One of the things that truly gives me the ick is when a brick-and-mortar business owner takes the time and invests in running a really awesome social media ad — but when I click over to their profile (which I rarely do, btw), I can’t even find where they're located.
Their about section doesn't list a state, a city, or even a vague area.
This happened to me recently with an ad that had everything I'd love in a boutique. So when I couldn't find their location on their social profile, I took the extra step of clicking over to their website — which I also almost never do. Still no address on the front page. I had to dig to find a location, and even then it was vague.
This matters: because we are dealing with a 2.5 second attention span and your customers are not going to do this much work after seeing an ad. I won't say none of them will — some will — but most won't.
Them’s the social breaks.
You're going to be lucky if someone even clicks over from the ad to your profile. And if you're a standalone business without your physical location — even just a general area — and your business hours listed clearly, you're cooked.
Burnt even.
Because chances are they are going to tap away, forget who you were and never think twice about you again.
I also want to remind you that even though you dial in tight demographic parameters when setting your your ads they are still going to get fed to the entire world wide web. I live in Colorado but I will get ads for boutiques, restaurants and museums all over the place. And it totally sucks when their content is so aligned with my vibez and what I’m into but they are in Paris or Boston or somewhere equally as far that I do not have current travel plans to.
I've been watching this particular ad since I got it suggested to me, and thanks to Instagram showing view counts, I know it had 40k views at the time of writing. That's a great return on investment — it brought them a few extra followers and who knows what else, since I'm not involved or invested enough to know more.
But here's the thing: five days after I got the ad fed to me, they still hadn't posted anything new. If you're going to commit to a social ad campaign, you also need to commit to keeping your content fresh for the duration of that campaign.
The same goes for going viral (which I know is so many businesses strategies lately ooof). If one of your posts or videos takes off, you have to pay attention to when it’s starting to pop off and get the next post lined up to ride that momentum. Follow it up with something — anything. Don't let your next post be days or weeks later. Because the algorithm doesn’t give gifts like that often.
At the end of the day, a great ad is only half the job. If people can't find out where you are or when you're open, or if your feed goes quiet right when eyes are on it, you're leaving money on the table. Make it easy for people to say yes to you — clear location, clear hours, and content that shows up consistently, not just when you're paying for it.
That’s what successful marketing looks like- not the coolest graphics or edits the basics where people can find them.
Before you boost another post, go make sure someone who's never heard of you could actually find your front door. That's the ad campaign that really matters.