Written by Ben Roberts, POCKLA Growth Lead & Paid Media Strategist

The rules of engagement are constantly changing on Paid Social. Performance marketing experts have to adjust to changes in platform interfaces, placements and bid strategies almost monthly but there are also broader trends that have affected not just how media buyers but also creatives go about launching effective campaigns on Meta, TikTok and Snapchat.

Five years ago, precise targeting was not only one of the selling points of paid social but also one of the most effective ways of planning and optimising live campaigns. We had the ability to accurately reach customers who were in-market for similar products, interested in certain brands, and even target users by income. However, as data and privacy guidelines become stricter and ad platforms pivot their offerings more and more to champion automation, these more precise targeting tactics are less effective than ever.

Interest targeting now uses somewhat outdated customer data, meaning interest campaigns rarely hit the mark and ‘Lookalike’ campaigns, while powerful, often fatigue far too quickly. Broad targeting (fueled by machine learning) is now the most effective targeting tactic - leaning on the platforms’ algorithms to understand your product and serve to the most relevant audience is key. While broad targeting may sound totally counterintuitive when marketing a more niche product it’s actually the only viable optio

What is Broad Targeting and How Does it Work?

When we first hear the term ‘broad targeting’, it’s easy to imagine Meta firing from the hip when it comes to who it’s serving your ads to. However, it’s actually using machine learning to actively optimise itself, gaining a better idea of what a ‘good’ user looks like over time and serving to similar customers.

Let’s get a bit more technical for a second. When we launch a broad campaign, the platform enters a ‘learning period’ which can last anywhere from two days to a week. In this period of time, Meta (or any other paid social platform you’re using) is picking up signals around who’s actually making a purchase off the back of your campaigns. These signals include:

• Where does the user live?

• How old are they?

• What kind of pages do they follow?

• Where in the Meta/Instagram interface are they most likely to engage with an ad?

• Do they often make purchases off the back of ads?

There are likely many hundreds more signals picked up by the platforms than this which is why the platforms are able to get a clearer picture of a customer compared to if we simply provided it with a set of interests. Once this learning period is complete, the platform looks at the profile of customer who was completing our set action and dials in on them (meaning we often expect an uplift in performance once this period is complete).

Why is Creative So Important In Paid Social?

Since we’re giving up so many of the controls to the algorithm in this process, we need to make the most of those still available to us - our job as a marketer doesn’t get any easier.

To make sure the most relevant customers are engaging with our ads during that crucial learning period, we need to make sure that our creative is hyper-relevant to the customer we know we’re aiming for. If an ad feels like it’s tailor made for our ideal customer, they’re far more likely to engage and Meta will get a clearer picture of what that user really looks like.

To put it simply, creative is now our targeting.

How Can We Use Creative to Engage Our Ideal Customer?

This is where truly knowing our customer becomes so valuable. To create ads that really speak to the individual you’re trying to engage we need to go further than just listing off the features of your product or relying on promos. Firstly, we need to tap into the core pain points that your customer is experiencing and dial in on the problem you’re trying to solve.

Let’s say you’re a supplement company offering vegan protein powder. Stating the product is vegan or relying on price isn’t enough. More valuable things to call out in your initial messaging are:

• Your product has a lower carbon footprint (to appeal to a more environmentally conscious consumer)

• Easier on digestion (to appeal to customers for whom this is a concern)

• No allergens (e.g. dairy, to engage a lactose intolerant customer)

• More fiber (for customers who might not be vegan but need this in their diet)

Focusing on these benefits is what will really engage a user who could truly make use of your product and is more likely to make a purchase. Meta will then begin to target users who have these specific sets of problems - something traditional targeting settings could never achieve.

These benefits can be included in your images or videos in the form of customer quotes, UGC/testimonials, strong headlines or educational content. These design features are what we as marketers slowly optimise over time to lower CPAs - the first hurdle is dialing in on that initial messaging so we can use the ad platforms’ technology most effectively.

If you’d like some examples of ads we’ve created to target our clients’ customers more accurately (or want to discuss if we can improve your own creative output), book in a free consultation with our experts and we’ll make sure you leave with some actionable insights to improve your paid social ads overnight.