Here is a transcript generated by Otter.ai of The Content Mix podcast interview with VeraContent’s Shaheen Samavati, Kyler Canastra and Joana Aina Sánchez, on paid social media campaigns:

Kyler Canastra 0:13
Hi, everyone. Thanks for tuning in. I’m Kyler Canastra

Shaheen Samavati 0:16
and I’m Shaheen Samavati. We’re your hosts of The Content Mix Podcast.

Kyler Canastra 0:21
Today we’re going to be talking about all about social media content, and specifically how to create content for advertising on social media that gets you the results

Shaheen Samavati 0:29
you’re looking for. So we have just the person with us today to shine light on this topic, our new head of project management at VeraContent, Joana Aina Sánchez, she has a background in managing paid social media campaigns and was previously projects director at a performance marketing agency.

Kyler Canastra 0:45
Welcome to the show, Joanna.

Joana Aina Sánchez 0:47
Thank you. It’s great to be here. And great to join the team at Vera. It’s been amazing getting to know all the awesome team members and clients over the past the past two weeks.

Shaheen Samavati 0:58
Yeah, definitely has been. It’s been great to work with you so far Joana. So let’s jump into the topic. First of all, how important do you think social media advertising is nowadays in a brand’s overall marketing mix?

Joana Aina Sánchez 1:11
Well, I think paid advertising is totally a must in every marketing needs. Like if you have a killer content strategy, and crazy good organic reach. A paid strategy can help you boost your conversions and get the right target. And if like most brands do, you struggle with algorithms, and your rate just continues to plummet. They finally you’ll need paid advertising to make to make yourself noticeable and relevant, and connect with your audience. In the end, social media platforms are like the motorway to your goals. Your content is the car and paid ads are the fuel.

Kyler Canastra 1:45
Really like that analogy, Joana. Now, we’ve talked about how you’ve joined us. You’re working with us on the team, and we’re so happy to have you. But could you elaborate a bit more about your background and kind of what experience you have working with social media advertising?

Joana Aina Sánchez 2:00
Sure. Well, I’ve always liked to describe myself as a journalist turned into marketer, because I think that pretty much sums my career journey. I started with digital communications then focused on social media management and strategy. And at some point, it became natural for me to bring it full circle with email marketing, and paid advertising. I’ve been curating 360 great marketing strategies for brands in various agencies over the past eight years or so with a strong focus on social media and also meta and Google ads.

Kyler Canastra 2:32
That’s super interesting to his kind of, like Shaheen’s background as well, she was a journalist, and she ended up in field. Which is really funny.

Shaheen Samavati 2:41
Um, yeah. So going back into the topic of social media advertising. Well, you were kind of saying that, that well, that that advertising is really essential in the marketing mix. Do you think that that’s true for every company? Or does it depend on the size? Or you go a little more in detail on that?

Joana Aina Sánchez 3:02
Yeah, well, um, it can be beneficial for every kind of company. Like, if you are a big, a big size company, probably for your goals, it will be a must have a paid social strategy. But if you’re a little company, you should not pass the chance that a little investment in pay that’s good give you to boost the results. Like even if you’re a small company, you should invest a bit because in the end, Facebook, Instagram mirror, social media platforms are kind of moneymakers. So if you really, really wants to boost your your results, you should invest a bit, that doesn’t mean that you should indulge on your organic content strategy. That’s basic, and it’s what will help you engage your existing audience and grow your audience, even when the paid ads do their magic. Like if your organic content is not good, they will check your profile, but they will like likely not stay. But yeah, definately. Even if you’re a big company or a small company, I would invest having paid ads in mind at some point of your strategy.

Shaheen Samavati 4:14
So I was curious, like, what do you think is more important when it comes to paid ads? Like how well it’s targeted or the content of the ad itself?

Joana Aina Sánchez 4:21
Well, this is a very, very good question. Of course, these answer is both. And an ideal strategy I have an ideal ad has great content targeted to the right audience at the right moment and on the right platform. But if you really, really, really want to force me to choose one, which is difficult, I’d go with content, especially as I said, now that we are quickly advancing towards a cookieless world where users keep on opting out of being tracked. We advertisers need to stay very creative and think outside the box to ensure we keep our ads relevant. Even if you have the perfect target. Good audience, you won’t be likely getting any good results if your ad isn’t catchy and interesting. But if you send a very good piece of content to a broader audience, you will probably receive interesting results and then be able to develop and follow up with a more targeted campaign.

Kyler Canastra 5:18
Now, I’m just curious to know, we’re talking a lot about, you know, paid ads versus organic posts. And I love everything about language and writing. And I’m just curious to know if there’s like a different approach that we should take when it comes to writing like paid ads, for example, or organic posts. And what tactics and types of content Have you seen work well, for each content type for advertising types?

Joana Aina Sánchez 5:40
Well, there’s a different approach. Yes. What you always have to keep in mind is that while organic content is usually created for branding purposes, paid content is used to drive sales or leads. Therefore, organic should ensure relevance and quality without forgetting that you’re on a social media platform. And therefore your content needs to be short, and very, very graphic to perform well, like no long text is or any of that, when creating organic content, what you’re aiming for, you’re aiming for a finger tap on the safer share buttons. On the other hand, your paid content needs to focus on gaining your own audience full attention, it has to be short, catchy and relevant with a very, very clear call to action. And they would say like, that’s the most important thing, you have like three seconds or less to make the user stop rate and click for this, it is a best practice to fine tune the organic content that has worked well for you, and adapt it to display that best practices to ensure overall success.

Kyler Canastra 6:43
Yeah, and I think that’s like, the most difficult part I think about paid ads is that you only have such a limited amount of space to say something catches people’s attention. So I think for as a writer, it’s very difficult to work with such little like word count, for example, for writing on it. And do you have like, examples of like a paid ad, maybe campaign that you worked on with content that worked well, or anything from your experience, you can share?

Joana Aina Sánchez 7:08
Um, well, I remember the time that we created this video, like it was an organic, it was a video for defeat. So it was content. And it was super, super engagement, super engagement, getting and performing like really, really well on our social media platform. So someone at some point decided just to like launch it as an ad and boost it and expect the same results. It didn’t have any good results, because it started with a very long line that had nothing to do it was a catchy phrase, but not catchy enough. And the audience saw it and was like, Oh, what’s this about? So if he and here I mean, where’s the importance of adapting your content, your organic content to your ads, we grabbed the same video, change the order of the sentences, so that it said the, the most important things first and then like, develop, and it turned into a success immediately. So yeah, I mean, that’s, I think that’s a very good example, because kind of some apps like even though you have a perfectly perfect organic, or organic content that’s performing super well, you truly need to adapt it to make it effective for forbade that’s,

Kyler Canastra 8:25
that’s awesome. So it’s really good to keep in mind, right? I think a lot of times, we might think that you might need just one content for organic content, and you can’t use it for paid ads, but it’s all about like thinking outside of the box and really like adapting the content to work in a different format that’s gonna really gonna grab the attention of your audience.

Joana Aina Sánchez 8:42
Exactly, exactly. Yes, yes. And you have to keep that in mind like you have if you’re lucky, you have three seconds to catch the attention. So you have to work with that.

Shaheen Samavati 8:53
Exactly was actually like speaking of the topic of promoting promoted posts, I mean, this is basically organic posts that you that you decided to get in front of more eyes by promoting it. When does it make sense to do a promoted post versus like a specific ad? And like what kind of different goals might be there for one or the other?

Joana Aina Sánchez 9:13
Yeah, well, um, promoted posts are great if what you want to do is grow your profiles like that’s what I would aim for promoted post with promoted post basically you’re looking for increasing your your reach and if you’re lucky, and your content is good, increasing your audience for any other specific proposes. I will, I would always recommend like specific ads even is I mean, if you want to drive traffic to your to your website, of course, you need a traffic ad if you want to drive sales. In that case, forget about promoted posts. You definately me the traffic ad, if you want to. For example, promoted posts are really good when you are are not getting a very good engagement. And you need to kind of remind your your audience that you’re there, you promote your post. And so you make sure that you really appear on your audiences or your on your existing audience on your followers feed and stories. Or you can also target to look alikes to appear also on the feed and stories of those people who are like similar to your to your followers. That’s what I recommend promoted posts, I see that in some cases, promoted posts are really overused, like, when you really don’t know how to create a pay that strategy promoted post is like, very easy. And I think sometimes it’s a mistake, because it serves like very specific purposes. But if you invest too much in promoted posts, then you’ll be missing a chance to do great things or to achieve better results, investing that same money in another type of campaign.

Shaheen Samavati 10:54
Yeah, like, when it comes to goals for like, the specific ads, I mean, oftentimes, we see people like promoting downloadables, or different like some kind of like you’ve mentioned, like, there needs to be like a call to action that goes along with the ad. Do you think that like? Like, depending on the type of business like I mean, I know a topic that we’ve talked about before is like, how do you decide between how much to invest in like, one type of performance marketing versus another like Google Ads versus, versus social media? And like, I guess, like, what types of goals do you think work best for social media? Like, because I feel like it’s kind of the people on social media aren’t necessarily looking for you? Right? So like, this content that like, gets their attention and makes them like impulsively, just like, Oh, I’m going to click on that. For sure. Yeah.

Joana Aina Sánchez 11:43
Yes, yes. Um, I mean, I think social media should be part always have a broader strategy, like, of course, it depends on the budget. But ideally, you have a full funnel strategy. And social media is just one of the channels of that whole funnel strategy, like social media is important. But I’ve, oftentimes I’ve seen clients coming to me like, hey, we want to invest in social media ads. And then you see their product. And it’s like, oh, but this is not the right platform for you, you kind of might get results here. But you should be focusing your your your budget, say in Google ads, because it serves better to like you want to sell this product that’s very niche and very specific. Or maybe you should use the weather in shopping campaigns in Google Shopping campaigns that methods. Nonetheless, it is true that be that in social media are very good for lead magnets in Fairbrother. agencies that offer certain service consultants, that’s very good to first of all, give a first impact of the product itself to an audience that and it’s quite easy to target marketers and these kinds of professional social media. So it’s a good first approach like to see who is interested in your content and then kill it with a remarketing strategy. That’s a lead generator. Like I show you the ad, I see if you supper or dogs up, I see how many seconds of these ads you actually build. And then after that, in three days, I launched this remarketing campaign and will be like a get a 10% discount, get a 10% discount on this course or subscribe to my newsletter and you might get this free product. So yeah, I mean, I think summing up. It’s social media ads are not the best for everyone although are like the easiest platform to start with. But for agencies lead, lead magnets, etc. They perform really good.

Shaheen Samavati 13:51
Okay, so you’re referring to retargeting, right? So that’s like when the same content is showing up to an audience that’s already kind of shown interest in you’re in one of your ads or has visited your website, right?

Joana Aina Sánchez 14:02
Yes, exactly. I mean, retargeting really is the best option because it allows you to to interact with someone that has already shown interest in your ad and targeting your audience is not that easy anymore, as privacy policies are getting broader. And governments and institutions are like limiting how specific you can be in gathering information about your audience. And also, as we mentioned before, people are opting out of being tracked like increasing increasingly opting out of being tracked. So it is very important to focus on retargeting strategies because you can still gather some information based on the IP of the client, etc. So it’s very important basically, because you are addressing your art and your money to someone you know, is interested in your product somehow. because they have already interacted with you, even in an ad, an ad or your website, etc. So yeah, that’s very powerful and totally should keep in mind.

Shaheen Samavati 15:09
And maybe it’s something that it’s timely to take advantage of this now, because we don’t know when the rules might change.

Joana Aina Sánchez 15:18
Yes, yes, exactly the while you can retarget do it because it’s extremely effective.

Kyler Canastra 15:25
For sure. Now, while we’re on the topic of social media advertising, obviously, I think in our experience of our content, I feel like a lot of our clients are sticking mostly to Facebook and Instagram, which are the two metal, main metal platforms. And we’ve been speaking about that now. But I also feel like you okay, I feel like I’m young, you know, I’m turning 30 This month, but like, I still feel like there’s like other platforms out there that I don’t connect with my generation. And I feel like a big difference, like tick tock, for example. Now, in your opinion, Joanna, do you think like, the meta platforms like Instagram and Facebook are the best for social media targeting? Or are there other platforms that we need to keep in mind? Maybe like, tick tock, which is I think it’s, like, totally distant from me. But it can be.

Joana Aina Sánchez 16:08
Yeah, they finally it’s hard, because I’m very young too. And still, I feel like there’s a generational gap for me, I’m tick tock, although I’m just 31. So, but definately, keeping tick tock out of your strategy is a complete mistake, like Facebook and Instagram are the most popular social channels on global scale. But tick tock, LinkedIn, and YouTube, you should totally keep them in your strategy. Tick tock is extremely, extremely relevant for younger audiences. Not only things like young audiences, in general, as well, like, to what, and someone’s young, it’s very hard to defend. And by that, I mean that a broader audience is on Tiktok right now, and people go like to have fun. So you should definately consider placing your ads there. Also, LinkedIn should go your go to for professional services, and YouTube. Well, YouTube is like a miniature cinema screen, they are all incredibly incredibly, incredibly effective. When will, for example, tick tock on LinkedIn, it’s true that they are very specific in terms of targeting. But here you see how important and relevant content is like good content addressed to the this specific audience that on tick tock on LinkedIn can do magic, YouTube, it’s quite expensive. And any ad that you’re on there needs to be backed by a broader strategy that can follow and support your results there. Because on itself is very, very expensive. But if your content and target are good, the results there can be magic,

Kyler Canastra 17:51
right? And on YouTube, we only have like those first five seconds a lot of times before to skip the ad. So you really have to be like creative No, in those types of,

Joana Aina Sánchez 17:59
yeah, no, that’s the magic with YouTube, like in Instagram and Facebook, you don’t get to do super good ads, like super creative, but you just need to do something that’s very straight to the point because you know that you have a second but on YouTube, you can get between five and 20 full seconds of attention. And that’s a lot even five seconds, the five seconds you get before someone can actually tap skip the app that’s a lot lost allows you a lot of creativity allows like introducing yourself in a very different way in a catch your way to the to the audience. And when you get the full 20 seconds, that’s when when your video shows like interrupts the video that the user is watching and shows like in there. I mean, that’s fantastic and allows you to do great things, I guess. I guess also is because of that that YouTube is most expensive because as I said it’s like a mini TV screen save

Kyler Canastra 18:57
the whole production as well between the needs to get the slots

Shaheen Samavati 19:04
totally like on Facebook you like obviously it’s best practice to use video but you’re not getting audio most of the time like a lot of people have their audio turned up but with with YouTube, you’re got their full attention on your video or not seeing anything else.

Joana Aina Sánchez 19:18
Exactly. And they have to say and that’s like my own harvest that although you video it’s supposed to be like the top content on Facebook and Instagram. For me usually, graphics work better because it’s just easier to give your message to the to the audience like I prefer a slideshow on on Instagram stories like three images one after the other because you get to show three messages with just the price of one click. I prefer those images rather than video because you have to be very good or you have to find someone that’s like really, really, really into spending the whole Oh, three second that takes watching a video, actually. And that’s not easy, because people usually binge watch Instagram stories and they’re like, tap tap. Tap, tap, tap tap. Well, it’s the same. So yeah, I mean, definately

Shaheen Samavati 20:18
Well, it’s like first, on those platforms, it’s like you’re making the video for the sake of getting them to stop scrolling and read the text. But oftentimes, they’re not actually going to watch the video. So the quality of the video is less important than it would be like on YouTube. But like I find, I see just because there’s a moving video, okay, what is that? I’m going to read it, but I’m not going to necessarily watch it. Because of the autoplay feature that you have on like, FaceTime, it’s true.

Joana Aina Sánchez 20:41
I feel that in that, I mean, for Instagram, and Facebook, usually, animations work well, because, as you said, like you see something moving and you look at that, and but you need like, all the information to flash in, in one two seconds to get the attention. YouTube is different YouTube. Truly like the same math that you see on TV. You see them on YouTube, like shorter, but you see that same type of fat because advertisers know that they’re they have like the full attention of the of the spectator. Yes. Yeah,

Shaheen Samavati 21:16
that’s sure. Totally. So um, we’re already getting into this question. But I wanted to ask you like, how different Do you think your content approach needs to be for advertising on different social media platforms? I think we’ve covered YouTube. But yeah, in general, do you think it’s necessary to create unique content for each platform that you’re on?

Joana Aina Sánchez 21:34
And then 99% of the situations? I would say yes. And at the same time, you should even consider using one platform, or the other or even better, like a multi platform strategy? Totally depending on what are your goals? The first thing to keep in mind always is, who is on the other side of the screen? And most important, what are they doing? Like? Are they doing a quick read through your LinkedIn feed? While at work? Are they doing an Instagram scroll while waiting for the metro or watching the series at night, or they binge watching videos on Tiktok. On Instagram, the user is ready to tap or scroll. And as we said, like jump to the next post within seconds. So basically, you have one second less to catch their attention. And then click with that in mind also, also videos, the Kindle content, as we said, and it’s definately a very, very good option for an Instagram feed. I prefer images or even animations with a short catchy and straight to the point before stories. YouTube, we said that, it’s more classic to it’s more classic to TV, because you get you get the full attention for like between five and 20 seconds. And that’s the lot. Tick tock or LinkedIn will work for very specific purposes. For example, tick tock doesn’t even allow you to use the images you have to use only videos on on Tiktok. LinkedIn, it’s very expensive for small budgets, but they are both when you want to generate the warmness. And they are great lead generation generators. So yes, summing up, you need to create a different kind of, of content for each of the platforms, and use each of the platforms thinking of what the user is doing at that moment. And if that serves your propose,

Shaheen Samavati 23:32
I want one last thing on this topic like on the different platforms like I feel like a lot of our clients focus on meta platforms, because they feel that it’s like the best for like the most sophisticated, I guess for targeting, do you think that’s the case? Or the other platforms catching up? Or do you think Facebook and Instagram are still the best for like being able to really zoom in on like exactly who you want to target with your message?

Joana Aina Sánchez 23:57
Yes, I’m speaking of social media platforms. Yes. Except for LinkedIn, like LinkedIn is excellent for posts, like if you are selling a product or an info product, if you’re like trying to sell your services as

Shaheen Samavati 24:15
b2b In general, right? Yes, exactly.

Joana Aina Sánchez 24:18
For that, I would also recommend LinkedIn. And I’ve also seen LinkedIn work really well, for insurance insurance companies and these kinds of things. Like, you know, you are approaching people with a very serious mindset, because you’re trying to sell like a huge insurance. So you go to people that you know, are kind of busy and working in certain industries while they are working. So they are like more focused on this kind of serious things. Like don’t try to sell incidences at 10 in the night on Instagram because nobody’s so so yes, I would say that. Instagram and Facebook, I mean, they have they have a long term of its perience. So it’s normal that brands and marketers feel more comfortable in those in those, it is true that tick tock is still very limited for segmentation options. And LinkedIn like for certain brand proposes, you should really consider it, it is true that you need quite an investment like Tonkotsu linkwithin with a budget, that’s less than 1000 per month. But if you have that budget, and your business is like in the in that spectrum, you should certainly consider it because it’s it works well. Yeah, for

Kyler Canastra 25:37
sure. It’s interesting to see how everything is evolving and changing, like I think of tick tock, for example, and how, like you said, it’s not the best for segmentation, but it’s for the music industry, for example, I guess it depends on the industry to like, it’s really done crazy things for like artists who are unknown, and suddenly their songs are no one around the world product placement in those studios doing stuff. So it’s definitely I feel like we’re still figuring out tick tock, but it could be like the way of the future as well. Now, it really wouldn’t be an episode of the content mix. If I didn’t try to squeeze in something about localization, because that era content that’s like our bread and butter, we really help different organizations and brands kind of break in to the European market and targeting by targeting different language markets as well. So Joana, in your experience, what do you consider the best practice or best practices for targeting different language markets? And do you think it’s necessary to have a page for every language that you advertise in? This is a question that we get probably on a weekly basis?

Joana Aina Sánchez 26:35
Yes, I mean, absolutely. At least each of the markets should have a page in its own language as it will allow you to take all the engagement and results to a whole new level. Usually, you only get to sell your product after the user has had seven interactions with your brand. So most likely, after they see your ad, they will visit your social media profile, and if it’s not in their language, in most cases, you can call that a missed shot and a total waste of money. So yes, I would totally recommend investing in localization when expanding to new markets as it’s a must for success.

Kyler Canastra 27:23
Would you say that for all platforms, across all platforms, you should be using localized content in different languages? Or are there some that are better than others?

Joana Aina Sánchez 27:32
Well, it totally depends on what’s your strategy, and what’s your budget,. My approach is always to do the best you can with what with what you have, like, if you have a really, really, really low budget, keep it short, try to be in as many languages as possible, in as many platforms as possible. But prioritize like depending on the total budget you have, because creating content is not for free. Setting data is not for free. So in that case, I would recommend to prioritize, but my approach is always like, do good in one platform, and then expand to other platforms, like, think of who your audiences think, like where, where can I find them what platform they are using, when I need them to be using it right? And then do work with the hugest amount of resources that you can in that specific platform, when you have that under control. And your results are killing it. And you can expand and then go to other platforms. But yes, I mean, focus on doing very well in one platform.

Kyler Canastra 28:42
Yeah, you don’t want to start the budget too thin and then do a good job with every platform.

Shaheen Samavati 28:47
Of course I have strong opinions on this one, so I just will echo on what Joana said. If you’re creating an ad in a language, then you’re creating an expectation that you’re going to be able to do business with that client in that language. So, you not only have to have the ad, you have to have all the resources on your website, the social media pages that are connected to that ad, as well as your operations as well. You should only advertise in a language if you also have customer support in that language and your salespeople can talk to them in that language. If you’re going to target a market, you kind of have to go all-in on the language and it has to be part of the overall strategy.

Joana Aina Sánchez 29:27
Yes, I totally agree. And I’ve seen companies like kind of fail because of that like launching ads in Spanish to moms between grannies and then having the website just in English. And of course, the ad performed very well but the sales were disaster like the bounce rate in the website and when you saw the analytics was a complete disaster because you are talking to someone and then you cannot address them in their language makes no sense at all. So,

Kyler Canastra 30:01
yeah, he’s definitely needs to have customer support. And that language would be very awkward if the person left got to your company. And then they came and like speak their own language, the real them and what exactly, but I had fortunately ever kind of come to the end of the interview, I feel like we’ve got a really good glimpse into life behind the scenes that bear content now with these conversations that we have about different clients and different approaches that we’re trying to take with different accounts. But I’m sure Shaheen and I can both say that we’re really excited to have John on with us on our team. She’s obviously a wealth of knowledge. And so it’s really been fun to learn from her. And we’re really excited to see where we can go with having her on the team. Thanks so much, John.

Joana Aina Sánchez 30:41
Thank you. It’s been great being being in your podcast and looking forward to keep on working with you.

Kyler Canastra 30:47
Yeah, thank you so much, Joana. And as always, we want to thank everybody for listening in. For more perspective on the content marketing industry in Europe, definitely check out veracontent.com/mix. If you’d like to get in touch with any of us, or if you have any interesting topic for an upcoming episode, feel free to reach out to us at mix@veracontent.com And keep tuning to the podcast for more interviews with content experts like Joanna Thank you and see you all next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai