Do you ever feel like your marketing messages are getting lost in a sea of content? You have reason to feel like that since the average person sees 4,000-10,000 ads per day. While Facebook’s ad network provides advertisers with incredible tools to reach consumers across today’s most popular social media apps, it offers no guarantees that your ad will receive engagement or result in revenue-driving actions. It’s crucial for companies to create compelling ad content to get the most out of their ad dollars. To help you rise above today’s tsunami of ad content, we’re sharing five tips for creating thumb-stopping Facebook ads.

Establish Relevancy

It’s one thing to capture your customer’s attention and an entirely different thing to hold their attention. The key difference is relevance. One of the most powerful tools that Facebook offers advertisers is the ability to target an audience based on their interests and behavior. Use this feature to your advantage and create ads that show your audience you understand them. 

Three ways to establish relevancy:

• Speak your audience’s language. Does your target audience use emojis or pop culture references when they post to social media? Try incorporating them into your ad copy.
• Address pain points. Are you promoting a product or service that makes a working professional’s life easier? Tell them how your offering can help solve specific stressors or inconveniences they face in their day-to-day life.
• Speak to objections. Are competing products or services missing the mark? Explain how your offering is different and describe how it meets the needs similar products have failed to address.

Design With Sound Off for Facebook and On for Instagram Stories

Don’t assume that all of your video viewers are watching your ad with sound on. 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound, while 60% of Instagram Stories are watched with the sound on (Instagram for Business). When creating Facebook and Instagram feed ads, show before you tell. Avoid filming video content that is solely based on a person speaking. Instead, use visual cues and copy in the ad to ensure your audience understands what your ad is trying to communicate. When designing for Instagram Stories, incorporate audio when it enhances your ad experience but similar to feed ads, don’t rely on it to communicate your message.

Design for Mobile

Most Facebook and Instagram users access these platforms on their mobile devices which means they consume content in Facebook and Instagram’s feed and in Instagram Stories. To maximize space in the mobile feed, use vertical or square video and photo ads. 

One of the most compelling aspects of Stories as an ad placement is the full-screen experience. Create vertical video content to design your ad content to fit in this ad format. This will help your content appear more native in Stories and take advantage of the visual real estate this placement offers.

Capture Attention with Color

Communicate with color. Facebook and Instagram are both visual platforms. The colors you use in your imagery, graphic design, and video can play a role in the emotions that a user experiences when they see your ad. Leverage color psychology to your advantage and select colors that elicit reactions that align with your ad message. Facebook advises that advertisers use contrasting colors to help users differentiate between your product and the background colors in your photo or video content.

Deliver Value Through the Ad Experience

The value your ad content delivers has an impact on how engaged your audience will be with your brand. What “value adds” do ad viewers find the most engaging? In a consumer survey from Sprout Social, here’s what people said was thumb-stopping: 

• 41% said the most engaging social ad content entertained them
• 37% said it offered a discount 
• 33% said it taught them something 
• 26% said it referenced their interests 
• 20% said it told a story
• 10% said it came from a brand their friends like

If you can find a way to make your ads entertaining, promote an offer, or teach your audience something, you are more likely to hold their attention and engage them with your product or service.

Conclusion 

While it’s more competitive than ever to stand out in today’s online social networks, today’s advertisers have more tools at their disposal than they ever had. Facebook’s ad platform is offering more ways to create compelling content that drives awareness and ad engagement across their family of apps. We hope you found these tips helpful and utilize the recommendations to create top-performing ad campaigns. To learn more about Facebook Advertising with Conversion Logix visit this page. 

For more Facebook ad tips watch the webinar “Harness the Power of Facebook Advertising”

The post How to Create Thumb-Stopping Facebook Ads appeared first on Conversion Logix.

Recently we touched base with our new Director of Ad Operations, Mark Skalla, about advances in digital marketing and how Conversion Logix is leveraging new technologies for our clients.

Mark, what new marketing technologies are you and the team working on?

We have a lot of exciting ad technologies and strategies we’re testing right now to help our clients get more leads, appointments, and sales. We’re exploring and testing dynamic display ads, exploring display networks that leverage avatars, and the ad placement opportunity in Instagram Reels. 

Let’s start with dynamic display ads and why they’re beneficial to our clients.

When a prospect searches for a multifamily apartment or senior living community there’s a lot of information they want to know—how many available units, number of bedrooms, square footage, price, etc. Our clients want to display this information in an ad, however static ads become obsolete quickly due to changes in occupancy. Recently we started testing dynamic display ads that pull property information from a client’s website, populates custom ad templates, and then launches multiple up-to-date ads. Essentially, clients will pre-qualify prospects with ad information so when the prospect schedules a tour with Schedule Genie, there is a stronger chance of closing the lease. We’re rigorously testing this ad technology and can’t wait to offer it to our clients when it’s ready to go-live.

There’s a lot of speculation about the deprecation of cookies. How is Conversion Logix preparing for this change?

Yes, there is a lot of talk about Google deprecating cookies. Although it’s several years away (end of 2023), we’re proactively exploring ways to provide the same relevant service of targeting prospects so clients continue to have access to their intended audiences. We’re currently exploring and testing the use of additional ad networks with large data sets. These networks aggregate information about people so you can market to a group versus an individual. For example, let’s say you’re interested in a one bedroom apartment in Portland, you like gardening, and you buy dog toys for your pup. These ad networks group a prospect into different data sets—someone seeking an apartment, garden enthusiast, and dog lover—then retarget groups of people who may be interested in a property, product, etc.  We’re also testing new ArtificiaI Intelligence audiences to further our reach and scale in light of the deprecation of cookies.

Instagram recently announced ad placement in Reels. Tell us more about this new ad option.

Reels invites you to create 15-second multi-clip videos with audio, effects, and new creative tools.  Conversion Logix is an early adopter of Reels ad placement which gives our clients a competitive advantage by enabling visibility on an emerging social advertising platform.   We have a talented and tenacious team that is always looking for new ad opportunities to maximize clients’ social ad spend.

Stay on the lookout for more Ahead of the Curve blog posts to learn more about Conversion Logix’s end-to-end marketing solution. To learn more about how we can enable you to accelerate lead acquisition and unveil a prospect’s journey to give you powerful insights that drive ROI, schedule a call to learn more. 

The post Ahead of the Curve appeared first on Conversion Logix.

College-aged students live on their mobile devices. Most spend their time watching videos and using social networking sites. Student housing communities have a variety of choices when it comes to marketing on social media video sharing platforms. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat all have a share of this market’s attention.

Each of these platforms has its own purpose and communication style. In this blog post, we show you where your target market is engaging with video content, the opportunities, and limitations that these platforms provide student housing marketers, and strategies for getting the most out of these communication channels.

How Students Use Social Media Platforms

In a previous post, we wrote about Gen Z’s online behavior, “What Student Housing Needs to know about Gen Z”. In this blog post, we shared a Google Think study that found that 51% of teenagers spend 3 or more hours a day on social networking and 71% spent 3 or more hours a day watching videos. In recent years, social media channels have put a greater emphasis on video creation, sharing, and promotion.

YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat remain popular among this generation in part because of this group’s preference for video-based content and engaging messaging platforms. While college students interact with all of these social platforms, the way students use these platforms, how frequently they use them, and how they view branded content on these platforms differs.

YouTube

What are the kids doing these days? Watching YouTube videos. Along with the rest of the U.S. adult population. According to Apple, YouTube rose from the third spot in 2017 to the first spot in 2018 in the app store. YouTube beat out Snapchat and Facebook as the free app with the most downloads of the year. A whopping 96% of 18-24-year-olds watch YouTube videos. YouTube usage is the fastest growing among Gen Z (59%) compared to Snapchat (56%) and Instagram (55%).

While YouTube is a popular channel for students to search for and watch video content, it’s not where Get Z prefers to follow brands (only 5% selected it as the number one platform they prefer to use to follow brands). Other studies show that while YouTube isn’t the number one place Gen Z prefers to follow brands, it is a place that Gen Z is comfortable seeing branded content. 79% said that it is always or ok to see branded content on YouTube from influencers.

So what do Gen Z students use YouTube for?

YouTube is where Gen Z is going to discover informative content and enjoy entertainment.

• 66% watch how-to videos.
• 51% watch YouTube for a good laugh.
• 24% use it for shopping recommendations.
• 23% use it to keep up with the news.

Facebook

A majority of college-aged students have a Facebook account (80%), but they don’t use the platform to consume branded content and connect with brands as much as older millennial siblings and their parents. Only 15% of Gen Z prefer Facebook as their number one platform for following brands. 26% of Gen Z uses Facebook to keep in touch with friends but the experience is more passive than Snapchat or Instagram. One of the primary uses Facebook provides 18-24 years olds is to sign up for and create events. Facebook is also a place where Gen Z goes to watch the news and look for shopping recommendations. Though 16% use Facebook to look for shopping recommendations, a greater percentage use YouTube or Instagram.

Video content on this platform is more likely to appeal to the parents of students looking for housing than the students themselves. A Nielsen study found that Gen X spent on average 6 hrs 58 min per week on Facebook (the highest platform usage among the age groups studied).

Instagram

Popularity for Instagram has surged in recent years. The platform introduced stories, direct messaging, a TV channel, and new discovery and shopping functionality. Today 81% of 18-24-year-olds use Instagram and 55% use the platform several times a day. Gen Z is more comfortable with seeing branded content on Instagram than other social platforms (Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat).

In a recent survey of 2,400 Instagram users, one-third became more interested in a product or brand after seeing it on Instagram Stories. 70% of Gen Z consume stories content on Instagram.

Snapchat

78% of college-age students use Snapchat, 82% use it daily, and 71% use it multiple times a day. People under the age of 25 use Snapchat for 40 minutes on average every day, more than Instagram’s latest stat for the same demographic. Gen Z is more likely to consume stories content on Snapchat (73%) than create it (58%), however, stories creation is more popular in Snapchat than Instagram (39%) or Facebook (13%).

Although students are actively engaging in creating Snapchat content, Snapchat is the platform that students are the least comfortable following brands on. Gen Z primarily uses Snapchat to interact with their friends (Gen Z prefers to use Snapchat over Facebook and Instagram for this purpose) and therefore are less likely to welcome content from people outside of their network.

The Opportunities and Limitations of Organic vs. Paid Social Video Campaigns

YouTube

YouTube’s advertising opportunities are expanding. YouTube released “ad pods” last year (two ads per break at the beginning and/or middle of a video) on browsers and are rolling out these back to back ads on mobile this year. Recent research has shown that video ad watchers on YouTube mobile watch over 60% of ads. YouTube ads are unique in that they are more likely to be seen and heard. 95% of YouTube ads are audible vs.15% of Facebook videos. Google claims that audible videos receive more brand awareness, ad recall, and consideration, another reason why this ad platform may be one of the best opportunities to reach college students in 2019.

YouTube isn’t the place that most students are looking to follow brands and many communities may find it difficult to maintain the level of video production needed to create an active and consistent YouTube channel. For this reason, student housing communities have more to gain from pre-roll video ads than organic marketing strategies on YouTube.

Facebook

Organic reach is declining on Facebook as the platform makes room for more advertisers in the feed. Organic content is more likely to be shared in the feed of students and parents if it receives lots of views, likes, shares, and comments in a short period of time. This is becoming harder and harder to achieve as fewer and fewer people see the content in the first place. Video content, however, stands a greater chance of receiving visibility in the news feed than static photo content.

Facebook pages are still a good opportunity for communities to share event details, show off reviews and post about their community, but most of the action that these pages receive will likely be driven by active searching, rather than news feed discovery.

Communities can extend their visibility in the newsfeed using ads. Ad campaigns offer more robust targeting and optimization strategies than sponsored posts, increasing the chances that communities get the kind of interactions they are looking for from their social content on Facebook.

Instagram

Instagram still provides communities with opportunities to expand their reach organically through feed and stories content, but just like Facebook, organic reach is declining. Since Facebook owns the platform, Instagram ads have the same targeting and format options that Facebook ads offer. Your community can target students at a specific university interested in apartments and certain hobbies, activities, people, and brands. Video ads can be presented in the newsfeed and in the stories feed.

In Instagram stories you can show three different ad formats: 15-second video, single image, or carousel (three back to back 15-second videos). In our experience running Instagram stories ads for apartment communities, click-through rates tend to be lower than ad campaigns that run in the newsfeed but the traffic tends to be engaged (the prospects complete online conversions or stay on the site for a while). With most video ad campaigns, it isn’t uncommon to see a smaller, yet more engaged group of website visitors.

Snapchat

Communities looking to use this platform have three main options to reach students. They can post to their stories, create Geofilters or run ad campaigns.

Communities looking to attract followers and post to stories organically will see high viewership rates among followers but struggle to gain followers in the first place. Hootsuite claims that for every 1,000 followers, 900 will watch your story, but Gen Z isn’t as likely to follow brands on Snapchat as they are in Instagram or Facebook.

Brands can pay for Geofilters to try to build brand awareness among students. Geofilters are graphic overlays that Snapchatters can place over the images and videos they sent to friends. Communities can target specific radiuses (around a stadium during a game or around a college campus) for a limited period of time. These filters tend to be expensive to run in popular locations for a prolonged period of time and require a skilled graphic designer to create.

For those communities that don’t have a large Snapchat following and who don’t want to pay a premium for filters will have better luck getting traffic from ads. Ads in Snapchat can be no longer than ten seconds (a few seconds less than Instagram stories). Ads can run in between friend’s stories, creator’s stories, and publisher’s content. Communities can target affinity audiences and send students directly to the community’s website. While these campaigns receive higher bounce rates (they tend to get more accidental clicks) they also tend to get more overall traffic than Instagram stories and they have been known to generate online conversions.

Social Video Marketing Strategies

Whether you’re running a video ad campaign on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat, there are a few fundamental things student housing communities should incorporate in their ad campaigns.

Be Relevant

Ads are skippable, swipeable, and scrollable. Communities only have a matter of seconds to capture a student’s limited attention when they run a video ad. What’s the key to getting prospects to pay attention? Relevancy.

If you were about to watch a video on YouTube and you saw an ad about an apartment community with no clear idea of where the community is located, would you watch it?

It’s imperative that at the start of your student housing video that you make sure students know that you are an apartment community located near their university. Unless you make this crystal clear within seconds, they will likely skip your ad.

Beyond the basics of communicating who you are and where you’re located, what else helps communities establish relevance with their audience?

Pricing, floor plans, and amenities.

Price is the most important factor for students when looking for a community. While many communities may not want to lead with price in their videos, it can be used as a way to qualify your audience and elicit more from those that can afford your community. Since many communities use dynamic pricing, incorporating ad messaging later in the video that says, ”Pricing ranging from $1200’s-$1800’s” or “Prices starting at $1300” can help your community establish relevance without using exact pricing.

Our team conducted a YouTube ad performance study and found that videos that incorporated both tour and lifestyle content led to more ad engagement than videos that only incorporated tour or lifestyle content alone.

Use your video content to highlight the amenities that students care about. If your units are fully furnished, pet-friendly, and have updated features, showcase these in your video. Make sure to show what the units look like and mention which floorplans you offer to maintain relevancy and qualify prospects.

Be Authentic

Gen Z, more than any other generation, is sensitive to inauthentic online content. Most choose to follow influencers and consume stories content because they perceive this content to be more trustworthy and genuine. The newsfeed in Instagram and Facebook is still considered to be a place for polished, less realistic content. Stories content in Instagram and Snapchat tends to be more user-generated, unpolished, and playful.

What can your community do to create a more authentic video ad?

Show your community in a realistic light. Video content can be both high quality and authentic at the same time. Give a short video tour of your community and showcase real people using your amenities. Consider incorporating real resident testimonials. 86% of Gen Z reads reviews before making a first-time purchase using their own money, and about two-thirds need to read at least 3 reviews. Film resident reviews of your community that feel honest and informative. Consider weaving this content together as the voiceover in a video ad. If you incorporate this content in a Facebook or Instagram ad, consider captioning the content. While most users watch YouTube and Snapchat videos with the sound on, most don’t in Facebook’s platforms.

Guide the Prospect to the Next Step

End your videos with a clear call to action. We know that leasing agent’s number one goal is to sign leases, but there are steps that prospects take before they get to that stage of the funnel. For some communities, running a campaign with a See Floorplans, Learn More, Tour Today, or Attend Our Event call to action can lead to better results. If you are serving a retargeting ad to someone who has already visited your site, a stronger “Tour Now” or “Lease Now” call to action may make more sense.

Even though this message is known as a “Call to Action” we don’t recommend your community use a “Call Now” message at the end of a student housing campaign. Most students prefer to engage with your community online over making a phone call. Students are more likely to use tour scheduling tools and live chat services to answer questions and set up appointments instead of placing a phone call.

Conclusion

College students use popular social media platforms differently. Communities need to understand the way students use these platforms and where and in what format students want to see content from apartment communities. The days of spray and pray with social media are over. Communities looking to effectively use social platforms to reach college students need to consider investing in advertising. Apartments looking to get the most out of their ad dollars should create videos that are relevant, authentic and that lead prospects to the next stage in the customer journey.

The post Social Video Marketing Strategies for Student Housing appeared first on Conversion Logix.