The Art of a Social Media Test & Learn Strategy
When Facebook recently published a list of challenges marketers will face in 2021, we took notice. As Facebook Marketing Partners, we are privy to these types of insights, analysis and best practice ideas that we always pass on to our clients. And who wouldn’t want recommendations from the world’s largest social network?
The four challenges as stated by Facebook are:
1. Unclear market learnings
2. Decreased marketing spend
3. Inconsistent consumer engagement
4. Shifts in mindshare
Unclear market learnings
The first challenge means that due to regular pivoting of marketing strategies throughout 2020, it has been difficult to zero in on clear market learnings to help inform strategy for the future.Accurate measurement is essential during times of transition because it enables marketers to understand their consumers, leading to better business decisions. Marketers have the opportunity to re-evaluate their tried-and-true measurement approaches in order to ensure they're delivering the insights needed. Getting this right makes everything else much easier.
Decreased marketing spend
Decreased marketing spend is more self explanatory; it’s a hurdle many businesses have had to leap over recently, and find new and creative ways to make their budgets go further.
Inconsistent consumer engagement
Inconsistent consumer engagement is a common factor of rapid change in circumstance. This is something we’ve seen in abundance over the last year, and therefore it’s been very difficult to establish common trends in spending and viewing habits amongst consumers. Again, making it very tough to plan any form of robust strategy.
Shifts in mindshare
And finally, it's been said that a brand is the sum total of a person's interactions with it. If that's true, many brand connections have weakened due to issues such as reduced advertising budgets, less frequent visits to shops and limited inventories. Therefore, overcoming shifts in mindshare entails using creative techniques to brand build for the long term, starting again with the cornerstone: measurement.
Measurement is key
Measurement is key to marketing success, but particularly in social media. Consumers change all the time, their circumstances change and creative trends change with them. If your brand has the potential to reach many different demographics, then you’ll probably already know that messaging has to change with each audience.
Applying a test and learn approach
The one thing that all the challenges Facebook set out have in common, is the fact that they can be overcome with testing and learning. Or to put it another way, measurement and adaptation. The events of 2020 have shown us that we have had to become very adept at pivoting and reacting. And luckily, those of us in social media have been practicing this since day one.
At Mighty Social, our mantra has always been “Test and Learn”. We feel that one of the most ineffective things a brand can do is simply execute the same strategy over and over again and expect the results to change. Establishing a robust test and learn calendar where all key test points and success measurements are established is essential. Using results to inform future strategy is equally as important. Never should results be for results sake. Use the vast array of analytics provided and learn from them. Did this particular audience respond to a piece of creative better than another? Did video perform better? Did a purely lifestyle image result in more interaction than an image with a mixture of lifestyle and graphical elements?
Our work with a Premier League football team perfectly illustrates the need for regular analysis and measurement and perhaps most importantly, acting on the learnings.
Our analysts are experts at analysing this exact data and providing you with actionable results. But the point of a test and learn calendar is that it’s ongoing. Audiences change, circumstances change and we have to be able to adapt, and adapt quickly.
Get in touch today to speak to one of our strategists who can talk you through how we’d develop a test and learn strategy and allow you to get the most out of your budgets. From AB testing, to creative analysis, we can help you improve your ROI and reduce your media spend.