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Video Ads vs Image Ads: What To Use on Facebook

Posted on 16th October 2025
 
When you’re creating your Facebook Ads, getting your creative right is key to getting your ad to catch the eye of your audience. But with both picture and video to choose from, how do you know which would be best to use for your Facebook Ads? 
 
Here’s all you need to know to help you decide on selecting the best ad creative. 

Video Ads: All You Need To Know 

Facebook Video Ads can be a powerful tool to bring in customers – and with social media in general becoming much more favourable and reliant on the power of video, using it for your Facebook Ads could be the perfect choice for you.  
 
First, lets look at ad placements and lengths. Facebook offers several ways to display your ad on their platform – but it’s important to be aware of their video length constraints: 
 
• Facebook Feed - 241 minutes max 
• Facebook in-stream video (mobile) - 5 seconds-10 minutes 
• Facebook in-stream video (desktop) - 5-15 seconds 
• Facebook Marketplace - 241 minutes max 
• Facebook Stories - 1-120 seconds 
 
Just because some placements provide you with a long length of time, you need to remember – you’re stopping people in their tracks from scrolling. If you take a long-winded approach, you’re relying on your audience sticking around to find out what you’re actually trying to sell them – and for many, they’ll want to know the facts straight away. Keeping things short, sweet and simple can be the crucial difference between hooking the audience in and waving them goodbye. 
 
A successful Facebook Video Ad tells a story – if you start strong, you can capture attention in the first few seconds. By using visuals, a question or directly addressing your audiences’ pain points you can create an add that resonates with your ideal audience member. Think about using captions for accessibility or for those watching with sound off, focus on the benefits of your products and services, ensure your branding is present and have a clear CTA. Avoid the hard sell, but make it clear that what you’re offering could be the key to solving your audiences problems. 
 
Finally, how do you know if it’s the right creative for you business? Facebook Video Ads can benefit everyone, but they can be really impactful for: 
 
• Businesses who really need to build trust with their audience, such as those in fitness, driving instructors, salon owners – make people really see the value in you, your expertise and how you can help them. 
 
• Those who have testimonials to hand – if you’ve already had success with customers, getting some video testimonials from the people that have used your business before can help to sell you and your business to the audience. 
 
• Those in creative industries that rely on visuals to impress audiences such as fashion or home décor companies. 
 
• E-commerce businesses that are showcasing new products, showing your audience exactly how they work. 

Single Image Ads: All You Need To Know 

If video ads don’t sound like something that will work for your business, then single image ads could be the right choice for you. One of the most effective ways to reach your audience, it can still help you make an impact without needing to invest in video content. 
 
Meta has the following recommendations for single image ads: 
 
• File type: JPG or PNG 
• Ratio: 1.91:1 to 4:5 
• Resolution: 
• 1:1 ratio: 1440 x 1440 pixels 
• 4:5 ratio: 1440 x 1800 pixels 
 
Competing with so many other image ads can feel like a big ask – but if you want to stop people mid-scroll, you must ensure your visuals are bold, bright and clear in order to catch the attention of your audience, include some short text to get your message across, is branded to your business including your colours and logo, includes a CTA and, most importantly, clearly puts the focus onto the products or services you are selling. These types of ads are perfect for local, small businesses, those who provide services like consultations or electricians, event organisers or e-commerce businesses who are announcing sales or promoting specific products. 

Make Your Visuals Stand Out 

Finally, we take a look at Carousel Ads. These ads allow you to display multiple products in a singular ad, linking specifically to each, or for explaining something to your audience. Carousel ads have the following placements: 
 
• Facebook Feed 
• Facebook Marketplace 
• Facebook video feeds 
• Facebook right column 
• Facebook Stories 
• Facebook search results 
 
If you’re using Carousel Ads, you can either include images of your products in a straightforward fashion, or make multiple, flowing graphics that have rolling information that lets your audience know a little more about what you have to sell. Tell a story, add value with each of the 10 cards you have available to you and end with a CTA, telling people what the next steps are. They’re designed for interaction and can be super effective for retargeting campaigns or highlighting collections – so if this is where you’re at, Carousel ads could be great for your business. They’re fantastic for pretty much all businesses – particularly for ones who focus on travel, fashion, food, or those in the property market. 
 
Whether you’re leaning more towards video or images are more your thing, creating ads that perform can take some time and tweaking – but by picking the right creative, you can create a campaign that stands out from the rest and wins you business every time. 
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Small Marketing Budget? Here's How To Use It Effectively

Posted on 9th October 2025
 
Operating on a small marketing budget? You’re not alone – but knowing exactly how to use it effectively and successfully can be difficult to figure out when you aren’t experienced in the world of marketing. 
 
In this blog, you’ll find out how to use a small marketing budget to your advantage, and where you should be focusing your digital marketing efforts. 

Select The Right Social Media Channels 

There are so many social media channels to choose from nowadays that it can feel as though that you need to use all of them to be successful – especially when that’s what big brands seem to do, or your competitors seem to be doing. The difference however is that your small marketing budget won’t stretch to cover every single platform, and it’s not entirely relevant for you to be using all available platforms. Each attracts a different audience, and if you already know who you’ll be targeting, choosing a couple of platforms that align with the highest volume of your target market is the way forward. Not sure where to focus your marketing efforts? Here’s a short overview of the main platforms you could be using: 
• Facebook: Most common active users are aged between 25-34, skews towards a larger male audience but not too significantly compared to female users. Great for long form, text-based content and ads. 
 
• Instagram: Most common active users are aged between 18-24, even gender split. Great for visual based businesses who have the time to create eye catching posts and reels. 
 
• TikTok: Most common active users are aged between 25-34, again skews towards a larger male audience but not too significantly compared to female users. TikTok does however have a large Gen Z audience too – 77% use it for product discovery, with 82% likely to have an account on the platform according to research by Sprout Social. Perfect for short form video content. 
 
• X: Most common active users are aged between 25-34, with men being the main users (60%) compared to women (40%). A platform that is mainly text-based, can be used for building visibility. 
 
• YouTube: Most common active users are aged between 25-34, even gender split. Shorts allow for short-form content, but historically YouTube has been used – and still is – for long form video content. 
 
• LinkedIn: Again, common active users are aged between 25-34, skews towards a larger male audience but not too significantly compared to female users. A platform for businesses and professionals to connect – ideal for B2B marketing. 

Facebook Ads 

If you select Facebook to be one of your main platforms for marketing, Facebook Ads are a fantastic choice that don’t have to break the bank. Depending on how restricted you are budget wise, starting out at just £5 a day can transform the way your business uses social media for marketing purposes, and a small investment over a select period of time can bring in a ROI that allows you to eventually expand your efforts. Facebook ads requires some understanding of all it’s different elements such as the targeting features, objectives and creative – but once you have these sorted you can create a campaign that reaches the right people and brings you success. 

Email Marketing 

Marketing isn’t just restricted to your social media accounts; it’s also related to your email marketing. If you get people to sign up to your email whether that’s through Facebook ads or a pop up on your website, you can start sending them emails from your business showcasing products, offers, personalised recommendations – and it doesn’t have to cost a lot at all. Email Marketing can seamlessly work alongside your social media marketing – and can still fit with the confines of a small budget. 

Make Your Visuals Stand Out 

You don’t need a lot of money to make your visuals stand out on social media. Sites like Canva have free plans that let you still use some of their features to make great graphics without having to purchase a professional plan, allowing you to design visual branded elements that can help you create an impressive visual identity on your social media platforms. Even when it comes to Reels or TikTok’s, they can be filmed on a phone and edited inside the free app, meaning there’s little need to spend a lot of money on making content that resonates with members of your audience. 
 
A small budget can still let you create a big impact on social media – it’s just about knowing how and where to use it that can be make or break for your business’ digital marketing efforts. Hopefully this advice helps guide you when it comes to building great campaigns on social media without the need to spend over the odds. 
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Social Media & Digital Marketing September 2025 Roundup

Posted on 25th September 2025
 
And just like that, we’ve reached the end of September – and as we get set to enter the period of colder weather, darker nights and festivities we still have some social media news from the last month to look back on. 
 
Here’s everything that’s been announced this month! 

TikTok Saved In The US? 

You may have been following the news regarding TikTok’s “will-it or won’t-it be banned” situation in the USA, and now it seems to all be over as American investors have been found to purchase the app. President Trump is expected to sign the deal at some point in the next few days, meaning TikTok, for now, is safe to continue operating in the USA – great news for businesses who are targeting a US based audience with their TikTok Marketing. In Europe, the app has reached a milestone user base of 200 million, up from 175 million in 2024 – making it nearly one third of the population in the UK & EEA using the platform. France, Italy and Germany have some of the highest active user  
 
figures between 23-25 million, but the UK surpasses them – with 30 million reported back in June. 

Instagram Hashtags – Are They Effective? 

Noticed a drop in reach over on Instagram? CEO Adam Mosseri confirmed that hashtags are now actually serving more as a categorisation feature rather than one that drives reach. Whilst they’re still helpful to have on your posts, the algorithm has moved towards priority for keywords, alt text, locations, tags and engagement from users. You might have to switch your strategy a little, if you’ve been relying on hashtags to bring you the biggest audience. 

TikTok Hashtag Limit 

Sticking with the theme of our first two topics, if you’re frequently using TikTok you may have come across their recent feature which stops you adding more than 5 hashtags into a post. This is more than just a recommendation by the app – it literally will not allow you to add more than 5, pushing users to be more relevant with the ones they choose instead – helping you get a better reach. It’s being tested, so you may not have the feature just yet – but keep an eye out for it when it’s fully rolled out. 

LinkedIn Post Analytics Update 

LinkedIn have made a small update to their analytics, which could be helpful for those who use it as their primary posting platform. The new post-performance feature will update at 3 and 7 days after a post has been published – focusing on impressions, profile visits and new followers gained. 

Instagram Reels Updates Metrics 

Creators of Instagram Reels will now find two new metrics when checking their Reels performance – and they’re important ones. First of all, there’s now the ‘skip rate’ showing where viewers skip within the first 3 seconds, and the also retention charts showing where viewers drop off. Both are great to utilise, as they can help to identify issues and make your reels much more engaging from start to end by changing certain elements that keep the audience hooked in. 

Threads User Base Update 

New algorithm changes have firmly positioned threads as the leading alternative to X – and now they’ve hit 400 million active monthly users – a boost of 50 million in just 5 months. The changes to the algorithm have boosted time spent on the app to 35%, and whilst behind X is ahead by 200 million, its’s rapid growth rate is definitely something to watch out for – it may become a key platform for your marketing sooner than you think. 
That’s all for September! Have a great October and we’ll be back to update you with next month’s updates soon. 
 
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 business page (on desktop), click insights and then click 'Posts' in the left column. Scroll down and you will see all your posts with their reach (how many devices it appeared on), 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. 
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Top Facebook Ad Tips For Small Business Owners

Posted on 18th September 2025
 
If you’re the owner of a small business, Facebook Ads can be a great way to get discovered by new audiences and bring in new business. 
 
Facebook Ads don’t have to break the bank, and can bring you a greater return on your investment when they’re optimised and run correctly. If you’ve never made one before, then don’t worry – these top tips will help you to get your head around Facebook ads so you can begin creating and running your own. 

Choosing the Right Ad Objective: How To Find The Right One For Your Campaign 

First of all, you need to select the right objective for your Facebook Ad Campaign. Ad objectives help to mould the outcome of your campaign, and should align with your goals for running a Facebook Ad. Here are the Ad Objectives you can choose from: 
Awareness – Awareness campaigns will help you reach people who are most likely to remember your ad, and can help if your business has rebranded or is just setting up – letting your audience become much more familiar with your business. 
 
Traffic – Traffic ads increase the traffic to something like your website, your page, app or another resource. You want to get as many people as possible to click through, visit and take action in the destination that you’ve sent them to. 
 
Engagement – This is when you’re looking for people who are most likely to engage with your business online, whether that’s something like getting them to start a conversation on messenger or take a specific action on your Facebook page or your ad itself. 
 
Leads – Using messages forms, phone calls or sign ups, lead campaigns let you get customers to enquire to find out more by helping to provide their information in some capacity. For example, you can get more sign ups to an email list, or attract them with a free trial or resource. 
 
App Promotion – Have an app you need to promote? App Promotions are great for targeting mobile users to install your app or, if they already have it, to make a purchase or visit something new that you’ve introduced within the app specifically. 
 
Sales – Finally we look at sales campaigns, which are essentially what they say on the tin. They’re campaigns designed to get people to make a purchase, but they can also be used to track things like adding to a basket (which can also be helpful when it comes to retargeting later on in your Ads journey). 

Set The Right Budget 

When setting up your ad, you’ll need to select the ad budget – this is the amount of money you’re willing to spend daily during the duration of your ads being run. Whilst you may think you need to put a substantial amount into running an ad, you also need to ensure that your spending will be financially stable for your small business. Starting with £5 or £10 can be enough to bring in significant results if you’ve correctly curated a campaign that attracts the correct audience to purchase from you. By starting small, you can continue to test and scale until you find the ad that works the best for your small business without the worrying of spending over the odds for an add that isn’t performing that you can’t afford to change. 

Ad Creative That Stands-Out 

Your creative is what hooks your audience in and helps you to stand out from the crowd and competition. There are multiple components to the creative stage of your ad, so here are the things you need to be looking out for: 
 
Text – Make sure your text is clear in it’s messaging, concise and gets to the point quickly. You need to let your audience know how your or services solves their problem and pain points, and intrigue them to click through and take some kind of action (depending on what the objective of your ad set out to achieve). Speak directly to your audience members, show them that you understand what they need and why your business is the one they need to buying from. 
 
Headlines – You headline should be clear and short, making it quick and easy for your audience to understand what you Ad is about. 
 
Call To Action – You need to direct your audience to the action they need to take, so select the most relevant call to action for your ad such as ‘Sign Up’, ‘Learn More’ or ‘Book Now’. 
 
Image & Video – When it comes to the image(s) and video that you use, there are things you need to consider. Whether you’re using a singular image or carousel format, make sure it’s branded, correctly represents what you’re advertising to your audience, and grabs their attention. With your images and video, ensure they’re high-quality and with your video, make sure it’s not too long and explains what it is that you are advertising to your audience. Your images and video are the things that need to be stopping your audience in their tracks – so spend time ensuring this area is perfected. 

Find Your Audience 

Finally, you can run a great ad but without the right audience seeing it, you won’t be bringing in any business. First, think about the person you want to see your ads – consider their demographics such as their location, age, gender, interests, job type, even things such as if they’re parents or what they earn. Don’t narrow your audience too much so that you get no leads, but don’t ignore it entirely so it’s shown to people who won’t have an interest in what you’re advertising. Having a good idea of your audience can even help with the creative side of things, so make sure you are absolutely certain on the traits and characteristics of your ideal audience member. 
Starting Facebook Ads can be daunting, but hopefully these tips can give you some guidance when it comes to creating your own. If you’re struggling, don’t have the time or just need help from experts then don’t hesitate to get in touch with 22:22 marketing – we can help get you started with your Facebook Ads. 
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How To Plan Your Social Media Content Effectively

Posted on 11th September 2025
 
When it comes to your social media, having an effective plan for your content is key to ensuring success. Whether it’s to do with the type of content you post or the time you decide to put your content out on your platforms, having a concise and solid plan that you and your marketing team can follow can be the key between running successful campaigns and unsuccessful campaigns. 
 
Here's all you need to know about planning your social media content effectively. 

Why Is Planning Important? 

Planning in any industry is important, and is especially integral to the marketing journey. Think of it like building a house – you need the foundations first, then you can start building until the house is complete and ready to be sold. It’s the same with marketing – the plan is the foundations  
of your campaign; when you have these, you build on them, and look closer at the details – your audience, content style, competition, platforms etc – finally, the ‘house’ is your campaign – now fully built, designed and ready to run. Without a plan, it’s like going in blind – you may have ideas, but they may not be executed to their full potential or you may run into trouble and have no strategy to help you fix any problems or change any elements. Your team also won’t be working on a consistent plan, meaning some may have different plans to another – making your campaigns feel disjointed. With a plan, everyone is working towards the same thing with the same outlines and guidance. 

What Should You Include In Your Social Media Plan? 

You may be wondering what exactly you need to include in said social media plan – from knowing what to post to where to post, you need to ensure the following is included when it comes to your content plans: 
 
Content Themes: Think of the themes you plan to use in your content – it can be a mixture of different ones like industry news, company news, behind the scenes, product information or updates, new features of products – whatever you choose, it needs to be made clear to your team what topics and themes you want to focus on, and how much you want to focus on them. You can also choose to follow the ‘Rule of Thirds’ when it comes to your social media content – this is where you have a third of posts that promote your products or services, a third that’s focused on sharing stories and content from others in your industry, and a third that leans on interactions and personalising and humanising your customers’ experience with your brand on social media. 
 
Audience: Who are you talking to with your content? You should already have a good idea of who your target audience is, but now you need to figure the type of content they’re interested in, styles that they respond to, the trends that are currently circulating within that age group, the platforms they’re most likely to use and most importantly, how your products relates to them and hits their pain points. A great visual and wording can be the first step to getting them invested, but they won’t purchase if they don’t need your product. Make it clear that what you have to sell is the solution to a key problem they’re having. 
 
Post Timings: This may be a little more difficult to plan if you haven’t already been posting on social media, but having a consistent schedule that hits your audiences’ timelines just as they come online can be a huge benefit for your business. Social media platforms like TikTok will let you know when your followers are most active, helping you plan your content around when they’re likely to be opening up their social media profiles – posting just before helps to keep your content at the top of their feeds. Scheduling tools can be helpful if you don’t have the time to help you log on exactly when needed each day you post – whether you use the platforms own scheduling options or third-party tools. 
 
Keywords and Hashtags: Keywords and hashtags play a huge role in your social media marketing posts – having copy that’s rich with relevant keywords and utilises hashtags that relate to your industry and post topics can aid with increasing your visibility and reach. When people these keywords or hashtags, you’ll want your content to be one of the first things they see – which also is handy for brand awareness. 
 
Platforms: We’ve lightly touched on this throughout, but really is essential that you know what platforms you want to use. Sure, you can use all of them if you wanted, but it’s not likely to bring you the best results – really honing in on a couple of platforms where your target is most likely to be can be the thing that helps to make or break your campaign. If you’re posting for a Gen Z audience on Facebook but not TikTok or Instagram you could be losing out on a valuable audience, whereas if you prioritise those platforms instead you can potentially take your marketing performance to the next level. Picking your platforms relies heavily on your target audience, so when it comes to your plan make sure you’ve aligned these two things. 
 
Content Style: Now we have to consider the stye of your content – videos, pictures, infographics, blogs or live streams, you must have a solid idea of what you want to create that will sell your social media campaigns. Again, look at what your target audience is most likely to engage with, if you need some time to figure this out try a mix and see what gets the best engagement or if you already know exactly what style you’re going for, make your content unique, branded and a stand out amongst your competition. 
 
Analyse Your Competitors: Speaking of competition, looking at the type of content they post, what they sell and how they interact with their followers is a good way to get started. As you’ll be competing in the same space, find your own niche but see how others successfully market and use this idea as inspiration – not a copy – for your own marketing efforts. 
Hopefully you’ll find these tips helpful – once you’ve got your plan figured out, get started and see how it helps your social media marketing much more effective. 
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Social Media & Digital Marketing August 2025

Posted on 28th August 2025
 
We’ve come to the end of August, and as the Autumn approaches we’re going to be taking a look back at all the social media news and updates that have been announced this month! 
 
Here’s everything you need to know… 

Edits Updates 

If you’ve been using Edits, then there are some handy updates to the app that you should be aware of. 
 
Firstly, the UI has been updated – making it easier for you to switch between your creations and performance overview. You can find out which videos are performing best under certain categories such as most views or most likes depending on what metrics you’re aiming to track. 
Safe Zone mapping allows you to see where Facebook and Instagram’s interfaces will appear when your video is viewed on each platform – helping you to correctly place your text or other features so they’re not cut off or covered up. 
 
Finally, if you want more control of your animations, you now have the option of Keyframe curves. 

Instagram Adds New Repost Feature 

If you’ve used Instagram over August, then you’ve probably noticed that on posts and reels there’s now an option to repost content. These reposts will show up on your friends and followers’ feeds, whilst also getting their own tab on your profile. 
 
Whilst reposts are great for the general Instagram user, they’re great for businesses too. Not only can members of your audience repost your content, but you can also repost theirs – adding a small, extra detail to your marketing when it comes to user-generated content.  

Will TikTok Be Banned In The US? 

At the start of 2025, TikTok was under threat of a ban by the US. It’s operations in the country were allowed to continue after President Trump signed multiple executive orders throughout the year as a buyer for the platform was sought. However, the most recent order – a 90-day extension for the platform to find said buyer – expires on September 17th 2025, and despite interest from multiple American investors we haven’t yet heard whether the platform is to be purchased in the US, whether another order will be signed if one isn’t found or if the app will cease US operations on it’s deadline date. It’s definitely something to keep an eye on – TikTok isn’t facing a similar threat in the UK, so for businesses here it remains an excellent platform to build visibility, connect with audiences, and drive growth, and a ban could make way for UK businesses and creators to find new opportunities via TikTok. However, it’s also a reminder that businesses shouldn’t rely too heavily on one platform, just in case similar issues arise on any platform over in the UK and Europe in the near future. 

TikTok Allows In-App Scheduling 

Speaking of TikTok, they’ve now rolled out the ability to schedule posts in-app. Before, you’d either have to create your post and put it out there and then, or leave it as a draft and post at the exact time you’d planned. You could’ve used the TikTok Studio app which did allow scheduling of posts, but now you don’t have to worry about switching between apps or making posts that sit waiting in your drafts until you need them posted – you can prepare and schedule content for specific dates and times inside of the TikTok app itself, making your content planning and management much more convenient. 

Snapchat Outperforming Rivals With E-Commerce 

If you’ve used social media for e-commerce, you may be surprised to hear that Snapchat is pulling ahead in performance with e-commerce compared to other platforms. A study commissioned by the platform along with Triple Whale found that, even though Snapchat is a smaller platform when it comes spend share, they received a 7.5% higher return on ad spend compared to other platforms. The Snapchat Generation report, which focuses on its main user base of Gen Z and Millennials discovered that 92% of daily users include their friends in their shopping journey, and more than half send messages/pictures via Snapchat when shopping. So, if your target audience is here but you haven’t thought about using Snapchat in your advertising, now may be a great time to start. 
That’s all for August – have a great September, and remember to keep an eye out for any new features in the digital marketing world over the next month. 
 
Finally, here’s your social media tip: Paid ads aren’t just for big businesses with massive budgets. They’re for anyone serious about getting in front of the right people and seeing real results 
 
If you’re a small business, you might think paid ads aren’t for you—but the truth is, they’re one of the most powerful tools you can use to grow. A well-targeted campaign puts your business in front of people who might never have found you otherwise. 
 
Paid ads are about smart spending, not big spending. They’re about reaching the right audience and driving real growth.  
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How Does Social Media Marketing Influence Consumer Behaviour?

Posted on 21st August 2025
 
Ever thought about selling your products through social media? Having an online presence is essential to getting customers – but how can social media marketing help to influence their behaviour and make them purchase from you? 
 
This blog will help to answer this question, and point you in the right direction when it comes to your social media – ensuring that you’re attracting an audience who will become loyal customers, and not just people who scroll past when they see a post or ad from you. 
 
Here’s how Social Media Marketing influences consumer behaviour, and what your business needs to look out for. 

Converse With Your Audience 

It’s in the title ‘Social Media’ – you need to be social. It didn’t start out as a place to sell, and whilst its expanded to be great for e-commerce it’s still 
the place people come to connect with friends and family, meet new people and simply have conversations. Your business has the opportunity to create a dialogue with your audience, when they comment or message you leave a reply. It helps you with building trust and credibility, as you’ll be able to answer any questions they have, join in on conversations, offer them advice or simply leave a response to a comment that they’ve left you. Showing your brand is authentic, cares about its audience and appreciates their contributions is the first step to influencing their behaviour. 

Social Proof 

Social proof is a powerful tool that can have a big impact on whether or not consumers buy from you. Think about when you’ve gone to purchase something online – often, you’ll look for reviews, unboxings, recommendations, and so do many others. In fact, 87% of buying decisions begin with research conducted online before the purchase is made as reported by CXL. You need to consider this when it comes to your business - customers will trust others who have had experiences with your products, as they’re likely to be similar people to them and looking for the same problem to be solved. It can be hard if you haven’t already been selling online and are a new business to get this social proof – which will take time to build up, but if you have a relative digital marketing presence that you’re wanting to shift towards social media, then you can use these reviews in posts, get in touch with niche influencers who’ll promote your products to their audience, and leverage any user-generated content you find to help persuade your audience that your product has worked for others like them, so will for them too if they make a purchase. 

Make Your Content Relevant 

How relevant is your content? Algorithms are highly tailored to the needs and wants of your audience, being created from their online habits, accounts they follow, interactions, even sometimes other sites they’ve visited and what they’ve interacted with over there too – so you must ensure your content is hitting the mark. You need to be reaching the right people at the right time, which can help to increase how impactful your message comes across as. Get on trends as soon as they begin, ensure you have a consistent approach not just on social media but in all digital marketing fields when it comes to your style, tone of voice, posting time and response time. You have to be relevant to you audience, and you must understand their social media activity and interests in order to form your business’. Your content needs to resonate in terms of relevance, but it also needs to be relevant in terms of emotion – create a deeper connection and create emotional narratives that hook your audience in and speak directly to them. 

Build Your Brand Awareness and Loyalty 

Social Media is great for building brand awareness – it’s often where consumers discover new businesses and products, but its just the start of their customer journey. They become aware of you, but if you impress them enough for them to make a purchase and this also leaves a great impression, they may keep coming back for more – turning them into a loyal customer. Social media can be their starting point, but it can also be the place they continue to have an ongoing relationship with your brand – they may even turn into advocates and consumers that help to drive your long-term growth. Ensuring you are recognisable, innovative and most importantly, attracting a community of people who want to engage with your business both on social media and through purchasing what you have to sell. 
Making social media a bigger part of your selling strategy can be a great move, and one that you can build on when it comes to paid options further down the line (if it begins to bring you results). By ensuring all of these tips are in line when you approach your social media marketing, you can have a positive impact on your audience and influence them to turn from followers into long-term consumers of your business’ products and services. 
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Vanity Metrics vs Actionable Metrics

Posted on 14th August 2025
 
When it comes to social media marketing, your analytics are one of the key things you need to be keeping an eye out for. They’ll tell you how well your business is performing, where you could be improving and in what areas you should be building on when it comes to your businesses content. 
 
Two things that are important to understand when it comes to your analytics are vanity metrics and actionable metrics. You may have come across these terms before but don’t quite know what they mean, or you may be new to the terms completely. No matter your understanding of the terms, this blog should explain them both to you – so you know exactly what too look out for when it comes to monitoring your metrics. 

What Are Vanity Metrics? 

Vanity metrics might look impressive, but they’re not what you should be using to craft your entire marketing strategy. 
Often, these metrics – follower count, likes, comments shares, they all give the impression that you’re doing well and growing on social media, and they look good to others who come across your account, but they shouldn’t be the key in what defines your business when it comes to your social media marketing. 
 
Whilst you may have a lot of likes, how many of those people are buying from you? How many followers become an engaged customer? How much revenue are you making from your social media marketing? How many referrals are you getting from your socials? Vanity metrics don’t come with context, whereas actionable metrics do. 

What Are Actionable Metrics? 

Actionable metrics are the ones that help to point you towards what is and isn’t working when it comes to your social media marketing. They’re metrics that are linked to getting specific results – for example, if you’re running an A/B test for ads you’re looking for the one that gets the best click through rate, or has the lowest cost per click, or is bringing in the most revenue. It’s data that gives you the opportunity to scale up your marketing efforts and hone in on the areas that are the most successful for you at that current point in time. 

If Actionable Metrics Are Better For Your Marketing – Why Do People Lean Towards Vanity Metrics Instead? 

To put it simply, vanity metrics are just a bit more exciting. Seeing hundreds or thousands of views, likes, followers etc. on your posts can make you feel like what you’re doing is working – and it could be, as long as it’s also aligning alongside your actionable metrics. 
 
When marketers focus solely on their vanity metrics, they’re missing out on the actual metrics that matter. Chances are you’re marketing to sell, so not having any idea of whether your engagement is converting into sales isn’t a great position to be in – which is why you have to know exactly what metrics you want to be tracking. 

How To Decide Which Metrics To Track 

The most important thing that you need to consider are your social media marketing goals. Whether you’re looking to build up brand awareness or sell more items through social media, you need to think about what actionable metrics could help you achieve this. You can decide to measure your goals by seeing whether you’ve had an increase in visitors to your site or if people are clicking through and making a purchase after seeing your post or ad. Your vanity metrics can also be tracked here too – brand awareness can also come down to followers and engagement – but this shouldn’t form the basis or be the main focus of your marketing reports. Its good information to have on hand, but shouldn’t shape your performance when it comes to your goals – a steady increase in followers and a steady increase in site visitors can go hand in hand, but remember where your main focus lies. 
Vanity Metrics and Actionable Metrics are both influential, but you must have a good idea of what you really want to achieve from your marketing before tracking either. Remember, actionable metrics are what you really need to be focusing on, but don’t ignore your vanity metrics completely – they can both work alongside one another when measured correctly. 
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How To Write Facebook Ad Copy That Converts

Posted on 7th August 2025
 
 
Thinking about expanding your marketing into Facebook Ads, but are approaching it for the first time? If so, then one of the most important things you need to know is how to create an ad that converts – and in this blog we’ll be looking at your ad copy. 
 
Ad copy is what helps to convey your message across to your audience – if your audience don’t know what you’re selling or don’t know how it’ll help them, then they won’t buy from you. So, if you’re getting started with ads here’s how to write ad copy that converts. 

Facebook Ads: General Top Tips 

If you’re starting with ads, here are some general top tips you need to know before you start: 
• Know who your audience are: It’s important to be aware of exactly who you’re marketing towards. You should already have a good idea of this, so take a look at who you’re already targeting and go for a similar audience with your ads. You can even get more specific if you wanted by considering the type of interests they have, income, relationship status – anything that helps you to understand the mindset of your audience member. 
 
• Brand Voice: You should have an adopted brand voice that carries you through all of your business social communications. Is it corporate? Humorous? Relatable? Friendly? Your brand voice is what represents your business and gives you a cohesive online presence through your digital marketing efforts. 
 
• Graphics: Decide what graphics you want to use. Is it a carousel ad, single image or video format? Having this in mind will help to aid what you include in your text. 
 
• Be aware of what placements, formats and objectives that are available to you and select the correct ones for your business. 
 
Now we have these points considered, let’s look closer into writing your Ad copy. 

Speak Directly To Your Audience 

One of the key things you must do when writing your copy is speak directly to members of your audience. Put yourself in their shoes and consider what issues they may be having, and what product or service they need to solve this problem. For example, if you’re an ethical clothing brand, your ideal customer may be looking to buy good-quality items that aren’t considered ‘fast fashion’, and may be wanting to be eco-friendlier and more sustainable with their purchases. You know your product solves this, so use this to your advantage in your copy by directly pointing this out. You can ask at the top of your copy a question related to their problem which can act as an instant hook, or, even better, speak as your audience. You can look at any reviews you may have to see common themes and problems mentioned that your product has solved, but if you don’t have this available to you then you can come up with your own problem. Sticking with our example, you could begin your ad with a statement such as “I want to be sustainable with my clothing choices, but I keep coming across fast-fashion instead” or “I’m concerned about the impact my fashion choices are having on the environment”. Whoever it is you’re targeting, really get to know what it is that they’re looking for and include it in your messaging. You can use these pain point quotes in your graphics too for an instant impact. 

Capture Attention Fast 

In today’s fast paced social media world people will keep scrolling until they see something that captures their attention – Samba Recovery reports that the average internet user has an attention span of 8.25 seconds, so not only are you battling with grabbing their attention you’re tasked with retaining it too. Therefore, get your point across – there isn’t a lot of room to pad out what you’re trying to say, so make sure you’re concise, and that the information you provide can be consumed quickly. Your graphics can also aid with grabbing attention – if this stops someone in their tracks, your copy should be would keeps them engaged and wanting to click through to find out more or purchase what you’re selling. 

Add Value 

Don’t sell, sell, sell – add value instead. People aren’t on Facebook to buy – you need to warm people up to purchasing. After all they’re often passively scrolling through content, and the last thing they’re looking for is someone demanding sales. This why you need to have value in your copy – show that you understand your audience, their wants and needs, and most importantly, speak their language. If they relate to what you have to say in your copy and feel like your business could be the answer to their problems, they’re much more likely to click your link and take action than if you went straight in with an immediate sales pitch. Finding the right balance between sales and value is the key, and when approaching your copy think about answering two important questions: Why would someone want to use my product? & How will it help my audience? 

Call Out Your Audience 

Facebook has some great targeting options available for you to use within it’s own platform, but you can also help to push the algorithm even more by directly mentioning your target audience in your copy. Looking for football fans? Fashion lovers? Animal lovers? Frequent travellers? Call them out in your copy. Using Facebooks in-built targeting system within ad manager, not only are you giving yourself the best chance of reaching the audience you want to be engaging with your business, but you’re also ensuring they’re hooked in from the get go as they recognise themselves instantly in your ad copy. 
Whilst ad copy isn’t the only thing you need to focus on if you’re running Facebook ads, it is a key component to forming the rest of your set up by complimenting multiple aspects of your campaign. If you’ve been struggling with writing copy that converts, then hopefully these tips will help you create copy that wins you business. 
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Can Social Media Marketing Really Help My Business?

Posted on 30th July 2025
 
Looking into ways to market your business effectively? If so, then it’s likely you’ve come across digital or social media marketing. Since the rise and boom of social media in the late 00s and early 2010s, social media has turned into a tool not just for socialising with family and friends but a valuable business asset that can transform the way you attract and retain customers, as well as boosting your overall growth and position within your industry. 
 
Social media marketing for many businesses has become a key staple in their overall marketing strategies. So, if you’re asking yourself if it can really help your business, this blog should provide you with the answers you need when it comes to social media marketing. 

What Is Social Media Marketing? 

First of all, what is social media marketing? Think about the brands you like and buy from – do you follow them on social media? Have you been  
influenced to purchase something, or visit their site after seeing one of their posts? Have you ever clicked on an ad you’ve seen scrolling on your feed? These are all parts of social media marketing – and for many, they’re just a normal part of the day-to-day usage of sites like Facebook, TikTok, X, YouTube and Instagram. It’s exactly what it says on the tin, marketing on social media platforms that your target audience are most likely to be using, whether that be through paid ads or boosted posts, or general posts onto your business page / personal profile (depending on your platform and marketing plans). 
 
Now we know what social media marketing is, lets look at some ways it can help your business. 

Build Your Brand Reputation and Awareness 

First of all, social media marketing can build your brands reputation and awareness. Having people become aware of your brand is key to your social media marketing efforts – brand awareness already exists for many big companies, but small businesses and new businesses can really take advantage of social media to help make their audience aware of who they are. When you’ve built brand awareness, you need to build your reputation, and this comes with trust. You can use reviews that may have already been provided to you, or simply talk to your customers by replying to their comments, answering their questions and solving their pain points with your products and services. You should already know how important reputation is for a business on and offline, so keeping an eye on incoming comments and reviews can help to curate and boost your businesses reputation on social media and show new audiences that you’re trusted by those who are already buying from and interacting with you. 

Discover Your Target Audience 

Your target audience are the key to successful social media marketing. They’re what can make or break a campaign – if you’ve targeted your content towards the wrong people, then you won’t see the results you desired, affecting your overall performance. Knowing exactly who these people are, where you’re most likely to find them, the traits they possess and demographics they fall into will help to design your entire marketing approach. Tailoring your content and ads towards this audience ensures you’re hooking in the right people and solving their issues – if you have a product, for example, that exclusively targets itself towards Gen Z women, then familiarise yourself with what this audience is likely to be into by looking into current trends, lingo, content styles and competitors who are in the same field / lane as you when it comes to their marketing. Having all this information at your fingertips will help to make your marketing much more effective. Your insights will also be able to tell you information on audience demographics, so you know if things need changing or keeping on the right path depending on who is interacting and clicking through on the posts or ads you put out there. 

Understand Your Business’ Online Performance 

Speaking of your insights, social media marketing can be a great tool for understanding your businesses online marketing performance. As mentioned, you can see insights on your audience, but you can also see click through rates, reach and impressions, ads can show you your ROI and cost per click – there’s a whole host of information that can be extracted from your social media marketing efforts which only helps to aid with the formation of your campaigns, improving them as you go forward and begin to see how your audience is responding to the content that you’re putting out there. 

Improve Your Customer Service 

Customer service initiatives can be boosted by your social media presence – letting customers get in touch directly through apps like Messenger. With the rise of AI, automated systems are becoming ever-more popular – meaning FAQ’s can be answered easily through an automated system, or if you’d rather use human interaction, ensure you have a response time mapped out to ensure your customers are getting answers within a quick time frame. This can often be seen on an app like X, where businesses will have dedicated accounts for responding to customers who @ their customer services with questions and requests. Sprout Social Index Data found that 73% of consumers will buy from a competitor if they don’t get a response – so make sure you’re prompt with your customer services on social media. Remember, if you’re dealing with negative comments, reviews or questions remain professional and try to take this of the timeline and into a private message conversation, where you can sort out any issues in a less public but respectful manner. This is also great for your brand reputation – offering to help publicly, apologising for any issues and offering to sort the problems out through a DM conversation shows that you care to get things sorted fast – which also bolsters trust in your business, as your audience will see you’re dedicated to helping out others in a quick manner who require your customer services. 

Don’t Be Afraid of Digital Marketing In General 

Social Media Marketing isn’t all there is to getting your business online – digital marketing in general is a great tool. From paid ads, websites, email marketing and SEO, all of these things can combine to make your social media marketing efforts more effective and vice versa. Having an overall online presence can help to boost your brand awareness and drive more traffic to your websites or social media pages, and by integrating a wider array of digital marketing into your overall strategy you can start see how successful you can be when you move more of your operations online. 
So, can social media marketing really help your business? Yes! With billions of people across the world using social media, the only thing between you and finding a loyal audience online is the hesitation to invest in social media. It may start off slow, but the more you learn and understand what’s required the better the results will be. If you don’t have the time to do this but still want to see how social media can help you, outsourcing it can be a great help – especially as you’ll be working with experts who know exactly how to get you the results you desire. 
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Social Media & Digital Marketing July 2025 Roundup

Posted on 24th July 2025
 
We’re coming to the end of July, which means we’re ready for another social media roundup! 
 
From YouTube to Threads, new features have been implemented and platforms have continued to grow – here’s what’s been going on in the social media world throughout July… 

YouTube Updates Their Analytics 

Channel Managers will now be giving channel managers more insights when it comes to their audience engagement, with expanded information on new and returning viewers. As per YouTube: “We’re introducing deeper audience insights to help creators understand their viewers beyond just ‘New’ and ‘Returning.’ Creators will now be able to see granular segmentation based on long-term viewer behaviour, including ‘New’, ‘Casual,’ and ‘Regular’ viewers.  
The goal is to help creators build better content strategies and grow their audience.”. These changes have now been rolled out globally. 
 
YouTube have also recommended that users go for a more community-focused approach, utilising the community post section and engaging with commenters can help to boost your audience interaction, and with their new ‘most relevant’ option, you can find the best comments and questions to reply to quickly. 

Instagram Reels Extended 

Late last month, Instagram Reel lengths were extended to 20 minutes. This means you can upload content like tutorials, how-to’s or whatever your business chooses to make on the platform without having to worry about fitting everything in a short timeframe. However, you must consider your audience in this – do they enjoy longer videos, or do they lean more towards short form? Whilst incorporating longer videos can be beneficial, be mindful of what your audience engages with most. 

YouTube To Demonetise Mass Produced AI Content 

If you’ve leant into AI for your YouTube Marketing, make sure you’re staying compliant with YouTubes new guidelines around using AI content. Noted as a ‘minor’ policy, YouTube guidelines will begin to crack down on what they call ‘inauthentic’ content and identify mass-produced and repetitive videos – including content made by AI. 

Threads Continues to See Growth 

Threads celebrated it’s 2-year anniversary this month, and after the initial hype of the apps launch back in 2023, it’s now starting to see a return in momentum thanks to their new updates over the last few months. They’ve even appointed a Head of Threads this month, which Instagram Head Adam Mosseri says despite still being a part of Instagram, he “want[s] to make sure we take [Threads] as seriously as our other apps, and so it needs a dedicated lead. 
 
They’ve added some additional updates to their analytics this month – further help to marketers who are starting to invest in using the platform. On the updates have said the following: “You can now tap metrics within the Insights dashboard for more detailed information. For example, tapping the Interactions section shows engagement by likes, replies, quotes and reposts, while tapping the Followers section shows follower growth with geographic data, including top cities and countries, and demographic information like age range and gender.” 
 
So that means you find can more information on the demographics of your audience, you’ll also have new charts showing your interactions and you can see if your posts are being seen via other apps. All of this information can be crucial to planning your social media schedule and ensuring your posts are correctly targeted towards the right audience, so make sure you’re keeping track of these analytics often to keep your marketing on track. 

Google AI to Call Business Owners 

Google AI will now be able to call business owners to save people from doing it themselves in a new update. 
 
Users will just enter their query, and AI will find the information for them using readily available information and automated calls. It will then present the information in a summary format based off what it’s found. As explained by Google: “From pet grooming to dry cleaning needs, Search can now call businesses to get pricing and availability information on your behalf — without you needing to pick up the phone. To get started, search for something like ‘pet groomers near me’ and you’ll see a new option in the results to ‘Have AI check pricing.’ From there, you can submit your request and Search will do the rest, consolidating information about appointments and services from different businesses to present you with a range of options.” 
 
That’s all for July! Have a fantastic August and remember to keep an eye out for any further updates over the coming month. 
Finally, your social media tip is: You do not need high production to make video work in your ads. 
 
In fact, sometimes a simple video filmed on your phone outperforms everything else. 
 
The goal is not perfection, it is connection. 
 
Show your face. Talk directly to your audience. 
 
Explain what you offer and why it matters, clearly and calmly. 
 
Keep the video short. Thirty seconds can be enough. 
 
Use captions so people can follow along with the sound off. 
 
And always end with a clear call-to-action. 
 
Video builds trust. It makes you feel real. 
 
That alone can drive more clicks and conversions than a polished graphic 
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The Basics Of Running An Ad Campaign

Posted on 17th July 2025
 
If you’re starting out with running an ad campaign, then you need to know the basics before your start delving into the more detailed elements. Learning these basic components allows you to build on them as you grow more confident with campaign creation and management. 
 
Here’s what you need to know when you start running an ad campaign. 

Consider Your Budget 

Knowing how much you’re spending on ads is crucial to planning and running a campaign – but how do you know what you should be spending? 
Facebook allows you to select your budget – this is either your lifetime budget (what you’re willing to spend for the entirety of your campaigns run time), daily budget (what you plan to pay daily), campaign budget (run by Advantage+ to simplify your set up) and Ad Set budget (allowing you to change how much you spend on each ad set individually). 
Look at your ad goals and your current financial situation, which can help you to determine your ad spend. Don’t spend too much – starting out small helps you to control your finances, and when you’ve got all the elements right, you may find that a small budget can bring you great results and a big return on your investment. 

Targeting  

Don’t underestimate the power of targeting – knowing who your target audience are is crucial for ensuring your ads are delivered to the right people. If you target your ads wrong you could end up wasting money and time on an Ad that doesn’t perform, so get a good idea of who it is you want interacting with your business and clicking on the links you have included within your ads.  
 
You want to consider such things as: 
 
• Where your audience are located – if you have a physical location, you may only be looking for people who live around the area your business is in. If you offer an online course, or sell online, you may choose to target multiple cities, the entire country or a global audience. 
 
• Their age – knowing how old your audience are will allow you to tailor other elements of your campaign such as your copy and graphics. Facebook typically lets you target users from the ages of 18 – 65+. 
 
• Their gender – Whether your business is created for everyone or you create products or courses specifically for women or men, you can use this to design your ad creative and target the correct people. 
 
• Their interests – What does you audience like? What personality traits do they possess? For example, if you run a sports company, you can target people who are interested in fitness or a specific sport. This can help to narrow your audience to those most likely to show interest in your ad. 

Visual Elements 

Next, you want to consider creating your visual elements. These must convey the message of your ad, stand out from the crowd and help to capture the attention of those scrolling through their feed. Your ad must be branded so it can be easily recognisable alongside your business – helping with building brand recognition too – using your logo, colours, fonts and tone of voice in your visual elements to create a cohesive campaign. You can use an image in a single or carousel format, or if you’d rather, use a video to help convey the message of your campaign – however, keeping these videos short, sweet and to-the-point can be much more powerful at retaining interest from your audience than a longer video. A/B testing can be helpful too – creating different variations of you visuals or using a video, single image and carousel and testing them to see which works better can help to shape your future campaigns. 

Copywriting 

Now, you need to think about writing your copy. Your copy must be compelling, answers the pain points and wants of your audience by providing value to them, and encourage them to take the next steps via your call to action. Be direct with your messaging, get to the point and don’t make it too long – like your visuals, your copy must grab the audience’s attention straight away.  
 
Ensure it’s written in your brand voice, and works with the visual elements you’ve created. You can also decide to A/B test your copy, using different styles, lengths and messaging to see what your audience best responds to. 
Once you get these basic things set into place, you can begin to consider such things ad formats, placements, and reviewing each element of your campaign. If you’re creating ads, then these four things are key to know and get right before you begin running your campaigns. 
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