Your social media marketing funnel is the path customers take in their journey with your business. Read on to learn what the user is experiencing at each point, which social media post types work best, and how you can utilise social targeting options to get specific creative content in front of them.
A social media marketing funnel is a path that your customers move through at each point of the user journey. Most marketing methods utilise the funnel or pipeline concept, and social media is no different.
At RONEL, we have created a social media marketing funnel methodology, which will show you how you can utilise your activity on social media to achieve a specific goal or action on your website.
The social media marketing funnel is split into four main sections in regards to your social media marketing: discovery, intent, conversion, and loyalty.
This article will cover each section, explaining what the user is experiencing at each stage of the funnel, which social media post types work best, and how you can utilise social media targeting options to get specific creatives content in front of the user at that point.
Discovery
This is the point of the funnel, the user is being exposed to your brand, possibly for the first time.
Post types
This part of the funnel should focus on ads with the aim of brand awareness and post types that work at this stage would include:
Video
Use video posts to engage and captivate new users. Make sure your videos follow the right spec to save time on making edits at a later date.
Scroll stopping visuals
Creative images that pop will grab user attention. Ask yourself, would you stop scrolling if you see the image on your timeline?
Canvas ads
Canvas ads or instant articles are a great way to showcase your brand, whilst keeping the user on the native platform.
Targeting
The targeting criteria for this section should be broad, therefore having a clear understanding of your target persona is very important. In order to create this custom audience for your social media campaign, you may want to consider your audience’s gender, age, location, and interests.
For B2B campaigns you may also want to consider your target audience’s job titles and the sectors they work in.
Example post
Intent
At this point, the user is deciding if they wish to use your product or services.
Post types
This part of the funnel should focus on posts and adverts with the aim of generating intent – post types which work well would be:
Single image posts
Single image posts are a great way to promote your features or USPs, by showing the product in the image and utilising the copy for the USPs – just make sure to include a CTA for the user to learn more.
Lead generation ads
By far my favourite type of social media advert, lead generation campaigns allow you to collect user data without the user having to leave the social media platform. See how else you can generate leads through Facebook.
Traffic to site posts
Driving traffic to site won’t just increase your website visitors, it will allow for a deeper user journey when consumers are learning more about your product and services. When running this style of post, you need to make sure that your website is optimised for conversions.
Targeting
As these users are already aware of who your brand is, you need to utilise the retargeting options that the social media platforms allow. Therefore setting up a pixel on your website for the relevant social media platform is important. Once the pixel starts to pick up data, you can re-target your website users.
Conversion
At this point, the user has been exposed to your brand, and decided that they have the intent to purchase, so it’s your job now to show them how.
Post types
This part of the funnel should focus on converting the user, post types which work well would be:
Promotional ads
Offer a promotional code to give the user that much needed incentive to make a purchase.
Purchase/conversion ads
Most social media platforms will now allow you to set up conversion-based campaigns, allowing you to optimise the ads for increased ROI.
Targeting
Utilise your pixel to target your top 25% of website visitors by time spent on site, or create an audience of users who haven’t visited your ‘thank you’ page after check out. Check out how we did ours. Click here
Example post
Loyalty
After the conversion, it’s important to keep the user loyal. This will allow them to enter into the funnel again, or provide recommendations for others to do so.
Post types
This part of the funnel should involve providing relevant information to customers, and can contain:
Testimonial posts
Utilise positive feedback from happy customers, allowing you to link your product or service with a positive sentiment.
Engagement posts
Keep your current customers engaged with the brand by providing them with useful information and assets.
Targeting
Target users you know have converted from your website activity or database.
Example post
Top tips for using your social media marketing funnel
- Think about the creatives you’re putting in front of the user, in relation to where they are in the funnel. Does this creative provide the user with the information they need at this point?
- Don’t try to rush a user down the funnel. Every person will have a different journey, and it’s your job to understand that.
- Check out your attributed conversions on Google Analytics to understand the user journey of your previous conversions.
- Test your social media marketing funnel before pushing big budget behind it.
- Ask a colleague or a specialist to check over your creatives before going live!
A great way to get started is to use our Social Media Calendar
If you want any help, check out Our Social media Page
