It’s no secret that social media has been a game-changer for marketers and our society as a whole. It’s estimated there are more than 4.8 billion social media users worldwide – nearly 60% of the population and more than 90% of all internet users. Love it or hate it, these networks have become more than just a means of social communication: they are also primary sources of daily news and information for many users, including your prospective customers.

Many marketers say social will be their biggest channel for advertising this year. A recent Borrell’s Chart of the Week reports that 62% of survey respondents expect their clients to be more interested in social advertising in 2024.

Social advertising is undeniably powerful, but the magic of it hinges on whether your ads are actually reaching real, relevant, and engaged potential customers. Here’s how to make sure you’re getting the most out of your budget with audience accuracy and expert media activation:

• Reach the Right Audience

Investing in audience targeting is a fundamental step to ensure that your advertising dollars are spent on reaching the right individuals. Using third-party data demographics, firmographics, segmenting, as well as previous campaign results, engagement, and audience analytics, you can identify individuals who are more likely to be receptive to your offer.

At OMI, we leverage our massive B2BC marketing contact database, as well as our partner identity graphs, to build audiences for our customers. We also look at which strategies will deliver the best results – such as using deterministic vs. probabilistic methodologies for targeting an individual (not a company or a household using shared devices). This enables us to make data-driven decisions and adapt our audience strategies to optimize campaigns for maximum ROI.

• Media Activation That Performs

Once the audience has been built, it’s time for campaign implementation. Media activation is the process of executing and implementing a campaign to reach your target audience effectively. It includes actually placing the display ads, making social media ad posts, using a programmatic platform for retargeting, and tracking and analyzing the various ads.

It’s a complex process requiring specialized expertise. Marketers need media activators they can trust to ensure the right channels are selected and the audiences are accurately targeted. Plus, the budget allocation towards media activation can be high, so it’s crucial to have transparency in performance measurement and reporting so you see the real results of your campaigns – and make sure you’re reaching or getting clicks from real people (vs. bots).

OMI has launched a new results-driven, digital audience media activation service that has become one of our most popular offerings. Backed by deterministic data for optimum accuracy and better results, our approach leverages OMI’s massive B2BC contact database, real-time intent signals, and our decades of proven programmatic digital media buying expertise. The end-to-end media activation services let you engage and activate the most accurate, targeted omnichannel audiences for your campaigns for increased ROI.

The scale of social media offers access to a diverse and expansive audience, but it's only as effective as your audience accuracy and expert media activation. With these two key steps, marketers can tap into new customer audiences right where they spend a significant amount of their time – their socials.

Reach out to our team for social advertising expertise, strategy, and assistance you can count on.