Abdul Muhammad|Jun 1, 2016

In 2015, companies’ spend on social media marketing jumped 33.5 percent to $23.6 Billion. If you aren’t one of the 76 percent of marketers investing in paid social, it’s time to jump on board – especially for video. (More on that in a minute.)

Regardless of whether your focus is B2C or B2B, paid digital marketing can help your brand increase traffic and engagement, generate leads, improve sales and help you garner marketplace insight.

How does it work? Paid digital marketing provides the opportunity to leverage user data and innovative technology to find and identify targeted communities and individuals who are most likely to convert. Between clickstream analysis, behavioral or interest targeting, look alike audiences, and conquesting, you have many opportunities to segment and optimize your social advertising.

As the role of CMOs evolves, and the lines between marketing, advertising and PR continue to blur, it’s increasingly important to strive to be a true Breakout Brand by having synergy and collaboration as your brand’s core strategy.

Naturally, since we’re talking about paid digital marketing, there are opportunities for increased ROI:

  • Mobile first experience
  • Video content distribution
  • Paid social media
  • Leverage user data for re-marketing

This brings us back to video, arguably the most powerful paid digital marketing tool at the moment. According the Wall Street Journal, video ads are expected to be among the biggest drivers of Facebook’s revenue growth in 2016.

Not all video ads are created equal. When developing your own for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, here are three factors to consider:

Mobile Optimization a MUST!

Video and mobile go together like peanut butter and jelly. Last year, U.S. adults spent more than half of their time watching digital video on the phone. Make sure your video is optimized, which affects everything from how your video is framed to how big text on the screen should be.

Length does MATTER!

The average consumer attention span is eight seconds – less than a goldfish.  That means you have very limited time to catch the eye of your audience and enroll them in your message. Pique their interest with visually interesting content, and make sure to check your analytics afterwards to see where drop-offs are occurring so you can learn for the next time.

Visuals RULE!

Approximately 85 percent of all Facebook video are watched without sound. We’ll likely be seeing more auto-play videos across the social spectrum, so you must include compelling visuals and messaging in order to get the most out of your video investment.

Interested in learning more about paid social? Register for the PR News Digital & Marketing Conference, where I’ll be presenting more on the topic.

I hope to see you there! If you can’t make it to the conference, be sure to follow along @abdulmuhammad for the inside scoop!