Tag: Social

How to Do Paid Social Without Cookies

how to do paid social without cookies

Google made a big splash when they announced the end of third-party cookies in Chrome, and Apple has announced a similar change. 

It’s a huge shift for social media marketers, so what can you expect cookieless paid social to look like?

Google’s answer to the end of third-party cookies is the Privacy Sandbox, which will anonymize data to help increase privacy and limit spam and fraud.

Social media sites, like Facebook and Instagram, however, are using a slightly different approach. Understanding what these changes mean and how to navigate the future of paid ads without cookies is crucial to long-term social media success.

Here is what you need to know about what this change means and how to prepare for it. (Spoiler: it might not be as big of a deal as you think.)

What Does the End of Third-Party Cookies Mean for Paid Social?

Third-party cookies are small pieces of code marketers use to access data about how users interact on websites, social media platforms, and more. They are placed by a third party and can track actions across multiple websites. 

They allow you to target, for example, users who have purchased a specific item or read a news article about a specific topic on another site and then come to Facebook.

Third-party cookies are used heavily in social media marketing. That has a lot of social media marketers concerned about what this change means. However, marketers have been ignoring some drawbacks to third-party cookies. Understanding the drawbacks is crucial to understanding the impact of this change.

First, third-party cookies weren’t always accurate. For example, if someone uses their phone at work and then their laptop at home to perform a search, cookies couldn’t always track those as the same individual.

Also, if you search for one thing and your roommate searches for another (on the same IP address), cookies can’t always differentiate the two.

Another major concern is privacy. Do sites have the right to track an individual across multiple websites? Where does that data get stored? How long is the data stored? Do people have the right to ask advertisers to delete their data?

The EU and other organizations have pushed back with regulations designed to improve online privacy, such as GDPR.

Despite their flaws, cookies are an integral part of targeting paid social ads.

What does the end of third-party cookies mean for paid social ads?

First, it’s important to note that Google has pushed back the date for ending third-party cookies, which means you have plenty of time to prepare. 

Second, there are already more effective ways to target paid social ads. The shift may make paid ad ROI drop (as marketers learn new strategies), but I don’t expect it to be a long-term issue.

You will need to adjust your paid social strategy to be successful. Luckily, the changes likely aren’t a huge shift from your current strategy.

I’ll cover six ways to prepare your paid social strategy for the end of third-party cookies.

6 Ways to Prepare Your Paid Social Strategy for a Cookieless Future

A cookieless future is coming—but you have tons of time to start testing new strategies for your paid social ads. The sky isn’t falling; you’ll just need to make adjustments to how you gather data and target users.

Here are six strategies to get you started:

Go All-In on First-Party Data

Third-party data is data another organization gathers and then shares with you. It may be incomplete, inconsistent, and downright wrong. That is why several platforms are ending the use of third-party cookies.

First-party data, however, is information you collect yourself about your prospects, customers, and social media followers. This data is not going away. In fact, it’s becoming more important than ever.

I strongly recommend you start gathering first-party data about your audience now so you can test new strategies and see what works.

How do you gather first-party data? Here are a few ways: 

  • Build your email list. 
  • Use lead generation ads like Facebook’s lead generation ads. 
  • Create a Facebook group so you can interact with users directly. 
  • Encourage direct messages on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. (Instagram Stories are a great way to do this.) 
  • Use social media to poll your audience.

Let’s look at how to use first-party data for paid social ads. For example, you can build an email list, then upload those contacts to Facebook and target those users.

First-party data is more accurate—and you have full control over the data. That makes it far more valuable than third-party data.

Leverage UTM Parameters

UTM parameters are small bits of code added to the end of a URL. They often look like this:

Paid Social Without Cookies - Leverage UTM Parameters

Looks complicated, right? This UTM parameter tells me that the reader got to this page by clicking on a link in a Facebook comment I left on one of my posts. Understanding where my traffic comes from is crucial to targeting paid ads and understanding how users move through my funnel. 

These aren’t new, but if you aren’t using UTMs, now is the time to start.

UTMs make tracking where visitors come from easier because they stick around, even if users share it somewhere else.

For example, if someone reads a post on Facebook, then shares it on Twitter and texts it to a friend, that little bit of code will stick around. This means you have a much better idea of where people came from and how they’ve interacted with your brand on social media.

You can generate UTM parameters with one of Google’s URL builders or a URL shortener like Bitly. 

Use Facebook’s Conversions API

Facebook’s Conversions API allows customers to send data about actions they take directly to Facebook, without relying on browser pixel events. In layman’s terms, this means it’s first-party data, which we’ve already discovered is more accurate.

According to Seer Interactive, this allows marketers to access a wider range of data, is less vulnerable to issues like connectivity problems, and offers far more security.

Paid Social Without Cookies - Use Conversions API

Since Facebook and Instagram are connected, this data can be tracked on both platforms. I expect other social platforms to offer similar tools. In fact, Twitter already does. 

Use Demographic-Based Targeting

Most social media platforms already have robust ways to target based on factors like age, location, gender, and other demographic information. This won’t change because most platforms ask users for this information—which means it’s first-party data.

That means you can still target users on sites like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok based on demographic information.

Facebook ads, for example, offer a wide range of demographic targeting: 

Paid Social Without Cookies - Use Demographic-based Targeting

The way Facebook gathers this data might change, but your access to the data likely won’t. You can easily target users based on demographics or use lookalike audiences to find an even wider base to target. 

Leverage Interest-Based Targeting

You don’t need to know every step users take to target them successfully with paid social ads.

For example, if you sell women’s clothing, knowing that someone is a woman between the ages of 25 and 35 (from demographics, which we discussed already) interested in fashion (because they follow three fashion bloggers on Instagram) tells you they’re likely to be interested in your brand.

Facebook already allows you to target users based on interests. Most of this data is gathered by actions users take on Facebook, which means you’ll still be able to target based on interests.

I keep mentioning Facebook because it’s the biggest social media platform out there, but other social platforms like Instagram and TikTok offer similar features. 

The end of third-party cookies sounds like a huge deal. However, much of the data you already use for paid social ads isn’t third-party data or can easily be replaced with first-party data.

There’s one more way you should be adjusting your paid social strategy for the end of third-party cookies.

Use Detailed Location-Based Targeting

You likely know you can target users based on their general location. For example, you can target users within a 25-mile radius of your donut shop in Boston.

That’s as far as most marketers get, but platforms like Facebook offer multiple other options, including: 

  • People living or recently in this location (default option): People list your city on their Facebook profile and anyone in that location based on mobile tracking.
  • People who live in this location: People whose current city from their Facebook profile is in that location. Facebook double checks this by paying attention to their IP address and friends’ locations.
  • Recently in this location: People who were in the selected area recently, as determined by their mobile device. (This includes people living or traveling to the location.)
  • Traveling in this location: People who are more than 125 miles from their home location and in your selected area, as determined by mobile device location.

What does this mean for you? If you’re targeting by location but not digging into the different options, you need to take the time to get more granular with your location targeting.

Paid Social Without Cookies Conclusion Frequently Asked Questions 

How do I use retargeting ads on social media without cookies?

Use a dedicated landing page for an ad campaign, then retarget users (using first-party data) who visited that landing page with your retargeting ads. Note that other solutions may become available as marketers learn more about how marketing will work in a post-cookie era. 

What is the difference between first, second, and third-party data?


First-party data is data you collect yourself; second-party data is data you get from another organization you know, such as another website with a similar audience. Third-party data is aggregated across platforms from various sources. 

Here’s a visual that explains the differences: 

What will replace third-party cookies for social media?

The most obvious replacement is first-party data. Gathering data yourself (or Facebook gathering data about how users interact on their site) is likely the most effective way to replace third-party data. Targeting based on location, demographics, and interests will also become more crucial.  

Is Facebook Pixel a third-party cookie?

It’s actually both, according to Facebook. While the third-party capability is going away, there are still tons of data you can collect with Facebook Pixel. 

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Paid Social Without Cookies Conclusion

The end of third-party cookies might sound like a huge deal, especially for paid social ads. The good news is there are several options for adjusting your social strategy. 

You can gather first-party data, then use that to target your ads. You can better track how users move through your funnel using UTMs. Targeting by location, demographics, or interests will still allow you to target users in your target audience.

Finally, consider using the conversion API options for platforms like Twitter and Facebook. 

Are you ready for the end of third-party cookies? What steps are you taking to protect your paid ad ROI?

How to Conduct a Social Media Audit in Just 30 Minutes

The number of worldwide social media users will surpass 3 billion by 2021.

That’s more than a third of the Earth’s population!

That creates an incredible opportunity to reach online users, and you shouldn’t pass it up.

However, not every platform works the same for every business. That’s why it’s important to review what’s working and what isn’t.

Otherwise, you risk wasting time, energy, and money on flawed campaigns.

Don’t worry. That’s where social media audits can help.

In this post, I’ll show you how to perform a social media audit in just 30 minutes.

The result will tell you if you’re on track to hit it big or if you’re at risk of flushing more dollars down the drain.

Before we get to that, let’s talk about preparing your audit.

How to Prepare Your Social Media Audit

“Auditing” can sound intimidating.

I’ve worked with agencies that charge tens of thousands of dollars and take months to complete a single audit.

In this case, though, yours will be pretty simple. We’ll take a look at each platform and identify a few critical KPI benchmarks to gauge progress.

How often should you perform an audit?

Ultimately, you can do them as often as you’d like to. I recommend at least once a year, but every quarter is ideal.

The point is that you do it consistently and in a way that works for you.

I recommend creating a spreadsheet to maintain all of the information you’ll be recording. Google Drive is a great place to do so since it’s free. Here’s how to do a simple one.

Pull up Google Drive and create a new Google Sheets.

I like using Google Drive because you can share them with your team, partners, and other vendors.

Next, you’ll want to label the columns.

These will be categories that list account information and key performance indicators.

What exactly should your columns contain? Here are some ideas:

  • The username and URL for each platform that you’ll audit
  • The number of followers for each account
  • Engagement metrics
  • Demographic information
  • Popular content

These create a nice base to work off of. Here’s what my spreadsheet looks like now.

Social media audit spreadsheet

It seems a bit empty, huh? Let’s fix that by entering our account information.

Account URLs add to social media audit

I’d suggest that you date your audits or add monthly sections to them. This helps track monthly changes when you audit again in the future.

Since every platform is unique, you could also add columns for network-specific metrics.

With this basic template, you’re ready to use your auditing spreadsheet. Now, it’s time to get to work.

I’ll walk you through analyzing Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. If you are using TikTok or other niche social media platforms, add those to your spreadsheet as well.

Social Media Audit: Facebook

Facebook collects tons of useful data about your Pages and organizes it in one place. You can access it by visiting the Facebook Business Suite.

On that page, Facebook provides valuable insights into both your ad accounts and the business Page itself.

Since we’re focusing on general social media today, let’s first take a glance at the overview.

Business page Facebook social media audit

Right away, Facebook displays information about your Page likes, reach, and the engagement you’ve accumulated. You can filter the results for today, yesterday, the last seven days, or the last 28 days.

Next, click the arrow to the left of your Page to see a breakdown of your best-performing posts.

recent posts on social media audit facebook

This will tell you what type of content is delivering the most engagement and reach. With this information, let’s go back to our spreadsheet and fill it in.

It should look similar to this:

Updated spreadsheet social media audit

As you can see, I’ve entered how many new followers I’ve gained, how much my engagement has improved, and what content performed the best.

What about demographics?

For that, you will need to visit the insights tab. Click on This will give you a report on all of the Pages you run.

social media audit facebook insights audiences

Select the Page you’re auditing and it will take you to an overview.

You can also click “results’ to see how many people you reach (this will also show you Instagram reach if you’ve connected that account.)

You’ll also see:

  • The ratio of men versus women that follow you.
  • The percentage of users in each age group.
  • Which countries and cities your followers are from.
  • What other pages they like.

You have to market differently to every target demographic. Take note of which gender, age groups, and locations make up the majority of your fans.

You can use this data later for tailoring content. But first, let’s input some of this data into our spreadsheet.

Updated spreadsheet 2 social media audit for facebook

With that simple Facebook audit, you should now have a good idea of who your target audience is and what content they enjoy the most.

When you decide to audit your Page again, you can compare these metrics to the updated ones to see how your content performs.

Social Media Audit: Pinterest

Pinterest is a goldmine for marketers.

It’s a platform that heavily rewards quality infographics and visual content. It also offers an awesome analytics page to boot.

Once you’ve upgraded to the free business account, you can select “Analytics” and “Overview” from the top-left corner.

Pinterest analytics social media audit

The overview will tell you your average daily impressions, average daily viewers, and most popular content. These first two metrics are convenient for measuring your account’s growth.

social media audit pinterest pins

As we saw with Facebook, understanding what content performs best will help you offer more of it in the future. This can further increase your engagement and pins.

What kind of content do you notice performs well for your page?

social media audit pintrest pins

To dig into the demographics of your Pinterest follower, you can click the arrow beside “People you reach.”

You will find information about their location, gender, and language.

Clicking the “Interests” tab shows categories that your followers are most likely to be interested in.

Record these in your spreadsheet. In the future, you could publish more content in these categories to see if your followers enjoy them.

You’ll also see your impressions, saves, and clicks on the “Profile” page.

Saves and clicks are arguably the most important metrics here.

Seeing which posts users save the most will tell you which content to focus on and which to dial back.

It also reveals which types of pins are driving the most traffic to your website.

Selecting the “All-time” tab shows you which pins received the most shares and ranked the highest in searches.

Do you notice any similarities between the pins that are receiving the best feedback? Note this in your spreadsheet.

Record any important data in your spreadsheet. By now, your spreadsheet should be filling out quite nicely.

Social Media Audit: Instagram

Instagram is the go-to social media platform for fashion, beauty, and health brands.

Instagram already has over a billion users. Plus, more than 200 million businesses are using it to reach customers, too.

If you upgrade to a business account (and have 100 followers) you gain access to Instagram Insights. This is their native analytics tool to aid you in measuring performance.

It won’t give you insights into content that you posted before you upgraded, but it will give you information about your posts from then on. It can only be accessed from your phone.

Start by tapping the “hamburger” menu in the upper right-hand corner (the three lines.)

access instagram insights social media audit

Then tap Insights.

If you visit the Insights homepage, it will give you a general overview of your Instagram account. It first content overview, including posts and Stories.

There are also three tabs: content, activity, and audience. The audience tab will show you who your followers are and demographics.

Follower demographics social media audit

If you want to find out even more about your followers, click “See More” at the top-right corner. That will pull up two graphs.

One will show you the hours when your followers are most active.

Followers hours social media audit

The other will reveal which days they are most active.

You can use this to find the most optimal day and hour to post.

Audit Instagram Posts

Next, it’s wise to analyze how your photos are performing. You can do this in one of two ways.

The first option is to select an individual post and click “View Insights.”

Likes, comments, shares, and saves will appear at the top. Instagram also tells you how many profile visits the post resulted in and your reach.

Since hashtags are a huge part of marketing on Instagram, take the time to see which ones attracted the most users.

Consider adding that to your spreadsheet as well if you’d like.

Over time, you will be able to weed out the lesser-performing hashtags and replace them with better ones.

The second approach is to navigate to the posts area of the Insights homepage.

Click “Content” and Instagram will display every post from the last year and their impressions.

Insta insights social media audit

You can further filter it by time, type of content, and measurements such as comments or likes.

There are numerous ways that you can take advantage of this.

For example, you can filter by content to discover whether your audience likes photos, videos, or carousel posts the most.

Refine it down to comments and you may notice which captions or questions get the most responses.

Audit Instagram Stories

Have you ever posted an Instagram Story?

For businesses, it’s a fun way to show followers behind-the-scenes action.

With the Insights tool, you can dive into how your Stories are performing. Simply open a Story and click the viewers on the bottom-left area of the screen.

You will find which users viewed the Story, total impressions, and reach. It also documents actions like replies and clicks.

Use this to determine which content followers respond to the most positively with Instagram Stories.

Social Media Audit: Twitter

Twitter advertising is one of my favorite techniques for quickly gaining attention because it’s so simple.

If you visit the Ads Manager, you will gain access to your account’s analytics.

Let’s start by selecting the “Analytics” drop-down menu and clicking “tweet activity.” This will let you view tweet engagement, impressions, and more.

Tweet impressions social media audit

First, Twitter is nice enough to give you a convenient graph of your impressions over the last 28-day period. You can change this to the last seven days or a custom number as well.

Click the “Top Tweets” tab to see which of your tweets in a selected period are the most popular. Twitter determines this based on engagement and impressions.

Top tweets social media audit

Do you notice any trends?

Are certain calls-to-action or styles of tweets doing better than others?

These are questions you should ask yourself to further complete the audit.

Do you know who your followers are?

Well, you can figure that out by visiting “Audience insights” under the “Analytics” tab on top again.

Make sure that you change the selection to your followers.

Your followers social media audit

At first glance, you’ll see an overview with several tabs.

On this first page, you can see information about your followers, such as their:

  • Interests
  • Consumer buying styles
  • Household income categories
  • Wireless carrier
  • Gender

If you click the “Demographics” tab, you’ll see the following:

Twitter demographics social media audit

It’s safe to say that Twitter has a seriously impressive analytics system. It’s convenient, too.

From exact regions to home value, there’s nothing you won’t know about your followers.

Moving along to the “Lifestyle tab,” you’ll get a better idea of what interests them. This is great information to use for tailoring your content.

If you know what they like, you can integrate that into what you post.

They will feel much more connected to your brand when they know that you understand them on a deeper level.

For those of you who are involved in e-commerce, you’ll find a special benefit to the next tab, which is the “Consumer Behavior” tab.

Buying styles twitter social media audit

Twitter shows us what kind of consumer buying style our followers fall under and what kind of consumer goods they enjoy purchasing.

This is a goldmine if you sell products online.

It’s literally telling you how they prefer to shop and what they’re looking for.

Finally, the “Mobile Footprint” tab tells you which carrier and devices your followers mostly use.

What Should You Do With Your Social Media Audit When It’s Done?

You’re sitting back and marveling at your in-depth spreadsheet. Now what?

It’s time to get marketing.

You now hold a great deal of data that you can use to improve your social channels and your business as a whole.

You should start with content.

What type of content does your audience like the most? Try producing more of this and measure the results next week or next month.

For example, you may find that your Facebook fans prefer videos over images. As simple as it sounds, delivering more videos could be the easiest way to increase shares and engagement.

I recently posted this video on Facebook:

neil example social media audit

It was a direct result of a simple social media audit like this.

I’m investing a ton into video marketing because I’ve seen that it produces the best results across almost every platform.

I typically don’t talk about “finding your passion” and that type of stuff. I usually like to stick to nerdy marketing ideas.

However, I’ve noticed that more personal topics like this get an awesome reaction.

Guess what?

I’m adding more topics like this to my content calendar.

The whole reason for producing this content is to gain awareness and increase engagement.

The purpose is not to try and sell anything.

Instead, you want to mix content types and topics to drive the most interest possible.

Then, you can run retargeting campaigns with custom audiences to eventually sell to everyone who’s watching, commenting, and hitting the Like button.

Target a More Defined Audience

With all of the research you’ve performed, you also now know a lot more about the demographics of your fans.

Things like age, gender, and location are much more concrete.

In the beginning, you probably had a rough idea of what your ideal user was like. Now, you know for sure.

I’d recommend searching for market reports based on your target demographics. These will give you further ideas on how to serve them better.

Even infographics like this one from Goldman Sachs on millennials can contain rich nuggets of knowledge about your audience.

Goldman Sachs infographic example how to do a social media audit

Going off of this example, we might experiment by offering free shipping, discounts, or other convenience as the studies suggest.

Once you’ve compiled all of the previous data on your users, it’s simple to find out what works for them.

Reports and similar publications will detail trends and opportunities to take advantage of.

New sales channels and promising promotional strategies are some things to expect.

Overall, you know what your ideal user responds to the best, so you can tailor more content toward that.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

You now also know which platforms are delivering the biggest results.

You can use this information to implement what we call the “80/20 rule.”

It involves doubling down on the social networks that work the best for you.

Perhaps Instagram and Facebook drive the most traffic. If that’s the case, then focus your attention on those platforms.

Putting more energy into just a couple of networks may create more results than diversifying.

This rule also applies to content and advertisements. The data is telling you what works the best, so consider shifting your focus to just a few key areas.

At the same time, you can take this opportunity to test out different platforms. At the end of the day, you’ll never know until you try.

Maybe another social network would perform incredibly well, but you just haven’t tested it.

You can test a couple on a smaller scale and look at the results before you invest too much time into it.

You should also now be setting goals for your social accounts, including:

  • Follower count
  • Engagement numbers such as likes or comments
  • Traffic that you drive to your website

When you perform another audit, you should be able to do it faster. You’ll be much more familiar with the process, which will help you streamline the process.

When you perform your next audit, you can track changes by comparing your numbers to your previous audits.

Over time, you will have a vivid picture of how your social accounts are developing.

Calculate Social Media Ad Budget And ROI

Do you include ads in your social media marketing strategy?

If so, you’ll want to make them a component of your audit.

Ad platforms on Facebook and Pinterest, for example, will record the performance, costs, and other metrics for the ads you run.

Analyze which ad types and creatives are bringing you the best results. You could invest more of your budget into these while dialing back others.

This way, you can avoid spending money on advertisements that don’t deliver the most value.

Even small experiments with paid campaigns can help you better calibrate your organic efforts.

I integrate SEO and PPC for this very same reason.

I run a quick PPC campaign to find the keywords that convert best within an industry. Then, I’ll start building out content and SEO campaigns around this new data.

how to use data from a social media audit

The same applies to social. Run paid campaigns to quickly identify top content, audiences, and so on. Then, tailor your organic efforts around what already works.

Social Media Audit: Frequently Asked Questions

Why are social media audits important?

To understand what is working or what is not in your social media strategy.

How often should I do a social media audit?

Any time you are considering changing your strategy or at least once a year.

Do I need tools to do a social media audit?

No. While they can be helpful, the internal tools on social media can be used in your audit.

What do I do with a social media audit?

Social media audits help you find strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities in your social media strategy. Use it to target a more defined audience, improve your social media strategy, and work harder not smarter.

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Social Media Audit Conclusion

A social media audit doesn’t have to be long or tedious.

If you follow what I’ve outlined in this article, you can complete yours in as little 30 minutes.

Every social media platform offers analytics and insights that you need to improve your social media marketing strategy and speak to your audience in their language.

Preparation and organization are the keys to a successful audit. That’s why a simple spreadsheet is so handy.

You’ll want to keep a record of how these numbers increase or decrease over time. That way, you can draw conclusions about what’s working and what’s not.

Set a schedule to perform your audits, too. You could do them on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis.

Don’t be afraid to experiment by trying out new social media networks. You can add these to your next audit.

Set goals based on the collected data, and you’ll be consistently growing your social accounts over time.

What do you think is the most important part of a social media audit?

10 Social Media Tips for Restaurant Marketing

If you own a restaurant and aren’t leveraging social media, you are missing out. 

Think about this: you can reach thousands, if not millions, of viewers using popular restaurant marketing hashtags like #foodporn and #foodphotography.

Platforms like Instagram and Facebook let you upload attractive images with location tags, making them ideal for restaurant marketing. 

After all, who doesn’t enjoy looking at delicious food pics when they’re scrolling through their feed? 

The restaurant marketing hashtag #foodporn has 268 million posts.

Most social media platforms are free, and if you use effective marketing strategies, promotions and advertising can be free (or cheap) as well. 

This article will help you understand how to use your existing resources and create a strategic restaurant marketing plan to grow your digital reach. 

First, let’s talk about why social media is a crucial tool for restaurant marketing. Then we’ll discuss how to stand out from your competitors and find the most effective social media marketing techniques for your business. 

Why Is Social Media Important for Restaurant Marketing? 

Using smart social media strategies for restaurants may sound like a lot of work, but the effort will pay off.  If you’re not convinced it’s worth the effort, here are a few reasons why social media is important for restaurant marketing:

  • Brand awareness: More than 3 billion people use social media. You can post pictures of your restaurant, upload videos of cooking new dishes, highlight behind-the-scenes/facts about your business, etc. to reach the ever-growing audience on social media. 
  • Engage with user-generated content: The interactive nature of social media platforms lets you increase engagement by sharing user-generated content (UGC). This can include photos of people eating at your restaurant, graphics featuring testimonials, or stories of how people found your restaurant. UGC encourages other users to visit, and share own content. 
  • Address customer concerns: Unhappy customers tend to take their concerns to social media. This is an excellent opportunity for you, as a business owner, to reach out and solve their problem. It’ll earn you good press and build a positive reputation while increasing customer loyalty.
  • Get feedback: Use social media to start a healthy discussion and get useful feedback. Ask customers what they’d like to see changed, what new menu items they’d love, or what specials would bring them back. 
  • Increase your reach: You can use location tagging on Instagram and Facebook to reach new customers living in and around your target geographical area. This can also attract tourists looking for a local spot to grab a bite to eat. 

10 Social Media Strategies for Restaurant Marketing 

Restaurant marketing through social media can hugely benefit your business, but how do you get started? 

Trending on social media and reaching the right users can be tricky as algorithms keep changing, but using the right strategies can help you grow your audience and increase foot traffic. Here are the top restaurant marketing techniques to get you started. 

1. Create a Cohesive Brand Voice

If you have a large team managing your social media pages, it can be difficult to maintain a consistent brand voice. Marketing teams that employ different people to manage each social media page may end up with a scattered “style.” 

If you upload funny tweets from your restaurant marketing account but maintain a serious tone on LinkedIn, you risk confusing the customer. They may wonder: is this the same brand? 

Research shows consistent branding across different social media platforms can boost your revenue. 

How do you ensure a cohesive brand voice for restaurant marketing on social? 

  • have a style guide for all team members to use
  • post images with a similar color theme 
  • write your captions with a consistent tone of voice
  • if you use humor, ensure it translates well across different social media platforms. 

2. Optimize Your Bio on Each Social Media Platform

Imagine you do everything right. You upload attractive high-resolution pictures, use trending hashtags and geotag your posts for increased reach. 

Customers see your post, and they’re intrigued. They decide to contact you for a reservation, but they can’t find any phone numbers, emails, or location information because you forgot to include it on your social media page. 

This happens more often than you’d think. As you can guess, it’s counterproductive. 

The main goal of restaurant marketing is to drive customers to your restaurant. If you don’t include the necessary information, you can lose out on valuable sales. 

Here’s a checklist of information you can keep in mind before hitting publish.

  • location(s) address
  • phone numbers
  • email address
  • map/directions from popular landmarks
  • restaurant information

Take Just Falafel’s Facebook page. You can see the phone number, email, address, and a map so it’s easier to find all the information potential customers may need. 

just falafel social media for restaurants example

Note: What’s necessary to optimize your Facebook page will differ from Instagram or Twitter page. Take a look at the settings, profile description options, and other users’ profiles to understand what you should and shouldn’t include. 

3. Use Social Media Tools to Monitor Brand Mentions

When users talk about your restaurant online, it’s like free marketing. You can use this to your advantage by commenting on or re-sharing their posts. 

Fortunately, there are dozens of free and paid tools available to make this easier for you. You can automate name and mention tracking to get instant updates whenever a customer (or a competitor) talks about you. 

Here are some options to help you get started:

  • Hootsuite
  • Google Alerts
  • Talkwalker
  • Reputology
  • Mentionlytics

4. Feature Behind the Scenes Content

Even the best of food pics can start feeling impersonal after a while. When this happens, revamp your feed and intrigue your audience by posting behind-the-scenes content. 

For example, look at Sandwich Hag’s Instagram post. 

Sandwich Hag’s restaurant marketing post highlights behind-the-scenes content

By sharing internal stories, their marketing team establishes a relationship with the audience. 

This works. 

In a study analyzing more than 10,000 responses, researchers found  55 percent of people find stories more persuasive than facts and data. 

You use this to your advantage by posting about what happens behind the scenes in your restaurant. 

Can you post a special story about a particular dish? Can you post pictures of your staff working? Can you share fun facts about your team? Think about how you can offer a personalized feed to your audience. Remember, most users head to social media to be entertained, so make sure to keep their interest. 

5. Promote Seasonal Menu Items

Restaurant social media marketing is ideal when you’re launching new dishes or promoting seasonal menu items. People enjoy novelty. In fact, studies show humans crave newness. 

You can use this principle to promote special items on your menu. 

Posting about a new menu can work as an effective restaurant marketing strategy

Every time you change your menu or introduce new ingredients to your regular dishes, talk about it on social media. Use your business’ novelty as a focal point for restaurant marketing. 

6. Post Employee Spotlights

Just like Sandwich Hag posted about their employees to offer a peek into the restaurant’s behind-the-scenes, you can dedicate special posts to highlight your employees. 

There are many ways to do this: 

  • Post a picture of your employees when they achieve something (graduation, wedding, birth of a child, etc.) 
  • Share a special Facebook post highlighting who they are, what they do, and how your audience can support them. For example, you might share a profile on your chef, including where they’ve lived and studied and how they’ve impacted your restaurant. 
  • Introduce new employees so long-time customers can welcome them. 

7. Share User-Generated Content

One of the best ways to grab user attention is to post something created by them. Open any social media app and you’ll see hundreds, maybe thousands of people tagging brands in their posts. 

Not all of these are sponsored. 

People love sharing their experiences online. If they visit your restaurant and post a picture on their social media feed, re-share it. It’s free restaurant marketing for you and a spotlight opportunity for them. It also helps establish trust with people who might consider visiting. 

You can share user-generated content in many forms. 

  • re-share user photos taken in your restaurant
  • ask users to leave video testimonials for your restaurant 
  • publish feedback and other kind words offered by frequent visitors

8. Engage With Users – Both Positive and Negative Feedback 

Most restaurant marketing teams are happy to respond to positive comments but tend to ignore the negative ones. This is understandable, but it can harm your restaurant marketing. 

When someone talks about your restaurant, others can see their post, too. You can’t make them delete their post, but you can diffuse the situation by responding kindly. In fact, negative reviews can be a good thing—it shows other users you care about their experience and will go the extra mile to solve issues. 

Understand their concerns, see what they have to say. Did they have a bad experience because something was wrong with their food? Were they expecting a particular type of service you didn’t know about? Do they feel your food is too expensive?

Paying attention and responding to user comments helps you understand how to serve your customers better. 

The best part? It also makes you look responsive and approachable. Plus, it boosts user engagement, so your posts can reach more users. It’s a win-win. 

9. Work With Influencers

Influencers and micro-influencers have an eager audience ready to try something new based on the influencer’s recommendation. 

More brands are reaching out to influencers with various sizes of audiences to boost their brand awareness. 

If you’ve never done this before, here are some ways you can collaborate with influencers: 

  • Offer a free meal in exchange for a review.  
  • Offer a discount coupon for every customer they bring in. 
  • Pay money for custom content on their feed, often called sponsored posts. 

10. Use Promotions

Consider using paid promotions if you want to take your restaurant’s social media marketing to the next level. 

While paid ads might not be ideal for restaurants with tight budgets, seasoned entrepreneurs should experiment with paid campaigns for increased reach. 

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and most other social media platforms offer excellent tools for paid social promotions. You can identify your target audience, set up an ad campaign, and even define a fixed budget for the promotion to run. 

FAQs About Restaurant Marketing

Here are some of the most popular questions people ask about restaurant marketing. 

Can I promote my restaurant on social media for free?

Yes, many social media promotion techniques can be implemented for free. Strategies like using the right hashtags, posting user-generated content, and others outlined above can be executed with little to no money. 

Can social media marketing bring customers to my restaurant?

Yes. If you are armed with a powerful set of marketing strategies, you can reach your target audience and influence them to visit your restaurant. Conversion rates may vary by strategy, but social media marketing can help increase brand awareness. 

How can I promote my small restaurant?

The size of the restaurant has little to no influence on the effectiveness of the social media strategies you use. In fact, as a new business on the market, you have more opportunities to develop your brand voice and intrigue users looking to try something new. 

Which hashtags should I use for marketing my restaurant on social media?

Which hashtags should I use for marketing my restaurant To promote your restaurant on social media, use popular hashtags like #foodporn, #foodphotography, #foodgasm #mealoftheday, etc. You can also use smaller but relevant hashtags like #yummy, #delicious, #brunch, etc. on social media?

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Restaurant Marketing Conclusion

Restaurant marketing is an ever-evolving process. As you get used to interacting with customers online, you’ll encounter new strategies better suited to how your business operates. 

You can start using the strategies outlined above one by one to see what works and what’s not worth the ROI. You can also experiment with your own method to see what resonates with your audience. 

Whether you have a brand new restaurant in one city or operate a chain restaurant across the country, remember to focus on what your target audience enjoys. That will help you create an optimal restaurant marketing plan. 

Which restaurant marketing strategy do you think will work for your audience? 

The 10 Elements of a Successful Social Media Profile

Having good social media profiles can get you more exposure online, help you connect with your fans or customers, and improve your online reputation.

Unless you have a major site associated with your name (like NeilPatel.com), your social media profiles are usually the first results Google shows when someone searches for you.

Start thinking of each social media profile you create as a landing page for your personal brand.

Your social media profiles are possibly the first encounter that someone is going to have with your brand, and you want that first impression to make the visitor interested in knowing more about you.

Here are 10 elements of successful social media profiles.

Element #1: Your Social Media Profile Display Name

Okay, this seems fairly basic. The name that displays on your social media profile should just be your own name, right?

Usually, that’s correct. However, sometimes that doesn’t make the most sense.

On platforms like Twitter, where you don’t have to use a real name, a pseudonym might make more sense.

Element #2: Your Social Media Username and URL

On most social networks, your username is included in your URL, and it’s often different from your display name. Usually, you can’t change your username, so choose it carefully.

If possible, it’s usually best to just go with your own name. Sometimes, if you’re the face of your company, the company name might work better.

On Twitter, Brian Dean isn’t @briandean but @Backlinko, since that’s the name of his company.

Backlinko Twitter Social Media Profile Example

Finally, while it isn’t always possible, try to keep your username the same across platforms.

It can be confusing when this isn’t the case, like Instagram being @yourname and Twitter being @yourcompany or @yourmiddlename.

Element #3: Your Social Media Profile Picture

Should you go with a logo or a personal picture?

Of course, if it’s for a personal account, you should almost always go with a headshot.

What about for a company? It’s a tough call, but it really depends on your goals. If you run a smaller operation or are the face of your company, include a headshot of you.

That’s what Brian does on Twitter, even with his company usernames. This also applies to people that are brands themselves, like musicians, artists, or politicians.

If you have a more recognizable brand or don’t want your company to be associated with you specifically, go with the logo.

Microsoft Instagram Social Media Profile Example

It’s also a good idea to stick with the same (or at least a similar) photo across different social networks. That way you’re easier to recognize on different platforms.

Element #4: Your Social Media Profile Link

This varies from one social media network to the next, but be sure to seek out any opportunity to get your link on the main page of your social profile.

For example, you can add a link on the “front page” of your profiles on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Make sure that your link is front and center so that people can find it quickly and click through to your website.

Another good idea for your links is to create a social network-specific landing page so you can track which profiles are bringing your site the most traffic.

You can use these pages to offer a special discount for people who have found you on Twitter or share information that is specific to a network, like recent blog posts you have written about Facebook.

Element #5: Your Social Media Profile Bio

Your main social profile bio should usually include a sentence or two about yourself or your business. Think of it as a perfect place to put your elevator pitch and include keywords.

In a few words, what would you say about your business? It’s also a good idea to use your bio to its fullest potential. Some sites, like Twitter, only let you write a short description.

If you’re on a platform like LinkedIn, your “about” section can have up to 2,000 characters. This is a huge opportunity to explain what you’re all about and make a great first impression.

To make this succeed, you’ll want to add more than just a simple description of what you’ve done and your current projects. Instead, create a story with a basic call to action.

For example, you can tell how you started with the industry you’re working in. What got you interested in it, and what makes you stick around and keep learning?

Larry Kim LinkedIn Social Media Profile Example

Finally, you can finish your bio with a simple call to action. This can be a link to a free report, an offer for someone to call you, or even a mission statement asking “will you join me?”

Element #6: Your Social Media Profile Interests

Some profiles allow you to have additional extended information about yourself in the form of favorite books, television shows, movies, and so on.

A lot of people skip over this, especially when it comes to business profiles, but that is a big mistake.

Look at these fields as an additional place to get some great value and connections

I doubt there is a niche out there that doesn’t have at least one or two published books.

Find books, documentaries, and profiles of influential people in your industry and add those in these additional fields (assuming you actually enjoy them, of course!)

This adds credibility and a new level of connection you can build with people who are learning about you for the first time.

Element #7: Your Social Media Profile Background or Cover Image

Different platforms have different requirements, but most social networks today have some way to add a larger image behind your main profile page.

Some users, especially on Twitter and LinkedIn, choose to use the default background image, but this is a mistake.

A customized background will allow you to share additional information and give personality to you or your brand.

Don’t make it distracting or more important than your profile picture, but a great cover image can go a long way to personalizing your social page.

Product Hunt Facebook Social Media Profile Example

On some platforms, like Facebook, this can even be a video. If you have the option (and decent video), this can be even an even more engaging way to connect with others.

Element #8: Your Social Media Profile Privacy Settings

After you have all of your profile filled out and pictures uploaded, the next thing that you will need to take a look at is your privacy settings.

These vary from network to network, but you will want to make sure that the information you would like to be public is viewable.

Chances are, if this is a business-related profile, you’ll want almost everything to be public. Of course, if your profile is more personal nature, you may want to hide some things.

Element #9: Your Social Media Activity

Once your profile setup is complete, your on-going mission will be to maintain a healthy level of activity on your main social networks.

It’s not enough to leave a profile blank. You need to contribute to the platform and build connections. After all, that’s what they’re there for in the first place.

No matter what social network you’re on, the basic guidelines still apply. You’ll want to connect with friends and followers by asking questions and responding to comments.

Provide value by posting interesting ideas, or at least sharing interesting and relevant things you find.

If you’re in any groups, become an active participant. Be helpful, connect with others in the group, and share things the group will find interesting.

Element #10: Your Social Media Promotion

Finally, there is nothing like a little healthy promotion of your social network profiles to help more people find and connect with you.

Be sure to add your social networking profile links to your website, email signature, and business card.

Also, don’t forget to interlink your profiles to each other. Many networks have places to include links to other networks, and you can and should use them whenever possible.

Stay connected, become an active member on the social network of your choice, and you’ll start acquiring a following.

Social Media Profile FAQs

What should my profile picture be?

This depends on what you do. If you have a personal profile or your brand centers around who you are, use a headshot. If you have a business where you aren’t the face, your logo will work well.

What should I do if my preferred username is taken on another platform?

Using the same name is ideal but not always possible. If your username is taken on another platform, then use something very similar.

What should I put in my social media bio?

Your social media bio should have everything people need to know about your brand. Let them know what makes your brand stand out, what you do, and a call to action whenever possible.

How can I do to personalize my social media profiles?

You can brand your social media profile by using a custom cover image with your brand colors and logo. You can also put important information in your cover image. On some platforms, you can also add your interests. This is a great way to add a personal touch.

What can I do to promote my social media profiles?

You can cross-promote your social media profile with each other, by adding all of your links to each profile. You can also all links to your website, and email campaigns.

Social Media Profiles Conclusion

If you’re getting started with social media marketing, the first step is to set up your accounts and profiles correctly.

If you’ve already been in the game for a while, it’s probably time to take a look at the profiles you set up.

Are there ways to improve what you already have online? Is the profile picture you uploaded last year still relevant? Does your bio or link need updating?

Since it’ll be the first impression many people see, it’s worth spending some time to improve your social media presence and make it compelling and interesting.

What strategies have you used to improve your social media profile?

How to Use LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index Like a Pro

LinkedIn is a perennially underrated social media platform. It’s not always easy to quantify how effective you are on the platform though. Enter LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index.

This handy metric tells you exactly how effective you are as a social seller while highlighting how you can improve. In this article, I’ll cover everything you need to know about the tool, how to use it properly, and how to improve your score. 

What Is LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index?

Launched in 2014, LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (SSI) measures how effective you are at social selling on the platform.

LinkedIn uses four factors to calculate your SSI:

  • establishing a personal brand
  • finding the right people
  • engaging with insights
  • building relationships

Each factor is worth 25 points. Complete them all, and you’ll get a perfect score.

There are several reasons to aim for a high Social Selling Index. For starters, a high score increases your reach on the platform. Even if the LinkedIn algorithm doesn’t directly take your SSI into account when determining the reach of posts, all of the individual factors that go into calculating your SSI help you reach a wider audience.

A high SSI can also result in more connection requests and more people following you—which establishes you as a thought leader in your industry and makes it easier to connect with decision-makers.

LinkedIn provides data to back up some of these claims. According to their Social Selling Index page, leading social sellers create 45 percent more opportunities than lower social sellers and are 51 percent more likely to reach quota. In addition, 78 percent of them outsell peers who don’t use social media.

How to Find Your LinkedIn SSI Score

It’s simple to find your SSI on LinkedIn. If you’re already logged into LinkedIn, follow the link below to see your score.

Find your Social Selling Index.

You can also access your SSI through Sales Navigator by navigating to Admin and clicking User Reporting.

LinkedIn's Social selling index dashboard

Key dashboard information to pay attention to includes:

  • your SSI score
  • the score for each of the four components
  • how your SSI compares to your industry
  • how it compares to your network

We’ll discuss what each of these metrics means in detail next.

LinkedIn Social Selling Index Metrics

As I mentioned above, LinkedIn uses four factors to calculate Social Selling Index: establishing a personal brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building relationships.

But what do each of those metrics actually mean?

LinkedIn Social Selling Index Metrics

Here’s what you need to know.

Establishing a Personal Brand

For this metric, LinkedIn looks at how complete your profile is and the quality of the content you post on the platform. Do you have a cover photo, a complete job history, and recommendations? How many posts are you creating, and how many views and comments are those posts receiving?

Finding the Right People

This metric is heavily focused on Sales Navigator, making it tricky for free users to get a good score. LinkedIn wants you to use its tools to find the right people, reach out to them successfully, and create systems and automation to make the process smoother.

Engaging With Insights

Are you sharing popular content? If not, then you probably won’t score too highly in this metric. The more content you share and the more views, likes, and comments it receives, the better you’ll score.

Building Relationships

The final metric is all about network management. It’s a measure of how often and successfully you reach out to people.

How to Use LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index

Exactly how useful is LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index beyond being a vanity metric? It’s a fair question.

Some people, like Andrew O’Hearn, don’t see much value in the tool. He believes SSI is a way for LinkedIn to push Sales Navigator.

Do we really want to reinforce the ‘keyboard commando’ proclivities of some LinkedIn users who don’t often test their online assumptions in the real (face-to-face) business-related networking communities?

I think there are quite a few things you can do with SSI, however. Here are a few reasons to pay attention to LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index.

Measure Your Personal Brand

Checking your SSI is a great way to understand the strength of your personal brand and take actionable steps to improve it. After all, what gets measured gets managed, and you may not realize just how far you are behind your peers until it’s pointed out.

Because every improvement results in an increased score, SSI also provides a way to gamify the process, making you much more likely to actually do it.

Identify Areas for Improvement

You may think you’re slaying LinkedIn, but perhaps you’re not making enough new connections or posting enough valuable content. Either way, your SSI can easily highlight areas to improve.

Use It as a Benchmark

Perhaps the best use for your SSI is as a benchmarking tool. The tool automatically compares your profile to other people in your industry and your network, so a quick glance will show you where you currently stand.

You can also use your personal score to track improvements and growth as a social seller. This is exactly what Microsoft did with their sales reps. When they first onboarded users onto Sales Navigator, their median SSI was 48. After a few months of training and activity, their average SSI score increased to 56.

The impact of that increase was telling. Those with higher SSIs saw a 37-percent increase in opportunities, and every 10-point increase saw 4.3 more opportunities.

How to Improve Your SSI

It doesn’t matter what your SSI score is, there’s bound to be something you can do to improve it. Below I’ve listed five of the best strategies to improve your SSI and increase your effectiveness on the platform.

Fill out Your LinkedIn Profile Completely

The first and easiest thing you should do to improve your Social Selling Index is to completely fill out your profile. There’s a lot to do here, so here are some jumping off points to get you started.

  • add a profile picture
  • fill out your job title
  • add a helpful, keyword-rich summary
  • add your education and skills
  • request recommendations from colleagues and clients
  • add examples of your work in the featured section

You’ll be amazed at how much your SSI score can jump just by filling out your profile properly. Be careful, though. You don’t want to include so much information that your profile becomes unreadable.

Whenever you are adding information to your profile, always ask yourself whether people would find it useful.

Connect With the Right People on LinkedIn

You need a big network to succeed on LinkedIn. Remember, while quantity is important, so is its quality. That means you shouldn’t send invites to random people. Instead, you take the time to find the right people.

That means people who:

  • you know personally
  • are thought leaders in your sector
  • work in your sector generally
  • are people you buy from or sell to

The more cohesion in your network, the stronger it will be.

Use LinkedIn’s advanced search functionality to find the right people to connect with. Some of the features are only available for premium accounts, but even free users can leverage filters to find relevant people to connect with and improve their SSI.

You can also find related connections under “My Network” > “People you may know.”

Post Quality Content Targeted for LinkedIn Users

One of the easiest ways to improve your SSI categories is to post quality content. This will improve your personal brand, build relationships, and engage with other users.

Quality content can come in the form of LinkedIn posts, or you can try more advanced tactics.

Engage With Your Network and Beyond

Having a big network is important, but so is engaging with them. You need to be in regular contact with a good chunk of your network to show the algorithm you’re committed to building long-term relationships.

Don’t just spam a load of people with connection requests. Aim high and start to follow thought leaders in your industry. Engage with their content thoughtfully and try to strike up a conversation. Make sure you’re responding to everyone who comments on your posts, too.

Conversations are becoming more important than ever on the platform. LinkedIn reports a 43 percent year-over-year growth in conversations during Q3 of 2021. The more engaged you are, the higher your SSI score will be, and the more conversations you’ll end up having.

Use Sales Navigator

One of the reasons LinkedIn pushes the SSI is to encourage adoption of Sales Navigator. In fact, it’s impossible to get close to 100 without using the paid-for subscription. If you already are a Sales Navigator user, you’ll want to leverage as many of the tools’ functions as possible.

In particular, use the saved search feature to automate finding relevant people to connect with.

Social Selling Index FAQs

What is a good LinkedIn SSI score?

A good LinkedIn SSI score is 70+. Between 40 and 70 can be considered okay, while under 40 is poor.

How do I find my SSI Score?

Simply follow this link to visit the SSI page on LinkedIn.

How important is the SSI score?

A good SSI score can help boost your influence on the platform and make sure you are doing all the things you need to do to become a good social seller.

How often will my SSI update?

LinkedIn updates the Social Selling Index once a day.

How is the Social Selling Index calculated?

LinkedIn uses four categories to calculate Social Selling Index: establishing a personal brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building relationships. Each category is worth 25 points.

Social Selling Index Conclusion

LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index shows how effectively you’re using the platform. Given the importance of social selling in many B2B industries, that kind of insight is crucial. It’s also a way to see how you compare to your industry rivals and find areas for improvement.

With a little more time spent crafting your profile, growing your network, and engaging with peers on the platform, you can send your SSI soaring. That can mean substantially more leads and sales. So, get out there and start making LinkedIn work harder for you.

What’s your best SSI metric?

How to Write Perfect Paid Social Media Marketing Objectives (With Examples)

Having a marketing plan isn’t enough for success. You need strategic marketing objectives to help you set, plan for and achieve your business goals. And you need to have them not just for your overall marketing plan but also for specific portions, such as paid social media marketing.

This guide will offer you a detailed breakdown of what marketing objectives are, what are the best practices for creating effective marketing objectives, and a few examples of what successful marketing objectives look like. 

We have also included tips, tricks, and strategies to make your marketing plan more efficient with tried and tested marketing objectives. 

What Are Marketing Objectives?

Marketing objectives are a set of trackable, measurable, clearly defined goals to help you expand your business. These can include, but aren’t limited to:

  • Profit-based goals: making sales
  • Growth-based goals: increasing subscribers, fans, etc.
  • Awareness-based goals: gaining unique visitors

Such marketing objectives often use a popular method of goal setting known as SMART. SMART stands for:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Attainable
  • Relevant
  • Timely

You should tailor your SMART goals to your unique situation, but here’s an example to get you restarted on your marketing objectives:

Smart Goal Structure

S – Specific: Visits, Leads, or Customers

Do you want to increase traffic, nurture traffic into leads, or convert leads into customers?

M – Measurable: Provide a Number

Decide on an exact number to measure and increase.

A – Attainable: Understand Benchmark

Research your past analytics to make sure the goal is realistic with your resources.

R – Relevant: Relates Back to Overall End Goal

Make sure each goal relates back to overall end goal.

T – Timely: Include a Time Frame

Pick a date that is realistic to reach your goal.

Why Is It Important to Set Paid Social Marketing Objectives?

When you launch a paid social media marketing campaign, it’s essential to start with solid marketing objectives so you create a strong strategy to meet or exceed your marketing goals. 

For example, if you want to increase your newsletter subscribers, focus on building a robust email sequence and craft marketing content in a way that should convince your audience to hit subscribe. Having this marketing objective clarifies your key goals and can help you build an effective social media marketing strategy. 

If you don’t have any marketing objectives, you may end up wasting time, money, and effort on the wrong marketing campaign (for example, increasing passive visitors instead of engaged subscribers). 

To better direct your resources toward building successful ad campaigns, you need to understand the types of marketing objectives you can set and what they mean for your business. 

10 Types of Paid Social Media Marketing Objectives

Marketing objectives are crucial to clarifying and meeting your business goals. This section is here to help you narrow down your choices and dig deeper into what each type of marketing objective looks like in practice. 

1. Marketing Objectives to Increase Brand Awareness

This is one of the most common types of marketing objectives. No matter how great your business is, if customers don’t know about you, they can’t buy from you. That’s why paid social media marketing objectives aimed at increasing brand awareness often come first, especially for new business owners. 

Like other marketing campaign metrics, these can be customized and measured according to your key business needs. For example, if you’re a new brand looking to increase brand awareness, you need to tailor your social ad campaigns to attract new visitors. 

Here are a few examples of what a brand awareness-based marketing objective could look like:

  • Increase social media visitors by 25 percent.
  • Improve page visits by 50 percent.
  • Increase the number of target demographic visitors by 20 percent.

The metrics to track these marketing objective plans are pretty straightforward. For instance, here is an example of keyword metrics tracked by Ubersuggest.

Your website’s analytics page will offer you all the details about your progress (or decline in growth) so you can adjust your marketing objectives and strategies accordingly. 

If you notice you’re falling short of the goals too frequently, it may be a sign you’re setting unrealistic goals. Try to reduce the number and see what happens. 

2. Marketing Objectives to Increase Repeat Visitors

Attracting new visitors isn’t enough; you must find a way to make them stay (and eventually convert). If you’re at that stage, you can create marketing objective plans to improve on-page retention and increase your number of regular visitors.

Here’s what that goal could look like:

  • Improve click-through rates from existing visitors.
  • Increase social media engagement among regular users. 
  • Reduce bounce rates to retain customers. 

This graphic by CXL explains how to calculate your click-through rates.

Fortunately, most websites today track visitors, making it easy to see if your marketing objective plan is working. If you find a particular metric is hitting the mark, regroup and consider what needs to be fixed. 

3. Marketing Objectives to Increase Subscribers

Once somebody starts visiting your page regularly, that’s a great time to ask them to subscribe to a premium level of whatever you offer. They’re already a free subscriber showing interest in your products, so they may be more likely to subscribe to your paid service than new users who don’t know or care about your business. 

Marketing objectives to increase subscribers could look like:

  • Increase subscribers by 15 percent over the next month. 
  • Reduce unsubscription rates by five percent over the next three months. 

You can track these metrics from your subscription services’ analytics page to see what is working and what needs to change. 

4. Marketing Objectives to Promote a New Product

When you launch a new product or service, you have an opportunity to create a timely and relevant paid social media marketing campaign. 

If you’ve just launched (or are planning to launch) something new, here are a few marketing objectives you can set:

  • Increase new product landing page visits to 100,000 per day.
  • Boost social media engagement related to the new product by 40 percent. 
  • Sell 25 new units per day through organic traffic. 

Such marketing objectives and strategies are often time-bound and only last for a few weeks or months, but you should track them like you would a long-term campaign to learn what works and what needs to be improved upon for the next time you run a short campaign. 

5. Marketing Objectives to Increase Sales

Now that you’ve launched your new product and successfully promoted it, it’s time to focus on increasing sales. Most companies across several industries think of increasing sales when they discuss marketing. 

Although marketing can serve several purposes, most businesses primarily use paid social media campaigns to boost sales, so this step is quite important. 

If you’re at a stage where you’re prioritizing sales, here are a few examples of marketing objectives aimed at boosting sales:

  • Increase conversion rates by three percent in the next three weeks. 
  • Connect with 25 influencers to increase social media sales.
  • Increase affiliate sales by 12 percent in the next month. 

These marketing objectives can be directly tracked by how many units or subscriptions you sell. We recommend keeping track of your results to know which marketing objectives and strategies work best for you. 

6. Marketing Objectives to Increase Revenue

Even if your sales have increased, it doesn’t mean your revenue necessarily has. If you notice you’re not meeting your revenue goals, it’s time to devise new SMART goals, such as:

  • Increase profit margins by 1.5 percent.
  • Reduce marketing costs by two percent per month. 
  • Bring down customer acquisition cost to $5 per new buyer. 

Here’s an example of how these marketing objectives can be tracked, explained through a graphic by Chorus.ai. 

7. Marketing Objectives to Optimize the Conversion Funnel

Once you’ve set practical marketing objectives and begun working on your paid social media marketing campaign, you may notice the customers still aren’t converting. Maybe you’re attracting ample visitors, but your repeat customers are low. Perhaps you have a growing number of subscribers, but your customer acquisition cost is too high. 

In these cases, it helps to set marketing objectives to optimize your conversion funnel. Here are a few examples:

  • Identify and fix one weak spot in the conversion funnel per month. 
  • Increase conversion by 15 percent by spending a fixed sum on marketing. 
  • Reduce customer acquisition cost by three percent per month. 

You can track these metrics by closely observing your conversion funnel. Note which step of your funnel is losing visitors and aim to fix that with one of these marketing objectives.

8. Marketing Objectives to Grow Your Digital Presence

Today, 2.14 billion people shop online, making digital marketing essential. If you have a successful brick-and-mortar business and want to expand your digital reach, this marketing objective could be right for you. 

Here are a few helpful examples of what digital reach marketing objectives could look like: 

  • Post four blog posts per month to drive audience engagement.
  • Increase social media followers by 25 percent.
  • Reach 150 new users daily. 

These marketing objectives can be tracked by recording and comparing your social reach. 

Most social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram offer free analytics to help you understand how your audience interacts with your content. Use this data to adjust your marketing objectives and strategies. 

9. Marketing Objectives to Reach International Audiences

If you’re launching a new product or service that could benefit users abroad, create a marketing objective to reach geo-targeted audiences. Once you’ve defined the demographics you wish to reach, you can set the following marketing objective plans:

Understanding international markets can be tricky, so you may have to experiment with marketing objectives and strategies before finding something that provides the best return on your investment. 

10. Marketing Objectives to Increase On-site Time

Once you have an effective conversion funnel that meets your sales, revenue, and engagement goals, you can look for ways to increase each users’ on-site time. The more time somebody spends on your page, the more they’re likely to come back and buy something from you. 

For this, you can set marketing objectives like: 

  • Reduce bounce rate by 4 percent every month.
  • Increase user reading time up to 30 minutes per visitor.

You can track how long visitors stay on your page through your website’s built-in analytics tool. Measuring your marketing objectives solely through on-site time can be tricky, though, as many people leave their tabs open or are too busy to give their full attention to your page. So, we recommend you don’t focus on this objective too heavily unless you’ve completed all the others we discussed above. 

How to Pick Your Paid Social Marketing Objectives

Now that you understand the 10 essential marketing objectives, it’s time to choose one for your company. 

  1. Consider your business goals

    When selecting a marketing objective, consider your business goals. Ask questions like: Do you need to increase sales, or should you prioritize social engagement?

  2. Get perspective

    Consider the entire team’s perspectives before honing in on one goal. 

  3. Narrow it down

    Narrow your options to the top three choices you can work with. 

  4. Test your goals

    Start with one to see what works and what needs to change. If your goals aren’t supporting your overall growth plans, tweak and try again.

  5. Repeat the process with new objectives

    Setting goals should be an on-going process, not a one-time deal.

Tips to Help You Meet Your Paid Social Marketing Objectives

If you want to increase the effectiveness of your paid social media marketing objectives, make sure you:

  • Periodically check in with your team members to make sure everyone’s on the same page. 
  • Track your progress toward SMART goals to identify problems and possibilities for growth.
  • Include external experts’ suggestions to improve your process.

FAQ about Social Media Marketing Objectives

This guide covered a ton, but you’ve still got questions. Here’s a quick FAQ to help you get started.

Can my business have more than one marketing objective?

How many marketing objectives you set depends on your business goals and planning capacity. Larger businesses with bigger teams may be able to plan and execute multiple marketing objectives and strategies at once. In comparison, newer businesses with smaller teams might perform better by working on one goal at a time. 

Who should set the marketing objectives for a successful social media ad campaign?

When you launch a new social media ad campaign, involve everyone in the decisions about marketing objectives. The leaders and managers should specify the big-picture goals, while the marketing team can dig deeper into the details of how to execute your businesses’ marketing objective plans. 

What are the most important marketing objectives?

Every company prioritizes different goals at different stages of its growth. Creating brand awareness and expanding your digital reach could be solid marketing objectives to aim for if you’re a new business. If you’re an established company, increasing sales and profits may better serve your key business goals. 

What to do if my business isn’t meeting any marketing objectives?

If you notice your company is consistently falling short of your marketing objectives, it’s a sign warning you to change strategies. If you’re significantly behind your goals, it may be better to change your marketing objectives entirely. Track your goal metrics, see where your plan is failing, and set SMART marketing objectives to improve accordingly. 

How often can you change your marketing objectives? 

For your marketing objectives to succeed in accelerating your business growth, they have to be effective and profitable. If you notice you’re spending increasing time and effort trying to meet your goals without seeing great returns, reconsider your marketing objectives and perhaps swap them for new ones. 

Social Media Marketing Objectives Conclusion

Setting SMART marketing objectives can truly change the way you reach your target audience and encourage them to do business with you. 

You need to be especially SMART about your objectives when creating paid social media marketing campaigns, as you’re spending money regardless of how well things go.

Marketing objectives help clarify your message and simplify your goals while making them more effective in the long run. 

Which marketing objective will you choose for your business today?

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How to Write Perfect Paid Social Media Marketing Objectives (With Examples)

Having a marketing plan isn’t enough for success. You need strategic marketing objectives to help you set, plan for and achieve your business goals. And you need to have them not just for your overall marketing plan but also for specific portions, such as paid social media marketing.

This guide will offer you a detailed breakdown of what marketing objectives are, what are the best practices for creating effective marketing objectives, and a few examples of what successful marketing objectives look like. 

We have also included tips, tricks, and strategies to make your marketing plan more efficient with tried and tested marketing objectives. 

What Are Marketing Objectives?

Marketing objectives are a set of trackable, measurable, clearly defined goals to help you expand your business. These can include, but aren’t limited to:

  • Profit-based goals: making sales
  • Growth-based goals: increasing subscribers, fans, etc.
  • Awareness-based goals: gaining unique visitors

Such marketing objectives often use a popular method of goal setting known as SMART. SMART stands for:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Attainable
  • Relevant
  • Timely

You should tailor your SMART goals to your unique situation, but here’s an example to get you restarted on your marketing objectives:

SMART goals structure related to marketing objectives

Smart Goal Structure

S – Specific: Visits, Leads, or Customers

Do you want to increase traffic, nurture traffic into leads, or convert leads into customers?

M – Measurable: Provide a Number

Decide on an exact number to measure and increase.

A – Attainable: Understand Benchmark

Research your past analytics to make sure the goal is realistic with your resources.

R – Relevant: Relates Back to Overall End Goal

Make sure each goal relates back to overall end goal.

T – Timely: Include a Time Frame

Pick a date that is realistic to reach your goal.

Why Is It Important to Set Paid Social Marketing Objectives?

When you launch a paid social media marketing campaign, it’s essential to start with solid marketing objectives so you create a strong strategy to meet or exceed your marketing goals. 

For example, if you want to increase your newsletter subscribers, focus on building a robust email sequence and craft marketing content in a way that should convince your audience to hit subscribe. Having this marketing objective clarifies your key goals and can help you build an effective social media marketing strategy. 

If you don’t have any marketing objectives, you may end up wasting time, money, and effort on the wrong marketing campaign (for example, increasing passive visitors instead of engaged subscribers). 

To better direct your resources toward building successful ad campaigns, you need to understand the types of marketing objectives you can set and what they mean for your business. 

10 Types of Paid Social Media Marketing Objectives

Marketing objectives are crucial to clarifying and meeting your business goals. This section is here to help you narrow down your choices and dig deeper into what each type of marketing objective looks like in practice. 

1. Marketing Objectives to Increase Brand Awareness

This is one of the most common types of marketing objectives. No matter how great your business is, if customers don’t know about you, they can’t buy from you. That’s why paid social media marketing objectives aimed at increasing brand awareness often come first, especially for new business owners. 

Like other marketing campaign metrics, these can be customized and measured according to your key business needs. For example, if you’re a new brand looking to increase brand awareness, you need to tailor your social ad campaigns to attract new visitors. 

Here are a few examples of what a brand awareness-based marketing objective could look like:

  • Increase social media visitors by 25 percent.
  • Improve page visits by 50 percent.
  • Increase the number of target demographic visitors by 20 percent.

The metrics to track these marketing objective plans are pretty straightforward. For instance, here is an example of keyword metrics tracked by Ubersuggest.

Paid social media marketing objective for apple

Your website’s analytics page will offer you all the details about your progress (or decline in growth) so you can adjust your marketing objectives and strategies accordingly. 

If you notice you’re falling short of the goals too frequently, it may be a sign you’re setting unrealistic goals. Try to reduce the number and see what happens. 

2. Marketing Objectives to Increase Repeat Visitors

Attracting new visitors isn’t enough; you must find a way to make them stay (and eventually convert). If you’re at that stage, you can create marketing objective plans to improve on-page retention and increase your number of regular visitors.

Here’s what that goal could look like:

  • Improve click-through rates from existing visitors.
  • Increase social media engagement among regular users. 
  • Reduce bounce rates to retain customers. 

This graphic by CXL explains how to calculate your click-through rates.

Click through rate calculation for paid social marketing objectives

Fortunately, most websites today track visitors, making it easy to see if your marketing objective plan is working. If you find a particular metric is hitting the mark, regroup and consider what needs to be fixed. 

3. Marketing Objectives to Increase Subscribers

Once somebody starts visiting your page regularly, that’s a great time to ask them to subscribe to a premium level of whatever you offer. They’re already a free subscriber showing interest in your products, so they may be more likely to subscribe to your paid service than new users who don’t know or care about your business. 

Marketing objectives to increase subscribers could look like:

  • Increase subscribers by 15 percent over the next month. 
  • Reduce unsubscription rates by five percent over the next three months. 

You can track these metrics from your subscription services’ analytics page to see what is working and what needs to change. 

4. Marketing Objectives to Promote a New Product

When you launch a new product or service, you have an opportunity to create a timely and relevant paid social media marketing campaign. 

If you’ve just launched (or are planning to launch) something new, here are a few marketing objectives you can set:

  • Increase new product landing page visits to 100,000 per day.
  • Boost social media engagement related to the new product by 40 percent. 
  • Sell 25 new units per day through organic traffic. 

Such marketing objectives and strategies are often time-bound and only last for a few weeks or months, but you should track them like you would a long-term campaign to learn what works and what needs to be improved upon for the next time you run a short campaign. 

5. Marketing Objectives to Increase Sales

Now that you’ve launched your new product and successfully promoted it, it’s time to focus on increasing sales. Most companies across several industries think of increasing sales when they discuss marketing. 

Although marketing can serve several purposes, most businesses primarily use paid social media campaigns to boost sales, so this step is quite important. 

If you’re at a stage where you’re prioritizing sales, here are a few examples of marketing objectives aimed at boosting sales:

  • Increase conversion rates by three percent in the next three weeks. 
  • Connect with 25 influencers to increase social media sales.
  • Increase affiliate sales by 12 percent in the next month. 

These marketing objectives can be directly tracked by how many units or subscriptions you sell. We recommend keeping track of your results to know which marketing objectives and strategies work best for you. 

6. Marketing Objectives to Increase Revenue

Even if your sales have increased, it doesn’t mean your revenue necessarily has. If you notice you’re not meeting your revenue goals, it’s time to devise new SMART goals, such as:

  • Increase profit margins by 1.5 percent.
  • Reduce marketing costs by two percent per month. 
  • Bring down customer acquisition cost to $5 per new buyer. 

Here’s an example of how these marketing objectives can be tracked, explained through a graphic by Chorus.ai. 

Marketing objective to improve revenue chart

7. Marketing Objectives to Optimize the Conversion Funnel

Once you’ve set practical marketing objectives and begun working on your paid social media marketing campaign, you may notice the customers still aren’t converting. Maybe you’re attracting ample visitors, but your repeat customers are low. Perhaps you have a growing number of subscribers, but your customer acquisition cost is too high. 

In these cases, it helps to set marketing objectives to optimize your conversion funnel. Here are a few examples:

  • Identify and fix one weak spot in the conversion funnel per month. 
  • Increase conversion by 15 percent by spending a fixed sum on marketing. 
  • Reduce customer acquisition cost by three percent per month. 

You can track these metrics by closely observing your conversion funnel. Note which step of your funnel is losing visitors and aim to fix that with one of these marketing objectives.

8. Marketing Objectives to Grow Your Digital Presence

Today, 2.14 billion people shop online, making digital marketing essential. If you have a successful brick-and-mortar business and want to expand your digital reach, this marketing objective could be right for you. 

Number of online shoppers for setting marketing objectives

Here are a few helpful examples of what digital reach marketing objectives could look like: 

  • Post four blog posts per month to drive audience engagement.
  • Increase social media followers by 25 percent.
  • Reach 150 new users daily. 

These marketing objectives can be tracked by recording and comparing your social reach. 

Most social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram offer free analytics to help you understand how your audience interacts with your content. Use this data to adjust your marketing objectives and strategies. 

9. Marketing Objectives to Reach International Audiences

If you’re launching a new product or service that could benefit users abroad, create a marketing objective to reach geo-targeted audiences. Once you’ve defined the demographics you wish to reach, you can set the following marketing objective plans:

Understanding international markets can be tricky, so you may have to experiment with marketing objectives and strategies before finding something that provides the best return on your investment. 

10. Marketing Objectives to Increase On-site Time

Once you have an effective conversion funnel that meets your sales, revenue, and engagement goals, you can look for ways to increase each users’ on-site time. The more time somebody spends on your page, the more they’re likely to come back and buy something from you. 

For this, you can set marketing objectives like: 

  • Reduce bounce rate by 4 percent every month.
  • Increase user reading time up to 30 minutes per visitor.

You can track how long visitors stay on your page through your website’s built-in analytics tool. Measuring your marketing objectives solely through on-site time can be tricky, though, as many people leave their tabs open or are too busy to give their full attention to your page. So, we recommend you don’t focus on this objective too heavily unless you’ve completed all the others we discussed above. 

How to Pick Your Paid Social Marketing Objectives

Now that you understand the 10 essential marketing objectives, it’s time to choose one for your company. 

  1. Consider your business goals

    When selecting a marketing objective, consider your business goals. Ask questions like: Do you need to increase sales, or should you prioritize social engagement?

  2. Get perspective

    Consider the entire team’s perspectives before honing in on one goal. 

  3. Narrow it down

    Narrow your options to the top three choices you can work with. 

  4. Test your goals

    Start with one to see what works and what needs to change. If your goals aren’t supporting your overall growth plans, tweak and try again.

  5. Repeat the process with new objectives

    Setting goals should be an on-going process, not a one-time deal.

Tips to Help You Meet Your Paid Social Marketing Objectives

If you want to increase the effectiveness of your paid social media marketing objectives, make sure you:

  • Periodically check in with your team members to make sure everyone’s on the same page. 
  • Track your progress toward SMART goals to identify problems and possibilities for growth.
  • Include external experts’ suggestions to improve your process.

FAQ about Social Media Marketing Objectives

This guide covered a ton, but you’ve still got questions. Here’s a quick FAQ to help you get started.

Can my business have more than one marketing objective?

How many marketing objectives you set depends on your business goals and planning capacity. Larger businesses with bigger teams may be able to plan and execute multiple marketing objectives and strategies at once. In comparison, newer businesses with smaller teams might perform better by working on one goal at a time. 

Who should set the marketing objectives for a successful social media ad campaign?

When you launch a new social media ad campaign, involve everyone in the decisions about marketing objectives. The leaders and managers should specify the big-picture goals, while the marketing team can dig deeper into the details of how to execute your businesses’ marketing objective plans. 

What are the most important marketing objectives?

Every company prioritizes different goals at different stages of its growth. Creating brand awareness and expanding your digital reach could be solid marketing objectives to aim for if you’re a new business. If you’re an established company, increasing sales and profits may better serve your key business goals. 

What to do if my business isn’t meeting any marketing objectives?

If you notice your company is consistently falling short of your marketing objectives, it’s a sign warning you to change strategies. If you’re significantly behind your goals, it may be better to change your marketing objectives entirely. Track your goal metrics, see where your plan is failing, and set SMART marketing objectives to improve accordingly. 

How often can you change your marketing objectives? 

For your marketing objectives to succeed in accelerating your business growth, they have to be effective and profitable. If you notice you’re spending increasing time and effort trying to meet your goals without seeing great returns, reconsider your marketing objectives and perhaps swap them for new ones. 

Social Media Marketing Objectives Conclusion

Setting SMART marketing objectives can truly change the way you reach your target audience and encourage them to do business with you. 

You need to be especially SMART about your objectives when creating paid social media marketing campaigns, as you’re spending money regardless of how well things go.

Marketing objectives help clarify your message and simplify your goals while making them more effective in the long run. 

Which marketing objective will you choose for your business today?