What are we seeing emerging in 2024 for Paid Social?
As we move further into 2024, Paid Social continues to evolve at a rapid rate. If used wisely, these evolutions provide exciting opportunities for businesses to expand their reach to audiences as well as drive revenue and profit.
Let’s take a look at some emerging trends that are going to dominate the social media landscape in 2024.
The Growing Use of A.I
A.I is revolutionising how brands create content, identify trends and delegate work efforts. The vast amount of data it collects from social platforms allows its algorithms to identify trends based in real-time. This allows marketers to plan accordingly and tailor their campaigns to the customers’ preferences.
In terms of content creation, A.I is able to generate high quality images or videos in a short space of time as well as produce personalised copy.
This is an absolute game-changer. It allows marketers to stay ahead of the game and keep up with emerging creative trends in this fast paced industry.
Not only can you use A.I to generate content for your Paid Social strategies, you can also use it to help with your other day-to day work tasks like planning, record, transcript and summarise video meetings and general folder tidying.
Social Media Search Optimisation
Last year, Google reported that roughly 40% of Gen-Z uses TikTok and Instagram for search instead of Google. This comes as no surprise as video content is the most absorbed form of content out there. 66% of consumers say they search for videos online to find out about a brand or product.
By analysing current trends, you can then start to optimise your keywords on platforms like TikTok or Instagram to maximise your reach.
It’s clear video content will only continue to grow in dominance on social media channels. If you’re not already creating TikTok videos or Instagram reels then now is the perfect time to start thinking about including them in your Paid Social strategy.
Nano Influencers
Influencer marketing is still alive and kicking. It continues to dominate the digital space but with so many influencers out there it’s hard to know how to pick them.
Studies have shown that brands are now opting in towards nano-influencers (below 10k followers) rather than macro-influencers (+100,000 followers). This is due to the fact that they:
- Charge smaller fees
- Focus more intently on a particular niche
- Are more interactive with their audience
What works is not how ‘polished’ their feeds are, but how personal they can be with their viewers. This is key as it creates relevance and trustworthiness.
Automation & Smart Campaigns
If you aren’t using automation and smart campaigns already then you should start as soon as possible. These can create effective and highly-data driven campaigns to generate great results for your clients.
This isn’t to say stop using other audience tools if they’re working – like detail targeting or custom audiences – but brands are jumping on the Smart Campaign bandwagon so start testing them out.
Social Commerce
Social commerce is definitely an upcoming trend as people are spending more time on social media platforms – particularly with TikTok and Meta. It’s a no-brainer to think of this as an opportunity as a revenue driver for businesses.
By using social commerce, merchants can create a more streamlined journey for customers to go through the process of clicking on the ad (shoppable ads*), learning about the product and then buying it without leaving the page.
This creates less friction, and so improves conversion rates while also reducing bounce rates..
Social proof plays a crucial role in the decision of whether to buy or not, so seeing this on the platform already can make it quicker and easier for customers to make that purchase.
*Shoppable ads where the user can click on an ad where it’s showing a jacket they like and it will instantly take them to the product page within the platform shop.
Get ready for 2024
It’s clear that A.I is playing a major role in the development of Paid Social strategies. Even though it has many great benefits, one can understand why some people may be reluctant to use it as it takes away that human element.
How I see it is, the logic of the work is where the creativity comes from, and that’s something A.I can’t do for you. We are just using its tools to work more efficiently and faster so we can come up with the next big idea for our clients.
2024 is going to be a big year for Paid Social no doubt! With amazing new creative tools out there, we now have the capacity to create hyper-realistic content in a short space of time as well as expand on online shopping experiences for our customers.
If you want to find out how you can harness these tools in your social media strategy to drive brand awareness and revenue, get in touch to speak to our Paid Social team here.