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Partnering with a Meta Ad Agency for Optimized 2024 Holiday Advertising Costs

The peak 2024 holiday season is fast approaching, and with Meta restricting political ads a week before the election date, the ad space is again available for brands to compete.

Some brands may have paused their ads in October in anticipation of the influx of 50% of the political ad budget. We previously recommended against pausing your ads during this period; instead, it’s better to maintain an always-on approach while guiding your Facebook and Instagram audiences through awareness, engagement, and conversion campaigns.

To help you achieve peak performance during this busy season, here’s why a Meta advertising agency is key to optimizing your Q4 2024 holiday advertising costs.

How A Meta Ad Agency Can Improve Your 2024 Holiday Advertising Costs

In addition to assisting you in activating and managing your holiday ad campaigns during Q4 2024, partnering with a Meta ad agency to enhance your holiday marketing offers numerous advantages. Even with limited time for the learning phase, the expertise of a Meta advertising agency can serve as the foundation for steering your holiday ads toward success.

Expert Knowledge of Meta Holiday Ad Costs

A key priority for a social media advertising agency is making sure your ads deliver results and keeping your holiday advertising costs within your campaign budget—or even lower.

Strike Social’s service promise is our commitment to achieving your desired outcomes—whether that means hitting specific CPM or CPV targets or reaching a particular number of impressions or views within a set timeframe. With our expertise as a Meta ad agency, we establish benchmarks based on current rates, allowing us to devise effective strategies that meet your financial goals.

Strike Social’s Campaign Lab data for Q4 2024 indicates a trend of rising CPMs as the year progresses, underscoring the importance of proactive planning.

Consequently, we recommend building awareness in the months leading up to Q4, specifically in September and October. Then, ensure that you guide these audiences toward your lower-funnel campaigns, such as post engagement campaigns and traffic and conversion efforts. By October, shoppers are already searching for brands to consider for their holiday purchases.

However, awareness campaigns should follow an always-on strategy, as CPM levels tend to stabilize at a lower rate when Q5 begins at the start of the year. Meanwhile, lower-funnel campaigns show positive trends from Q4 through Q5, making this an ideal period for your holiday advertising efforts to shine, including capturing last-minute shoppers.

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Further Reading

Boost Your Q4 Holiday Ad Conversions with Facebook Engagement Campaigns

As the holiday season heats up, it’s an ideal moment to drive audiences further down the funnel and maximize conversions. Facebook engagement campaigns excel in turning brand reach and visibility into meaningful interactions, positioning your brand for impactful results throughout the holiday period.

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Hypergranular Targeting for Audience Segments That Drive Engagement

Just as you can utilize Facebook Audience Insights to identify target demographics such as age, gender, and location for your paid ads, a Meta ad agency leverages extensive insights gained from hundreds to thousands of previous successful campaigns.

An experienced agency specializing in Meta advertising possesses extensive knowledge from managing numerous Facebook and Instagram campaigns. Historical data from past campaigns is a valuable reference for understanding which audience segments perform best for specific industries and determining the optimal breadth or narrowness of targeting to achieve your desired views and clicks.

With over a decade of campaign experience on Meta and other social media advertising platforms, we have access to billions of data points that inform our decisions about ideal audience sizes and costs for precise targeting.

One of our recent successes involved a local fitness club aiming to drive digital sign-ups through a Facebook advertising campaign. Through link-click campaigns and precise location-based targeting, we ensured that ads reached the right audiences within the club’s service area. This strategic approach resulted in over 300,000 sign-ups, 1.5 million link clicks, and 700 million impressions, significantly enhancing the club’s digital presence.

Download the Facebook Health and Fitness Case Study here

Knowledge of Effective Ad Formats and Strategic Placements

With a deep understanding of Meta’s most effective ad formats, a Meta ad agency customizes options like Reels, carousels, and Stories to enhance engagement and performance. As Meta continues to expand its diverse array of ad formats and Advantage+ placements, it’s worth exploring which aspects of the Meta advertising network will drive traction for your holiday advertising campaigns.

For your Q4 2024 holiday advertising, Meta has introduced a new AI-powered feature within its Advantage+ shopping campaigns, allowing promotions to be showcased within the same ad. For instance, a promo code can be prominently displayed as a spotlight feature on a Reels ad:

Based on insights from Strike Social’s Campaign Lab data, here are our recommendations for the top Meta ad placements and advertising formats for your Q4 2024 holiday campaigns:

24/7 Execution of API-led Bid Optimization

To enhance this process, our Campaign Lab technology facilitates continuous campaign monitoring every two hours. Notifications are sent to the designated media buying team, making sure there is always vigilant oversight on your Facebook and Instagram holiday campaigns.

Strike Social’s Proven Success on Meta Advertising

We can confidently say that you should choose us to manage your holiday advertising campaigns this year, but what is our promise without the backing of our clients’ success?

How Targeted Meta Ad Placements Produce 34% CPLC Efficiency

As part of its anniversary collection, a luxury watch brand’s Facebook advertising campaign needed to introduce its new product line. While their brand represents luxury and prestige, the goal was to effectively reach a broad audience that would likely engage with their Facebook ad campaigns.

Results: The campaign successfully combined targeted placements to drive engagement and cost efficiency. Facebook overlay ads on Reels captured 77% of overall impressions and generated 48% of link clicks, proving highly effective in reaching a wide audience. Feed placements provided an additional 15% of impressions and accounted for 36% of link clicks, while Instagram Stories, though a smaller contributor, added 3% of impressions and 8% of link clicks. 

In terms of cost efficiency, each format demonstrated significant savings: Reels overlay ads reduced the cost per link click (CPLC) by 49%, Feed placements by 44%, and Instagram Stories by 38%. Altogether, this strategic mix resulted in a 34.69% reduction in overall CPLC compared to the projected rate, highlighting the advantage of targeted ad formats and thoughtful budget allocation for achieving high engagement at a lower cost.

Achieving 28x Facebook ROAS Through Data-Driven Monitoring

For a leading financial services provider, Strike Social executed a comprehensive campaign focused on acquiring conversions and leads, going through a meticulous approach from setup to ongoing optimization. It was a large-scale endeavor for a Facebook campaign and presented challenges, especially being far from the Thanksgiving and Christmas advertising surge.

Results: The conversion campaigns went live within 48 hours, swiftly generating impressions, clicks, and leads. Ongoing monitoring of the Meta Pixel was essential to maintain its effectiveness, allowing us to quickly resolve any issues in collaboration with the client. We also kept a close eye on cost per acquisition (CPA) and auction bids, which helped us meet our campaign objectives while staying within budget.

Thanks to this strategic approach, the Meta ad campaign achieved an impressive 28x Facebook ROAS, resulting in 66,000 leads and over 7,000 purchases through Facebook ads.

Your Go-To Meta Advertising Agency Partner is Just a Click Away

Choosing Strike Social as your Meta advertising agency means gaining access to unparalleled expertise, advanced tools, and proven strategies designed to optimize your Q4 holiday advertising costs.

With our focus on precise audience targeting, mastery of ad formats and placements, and proactive campaign adjustments, we are committed to helping you achieve both performance and cost-efficiency in your 2024 holiday marketing strategy.

Scaling your 2024 holiday advertising campaigns can be made easy. Fill out the form below for a personalized walkthrough of our ad tech solutions and discover how a certified Meta advertising partner can drive success for your campaigns. Whether you aim to reach new audiences or convert them into loyal customers, Strike Social is here to help.

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• Receive your Facebook Advertising case study and a personalized info pack from our sales team.

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Country *United StatesAfghanistanAlbaniaAlgeriaAndorraAngolaAntigua & DepsArgentinaArmeniaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBhutanBoliviaBosnia HerzegovinaBotswanaBrazilBruneiBulgariaBurkinaBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCentral African RepChadChileChinaColombiaComorosCongoCongo {Democratic Rep}Costa RicaCroatiaCubaCyprusCzech RepublicDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEast TimorEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFijiFinlandFranceGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGreeceGrenadaGuatemalaGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHondurasHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIranIraqIreland {Republic}IsraelItalyIvory CoastJamaicaJapanJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKorea NorthKorea SouthKosovoKuwaitKyrgyzstanLaosLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMacedoniaMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMarshall IslandsMauritaniaMauritiusMexicoMicronesiaMoldovaMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmar, {Burma}NamibiaNauruNepalNetherlandsNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNorwayOmanPakistanPalauPanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPolandPortugalQatarRomaniaRussian FederationRwandaSt Kitts & NevisSt LuciaSaint Vincent & the GrenadinesSamoaSan MarinoSao Tome & PrincipeSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSlovakiaSloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth AfricaSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSudanSurinameSwazilandSwedenSwitzerlandSyriaTaiwanTajikistanTanzaniaThailandTogoTongaTrinidad & TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTuvaluUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVatican CityVenezuelaVietnamYemenZambiaZimbabwe

Are you spending at least US$10,000 per month on paid social media advertising? *

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What social media platforms are you interested in advertising on? *

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• Awareness
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• Engagement
• Traffic
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The post How A Meta Ad Agency Can Improve Your 2024 Holiday Advertising Costs appeared first on Strike Social.

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If you’re considering working with a YouTube advertising agency with strong experience with CTV to maximize your ad spend on video advertising, we’re here to show you how partnering with experts like Strike Social can make a real difference.

Key Reasons to Use a YouTube Advertising Agency for CTV Ads

Outsourcing your Connected TV advertising to a specialized agency might seem a significant step, but it can ease the workload on your team. Here’s how collaborating with a YouTube advertising agency skilled in YouTube CTV media buying can simplify the transition from social media to CTV and overcome the challenges of expanding your advertising efforts.

A CTV advertising partner brings immediate expertise and experience

Instead of going in blind as your team grapples with the ins and outs of advertising on CTV ad platforms such as YouTube TV and Google TV, hiring a YouTube CTV advertising agency can be much more beneficial. They already possess the foundational knowledge and beyond, having run both video and CTV ad campaigns, which enables faster campaign launches since the learning curve is effectively bypassed.

Furthermore, social media advertising agencies utilize tried-and-tested strategies tailored for each campaign. Whether your planned YouTube CTV ads aim to raise awareness, increase website traffic, or generate sales, a CTV ad agency can help you develop a personalized approach to how your Connected TV ads can bring the best results at optimized costs.

Hiring a YouTube CTV ad agency is ideal for brands seeking efficiency and speed

The rise of CTV advertising shows no signs of slowing down in 2024. With U.S. CTV ad spending projected to reach $22.7 billion—a 12% increase from 2023—and 37% of CTV users planning to start holiday shopping earlier this year, time is of the essence. The short window before the holiday season makes it challenging to train your team on YouTube TV and Google TV platforms quickly enough to meet demand.

Therefore, a YouTube advertising agency is your best solution for quickly catching up and reaching the largest audience as they turn from YouTube apps to their Connected TV screens during the year’s busiest retail season.

Skip the need for extensive CTV training resources and workshops

While it’s essential for your team to understand the basics of advertising on CTV, working with a YouTube advertising agency experienced in both social media and CTV can save you from the time-consuming and complex training required to master these platforms. Although introductory courses on Connected Television advertising might only take a day, achieving true proficiency can require weeks or even months of training.

By the time your team completes the necessary training, you may miss out on valuable time that could have been spent refining your CTV ads, such as determining optimal ad lengths or identifying whether YouTube TV or Google TV ads perform better for your brand.

Strike Social’s Approach to Advertising on CTV Platforms

Strike Social has established itself as a trusted leader in social media advertising, and we’ve successfully expanded into Connected TV advertising. With over a decade of experience running and managing social media ads, we bring the same level of expertise and commitment to enhancing our CTV ad technology and services. 

Here’s how we streamline CTV media buying on YouTube and Google TV for our clients:

Integrated Solutions for YouTube CTV Advertising

Strike Social is renowned for its success on YouTube advertising and other major social media platforms. Our expansion into YouTube CTV is powered by advanced machine-learning technology, enabling us to manage social media and CTV ads on a single platform. This integration allows us to apply successful social media strategies to Connected TV campaigns, optimizing performance across all advertising channels.

Our YouTube advertising services are designed to smoothly transition your existing YouTube-only strategy to include Connected TV (CTV). We integrate Connected TV ads into your existing social media ad strategy, accelerating results and optimizing ad placements on YouTube TV and Google TV.

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Further Reading

How to Set Up Google TV Ads for Your YouTube Campaigns

Google and YouTube TV ads cater to different audience behaviors and provide distinct advantages. Both Google and YouTube TV ads serve as valuable extensions for expanding the reach and awareness of their YouTube campaigns.

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Tailored CTV Media Solutions for Unique Brand Needs

We recognize that each brand is unique and approach them as such. However, it’s also crucial to reference successful campaigns within the same industry or with similar parameters to create an effective media plan for clients looking to expand into YouTube CTV ad platforms.

For instance, if an automotive brand seeks to extend its YouTube advertising to include Google TV and YouTube Connected TV ads, we consider factors and references from previous or current campaigns such as:

• YouTube campaigns managed within the same industry
• CTV campaigns with similar desired ad formats and placements

By understanding the unique needs and challenges of the automotive brand, we gather additional resources based on, but not limited to:

• Audience targeting, such as age, location, etc.
• Budget constraints
• Required outcomes (e.g., impressions or views)

With our experience and expertise in managing and delivering results for Connected TV ad campaigns and tailored strategies for each unique client, we develop a specific media plan that ensures effectiveness and cost-efficiency.

Streamlined Campaign Management and Optimization

At Strike Social, we know that continuous optimization is key to maximizing the effectiveness of YouTube CTV campaigns. That’s why we provide 24/7 monitoring to ensure your campaigns perform at their best throughout their entire duration.

Our proprietary ad tech tool features a Pacing Dashboard, which helps us quickly identify pacing issues and maintain consistent budget distribution. With our specialized YouTube CTV ads team constantly overseeing campaigns, we can maintain consistent ad views as required by the campaign’s timeline while keeping CTV advertising rates under control.

Comprehensive Support and Reporting

From the initial planning stages to execution and reporting, Strike Social offers comprehensive support for your YouTube CTV advertising initiatives. We keep you informed about your campaigns’ progress, continually sharing insights on performance and potential optimizations to enhance results and reduce costs.

Recognizing that social media advertising can change rapidly, we also understand that the same applies to Connected TV advertising. Therefore, in addition to openly communicating the optimizations and recommendations our YouTube CTV ad tech suggests and our team implements, we offer (upon request) a dashboard where you can monitor your campaigns in real time while awaiting regular updates or meetings with your assigned experts.

Getting Started with Strike Social’s YouTube Advertising Services

Ready to experience top-tier YouTube advertising services that optimize your CTV ad costs? Here’s how our streamlined process will get your holiday CTV campaigns up and running in no time:

Initial Consultation

To kick off, contact our team to explore the benefits of YouTube CTV advertising and how it can expand your brand’s reach. We offer personalized demos to provide a tailored strategy and a walkthrough of how your campaigns will be activated and managed using our system.

During our call, we’ll focus on understanding your specific needs for integrating YouTube TV and Google TV ads into your campaigns. We’ll offer initial optimizations and recommendations to give you a clear view of our expertise and how we can drive better results for you.

Advertisers face a unique challenge with the 2024 political ad spending season coinciding with the early holiday advertising period. Our demo will address how to effectively enter the YouTube CTV market while minimizing costs and reaching the right audiences, even amidst the heightened ad competition.

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Further Reading

5 Reasons Why Google TV Ads Should Be Part of Your YouTube Ads Strategy

As Google TV grows, you may wonder if it’s worth adding to your brand or client’s advertising strategy. Before making a decision, it’s important to weigh the benefits of incorporating Google TV into your advertising mix.

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Pre-launch Phase

Once we’ve established your campaign goals, we begin the pre-launch phase. Here, we prepare a detailed brief and media plan to align your social media and CTV campaigns on YouTube for optimal performance. Key steps in this phase include:

• Brand Safety Settings: We incorporate negative keywords and precise geo-targeting to ensure your ads are displayed in safe and appropriate environments.
• Audience Targeting Optimization: Our team conducts thorough research to fine-tune audience targeting. For example, if targeting a luxury automotive brand, we refine age ranges and income levels to focus on the most relevant segments, such as high-income households aged 35-55.

CTV Campaign Launch and Management

Strike Social utilizes over ten years of successful YouTube advertising data to create similarity matrices for audiences and industry sectors, allowing us to reach the most relevant audiences at the lowest cost-per-action.

By combining machine learning and AI capabilities of our proprietary tool, Campaign Lab, alongside the expertise of our dedicated YouTube CTV ads team, we ensure campaigns are run efficiently and optimized as needed. Our advanced tools and expert optimizations during this phase include:

• Campaign Generator: Analyzes input criteria to suggest effective budget allocations, audience segments, and additional targeting options based on campaign objectives.

• Data Insights: Sets appropriate campaign pricing with benchmarks like minimum and maximum CPM, as well as median rates, for better bid margin allocation.

• Pacing Dashboard: Monitors spending and performance of ongoing YouTube and YouTube CTV campaigns to maximize returns throughout the campaign flight.

Achieve Exceptional Results by Partnering with a YouTube Marketing Agency for Connected TV

Working with the right YouTube ads agency can unlock results beyond your expectations. With Strike Social by your side, you’ll benefit from a dedicated team focused on optimizing performance and delivering superior results for your campaigns. Whether you plan on expanding to YouTube TV and Google TV ads, we aim to equip you with the expertise and tools needed to excel.

To learn more about our YouTube advertising or to request a personalized walkthrough of our advanced ad tech tools, fill out the form below.

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Multiple Choice *

• Receive your YouTube Ads case study and a personalized info pack from our sales team.

Name *

First

Last

Business Email *

Company Name *

Job Title *

Country *United StatesAfghanistanAlbaniaAlgeriaAndorraAngolaAntigua & DepsArgentinaArmeniaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBhutanBoliviaBosnia HerzegovinaBotswanaBrazilBruneiBulgariaBurkinaBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCentral African RepChadChileChinaColombiaComorosCongoCongo {Democratic Rep}Costa RicaCroatiaCubaCyprusCzech RepublicDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEast TimorEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFijiFinlandFranceGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGreeceGrenadaGuatemalaGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHondurasHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIranIraqIreland {Republic}IsraelItalyIvory CoastJamaicaJapanJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKorea NorthKorea SouthKosovoKuwaitKyrgyzstanLaosLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMacedoniaMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMarshall IslandsMauritaniaMauritiusMexicoMicronesiaMoldovaMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmar, {Burma}NamibiaNauruNepalNetherlandsNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNorwayOmanPakistanPalauPanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPolandPortugalQatarRomaniaRussian FederationRwandaSt Kitts & NevisSt LuciaSaint Vincent & the GrenadinesSamoaSan MarinoSao Tome & PrincipeSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSlovakiaSloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth AfricaSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSudanSurinameSwazilandSwedenSwitzerlandSyriaTaiwanTajikistanTanzaniaThailandTogoTongaTrinidad & TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTuvaluUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVatican CityVenezuelaVietnamYemenZambiaZimbabwe

Are you spending at least US$10,000 per month on paid social media advertising? *

• Yes
• No

What social media platforms are you interested in advertising on? *

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Google
• YouTube
• TikTok
• Other

What specific objectives are you looking to achieve through social media advertising?

• Awareness
• Sales
• Engagement
• Traffic
• Leads
• Other

Tell us more about your social media advertising needs:

GDPR Agreement *

• I agree to receive communications from Strike Social via email. *

Submit

The post Looking to Optimize Your CTV Spend? Here’s Why You Need a YouTube CTV Advertising Agency appeared first on Strike Social.

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The real win when advertising on social media is having reliable ad management services that provide comprehensive solutions and cutting-edge technology to streamline your efforts. While placing ads on social media platforms may seem straightforward, effective ad management requires skilled professionals, adequate resources, and the right advertising technology to ensure your campaigns are on track.

Why Ad Management Services Are a Smart Choice for Efficient Social Media Advertising

When evaluating ad management services, it’s important to look beyond basic tasks like campaign activation, routine checks, and reporting. Effective ad management involves a range of advanced features that can significantly enhance your social media advertising efforts.

Advanced Tools for Targeting and Audience Segmentation

While you may have a specific audience in mind for your campaigns, your chosen ad management services should offer advanced tools for more precise targeting and audience segmentation.

Given the broad reach and diverse user demographics across social media platforms, effectively pinpointing your desired audience can pose a challenge.

What to look for:

• Advanced targeting capabilities, including demographic, geographic, and behavioral segmentation to refine your audience.
• Tools to assess whether your audience needs to be expanded or narrowed down to enhance campaign performance.
• Access to past audience data to provide actionable optimization tips for improving ad results.

Comprehensive Ad Monitoring Tool for KPI Measurement

91% of businesses use multiple social media platforms when advertising online. Thus, you need ad management services that can offer something that covers a measurement tool to make sure that all social media platforms are being monitored to make sure that they are continuing to deliver results. 

You should be able to compare results, for instance, TikTok vs. YouTube advertising, to determine which video ad platform performs better. This will allow you to present these results to your client and make informed decisions about where to focus your efforts.

What to look for:

• Comprehensive and transparent reporting tools that offer real-time data on key performance metrics.
• Clear and easy-to-understand data on impressions, view rates, engagement, conversions, CPM, CPV, CTR, etc.
• API integration with major social media advertising platforms and third-party analytics platforms.

Flexibility in Supporting Different Advertising Formats and Creatives

You need access to ad management services that can assist you in identifying the best ad formats based on your available creatives. While it’s understandable that your brand’s creatives are presented as is, the ad management services’ role is to develop a media plan and recommend advertising formats and placements where your creatives will be presented effectively and attractively to viewers.

What to look for:

• Support for a variety of ad formats (e.g., skippable ads, non-skippable ads, bumper ads, etc.)
• Advanced ad technology that helps determine which social ads can be combined or should be run as separate campaigns for optimal delivery and to avoid internal competition
• Extensive knowledge of safe zones and ad specifications to ensure your creatives are displayed in the correct format without concealed information.

Efficiency in Cost and Budget Management

One of the issues with social media advertising services is the lack of knowledge, for instance, about the average CPM for an awareness campaign. It can be easy to get lost when managing ads in programmatic advertising, and it may be unclear whether costs can be optimized.

Inefficient budget allocation can result in poor cost efficiency and wasted ad spending. Therefore, an effective ad management services agency should help control costs while improving results.

What to look for:

• Tools and features that enable precise budget management, cost control, and optimization strategies to maximize ad spend efficiency.
• Tools to monitor campaign pacing to ensure the full campaign flight is delivering and spending at an efficient rate.
• Transparent pricing models and bidding strategies that align with campaign goals.

Alignment with Brand Safety Standards and Compliance with Ad Platforms

Another concern in digital marketing is ensuring that your brand’s advertising campaigns comply with each platform’s guidelines. It is also important to prevent ads from appearing alongside inappropriate or non-brand-safe content, which can damage your brand’s reputation. 

For example, a school supplies brand should avoid having ads shown with alcohol or extreme activities content, while ads for a children’s charity should not appear with content related to war, drugs, or sexual material.

What to look for:

• Knowledge about brand safety measures and compliance with industry standards.
• Ad tech that provides content filtering, whitelisting/blacklisting capabilities, and is partnered with reputable brand safety organizations.

Once you identify your specific needs, the next step is to understand the strengths of these ad management services before inquiring. This is where Strike Social steps in, helping you address these concerns and turn them into your strengths.

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Further Reading

Understanding Brand Safety in YouTube Advertising

A brand’s connection to unsuitable or irrelevant content can have negative consequences, pushing potential customers away. Discover how YouTube safeguards brands from such content and how you can implement these practices in your advertising strategy.

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Social Media Solutions Offered by Strike Social’s Ad Management Tools

Strike Social proudly presents the capabilities embedded in our digital marketing software, Campaign Lab, which has powered thousands of successful campaigns. As we approach a decade of delivering high-level optimization and results, let’s explore the ad management services that Strike Social provides to our clients.

Combining the machine learning and AI capabilities of Campaign Lab with the expertise of our media buying teams, we ensure campaigns run efficiently and can adapt to necessary optimizations. Below are our proprietary technology tools and expert optimizations:

Precise Audience Targeting with Campaign Generator

• The Campaign Generator tool recommends a media plan and provides additional targeting options based on the campaign objectives. It analyzes input criteria to suggest the most effective budget allocations and audience segments, serving as a guideline for optimizing campaigns effectively.
• Once we input fields such as ad platform and format, campaign start and end dates, budget, main metric (e.g., CPM), and bid cap (e.g., Max CPM), the Campaign Generator provides recommended budget splits and maximum rates per audience group targeting. 
• The data utilized in these recommendations is derived from historical data of previous successful campaigns. This information serves as an additional benchmark for media buyers, allowing them to make informed decisions toward improving campaign performance.

Setting Pricing Benchmarks with Data Insights

• The Data Insights feature provides a reference point for media buyers when determining pricing strategies. By inputting campaign specifics such as start and end dates, platform, budget, primary KPI, country/geo-targeting, and brand industry (if applicable), Campaign Lab offers insights into how metrics like CPM will perform.
• This information empowers media buyers to set appropriate campaign pricing, such as bid caps. It provides valuable benchmarks, including minimum CPM, maximum CPM, and median rates, allowing for better allocation of bid margins.
• When campaigns exceed expectations during the early stages, we communicate with clients to adjust the bid cap downwards. This transparent approach ensures clients know their campaigns’ strong performance while maintaining optimal profit margins.

How Strike Social’s Ad Management Services Deliver Results

Strike Social’s ad management tools and expert media buying teams have achieved remarkable results across thousands of successful campaigns. Here are some standout examples showcasing the effectiveness of our solutions:

YouTube Advertising Solutions for Aquarium Park Sign-Ups and Sales

By utilizing YouTube VAC, the team effectively engaged mobile-centric users and ensured that the most effective ad placements were focused on for budget. 

With optimal campaign pacing using our Pacing Dashboard, our media buying experts were able to monitor how the spending is tracking to ensure that both spending and returns are maximized throughout the campaign flight, driving the performing ad creatives to achieve more clickthroughs and conversions for the campaign.

Facebook Advertising for a Fitness Club Using DMA Geo-Targeting

The Facebook campaign aimed to drive sign-ups to their fitness club across their 200+ locations. By ensuring our ad management tool targets only the desired locations, we focused on demographics and location to attract highly qualified leads with strong sign-up intent. 

With a clear understanding of the target audience, we utilized our ad management services tool to create the audience profile without manual research.

Maximizing Video Views for an HVAC Brand’s YouTube Campaigns

Recognizing Canada’s strong sports culture, we tailored our strategy to target sports audiences for an HVAC brand. By using YouTube Video View Campaigns (VVC) along with Custom Intent and Custom Affinity audiences, we achieved impressive view rates and engagement levels, even for a non-sports brand.

How Can Our Ad Management Services Help You?

The expertise of our media buyers, combined with the advanced data science in our social media advertising tools, makes Strike Social a trusted social media advertising agency for brands in the US and worldwide.

Whether you need support for a seasonal campaign or a year-round advertising strategy, our ad management services can meet your needs. Contact us to discuss the type of social media advertising services you require, and we will provide a personalized walkthrough to help you achieve your brand’s goals. 

For quicker results, request a demo and one of our sales representatives will reach out within 24-48 hours.

The post How Can Ad Management Services Help You Scale Your Social Media Advertising? appeared first on Strike Social.

Digital marketing has become indispensable, with 97% of consumers checking a company’s online presence before purchasing or visiting the business. Social advertising is a top priority, commanding up to 53% of marketing budgets, followed closely by digital video advertising at 51% and influencer marketing at 49%. Therefore, our media buying teams must stay current with the latest digital marketing and advertising trends in 2024. We prioritize regular training sessions to ensure our strategies are up-to-date and aligned with the newest updates on the paid social media ad platforms we manage for our clients.

Our annual media buyer training has commenced, and we are excited to share the key highlights and insights from our digital marketing training with you.

Strike Social’s Key Digital Marketing Training Modules

Our expert leads have compiled the latest updates in digital marketing across various social media advertising platforms. Here’s a detailed look at each training session, the best practices shared, and the critical updates discussed.

Reviewing YouTube Advertising Strategies

Beyond the insights from Google Marketing Live, we aim to keep our YouTube media buyers and digital marketing teams informed of the latest updates and best practices. We reviewed current practices within our digital marketing and advertising agency and highlighted new YouTube advertising trends and tools that our media buyers should anticipate.

Sneak a peek into the Google Marketing Live updates

Raising the Bar on Digital Advertising Campaigns on YouTube

Our experts discussed the various campaign types we endorse as part of the YouTube strategy within our digital marketing agency. Given the diverse client goals, our media buyers must be well-versed in the different video advertising campaigns available on YouTube. This allows them to select the most compatible campaigns to achieve specific objectives.

Identify the unique comparisons that distinguish various YouTube campaign types from one another:

Campaign Type	Placements	Reporting	Targeting
Video Reach Campaigns (VRC)	Can select single placement	Segmentable delivery reporting (skewed if only one placement is chosen)	All targeting options available
Video View Campaigns (VVC)	Fixed – multi-ad format placement	Segmentable delivery reporting	All targeting options available
Video Action Campaigns (VAC)	Fixed – multi-ad format placement	No segment in delivery reporting	All targeting options available except contextual targeting

Comparing YouTube audience targeting vs contextual targeting

Audience Targeting Updates

The Audience Manager tool in Google Ads aids our YouTube media buyers in organizing distinct audience groups for various campaigns. This eliminates the recurring task of manually setting up audience targeting for each campaign, saving our media buyers valuable time. As a result, they can swiftly proceed with the subsequent steps.

Our YouTube expert provided valuable insights on audience targeting setup during the digital marketing training. Here’s a summary of the key updates shared:

• If you want to target audiences based on interests, purchase intentions, or Google search terms, you can save them as Custom segments. You can also expand a Custom segment by including individuals who browse similar websites or use similar apps that you choose.

• The Custom segment you create can then be added to the Audience list, which includes all audience targeting setups established by our media buyers for a particular YouTube advertising campaign they will launch for the client.
  
  Note: If you want to test a Custom segment on the Reach planner before starting the campaign draft, save it first so it appears on the Reach planner platform.

• In addition to website visitors and activity, brands can also remarket to audiences who have previously interacted with their YouTube channel. To do this, brands must link their YouTube channel to their Google Ads account so that media buyers can use this retargeting feature when setting up video campaigns.

Questions from Our Media Buyers

Why is my 6-second ad not delivering on bumper ad placement?

• Bumper ads must be strictly 6 seconds or less. Even a millisecond over will disqualify the ad.
• Aim for a maximum length of 5.9 seconds to be safe.

Explore all available YouTube ad formats

Is household income targeting available to all locations?

• No, household income targeting is only available in select locations and varies depending on the campaign type (Display, Demand Gen, Search, Video):

• Income ranges used to target ads are as follows: “Top 10%,” “11-20%,” “21-30%,” “31-40%,” “41-50%,” “Lower 50%,” and “Unknown.”
• Note that the “Unknown” category is only relevant if you want to reach people whose household income is not known.
• Although the actual income levels for these ranges are not publicly available, you can contact your Google advertising partner for more details.

TikTok Marketing for Advanced Media Buyers

Compared to more established digital marketing platforms such as YouTube and Meta, TikTok is still relatively new for our media buyers. Consequently, TikTok frequently updates its platform to compete with the advanced features of YouTube and Meta’s ad managers. Here are the essential points we discussed with our TikTok media buyers during the digital marketing training sessions:

Understanding TikTok’s Learning Phase

The learning phase for TikTok ad campaigns can extend longer than that for other platforms. Typically, this phase lasts around 10 days, during which TikTok’s ad delivery system experiments to identify the most effective audience and optimize performance. To successfully exit the learning phase, TikTok aims for at least 50 conversions within this period.

In contrast, Meta’s learning phase generally lasts 7 days or requires 50 optimization events, while YouTube’s learning phase is much shorter, spanning 1-3 days.

Expansion of TikTok Ad Targeting Capabilities

TikTok offers a growing suite of targeting options to help media buyers reach the right audience. In addition to traditional audience targeting, keyword targeting is now available, allowing for more precise audience filtering. TikTok Search Ads, in particular, leverage this capability to connect with users who are actively searching for specific terms.

How does TikTok Search Ads work

A recent update in TikTok marketing introduced negative keyword match types, allowing media buyers to exclude specific keywords from their campaigns. This exclusion can be done through:

• Broad match,
• Phrase match, and/or
• Exact match.

This feature helps avoid irrelevant impressions and acts as a crucial brand safety measure, preventing associations with sensitive or harmful content.

Know more about TikTok’s brand safety and suitability solutions

6-Second Views vs. 6-Second Focused Views

The Focused View campaign objective, introduced in Q3 2022, improves on other TikTok marketing objectives. With Focused View, advertisers only pay when a user watches an ad for at least 6 seconds or engages with it within the first 6 seconds rather than merely viewing it. This metric ensures more meaningful interactions and better ROI for our digital marketing and advertising agency.

Ad Budget Management on TikTok

Aside from setting up a campaign or ad set budget, TikTok requires you to add funds through the Finance section on the TikTok Business Center. 

To begin, navigate to the “Finance” section of the TikTok Ads Manager and link the ad account you are managing. From there, you can add funds to your account balance using a credit card or other supported payment method.

Mastering Digital Advertising in Meta Platforms

Through Meta, the combined reach of Facebook and Instagram offers advertisers a powerful digital marketing tool. Our experienced media buyers have extensively tested the newest features in Meta advertising and divulged their insights during the digital marketing training, detailing how these enhancements have elevated the campaigns within our digital marketing and advertising agency.

Meta Advantage’s Edge

Meta Advantage perfectly complements Strike Social’s AI and machine-learning capabilities. Similar to how our media buying teams utilize historical data for precise audience targeting, Meta Advantage uses its data to understand audience behavior and effectively apply these insights to your meta ad campaigns. 

Here are the key Meta Advantage features that were included in our discourse:

Advantage+ App campaigns

In digital marketing, advancements in machine learning and AI algorithms aim to automate repetitive tasks and minimize manual labor. Meta’s AI, incorporated into Advantage+ app campaigns, assists in delivering higher-performing creative content for app promotion campaigns to more relevant audiences on more effective placements.

Furthermore, the campaign setup has been simplified, allowing media buyers to provide fewer inputs and create only one ad set with the capability of bulk ad creation. This means that advertisers can efficiently generate up to 50 ads simultaneously, eliminating the need for repetitive ad duplication.

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns

Designed for e-commerce businesses, Advantage+ shopping campaigns aim to maximize conversion likelihood, optimizing your advertising budget in the process. By generating multiple ad variations and evaluating their performance, Meta’s IG and FB ads management system ensures that the best-performing ads are deployed. 

If your brand meets the following criteria, incorporating Meta Advantage into your digital marketing strategy can yield significant benefits:

• Growing your audience

  If you aspire to expand your business, Advantage+ shopping campaigns are your trusted partner. Powered by machine learning, these campaigns optimize your ad delivery, ensuring your products reach a broader audience.

• Introducing new products or collections

  Launching a new product or collection? Advantage+ shopping campaigns are the ideal solution. The system generates a range of ad variations, evaluating their performance with different audiences. The most effective variants are then strategically deployed in the market.

In addition to advanced campaign management, Advantage+ also offers the ability to optimize your budget. Discover more about Facebook Campaign Budget Optimization here.

Additional Advantage+ Features for Media Buyers to Consider

Meta continues to allow media buyers to incorporate specific audiences into digital marketing campaigns but to maximize Meta’s capabilities, more Advantage+ features are available for use:

Advantage+ Audience

• This feature utilizes Meta AI’s extensive flexibility, offering the largest potential audience and allowing your ads to reach a diverse range of viewers.
  • Advantage Detailed Targeting: Broadens your campaign’s reach by allowing you to target a wider, relevant audience. Start by selecting specific interests, job titles, or other detailed targeting criteria that align with your desired audience. From there, this Advantage+ function automatically expands your targeting to include related audiences who may not meet the exact criteria, but are nonetheless relevant to your brand.
  • Advantage Custom Audience: Optimizes your ad delivery beyond the custom audience you initially defined. When you create a custom audience based on website visitors, for example, Advantage Custom Audience will show your ads to similar users who weren’t included in your original targeting. This optimization ensures that your ads reach a broader audience while maintaining relevance to your initial custom audience.
  • Advantage Lookalike Audience: By using your customer list, Advantage Lookalike Audience enables the identification of additional users who share similar characteristics to your original lookalike. This can potentially enhance your campaign’s reach and performance by targeting a broader audience that aligns with your existing customer base.

Advantage+ Placements

• By utilizing historical data and understanding your audience’s behavior, the system increases inventory availability, which lowers costs. Meta’s system can place your ads on multiple digital advertising platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Meta Audience Network partners, and other available placements.
• Ads Manager delivers your ads to all available placements, optimizing results across them.

Exploring the Vast Advertising Capabilities of DV360

Display & Video 360 (DV360), formerly known as DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBM), is a comprehensive, integrated platform that empowers a digital marketing agency to streamline and optimize advertising efforts. As a demand-side platform (DSP), DV360 revolutionizes how media buying teams acquire ad space, offering automated and efficient solutions for display, video, mobile, and search campaigns.

During our digital marketing training sessions, participants engaged in captivating discussions centered around the know-how of DV360. Explore the key takeaways and insights from these discussions right here:

Key Benefits of Using DV360 as a DSP

• Automated Real-Time Bidding (RTB)

  DV360 enables RTB to automatically bid on ad inventory in real-time, ensuring brands get the best possible prices while reaching the target audience.

• Wider Inventory Reach

  Gain access to a vast network of premium publishers and ad exchanges, maximizing campaign reach and impact.

• User Targeting

  With DV360’s advanced targeting capabilities, you can reach specific audiences based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and locations. These targeting options include those exclusive to DV360’s partnered networks, providing advertisers access to a diverse audience.

• Reporting & Optimization

  Through in-depth reporting and advanced analytics tools, media buying teams can gain valuable insights into campaign performance. This robust system empowers them to create data-driven reports and propose strategic optimizations.

Best Practices for Setting Up Campaigns on DV360

DV360’s interface can be overwhelming for media buyers who are still getting acquainted with the platform. As a crucial tool for digital advertising, DV360 requires a strategic approach to campaign setup. To assist media buyers, our digital marketing and advertising agency experts have compiled a guide with practical tips and tricks to help create effective campaigns on DV360.

Campaign Naming Conventions

When managing multiple campaigns for clients, media buyers must adopt specific and clear naming conventions to locate previous campaigns easily. Avoid using generic names like the “brand” alone. Here are some examples:

• Basic Structure:
  • [Brand] – [Year] – [Month/Quarter]
• With Objective and Format:
  • [Brand] – [Year] – [Month/Quarter] – [Objective] [Format]
• With Objective and KPI:
  • [Brand] – [Year] – [Month/Quarter] – [Objective] [KPI]

Note: If the client has a preferred naming convention, try to obtain and use it. Aligning with the brand’s existing or previous campaigns can ensure consistency and clarity.

Managing Budget and Pacing

To ensure accurate tracking of budget utilization, media buying teams are encouraged to activate the “Show Actualized” option in DV360. With this setting enabled, DV360 displays the actualized budget for completed campaign segments, reflecting the actual amount spent. This feature gives media buyers visibility into the remaining unspent budget available for reallocation to other segments. It’s essential to note that this budget should only be used after each campaign segment has concluded, allowing media buyers to make informed decisions about reallocating unspent funds. 

Conversely, if “Show Actualized” is not ticked, DV360 will solely display the initial total budget, disregarding the funds expended. This can lead to miscalculations and overspending.

To illustrate this more clearly, see the example below:

Scenario	“Show Actualized” Enabled	“Show Actualized” Disabled
Campaign 1 Budget (Initial)	$10,000	$10,000
Campaign 1 Spent	$8,500	$8,500
Campaign 1 Remaining Budget	$1,500	Not Calculated
Campaign 2 Budget (New)	$1,500	$1,500
Total Budget Displayed by DV360	$10,000	$11,500

Important notes:

• After a media buyer sees the actualized unspent amount for a segment, it must be manually reallocated to another campaign segment to take effect.
• Actualizing a budget segment while active will set its remaining budget to 0, stopping bidding for all line items until the next segment begins.
• Accurate unspent budget figures may be delayed up to 48 hours after a budget segment concludes.

In addition, DV360 provides various pacing options to customize how your budget is distributed throughout your campaign. To ensure that the pacing setting applies to the entire campaign duration, we recommend setting it to “Flight“.

When selecting a campaign pacing setting, you have three options:

• ASAP: This option prioritizes spending your budget as quickly as possible. While required for YouTube campaigns, it’s generally not recommended for real-time bidding (RTB) campaigns, as it may lead to budgets being exhausted too early within the campaign flight.

• Even: Even pacing distributed your budget evenly across the campaign period. For example, a $10,000 budget over 10 days would spend $1,000 per day.

• Ahead: This option front-loads 20% more of the ideal daily spending, aiming to exhaust the budget faster than even pacing. For instance, with a $10,000 budget over 10 days, it will spend $1,200 on the first day and adjust the remaining daily budget accordingly. This can be advantageous when advertising costs increase towards a month’s or quarter’s end.

Implementing Brand Safety Exclusions

By default, the following content labels should be excluded from digital marketing campaigns on DV360:

• DL-MA: Content suitable only for mature audiences.
• Not yet labeled: Content that has not been labeled.

For Strike Social’s media buying teams, we recommend excluding all sensitive categories. However, if we’re handling an alcohol brand campaign, for example, alcohol exclusions should not be ticked unless the client requests otherwise.

YouTube brand safety and suitability tip: Applying placement exclusions

DV360 also allows the client to apply additional brand safety options with third-party verified partners. However, opting for these additional settings can lead to higher ad spend due to associated costs, including a CPM upcharge for each selected brand safety option. Thus, media buying teams must inform and guide clients to ensure full awareness before proceeding.

Get In Touch with The Experts

Discover how our expert team can help you achieve your social media advertising goals.

Contact Us

Strengthening Strategies with Ongoing Digital Marketing Training

At Strike Social, we foster a culture of continuous learning and collaboration, ensuring alignment and maintaining efficiency across our media buying teams in different markets. These sessions occur throughout the year, allowing the teams within our digital marketing and advertising agency to reconnect, foster interdepartmental connections, and stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends.

We prioritize our annual digital marketing training sessions for several key reasons:

Staying Ahead of the Trends

Digital marketing evolves rapidly, much like how viral videos swiftly gain millions of views. To address this fast-paced environment, we emphasize ongoing communication and updates between Strike Social and our partners. This allows our digital marketing and advertising agency to proactively respond to industry shifts and promptly relay them to media buying teams for immediate implementation in their advertising campaigns.

In addition to our annual digital marketing training, we keep our media buying teams informed with regular catch-ups and quick updates through our communication channels. Major digital advertising updates are also shared in our newsletter, which you can sign up for here.

Team Alignment and Collaboration

Empowering our teams with the latest knowledge on digital marketing platforms creates a more skilled, confident, and collaborative marketing team capable of achieving greater results. 

Check out our recent case study, where our YouTube media buying teams successfully promoted a Quick-Service Restaurant (QSR) while reducing CPM costs and increasing efficiency.

Fostering Human Connection

The annual digital marketing training provides valuable opportunities for personal interaction and relationship building within the team. While our media buying teams may have their own team communication, it’s important to achieve alignment with other media buying teams handling different campaigns and share best practices.

Investing in Success

Our digital marketing training is designed as a strategic investment that provides long-lasting advantages for both individual marketers and organizations. The enhanced optimizations and learned improvements gained from our training empower media buyers to analyze and incorporate new information. This newfound knowledge is then applied to the advertising campaigns we manage for our clients, resulting in increased effectiveness. It’s a continuous cycle for our digital marketing and advertising agency that consistently delivers positive outcomes, contributing to the overall success of our clients’ advertising efforts.

By openly sharing our digital marketing training insights, we aim to build trust and transparency with our clients and partners. We want you to know the faces behind the campaigns, understand our processes, and see the dedication we bring to every project.

To learn more about our technology and how we can provide efficient results for your digital marketing campaigns, contact us today or request a walkthrough from our sales team.

Expand your expertise. Browse Strike Social’s blogs here:

Planning a Winning YouTube Christmas Advertising Strategy

Complete Guide to YouTube Advertising in 2025

How A Meta Ad Agency Can Improve Your 2024 Holiday Advertising Costs

The post Annual Digital Marketing Training with the Strike Social Experts appeared first on Strike Social.

The distinction between brand safety and brand suitability has now become essential in determining how your ads resonate with your audience. To protect your brand from potential pitfalls, there’s a need to comprehend and strike the right balance.

Striking the Right Balance of Brand Safety vs. Brand Suitability in Ad Placements

Our post-Thanksgiving report indicates that social media continues to reign as the primary channel for consumers discovering new products and services. When it comes to digital advertising, first impressions matter most. Thus, it’s a non-negotiable to make sure your ads appear with brand-safe and suitable content.

In this article, we aim to uncover the distinction between brand safety vs. brand suitability. Our focus is to explore the problems that may arise if these aspects are not studied carefully, and underscore why this knowledge is indispensable for media buyers.  Moreover, get an exclusive look at the tools utilized by Strike Social to uphold brand safety and brand suitability. 

• Differentiating Brand Safety vs. Brand Suitability
  • Why Advertisers Need to Know the Difference Between Brand Safety vs. Brand Suitability
• How Can Strike Social Help Achieve the Right Balance Between Brand Safety and Brand Suitability
  • Key Components of Strike Social’s Brand Safety and Suitability Solutions
  • Is There A Standard Approach to Brand Safety and Brand Suitability?

Differentiating Brand Safety vs. Brand Suitability

Understanding the difference between brand safety vs. brand suitability is crucial for effective digital advertising. While these two concepts may not be contrasting, they work hand in hand, and a closer analysis reveals the factors that set them apart.

Brand Safety

Paid social advertising platforms, YouTube for instance, bear the responsibility of upholding brand safety for businesses venturing into digital marketing spaces. YouTube, maintaining a 99% effectiveness accreditation from the Media Rating Council, adheres to GARM brand safety standards across in-stream, livestream, Shorts, and Watch Next/Home feed content.

Brand safety in YouTube advertising involves ensuring that content violating community guidelines, promoting violence, or containing graphic material, doesn’t infiltrate the platform. Leveraging machine learning, automation processes, and a manual review system, YouTube meticulously filters out unsuitable content, maintaining a secure platform for both viewers and brands.

Third-party partners contribute to YouTube’s brand safety efforts, providing tools designed to meet stringent standards. This collaborative approach provides advertisers a trusted and reliable solution.

To further fortify brand safety, media buyers can fine-tune ad placement by choosing from different inventory types on YouTube:

Brand Suitability

The proficiency of media buyers play a significant role in brand suitability, which involves aligning video ads with contextually relevant content suitable for the target audience. As YouTube hosts diverse content, ranging from educational to entertaining, it becomes imperative to match ads with the appropriate content.

Upon selecting the inventory type within YouTube, the responsibility shifts to media buyers to implement more stringent measures, ensuring ads avoid unwanted placements and impressions. This active involvement becomes crucial for maintaining brand suitability in YouTube advertising. 

To achieve optimal brand suitability, advertisers can employ various strategies before launching campaigns on YouTube, including:

Why Advertisers Need to Know the Difference Between Brand Safety vs. Brand Suitability

Brand safety and brand suitability in digital advertising are two different concepts that require different strategies and goals. By discerning these differences, advertisers can tailor their campaigns more precisely, aligning them with the core values of the brand.

While brand safety shields the brand from potential harm, brand suitability ensures a harmonious alignment with the brand’s identity and the expectations of the audience.

Here’s a table summarizing the key differences:

How Can Strike Social Help Achieve the Right Balance Between Brand Safety and Brand Suitability

Strike Social stands as a beacon for achieving the delicate equilibrium between brand safety vs. brand suitability. Our unique approach combines the precision of machine algorithms with the nuanced decisions made by our adept manpower. We meticulously structure campaigns, factoring in platform restrictions, campaign pacing, budget allocations, and various parameters that shape the trajectory of our advertising endeavors.

Key Components of Strike Social’s Brand Safety and Suitability Solutions

Strike Social’s Brand Safety Tools And Unique Expertise Combined

Beyond the services offered by platforms like YouTube during campaign setup, Strike Social brings over 9 years of invaluable expertise to the table. Our commitment to client success is augmented by proprietary tools that aid in careful channel and video selection. 

These tools leverage years of data, allowing us to reach the most relevant audiences at the lowest cost-per-action. This meticulous approach extends to the extraction of similarities between channels and videos, ensuring that ads are strategically placed in the most suitable and effective environments.

Is There A Standard Approach to Brand Safety and Brand Suitability?

Contrary to a one-size-fits-all model, Strike Social recognizes the uniqueness of each brand. Our dedicated media buyers oversee each campaign individually, establishing a customized approach tailored to the specific target audience and brand message. While technology plays a crucial role, the human touch remains equally essential in navigating through brand safety and brand suitability solutions.

Strike Social’s blend of technology and expertise guarantees a bespoke approach for each campaign, aligning seamlessly with both brand safety and brand suitability across the board.

For a visual walkthrough of Strike Social’s brand safety and suitability controls, click here.

Enter an Era of Safe and Suitable Ads With Strike Social

Brand safety and brand suitability presents real challenges, emphasizing the need for media buyers to be proactive in safeguarding their brands. First impressions wield significant power, requiring brands to align with content that is not just brand-safe but also perfectly suitable.

Strike Social is committed to guide media buyers through the complexities with expertise and tailored solutions. Our team is poised to offer personalized consultations, addressing your specific challenges and aligning strategies with your unique brand goals.

Our tools and expertise are at your disposal—a testament to our commitment to empowering media buyers. Partnering with Strike Social means more than gaining insights; it means having a team that understands the delicate balance between brand safety and brand suitability.

Schedule a meeting today, fortify your brand against potential challenges, and let your brand shine in the digital space with the reliable support of Strike Social.

Expand your expertise. Browse Strike Social’s latest blogs here:

• 
  Planning a Winning YouTube Christmas Advertising Strategy
• 
  Complete Guide to YouTube Advertising in 2025
• 
  How A Meta Ad Agency Can Improve Your 2024 Holiday Advertising Costs
• 
  How Facebook Engagement Campaigns Deliver the Best Results for Q4 2024 Holidays
• 
  Q4 2024 Holiday Ad Trends for Thanksgiving & Christmas
• 
  Getting Started with YouTube Pause Ads – What You Need to Know

The post How Well Do You Know Where Your Ads Appear: Decoding the Difference Between Brand Safety vs. Brand Suitability appeared first on Strike Social.

The advertising industry took a whipping from the pandemic last year, slashing a 5.2% decline YoY during Q2 as brands halted ongoing campaigns. However, it did not take long for advertisers to bounce back as they closed with 12% and 29% increases in spending, Q3, and Q4, respectively. Although US digital ad spending suffered mid-year shrinkage, 2020 ended with a 12% YoY increase, $139.8 billion in revenue. This year, Dentsu projected a more positive outcome, 13.7% growth, and might outrebounded last year’s performance.

Peak of the Season, Peak of the Competition

As everyone turns their calendars to October, hundreds of holiday-themed ads start to arrive on consumers’ screens, targeting early Christmas shoppers watching YouTube product reviews. Based on a Statista.com survey, 38% of Christmas shoppers begin to check out their carts before November.

Looking at the last three years’ data from 2018-2020, month-to-month YouTube Holiday advertising CPV increased at an average of 10.79% during October, 15.70% in November, and 30.12% throughout the festive month of December. By knowing these data, advertisers can plan early on their digital advertising effort and spread the cost throughout the campaign period. 

CTV Advertising: The Power of Co-Viewing During Holidays 

The pandemic has stepped on the pedal in Connected TV growth, and there’s no sign of slowing down.  Mediapost reported, last August 2021, TDG found that 85% of broadband households use a CTV. In addition, six out of ten Connected TV users watch Advertising-based Video on Demand platforms. 

Looking at Campaign Lab data, Strike Social proprietary tool, Fraction of Views from mobile continue to take a considerable share of the advertising spends. In 2019, spending allotment on mobile saw a 12% jump from the previous year. However, the shift in the behavior of digital consumers created by the pandemic skewed the ad budget to CTV. As a result, desktop, Tablet, and Mobile devices ad spending allocation slowed down by 5%, 7%, and 10% each.

The transformation of “me” to “we” of video consumers is evident as eyeballs deviate from a small device to a bigger screen. As a result, the Fraction of View for Connected TV has seen a massive surge of 31% from 2018-2020. Additionally, consuming video content on CTV creates a whole new opportunity for advertisers as Nielsen stated that 47% of co-viewing happens with families and friends.

Seize The Holiday Opportunities

Strike Social perspective for 2021 Q4 will behave similarly to 2019. As clients move advertising money late this year, advertisers allocate budgets to platforms that absorb additional investment. As brands flocks to grab audience attention, this creates a rise in the auction. Therefore, the team anticipates Q4 CPVs to be 10%-15% higher than Q3 and potentially increase by December.

In addition, holiday advertising campaigns should consider co-viewing audiences. Research conducted by the Video Advertising Bureau shows that 71% of advertisements displayed to co-viewers generate a substantial emotional response compared to 37% of single viewers. At the same time, streaming video content has been a communal activity since the pandemic.

The learning from the previous holiday season creates adaptability and agility in the marketing strategy. But to further leverage the success, analyzing and understanding the data will create a higher probability of attaining campaign objectives. 

The post YouTube Holiday Advertising: A Gift to Marketers appeared first on Strike Social.

For healthcare marketers to keep up with this massive growth in the CTV supply, they need to be fast, scalable and embrace automation. Adtech companies are now investing in building a legal and compliance team. Che Wijeseinghe, CEO of Cape Privacy, shared an article on forbes.com that legal and compliance teams manage the increasing complexity of data privacy regulations. Unfortunately, time spent managing this extensive process will create a huge bottleneck for businesses to access data.

Due to the heavy regulations in the industry, ad targeting becomes one of the challenges healthcare marketers face. As a result of the recent events, most health care professionals connect digitally either with their patients or with different pharma companies. As a result, marketers are shifting their traditional and personal marketing to digital advertising in many forms such as messaging, email, and, most significantly, CTV advertising. 

YouTube is the portion of the CTV supply where progressive healthcare marketers have seen the most upside and, in some cases, the most hesitations. 

Role of A.I. Marketing in Driving CTV Advertising Growth

CTV viewers are growing, according to the recent Leichtman Research Group study. Nearly 400 million CTV devices are in the U.S. 64% have three or more CTV devices in every household, while 80% own at least one CTV device.

With the boom in digital healthcare marketers, how do we ensure the efficient delivery of brand messages to the target audience? Adtech companies, like Strike Social, developed A.I. marketing tools for YouTube that provide brand safety, enhance the increase of ad reach, and create brand impact in every ad execution.   

Topic and Keyword targeting are, of course, two options. So are HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) compliant In Market audiences and Custom Affinities based on competitive brands and blogs, newsletters, or YouTube content. A typical healthcare media targeting plan on YouTube should have hundreds of inputs.

A.I. marketing tools work beyond human decision-making and capabilities by utilizing the available data and aligning them with platform guidelines and protocols.

At Strike Social, we guarantee results. Our service can provide ultra-granular audience targeting that assures a high percentage of ad deliverability using our proprietary tools. Production, campaign ad set-up, and ad management consume time and workforce and, if overlooked, can cause underperformance of the campaign. Investing in gathering and analyzing data equates to higher investment that sometimes doesn’t translate to the desired result. A.I. marketing is more than just expediting the process. This technology aims to produce a high probability of ROAS.

Despite this powerful technology, advertisers’ are still hesitant to jump in because of these two known issues:  brand safety and brand suitability. In response, Strike Social partnered with OpenSlate, which focuses on reducing risk on brand safety incidents. By producing relevant, engaging, and highly qualified audience segmentation, created by our advanced proprietary tool, combined with safety in ad placement, healthcare marketers can achieve their target result from their campaign less the safety concerns. 

Scalable Opportunities in CTV Advertising

CTV advertising has skyrocketed because of the pandemic. Out of all the digital channels, CTV advertising is considered the fastest in its group. A study made by Insider Intelligence shows that CTV investment in the U.S. will double by the end of their forecast period by 2025.  

Looking at Emarketer’s chart of combined U.S. Linear and CTV Ad spending, 2020 was a pivotal year in terms of Ad Spending. Linear ad spending dropped by 12.51% compared to the previous year. In contrast, CTV ad spending climbs to 40.65%. Based on the forecast, linear ad spending will have a plateau in growth from 2021 to 2025, while CTV advertising will continue to be bullish with an average growth rate of 25.58% during the same period.

During the pandemic outburst, the top ten pharmaceutical brands made a 17% increase in T.V. ad spending. Pharma brands have seen this as an opportunity to reach out and deliver their brand message to the people stuck in their homes. But, unfortunately, the increase in ad spent did not translate to a substantial result in web traffic. 

For healthcare marketers, comparing the trends for Linear and CTV Ad spending and their growth patterns indicates a shift in their paid advertising strategy. Ad Tech Martech companies like Strike Social allow brands to focus on formulating CTV and YouTube marketing plans, amplifying the brand impact, and not worrying about managing paid ad campaigns.

The rise of CTV and YouTube advertising is still in the early stage of massive advancement and opportunities. However, the growth window is fast, and companies that have seen this are taking advantage of the situation.

The post Healthcare Marketers Adjust To Be More Nimble for CTV Advertising and YouTube appeared first on Strike Social.

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Why Do You Need a Social Media Advertising Agency?

Before you even begin your search for a social media advertising agency, you must define your objectives and establish your priorities. A clear understanding of why your brand requires a social media ad agency partnership will guide your agency selection process and lay the foundation for a successful partnership.

Key Reasons to Consider a Social Media Ad Agency

Lack of In-House Expertise

Social media advertising requires an in-depth understanding of various platforms, algorithms, ad formats, targeting options, and analytics. Collaborating with an agency specializing in paid social media advertising can bridge this knowledge gap and provide the necessary expertise to optimize campaigns effectively.

Time and Resource Constraints

Managing effective social media advertising can be demanding. It requires constant monitoring of campaigns, evaluating their performance, and allocating budgets appropriately.

To alleviate these time-consuming tasks, consider outsourcing to an agency. This can free up your team’s valuable time, allowing them to focus on core business activities.

Scalability

One of the key benefits of working with an ad management agency is its ability to help you scale your social media presence effectively. They can provide the resources and expertise needed to expand your campaigns and reach a wider audience.

For example, if you are currently focused on organic marketing on Facebook and Instagram and are seeing success, an agency can help you determine if it’s best to continue investing in these platforms or if there are other platforms where your target audience is more likely to engage.

Data-Driven Results

Agencies have advanced analytics tools and provide detailed insights into campaign performance. This data-driven approach optimizes campaigns and supports decision-making.

Social media advertising companies utilize dedicated tools to track all your social media ad campaigns across platforms like Google, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, streamlining the monitoring and enhancing the efficiency of your campaigns.

What Are the Qualities to Look for in a Paid Social Media Advertising Agency

It should come as no surprise that there’s a crowd of social media advertising agencies eager to work with you in this world of digital advancements and technologies. To find the perfect partner that aligns with your goals and values, it’s essential to identify key qualities that set the best agencies apart.

Considering these qualities, you can narrow your choices and find your business’s best social media advertising agency. Remember, the right agency is more than just a vendor—they’re a strategic partner who can help you achieve your social media marketing goals.

How to Find the Right Paid Social Ads Agency

Further into your search for the right social media advertising agency, you’ll find it’s not just about hiring a group of strangers to execute and monitor your ad campaigns. Instead, it involves finding a partner whose values, expertise, and communication style resonate with your own.

Choosing a social media advertising agency means entrusting them to represent your brand on social media. Therefore, it is crucial to establish a profound connection between your organization and the selected agency.

When evaluating agency fit and establishing a collaborative relationship, consider the following key factors:

Aligned Core Competencies and Values

• Define your business goals and non-negotiables. Does the agency’s expertise and experience align with your industry and target audience?
• Research their existing clients and case studies. Are they known for working with businesses similar to yours? 
• Assess their company culture and values. Look for a social media advertising firm prioritizing transparency, collaboration, and data-driven decision-making.

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Further Reading

Prevent Wasted Ad Spend by Excluding Ads from YouTube Kids Channels

Running ads comes with the risk of unintended exposure, and you don’t want your brand associated with content that doesn’t align with your messaging. Recognizing the importance of excluding your ads from YouTube Kids channels is crucial to protect your brand’s image and ensure a more effective advertising strategy. Here’s why taking this precaution can benefit your overall campaign.

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Software and Supporting Tools

• Ask about the agency’s technology stack and proprietary tools. Do they use advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning algorithms to optimize campaigns?
• Will you have access to their reporting dashboards and analytics? Transparency is key for tracking progress and understanding the impact of your investments.

Reporting and Feedback Loop

• Set clear expectations for communication and reporting frequency. Find out how often you will receive updates on campaign performance.
• Understand their feedback process, including how they gather insights and communicate recommendations.

Staffing and Team Structure

• Inquire about the qualifications and experience of the team members handling your account. Do they possess the necessary skills and certifications to effectively handle your specific marketing channels (e.g., YouTube, TikTok, Google Ads)?
• Determine if the agency performs all work in-house or outsources to third parties. In-house teams typically offer better communication and more control over work quality.
• Consider whether a smaller agency, which might offer personalized attention, or a larger agency, with more resources and specialized expertise, better suits your needs.

KPIs and Core Metrics

• Clearly outline your success metrics related to brand awareness, website traffic, lead generation, or sales.
• Ask the agency how they measure success and what KPIs they track based on your campaign objective. Do these metrics align with your goals?
• Discuss how the agency uses data to optimize campaigns and make data-driven decisions. A strong agency will have a robust analytics framework and provide clear insights into campaign performance.

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Further Reading

Why You Should Work with a YouTube CTV Advertising Agency

As YouTube Connected TV emerges as a key player in audience engagement and viewership, brands are eager to secure ad placements on this platform. Working alongside a YouTube CTV advertising agency can streamline your shift from social media to Connected TV, all while maximizing your advertising budget.

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Your Next Move in Finding a Social Media Advertising Agency

With the steps outlined to help you find the right social media ad agency, you are ready to seek an expert team to elevate your brand’s presence. Interestingly, the solution might be closer than you think.

At Strike Social, our goal is to enhance the performance of your ad campaigns, not just monitor them. Our proprietary tool, Campaign Lab, leverages machine learning and historical data to reach your target audience effectively through hyper-granular targeting. It optimizes campaigns round-the-clock and focuses on achieving the best results while targeting brand-safe channels, managing campaigns efficiently, minimizing costs, and maximizing performance.

Our approach combines Campaign Lab’s advanced capabilities with the expertise of our media buyers. This constant oversight ensures real-time optimization and prompt adjustments when necessary.

Our data-driven approach and transparent outcomes have established Strike Social as a trusted provider of social media advertising solutions. Explore the success stories of our client in our latest case study:

Download our 2024 YouTube CTV Case Study

With the surge in YouTube TV’s viewership, an industrial service brand successfully expanded its audience and achieved a 13% improvement in cost efficiency for its Connected TV campaigns.

Download the report

Unlock up to 25% or more growth in your ad performance. Reach out to our team today and discover the untapped potential of your advertising campaigns.

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The post How to Choose a Social Media Advertising Agency appeared first on Strike Social.