If you weren't spending on social, you are now

The second trend in Hootsuite's Social Media Trends 2022 is The Social Advertising Trend. With 43% of survey respondents identifying the decline of organic reach and the need to increase paid advertising budgets on social media a major challenge, those who weren’t already spending on social media ads will be in 2022. 

As these platforms grow, users are becoming more receptive to social ads. We’re also beginning to see that newer social media platforms are providing more effective advertising platforms than the traditional Facebook and Instagram. Hootsuite notes that the largest increases in spend relative to last year are going towards TikTok, Pinterest and Snapchat. TikTok’s perceived effectiveness jumped from 3% last year to a crazy 24%. 

Creating advertisements that organically fit within the natural format of the platform’s content is key to the success of your ads. Hootsuite noted these platforms are encouraging this with TikTok saying “don’t make ads make TikTok’s”, Pinterest’s “stop interrupting. Start inspiring” and Snapchat’s urge to “become a part of Snapchatters’ everyday conversations”. 

When you or your users are deep in the TikTok scroll, often you will come across an ad without even realising it. This is because the creators have been particularly clever with their composition of the ad, making it seem like just another TikTok to retain your attention. This is the ultimate goal for social media advertisers and brands that must be at the forefront of your ad creative. 

Consumers are challenging marketers to step up their game in the world of social advertising demanding that they aren’t interrupted by ads, rather it feels naturally part of the experience. As a business, it’s time to understand if your audience is on these platforms and if so, create a bank of ideas to build out effective ad creative that will first get in front of the eyes of your audience, and then keep them engaged with a clear call to action to follow. 

Video content alone can be tough for businesses to manage on their own, let alone navigating the world of TikTok editing with transitions, filters and audio alignment. And there’s no point going to all that effort if you won’t reach the right audience. The first step is to define a clear marketing strategy to identify your target audience and understand where you can reach them. From there it’s about creating strategic outputs for valuable outcomes. 

As a full-service creative agency, we’ve got strategists, designers and content creators who can take care of your marketing efforts for a successful 2022. We’d love to hear from you!