WORLD CUP: SocialCode’s Five Best Practices For Facebook Marketing

The social marketing opportunities presented by 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil -- which kicks off Thursday and runs through the championship game July 13 -- are unparalleled, and social marketing solutions provider SocialCode will manage campaigns during the tournament for some of the world’s largest brands. What should marketers be doing to take full advantage of World Cup fever? SocialCode offered the following five best practices: The whole world is watching -- optimize for reach: Let us repeat: The whole world is watching, optimize for reach, not engagement. Nearly every demographic in every corner of the globe has its attention on one major topic: fútbol. This is an unprecedented time to optimize for reach by bidding high to win at auction so your ad gets served over competitors bidding for that same audience. Divide and conquer: This is a global, real-time opportunity. Staff up your ad-management team so you can handle different regions efficiently. Suppose you’re running campaigns in more than 10 markets around the globe. You’re talking giant scale, language barriers, and time-zone differences as vast as they come. It would be impossible for one person to manage all campaign regions simultaneously. Make sure you have enough hands on deck to divide markets by region, country, or even language. This may mean borrowing from another team, or bringing in extra community managers, paid media specialists, and content creators, but it will be well worth the investment. Having hands on deck also will allow you to react quicker. It will allow campaign managers to focus on one region properly while driving efficiency rather than focusing on many regions poorly. Maximize cultural difference: The World Cup’s reach extends globally. This is an excellent opportunity to capitalize on the incredible diversity found among soccer fans. Before your campaign launches, aim to gain a full understanding of your region’s cultural norms, traditions, and celebrations. Use this knowledge to craft creative that brings these cultural differences to life and really resonates with your region’s audience. International campaigns usually mean multiple languages and various religions, so gaining a better understanding for what’s socially acceptable in a certain region will help you maximize creative impact. It will also prevent serving creative that doesn’t resonate with your target audience, or, even worse, offends them. Manage expectations by researching your market: Markets differ when it comes to cost per thousand impressions, the standard pricing for reaching 1,000 people with your message. Research your market ahead of time to gain a firm understanding of your market’s average CPM and how it varies from region to region. This knowledge will inform how you’ll bid and allocate budgets. For instance, an average CPM of $7 in the U.S. could be $2 in Brazil. It’s important to understand existing expectations so you can establish campaign goals accordingly. Be sure to secure data for general CPM benchmarks before your campaign gets underway. Budget heavy early on: And speaking of allocating budgets; it is important to frontload your campaign spend when the majority of teams are still in the running and the largest fan base is still fully engaged. Conversely, reserve enough cushion spend for campaigns that will target countries whose teams are poised to go far in the tournament. You don’t want your campaign to run out of steam (read: cash flow) halfway through. Research team predictions to optimize your bets. Marketers: What did you think of SocialCode’s five best practices for the World Cup?

Social Pro Daily

WORLD CUP: SocialCode’s Five Best Practices For Facebook Marketing

David Cohen

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

David Cohen