With Shorts becoming one of the most popular ‘new’ features on YouTube in the last year, the platform has been working hard to ensure that it remains to be used and becomes even more of a rival to TikTok. This month they’ve rolled out some new features, including auto-layout for Android users, a text—to-speech option (much like TikTok), auto-captions that can be customised, the ability remix already remixed videos and, in a move like the sticker template on Instagram, the ability to use the new ‘Add Yours’ sticker and join in with other users based on the sticker prompts. 

In another move by YouTube, they’re also adding community spaces. Channel membership has been a thing for a while, allowing loyal viewers to get different perks should they sign up – this was then followed by the Community tab where creators could make posts either for all viewers or just members. 

 

Now, Spaces will allow not just the creator but also viewers to make their own posts and interact with one another within the channels Community Space, opening the platform up to becoming a more social and collaborative media platform. It’s currently being rolled out on selected channels, with hopes, if it’s successful, it will be rolled out across the platform soon. 

Reels, like Shorts, seem to be Meta’s focus right now – with over 200 billion daily views - and they’ve been making changes over the last year to keep up with rivals and keep users on Facebook on Instagram instead of switching to TikTok or Shorts.  

 

Now, Meta is making it easier for advertisers to get engagement with their ads via reels, allowing an overlay option for ads either between clips or for ads to expand on the second playthrough of the reel. 

TikTok will now allow users to add their own thumbnails to videos, which may help with grabbing user’s attention, creating cohesive profile feeds and luring users to click on videos on your profile. We’ve seen a the power thumbnails have had on YouTube, with different trends popping up over the years which, when used correctly, have maximised video views. Whilst TikTok in itself works different to YouTube in terms of it’s display, the new option to add a custom thumbnail could still have a big impact. 

That’s all for July! Have a wonderful August and remember keep an eye out for any more digital marketing or social media updates. 

 

Finally, your social media tip is: Analyse your Post Performance 

 

Seeing which posts get the most reactions and reach is key to growing your visibility. 

 

Simply head to your Facebook driving school's Meta Business Suite and click insights in the left column. You will see an overview of all your content with their reach (how many devices it appeared on) and reactions (likes, comments and shares etc). 

 

From there you can monitor what works and what doesn't. 

 

Simply do more of what works and less of what doesn't 😊 

 

Knowing how to present your analytics in a clear and concise way relies on your presentation. Whether you prefer a spreadsheet, power point, word document or memo template, whichever you choose will form the basis for your future reports where you can simply input the data each month or every few weeks as they change. 

 

Having a consistent presentation will help you and your team spot trends and notice when or if things begin to improve or worsen with your marketing efforts. It’ll also help if your business grows and you hand the metrics reports over to another team or hire someone new, as they’ll be able to get to grips with reporting quickly. 

What is it that you want to track? You must be aware of what matters the most to your company when it comes to your metrics, but if you need some guidance on what you could look at here are some ideas: 

 

• Audience Growth – If your goal is to expand your audience, then you need to track the growth of said audience. This metric is one of the core indicators of how well your social media marketing is doing, showing that your content is attracting the audience you set out to gain when you started up on these platforms. 

 

• Post Volume – How many times are you posting? There is such thing as over-posting, but there’s also the chance you aren’t posting enough either. This will become clearer when you check your metrics and the engagement on these posts, and can give you indication on when your audience is more likely to be online. Tailoring your content to go out when your audience is about to log on will give you a better chance at appearing higher up on their feeds and capturing their attention straight away. 

 

• Post Engagement – Tracking engagement is the main way you can see if your audience likes what you post – comments, shares, clicks and likes are all considered engagement, and helps you know what content is enjoyed by your audience, and what you may need to rethink or remove from your digital marketing strategies. 

 

• Clickthrough Rate – When you link off your social media page and to your website or to another page, you need to know how many people are clicking these links. This is especially important if you’re running ads as clicks cost you money, and you want your cost per click to be as low as possible but your clickthrough rate to be high. This also allows you to measure your conversions and work out if you’re getting the best return on investment possible. 

 

• Competitor Metrics – You’re in a competitive industry, so make sure you keep an eye on other businesses like yours. You can do analysis from time to time to see if you’re beginning to become a go-to source in your industry and if you begin to rank higher than the competition the more you improve your digital marketing efforts. 

When you’ve worked out which metrics you’ll be reporting on, you need to get all of this data together. Know where you’ll be finding these analytics and make a note of your sources – link to where you get these analytics from for transparency with your team, allowing them to access these sources if they take on reporting or if they notice any discrepancies with what's within the report. 

Visual information helps to break up your analytic reports, making data easier to digest and more understandable. Using graphs and charts to display your data also helps with making comparisons to previous reports, and with grasping key insights at a glance. If you want your employees to engage with your reports and use the data effectively when it comes to creating strategies, visual elements are the thing to use. 

Social Media Reports are imperative for taking your business to the next level online, and should be used to improve the way you approach digital marketing as whole. If you want to get your business out there, then creating reports is one of the main steps to ensuring you’re on track, so begin creating your social media reports and discover their power today. 

 

There are multiple different options for images with Facebook Ads that vary based on the ad format you choose. 

 

If you’re using Feed Ads, your image should be a resolution of at least 1080 by 1080 pixels, or anything up to 30 megabytes. The minimum requirement for your Facebook Ad dimensions is 600 by 600 pixels, but there is no maximum size. Feed Ad image ratios go from 1.91:1 to 4:5, however if you’re using any stock images or you are advertising an offer then your image should be in the 1.91:1 ratio. 

 

For Facebook Ad Dimensions for carousel ads, file size can also be up to 30 megabytes, and at least 1080 x 1080 pixels in resolution. The image ratio should be anywhere between 1.9:1 and 1:1, and the maximum image size is 600 x 600 pixels. The same thing applies for column ads, article ads, collection ads and marketplace ads, although image ratio for these is 1:1. 

 

For stories, things change slightly- file size stays at the maximum 30mb, but the image size can be up to 500 pixels and 1080 x 1080 in resolution. The ratio is 1:1. Facebook does recommend leaving space at the top and bottom of story ads for a call to action and in-app features such as links or text. 

If you’re using videos, then the Facebook Ad Dimensions are as follows: 

 

- At least 1080 x 1080 pixels 

- Use the highest resolutions, as Facebook doesn’t have a maximum for videos 

- Use MP4, MOV or GIF Ad formats 

- Video length can be anywhere between 1 second to 240 minutes 

- Ratio is 1:1 

 

In stream videos have this set up, and you can use 2-10 videos for this style of ad. 

Facebook Ads give your business a direct opportunity to reach out to the exact audience you’ve been looking for, allowing you to target them specifically on things such as age, gender, job and location along with much more to give you a better chance at converting. They also offer in-depth analytics into your performance and make it easy to understand how your paid advertising methods are working for your business. As one of the most popular advertising platforms on social media, Facebook have perfected their offerings when it comes to their Ad offerings, ensuring your business is set up for success when your ads are created to perfectly display what your business is selling or advertising to users. 

If you don’t have time to manage your Facebook Ads, you’ve tried it with little success or you simply don’t know where to start, outsourcing could be the better – and cheaper – option. Instead of spending your money on trying and testing methods yourself, pay someone else to take on your Facebook Ads that know exactly what to do to bring you the highest ROI and conversions. 

 

22:22 Marketing offer outsourced Facebook Ads Management, where you’ll receive everything from the creation to management of your Ad on the platform. We know how to create an ad that performs, using our methods to deliver the right style of ad for your business. Don’t spend all of your time trying to figure out what work best for your business, hand it over to experts that can bring you results. See more of what we offer by taking a look at our Facebook Ads Management page, or Book A Call by filling out the form below to get started.