Planning Paid Outreach for Social Media Campaigns - Social Media Handbook Part 6

This post is a part of our Social Media Handbook series. Please read the previous parts here:Social Media Basics (Part 1), Leveraging Creative Properties (Part 2), Planning Campaigns (Part 3),  Optimizing Content (Part 4) & Planning Social Media Outreach (Part 5)

Planning paid outreach is an imperative part of social media campaigns. You neither would want to overdo and affect the ROI of the campaign adversely. Nor would you want a great idea lying around in one corner of the internet space and not reach out to the people.

Here are some of my tips that help you plan paid outreach for social media campaigns effectively.

Calculate backwards

The first thing that needs to be done is to calculate the minimum overall expectation based on the base budgeted money spent on the campaign. This should ideally be in the range of a CPI (Cost per thousand impressions) of 180 – 200 and a CPA (Cost per action) around 100 -150.

Gauge the organic returns

The current strength of the fan base, email database, twitter followers and other such mediums of reach out to the people organically, will help us gauge an organic fan base number for the campaign. This is explained in detail in the previous part of this blog series.

Now, the overall expectation (basis money invested) – organic projection will leave us with how much of organic push will be required for the campaigns. Ideally, we require 25-30% push inorganically for a campaign to get it to a point from where it can take off.

The other way round

Another way to do the math is to calculate, how big you want to make participation, regardless of what the ROI could be, at the end of the activity.

Some campaigns are high decibel campaigns are can be pumped with more paid media to get massive numbers at the end of the campaign. More often than not, the activity ends up giving similar CPI and CPA with a higher volumes of absolute numbers, unless it crashes big.

Selection of Facebook Ads

Currently, there are about 12 Facebook spots for the web users that we can pick from; I guess by the time you read this write up, Facebook would have made some additions to that list. I’d like to mention some priority options that impact our campaigns.

•  Like based ads – This is my personal favourite. It serves a dual purpose of getting a like and getting the fan engaged with you for the activity. It is the most prominent ads that you see on the right hand side of the bar.
• Application ads – When the amount of time spent on an ad is high, or if the activity is slightly complicated, application ads the best pick, they will help us get decent traction for the activity. It will be costing more than the like based ads, yet give you better overall participation conversation and settle your CPA at a decent number at the end of the campaign.
• Promoted posts – If the core messaging of the activity can be effectively brought across in your posts, picking promoted posts is the right choice. They will also cost lesser that the earlier options mentioned.

Twitter ads and YouTube Masthead/Pre rolls

My first recommendation for spending media is that about 75% of the media budget should be allocated to the same platform, on which the activity is going to be conducted. It reduces drop outs and gets the best value from the money spent.

Hence, if the activity rests on YouTube or Twitter, the spends need to be focused on these platforms. Twitter ads spots, however, will cost you a bomb, but the campaigns on Twitter give immense visibility to the brand.

YouTube’s two most popular spots, the mast-head and the pre rolls are effective ways of getting traction for your campaigns, even if they rest on a microsite or on a Facebook Tab.

Paid reach from external sources

The trend of promoting campaigns on banners, TVC’s, outdoor spots, etc is catching on, but I feel we are about 5 years away from this being a norm. These spots still should be considered for high decibel and integrated campaigns.

An exciting period of social media campaigns awaits us, the coming couple of years will determine a lot about how things shape up and how much such activities will penetrate into the marketing budgets and more over the custodians’ mindset. Only time will tell!

Featured Image: Edudemic