells the user everything they need to know, before offering a link to your website so that they can purchase the item immediately.
Use the power of influence
Influencers are often able to sway their followers into considering or purchasing your products and working with the right ones will mean an ongoing stream of content for your feed. However, finding the right influencer for you and your brand can be challenging, as a large following will not always lead to more purchases. That’s why working with our team of experts with existing influencer relationships can make all the difference when it comes to seeing ROI in this area! Check out our work with vegan chocolate brand NOMO, to see what we were able to deliver for them on a purely gifted basis.
Utilise machine learning
As we move towards a cookie-less world targeting on paid social will likely change massively as more user data is hidden from marketers. To counteract this, platforms have developed acquisition campaigns that harness the power of AI and in-platform user data to serve ads towards the highest-value users at the point of conversion.
If you would like any advice, or a more in-depth conversation on how we can optimise your social media channels for sales using these methods and more, get in touch with us here today.