Progress in Paid Social: Perspectives from the Pros
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of learning something new.
Whether first-hand experiences that taught you a lesson, or examples you’ve seen of tremendous successes or failures played out on a more public scale, they are always opportunities for learning in the world of digital marketing. Hearing real-life examples of strategies and campaigns often have the most significant impact and shape how we conduct our work, inspiring us to strive for similar success.
The opportunity to learn from others is why we feel so fortunate at The Digital Marketing Mentor (TDMM) because of the willingness of our esteemed guests to share their successes, failures, and examples that have left a lasting impression on them throughout their careers. In turn, those impressions are shared with our audience and give us all a chance to learn something new or see a new perspective.
This article will explore a few impactful guest stories from Andrew Foxwell, Joseph Wolf, and Akvile DeFazio’s: all three having made their mark in paid social media in some way or another.
These paid social media pros share some of the most impressive and career-changing strategies they’ve seen, and they prove that learning doesn’t stop once you leave the classroom!
The Story of Scaling the Ladder with Andrew Foxwell
The podcast episode featuring Andrew Foxwell, co-founder of paid social advisory firm Foxwell Digital, features the impressive story of the fitness company Ladder, which launched its strength-training fitness app on TikTok at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Praising the company’s forward-thinking, Andrew believes their story serves as a successful example of using paid social to scale a company for a few reasons:
- Ladder scaled exclusively using TikTok, a testament to the power of a single social media platform with an innovative, thought-out strategy.
- Ladder leveraged fitness micro-influencers to fuel their initial growth, playing a significant role in providing access to a highly relevant audience. They even offered a revenue share as means to strengthen the partnership and show how much they valued them.
- Ladder’s ability to bring so many people into their ecosystem in a short time was a great long-term strategy as it gave them a group they could then retarget once the buzz of their initial success died down
Andrew affirms that TikTok can be a great lever for growth among brands who are willing to think outside the box. As is with any approach to a paid social campaign, Andrew shares with our audience an emphasis in staying on top of the newest trend, noting Ladder’s ability to do so in their strategic choice of influencers during a time where health and fitness was heavily trending.
The results?
Andrew shared his awe of the results of Ladder’s campaign noting that in the first 45 days, they’d amassed 250k followers and more than one million weekly views on TikTok.
He also observed that as a direct result of the campaign, the company grew to reach $1M in APR (annual recurring revenue) and saw a 500% growth in 2023. Though that growth has since leveled off from its high in 2023, Andrew notes that unlike some of their competitors, Ladder has become a multi-million dollar company that has maintained its market share.
The Importance of Diversifying Your Portfolio with Joseph Wolf
The episode with Joseph Wolf, Head of Paid Social at Optidge, it’s discussed that his most successful paid marketing strategies have used a variety of approaches, speaking to the importance of differentiation. Joseph described paid social strategy using the metaphor of your personal investment portfolio: it’s not wise to put all of your money into one section of the market, instead, diversify to reduce the risk of losing your money should any single investment fail.
Joseph approaches a paid social campaign with the same diversification mindset, sharing some of the following tips in order to do so:
- Business Size: Many small businesses face budget constraints that limit their bidding capabilities and their level of exposure. In this case, Joseph suggests taking advantage of Meta’s social campaigns by creating unique marketing funnels for separate products and developing separate campaigns for different demographic groups.
- Audience Size: Joseph mentions that diversification can be applied to audience size in paid ads depending on the type of campaign. He noted in the episode his success in choosing a range of different audience sizes to reach campaign goals.
- Multiple Platforms: Advertising across multiple social media platforms is another way for brands to diversify their social marketing strategy. With each platform offering unique benefits, Joseph says it’s wise to put your eggs in several baskets when it comes to selecting platforms as opposed to relying on a single social media outlet alone.
This episode shares many insightful snippets and each paid social story from the episode comes back to Joseph’s belief that the more exposure and diversification your strategy incorporates, the greater your chances are to stay ahead of the competition and adapt to evolving consumer behavior.
Akvile DeFazio-Consulting vs Running a Campaign
Akvile DeFazio, president of AKvertise, a social media advertising consultancy, took the chance to share her experience on both sides of the coin – paid social consulting vs paid social management. Sharing her appreciation for having worked for and in an agency, she reported that her current agency position is currently taking on paid social media campaigns for clients with larger budgets who lack the time to run them themselves.
In this capacity, she’s responsible for designing, creating, and running a social media campaign for a brand. Being in the trenches while managing a client’s campaign puts Akvile in the perfect position to convey updates and suggest changes to them.
On the flip side, Akvile also shared her experience working with small-budget clients who often request the help of a consultant to guide them as they develop and then execute their paid social strategy. In these situations, Akvile will often consult with a member of her client’s team who is trained to run a paid social media campaign, and puts in much more leg work in the beginning of the client engagement process:
“I’ll teach them; I’ll go through all the platforms they’re interested in, put together recommendations for them, sometimes build out shell campaigns so they can see how I set it up, and then copy them over and adjust it.”
Having been on both sides of paid social, both running campaigns and consulting others on how to do so, she adds that education in paid social media is particularly important to those new to the industry. For example, starting a career in consulting wouldn’t make much sense until you are confident in having enough experience to help somebody to the capacity that they might need it from a client standpoint.
In summary, Akvile used her episode to relay the importance of doing the work. Having hands-on experience in managing a campaign allows you to learn how the platforms behave and what strategies make sense for each situation. That experience just builds up and before you know it, you’re giving others advice on how to do the same.
Key Insights: Top 3 Takeaways for Digital Marketers
As is with any aspect of digital marketing, when it comes to paid social strategy, it can be helpful to lean into the lessons learned from the pros. The key takeaways from the featured these podcasts, listed below, are great considerations for any digital marketing professional, regardless of expertise:
- Don’t be afraid to test out-of-the box ideas. The traffic and buzz from paid social initiatives can often serve as an effective long-term strategy when it comes to retargeting and understanding consumer behavior.
- Differentiation is crucial in developing campaigns with consideration to business size, audience size, and platform selection in order to stay ahead of competition.
- Education and training in paid social will be a huge benefit, no matter if you are running paid social ads from within or from a consulting perspective.
Let the Learning Continue
As per the name, “The Digital Marketing Mentor,” mentorship in different areas of digital marketing is crucial in gaining a better understanding of the bigger picture. Getting involved in segments like paid social is a much smoother process when you have examples of others who share their insights.
As our paid social strategy experts have told us in our past episodes, some of the most valuable things they’ve learned about their industry have come from on-the-job experience or situations they’ve witnessed during their careers to date. These lessons have left an impression and shaped how they conduct successful paid social campaigns.
To learn more about how Optidge approaches paid social and see some of the lessons we’ve shared, contact us or view some of our case studies shared on our website!