Paid social case study presented by Melissa Mackey at SES Atlanta in July, 2014. Learn how a B2B advertiser used paid social to boost online leads.

1. @Mel66
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Paid Social: How One Organization Got The
Best Bang For Their Buck
Melissa Mackey
Search Supervisor
gyro

2. Chicago | November 12–16
Leaders in B2B SEM
2
TOP 30 AGENCY
US
Credentialed by every major search engine
Active in promotion of thought leadership positions at conferences and within publications
BMA BtoB Agency of the Year, 2012 and 2014
BtoB Magazine Agency of the Year, 2013
BtoB Top 30 Search Agency 2009, 2010, 2011
The 2010 BMA B2 Award of Excellence – SEO (Natural Search) Program, Over 50 Keywords
The 2011 BMA B2 Award of Excellence – PPC (Paid Search) Program, Over $1 Million

3. @Mel66
#SESATL
Paid Social Case Study
• What They Did
• Where They Did It
• How It Performed
• Checklist

4. @Mel66
#SESATL
GOAL: AMPLIFY CONTENT MARKETING
Target
Marketers in
their category
Challenge
• Limited social
media audience
• Need to amplify
content
marketing efforts
to broaden reach
Strategy
Use paid social to
increase the reach of
the social media
campaigns.

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CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES
Reach…
…targets via
social
platforms
Build…
…a community
in each
platform
Drive…
…leads!

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LINKEDIN SPONSORED UPDATES:
Strategy
Promote:
• Sponsored
updates
Segment:
• By type of
organization
Optimize:
• Type of content
• Audience attributes

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LINKEDIN SPONSORED UPDATES:
Results
• Over 600,000 impressions and 3,000 clicks were generated in 8 months
• 88 new followers gained for the LinkedIn page
• Content is reaching influencers at decision-making levels

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Keys to Success: LinkedIn
8
• Carefully identify your target companies and job levels
• Be ready to pay $5+ per click
• Sponsored updates are more successful than ads
• Segment your audience based on how you’ll be posting

9. @Mel66
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TWITTER PROMOTED TWEETS: Strategy
Segment:
• Target hand-picked
Twitter users
Promote:
• Messaging
relevant to
chosen users
Optimize:
• Type of content
• Audience attributes

10. @Mel66
#SESATL
TWITTER PROMOTED TWEETS: Strategy
• Lead Generation Cards

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TWITTER PROMOTED TWEETS: Results
• Nearly 1.5 million impressions and 21,000 engagements (clicks,
replies, retweets, follows) were generated in 8 months
• 552 new followers gained, tripling the total number of followers
• Content is spurring conversation amongst targeted users

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Keys to Success: Twitter
12
• Carefully identify your target accounts or keywords
• You pay for clicks on anything that’s clickable in a tweet
• Lead generation cards are the bomb
• Segment your audience based on how you’ll be posting

13. @Mel66
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FACEBOOK ADS: Strategy
13
Segment:
• Use Facebook Custom
Audiences to reach specific
influencers
Optimize:
• Ad variations & images
• Audience attributes
Promote:
• Messaging relevant to
chosen users
• Rapid-deployment ad testing

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FACEBOOK ADS: Results
14
• Over 585,000 impressions and 180 clicks were
generated in 5 months
• Campaign reached 143 unique users

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FACEBOOK ADS: Learnings
15
• More difficult to reach target audience on Facebook
• Custom audiences must have 1,000 or more members to
be successful (ours were less than that)
• Users were not engaged with content once they reach
the website

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Keys to Success: Facebook
16
• Have at least 1,000 users in your custom audience
• Sponsored posts in newsfeed work significantly better
than right-rail ads
• Images are more important than ad copy or offer
• Lookalike segments work well
• For smaller custom audiences, use them to build
lookalikes

17. @Mel66
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18. @Mel66
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Leads
18
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1 2 3 4 5 6
Clicks and Leads By Month
Clicks
Leads

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#SESATL
Conversion Rate
19
0.00%
0.50%
1.00%
1.50%
2.00%
2.50%
3.00%
3.50%
4.00%
4.50%
1 2 3 4 5 6
Conversion Rate
Conversion Rate
Conversion Rate Trend

20. @Mel66
#SESATL
The Checklist!
20http://bit.ly/PaidSocialChecklist
Paid Social Success Checklist
by Melissa Mackey
Channel
All
Identify target audience
Identify the marketing challenge that paid social solves
Define paid social strategy and objectives
Segment your audience based on how you’ll be posting
LinkedIn
Carefully identify your target companies and job levels
Be ready to pay $5+ per click
Use Sponsored Updates if possible
Segment your audience based on how you’ll be posting
Twitter
Carefully identify your target accounts or keywords
Use images and hashtags with caution
Test lead generation cards
Segment your audience based on how you’ll be posting
Facebook
Have at least 1,000 users in your custom audience
Use Sponsored Posts in newsfeed when possible
Relentlessly test images
Use lookalike segments
Use custom audiences to build lookalike segments
Done?

21. Chicago | November 12–16
21
mackey
Melissa Mackey
Melissa.Mackey@gyro.com
@Mel66