3 Automated Advertising Settings to Reevaluate Before Mid 2021

Marketing changes happen fast. If your automated advertising settings don’t change too, you lose out while your competitors surge forward.

The automated advertising settings that worked well for you last year, in a world battling the pandemic, will be outdated as Australia and the world becomes vaccinated. 

The minds and emotions of Australian consumers are shifting rapidly too. In “Getting Acquainted with a More Mindful Australian Consumer,” the latest McKinsey Insights Report states that people are much more conscious of social issues and have lost confidence in the marketplace. 

If you want your ad spend to continue to produce excellent results, you’re going to need to adjust the ad settings on your automated campaigns because people are now making much more carefully considered buying decisions. 

More than ever before, consumers need a personalized, segmented approach that informs, educates, and guides them through build a trusting relationship.

In this short article, we’ll look at how you can retain market share and even grow by tweaking your message. We’ll examine:

1. Current marketing changes.
2. Custom audience settings.
3. Ongoing keyword optimization.
4. Posting schedule.
5. The need for new content.

Current marketing changes

Start nurturing more and stop selling!

Covid 19 has lessened people’s trust and confidence. More touch-points that nurture and educate are now required to make sales.

Customers are more carefully examining the products they buy and the brand’s commitment to social issues as well. People want to buy from businesses that demonstrate the same social values that they have.

Consumers are taking stands on issues like Black Lives Matter, climate change, and sustainability. They are turning away from companies that are not willing to speak up and be heard about these problems.

Businesses that produce all-natural, sustainable products that can command a premium price are growing. People are also searching for locally produced, made in Australia products.

Conversely, because Covid 19 has threatened incomes for 58% of people responding to a recent McKinsey and Company report, and 47% are trying to make ends meet, consumers are looking for promotions and lower prices.

Businesses and consumers are caught between the need for lower prices and the desire for locally made, sustainable products that may cost more. If you can satisfy that desire at a reasonable price, you are sure to win. 

Customers also have the time to shop more carefully on the Internet, which means that businesses need to provide more information to more than 50% of customers who are developing new shopping behaviours.

New opportunities for engaging customers through more personalization, segmentation, and a socially conscious message are rife going into the autumn of 2021.

Custom audience settings

If you’re not using custom audiences, you’re missing out on one of Facebook Ads’ best features. Custom audiences enable you to target the highest ROI segments —segments like visitors who saw a specific page, made a purchase, or consumed a piece of content.

One of the biggest issues confronting businesses is that the content they display to custom audiences must constantly change as it becomes outdated. Going into the fall of 2021, you need content that speaks to people’s hearts, showing them that you care in a way that nourishes current social changes.

In Facebook, you can change many settings for existing ads —image, headline, text, CTA, website URL, lead request form, budget, and audience.

Start by evaluating your current ad performance. Change the worst-performing ads so that your message comes more in line with current consumer’s needs. Paying more attention to segmentation will help you zero in on those needs.

Keyword optimization  

Keyword selection determines who sees your ads, so it’s extremely important to use the keywords that your constantly changing market is currently searching for. Keywords are not a ‘set it and forget it’ activity. 

To keep your market share and gain more, you need to continually be aware of trends and the keywords that those trends are generating. New keywords, especially longtail keywords that enable users to laser focus, will expand your reach and generate new opportunities.

Examining your ad performance will enable you to evaluate your keywords. You can then select the keywords that are currently performing the best and search for new variations of those phrases. The size and makeup of an audience using any given keyword changes constantly as products, social conditions, and buyer habits evolve.

Posting schedule

Reworking your posting schedule can be as dramatic as changing platforms. 

When Twitter suspended Trump, businesses marketing to his right-wing followers were suddenly faced with millions migrating to Gab, Telegram, and MeWe. Those businesses had to change also to keep their message in front of their target market.

Updating can be as easy as changing the time your messages go out.

Many mothers were suddenly forced to quit work and stay home to care for children when Covid 19 lockdowns closed schools. Posting times had to change to reach them. When schools reopen in the coming months and mothers return to work, posting schedules will have to change again.

Need for new content

Consumers now need more touch-points throughout your entire funnel to restore their shaken confidence.

The more socially conscious, emotionally charged mindset of buyers requires a shift in content focus. You need a softer, increasingly humane approach that informs, educates, and nurtures in creating all of your marketing materials. 

You’re probably displaying different types of content to people based on which stage of the sales journey they’re in.

The awareness stage needs landing pages and explainer videos.

The research stage requires infographics, checklists, and comparison guides.

The consideration stage uses how-to videos, e-books, white papers, webinars, testimonials, and case studies.

The buying stage needs upsells, cross-sells, newsletters, and coupons aimed at maximizing returns from each buyer and retaining customers.

As you can see, going into the fall of 2021, most businesses will require a tremendous amount of new content.

Updating your automated ad settings is not a chore that you can ignore. The benefits are huge. Your business will stay current and keep growing market share. However, updating is time-consuming and must be done correctly. If you want the best results, consider hiring a professional service.