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The iScream Social Media Blog

Social Media Round-Up: Snap Ad Buying, Brand Awareness, and TikTok Hashtags

Educational Newsletters

We’ve got a Facebook and Instagram-heavy serving of The Scoop this month. So let’s not waste any time and get right into this social media goodness.

 

1. Snap streamlines ad buying with new Multi-Format delivery tool

Snap is bringing more automation into the media buying process on its platform with a new ad-tech format. Advertisers globally can now buy multiple video formats in one ad set, helping marketers to optimize their media buys on the social media app.

Multi-Format delivery aims to change how marketers think about buying media on Snap, shifting to a more multi-product approach to drive performance, per the announcement. The new system is different from single product ad sets in that Snap’s machine learning tech will determine the best ad inventory to fill ad space based on format, goal, target audience and costs.

The social media company plans to expand Multi-Format delivery in early 2022 by adding self-serve augmented reality formats (AR), a move that could expose more Snapchat marketers to AR advertising and broaden the platform’s appeal among buyers.

2. 80% of consumers agree brand awareness makes them more likely to buy on social

Several years of research has gone into optimizing the ecommerce checkout process. Every facet of the customer experience has been peeled back, tested and tested again, resulting in an abundance of data marketers can use to optimize for conversions.

According to a recent study, 65% of participants have already made purchases directly through social media. US retail social commerce sales are projected to exceed $56 billion by 2023, marking an opportunity that businesses can’t afford to miss. This report unpacks what brands can learn from these early adopters and how they can become even more competitive in this uncharted market.

Building buzz around your brand does more than just boost your reputation. This same study found that 80% of consumers say that brand familiarity (i.e., knowledge of the brand) makes them more likely to buy on social. On top of that, our data shows a positive correlation between time spent on social media and the likelihood of purchase based on familiarity with a brand.

To get more ROI on social, you need to get noticed. A hybrid paid and organic social strategy can increase brand discoverability by getting your most popular content in front of relevant prospects right when they’re ready to buy.

3. Do “For You Page” Hashtags Actually Work on TikTok?

You’ve probably seen your favorite TikTok creators throwing around hashtags like #fyp #foryou, and #fypシ. But here’s the thing: just because everyone’s doing something… doesn’t mean it actually works.

These tags, on the surface, are intended to mark content as worthy of the “For You Page.” But what’s unclear is if the TikTok algorithm actually takes this nudge into account. Luckily, someone has taken it upon themselves to see if there is any noticeable difference.

The end result? Tagging videos with #fyp, #foryoupage, and other similar hashtags didn’t boost my views at all. There was one case where a video got maybe 10 more views on a video with a #fyp hashtag… but there were also cases where the opposite happened. The difference is so negligible, it’s difficult to say for certain, but the evidence suggests that these hashtags are not helping your videos. Use your hashtags for ones that are more in-line with your video.

And that’s it for this month. Come back next month for a whole new batch of social media news.