Advertising Through Social Media in 2022: What to Expect
Up until this point, social media has largely dominated the marketing space with many brands focusing their efforts on mastering the art of attracting audiences online. On its inception, social media marketing introduced the ability to dive into audience targeting through granular demographics, allowing marketers to get their message in front of the exact right person at the exact right moment.
In 2022, this has changed dramatically: Social media marketing has become increasingly diluted, with everyone having access to market on Facebook and Instagram. This paired with the fact that users have become so narcotized to advertisements, and it’s easy to see how it has become nearly impossible to effectively market on these platforms.
While social media marketing has become over-saturated and insanely competitive, this isn’t to say that brands aren’t able to still see successful results. They simply will need to redefine the meaning of that success as they leverage their presence on such platforms to adapt to changes in social media marketing capabilities. That said, here’s how brands should prepare for their social media marketing content strategy in 2022:
What’s Changed for Social Media & Marketing in 2022?
1. Lead Generation
As aforementioned, social media platforms have become increasingly diluted. Not only that, but Apple’s recent iOS 14.5 updates have allowed users to opt out of app tracking on their phones. These particular updates can be broken down into three main categories:
- Mail Privacy Protection: This new feature prevents senders from being able to use invisible pixels to collect user information, hiding open and click data from email marketing teams. It also masks user IP addresses so their activity can’t be linked to other online interactions or geographic location.
- Intelligent Tracking Prevention: Through this update, advertisers won’t be able to use IP addresses as unique identifiers to link activity across the web to build an audience profile based on user behaviors and page visits.
- App Privacy Report: Users are now able to see how frequently each application uses their permission to access their location, photos, camera, microphone, and contacts data during the past week. They can then review these permissions and determine whether or not their privacy has been violated, making the necessary privacy adjustments in their Settings.
With 194 million active Facebook users in the U.S. and 96% of American users opting out of app tracking after iOS 14.5, it’s easy to see how losing access to data such as these can be devastating to a brand’s social media marketing efforts. Due to these changes, social media platforms have essentially lost their value as powerful lead generation tools. Instead, we will now see a shift in strategy as marketers leverage these platforms to generate brand awareness rather than revenue.
2. Brand Awareness
Since many users are now opting out of app tracking thanks to Apple’s iOS updates, brands and their marketing teams will need to pivot strategy to focus on increasing their audience and generating awareness. As such, the best marketing strategies will include:
- Organic Content: Developing a strong organic social media marketing content strategy will become even more important as brands work to reach users casually scrolling through their feed.
- Lookalike Audiences: Using social media marketing as a tool to build lookalike audiences is a great way to maximize reach across campaign efforts and identify new potential consumers.
- Audience Engagement: Authentic audience engagement will be critical not only for interacting with new customers, but also for keeping your existing client base connected and happy.
3. Audience Retargeting
In the same way that marketing teams will use social media marketing to build lookalike audiences, they can also use these platforms to effectively retarget people who have already engaged with the business. For instance, brands can use Facebook retargeting to retarget those who have visited and engaged with their page. With Facebook Engagement Audiences, marketing teams can retarget users not only if they engaged with a brand, but also how they engaged (i.e. Instant Experience, Video, Lead Form, etc.).
Creating an Impactful Social Media Marketing Content Strategy
With so many changes taking shape in the social media marketing landscape, many brands are left wondering how they can possibly create an impactful content strategy in the new year. At Signature W Studio, we’ve helped countless clients navigate the choppy waters of social media marketing, staying abreast of industry changes so they can achieve the greatest results for their businesses. Our team will craft the social media marketing strategy that’s right for your brand, allowing you to reach new audiences and build stronger relationships with the customers that matter most. Reach out to our team to start creating your social media marketing content strategy today!
