It seems like everyone and their dog is trying to sell products or services on social media, and with so much competition, understanding the top ways of performing conversion rate optimisation has never been more important.
The good news is that with over 4.6 billion people regularly using social media, there’s plenty of potential to find users who’ll be interested in making a purchase from your brand. It’s just a case of knowing how to reach them.
What is Conversion Rate Optimisation?
Your conversion rate is the rate at which audience members are converted into paying customers. Based on that, conversion rate optimisation is exactly what you think: the process of tweaking your ads, content, and social channels to get more people to purchase your brand.
As a brand, one of the main focuses when using social media is getting a good return on investment (ROI). If you’re not getting out more than you’re putting in, you need to take a step back and re-evaluate your social strategy, and optimising your conversion rate is a good place to start.
How to Calculate Conversion Rate
When it comes down to it, your conversion rate is the percentage of people who do something after seeing your ad. Depending on your goals, what you want them to do may be different, but generally speaking, it’s purchasing a product or service.
There’s a complicated formula for working out your conversion rate, but if you don’t want to break out the calculator, this handy website will calculate your conversion rate for you. But, to do it manually, the equation is: Total Clicks / Total Impressions x 100. Confusing, right?
What is a Good Conversion Rate?
If you’ve worked out your existing conversion rate and found it to be anything higher than 10%, then we have good news! The average conversion rate for social media marketing is anywhere between 5% and 15%.
It should be noted that conversion rates will vary from industry to industry, and product to product. This article from WordStream compares the different conversion rates per industry, so you can get a good idea of what to aim for from there.
How to Optimise your Conversion Rate
So now that you know the importance of optimising your conversion rate, it’s time to learn how to do it. Which, let’s face it, that’s why you’re here, so we won’t keep you waiting any longer.
In-App Products
Whilst it doesn’t seem like a lot of extra effort, with the rise of in-platform stores, many consumers using social networks like Instagram and TikTok simply won’t leave the app to learn more about your product. Marketing your product in 2022 is all about convenience.
To increase the likelihood of your audience converting into paying customers, it’s a great idea to list some of your products natively on social media apps, and then tag them in your content. Remember, you should be putting as few obstacles between your audience and products as possible.
Include a Compelling Call to Action
Social media users are very receptive to enticing Calls to Action (CTA). A CTA is the section of your ad that asks the reader to do something. This may be heading to your website, or leaving a comment on your post. Whatever the goal is, there are a few golden rules when comes to including CTAs in your content:
- CTAs should be clear, concise, and relevant
- Make them actionable and easy to understand
- They should be visible and easy to find
- Instructions should be as simple as possible
Consistent Branding
You’re likely creating and posting content on more than one platform. If that’s the case, you already know how important it is to have cohesive branding across all social channels. But to reiterate the point, having a consistent brand on social media, on your website, and anywhere else it will interact with your audience is vital.
Consistent branding helps to make your brand more trustworthy, leading to consumers developing a positive sentiment towards it. Nobody is going to make a purchase from a brand they don’t believe in, so building trust from the outset of your social media marketing is essential.
Be sure to check out our in-depth guide on how you can build a consistent brand on social media!
Split Testing Paid Ads
Running ads on social media isn’t as simple as putting a few pounds behind a post and letting the magic happen. It takes time, effort, and a good amount of experimentation. Have you ever seen two ads for the same product, but they looked completely different? That was likely a split test.
Split testing is the process of running multiple ads for the same product simultaneously. The objective is to see which performs best, and then use what you learned to influence your next advertising campaign.
Several factors come into play when split testing ads. From the large things like the audience you’re targeting, to seemingly insignificant elements like word choices and colour selections.
We highly recommend you run a few ads at the same time, each of them with distinct differences. After a couple of weeks, check to see which performed the best. From there, you can run another set with variations of the top-performing ad. Repeat this until you find the winning formula!
Hire a social media agency
Taking all those things into consideration is a lot of work, so that’s why hiring an external agency is by far the most effective way of improving your conversion rate!
At Giraffe Social Media, we’re experts in all things social. From creating eye-catching content that will get your audience converting, to fine-tuning your paid ads via split testing, we’re here to help you every step of the way.
Ready to take your social media to the next level? Get in touch with us to get a free proposal!
