Hassan II University of Casablanca - Morocco

Faculty of Juridical, Economic, and Social Sciences of Ain Chock

Professional-studies program (LP)

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION

Module 04

Course:

Social Media
& Advertising Strategy

Instructor: Ms. Khadija HAMDANI

Semester 5 - 2022/2023
Advertising is a form of marketing.

Not all marketing is advertising, but all advertising is marketing.

Marketing includes a number of practices, of which advertising.

These two are complementary and are working towards the same
goals.
OUTLINE

1. Advertising: Concept, Theories, and Strategies 1

1.1. Basics of Advertising 2

1.1.1. Concept Definition and Characteristics 2

1.1.2. The Marketing Communication Mix 2

1.1.3. Advertising Purpose 3

1.1.4. Print and Media platforms: A Historical Glance 4

1.1.5. Advertising Theories 4

Semiotics 5

Marketing Mix Models 5

4 Ps model 5

4 Cs model 5

Hierarchy-of-Effect Models 6

Hierarchy-Free Models 7

Integrative Models 7

Foote, Cone, Belding (FCB) Planning Grid 8

The Rossiter–Percy Grid 9

GROUPS ACTIVITIES - PART 1 10

1.2. Advertising Strategy 13

1.2.1. Positioning Strategies 14

1.2.2. Influence Strategies 14

1.2.3. Advertising Campaign Planning Process 15

Case Example: Advertising Campaign of Pringles in China 17

2. Digital Advertising: A Focus on Social Media Platforms 20

2.1. Digital Advertising 21

 2.1.1. Digital Advertising Channels 21

Gmail Ads 21

Mobile Ads 21

Over-the-top (OTT) 21

Search Engines 21

2.1.2. Bidding Models 22

GROUPS ACTIVITIES - PART 2 23

2.2. Social Media Strategies 25

2.2.1. Social Media Platforms: Types and Role 25

2.2.2. Strategies for Getting Started in SM 25

2.2.3. Paid Social Media 34

Definition & Types 34

The Role of Paid Ads 34

Factors of Social Ads Strategy 34

Ad Objectives, Targeting, and Types of Social Media Platforms 35

2.2.4. Things to Keep in Mind 35

2.2.5. Social Media Stats in Morocco 35

1. Advertising: Concept, Theories,
and Strategies
 1.1. Basics of Advertising

1.1.1. Concept Definition and Characteristics

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines advertising as:

“the placement of announcements and persuasive messages in time or space

purchased in any of the mass media by business firms, nonprofit organizations,
government agencies, and individuals who seek to inform and/or persuade members
of a particular target market or audience about their products, services, organizations,
or ideas”.

“Advertising allows you to communicate a salient message to a large group of consumers

faster than any other form of communication” (Zimmerman J., 2003).

Advertising is “a paid non-personal communication about an organization and its products

transmitted to a target audience” (Pride W.M. et al., 2012, p. 441).

We can define advertising in its simplest form as:

“the media exposure of a product/service intended

for sale”

Media based
Commercially oriented
Paid

Communication

1.1.2. The Marketing Communication Mix

Defined as a “dialogue between business unit and its present and potential customers that
takes place during pre-selling, selling and post-selling stages” (Trehan, M. & Trehan, R., 2011,
p. 42), marketing communication mix, or promotion mix is considered to be a fundamental
aspect of business marketing initiatives and include several practices which can be used for
commercial purposes or to develop companies’ image and reputation. The key is to use these
practices with the whole corporate goals in mind while ensuring consistency between them.

2 Advertising: Concept, Theories, and Strategies

Advertising is one of the practices of the marketing communication mix/promotion mix listed
below:

Direct marketing Targeting chosen prospects (telemarketing and direct mail).

Personal selling Face-to-face selling.

Sponsorship Providing money for activity in exchange for brand or product

display.

Public Relations Maintaining goodwill between an organization and its public.

Publicity Provide information on a product/service or company (done by

a third party).

Exhibitions/trade show Exposing products/services in events or shows.

Product placement Supplying a product or service for display in feature films or

television programs.

Sales Stimulating sales through activities at the point of sale.

promotion/merchandising

Event marketing Designing or developing a themed activity, occasion, display,

or exhibit.

Branded entertainment Displaying corporate or branded messages in an entertaining

format.

1.1.3. Advertising Purpose

Advertising aims to deliver the proper message to customers and prospective customers. More
specifically, advertising can be used for several purposes and objectives:

• Enhance the image of the company.

• Convince customers that a company’s products/services are the best.
• Inform the consumers of products/services.
• Demonstrate new uses for established products/services.
• Point out and create a need for products or services.
• Announce new products/services.
• Draw new customers to the business, and hold existing customers.

Basics of Advertising 3
 1.1.4. Print and Media platforms: A Historical Glance

Advertising has been evolving through centuries via the emergence of new techniques and
supports of diffusion of information, wall/rock painting, public announcements in the streets,
posters, newspapers, radio, magazines, television, Internet, and social media; and new
formats, print (poster, flyer) and broadcast (audio, video). Indeed, the commercial practice of
advertising became increasingly sophisticated and prevalent as a result of two main
developments: education and technology. By 1900, advertising was firmly established as a
profession.

BC 19th century 21st century

• Wall and rock paintings • Targeted slogans, images • Search results.

(Egypt & India), posters and phrases. • Text messages.
(Roman & Greek). • Poster-celebrities. • Blogs/website ads.
• Calligraphic signboards
and inked papers (China).
• Street callers (Europe).

• Radio, magazines, signs on

streetcars, and outdoor
posters – 1920s.
• Television – 1950s.
• Internet – 1990s. • Social media networks
• Newspapers. – mid 2000s.

18th century 20th century 22nd century

In addition, the importance of a strong and exclusive brand image to distinguish products and
constantly reevaluating the market were emphasized as a result of the evolution of products
and changing tastes. During the 20th century, massive industrialization contributed to the
development of mass marketing designed to influence the population’s economic behavior on
a larger scale, such as the creation of positive associations with products (for example smoking).
As a result, controlling mechanisms were established to regulate advertising that can be
misleading, offensive, false, or even socially irresponsible.

1.1.5. Advertising Theories

A selection of the most influential advertising theories is presented as follows.

4 Advertising: Concept, Theories, and Strategies

Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs and how they are interpreted. Advertisements can be interpreted
at two levels:

(1) The surface level (signifier): is the object composition of ads which includes images,
colors, words, fonts, and slogans.
(2) The underlying level (signified): is made up of meanings:
- Denotative: the meaning of the product.
- Connotative: product’s deep and hidden meaning.

Marketing Mix Models

These models allow us to understand that advertising is part of an integral process and that it
must be aligned with the company’s marketing strategy.

4 Ps model

McCarthy (1960)

(1) The first P represents the actual product.

(2) Price represents the process of determining the value of a product.
(3) Place is about the distribution channels which will help get the product to the consumer
(4) The last P stands for Promotion which is the process of reaching the target market and
convincing them to buy the product.

As the field of marketing became more sophisticated, additional 3 Ps – people, process, and
physical evidence were added as they integrate important aspects of services into the
marketing mix concept (Bitner, M. J. and Booms, H., 1981).

4 Cs model

Lauterborn (1990)

As an extension, the four Cs model was introduced as a more customer-driven replacement for
the 4 Ps. The four Cs were made up of:

(1) ‘Customer’, which denoted a focus on satisfying consumer needs through customized
solutions.
(2) ‘Cost’ reflects the costs associated with companies' products/services.

Basics of Advertising 5
 (3) ‘Convenience’ is related to the increased information available and the variety and
ease of making purchases everywhere from the in-store to online.
(4) ‘Communication’ acknowledged the broad range of tools such as advertising, to connect
organizations with their customers.

Hierarchy-of-Effect Models

The hierarchy-of-effect models, known as sequential models, assume that advertising

operates as a stimulus and the purchase decision is a response. Three models are represented
below:

Hierarchy-of-effects Information-processing
AIDA sequence
sequence sequence

Strong (1925) Lavidge and Steiner (1961) McGuire (1978)

Attention Awareness Presentation

Interest Knowledge Attention

Desire Liking Comprehension

Action Preference Yielding

Conviction Retention

Purchase Behavior

The models postulate the steps a buyer moves through when making a purchase. It shows the
prospect passing through successive stages of cognitive (information), affective (feeling), and
conative (behavior) sequences. The models were designed to represent the stages that a
marketer must take a prospect through.

It is assumed that advertising cannot induce immediate behavioral responses. Lavidge and
Steiner (1961) postulate that a series of mental effects must occur. McGuire (1978) argues that
customers process the purchase action as an information processor or cognitive problem solver,
thus a purchase decision is to be made, at some time in the future, not immediately.

6 Advertising: Concept, Theories, and Strategies

Hierarchy-Free Models

The hierarchy-free models assume that both reason and emotion can be employed
simultaneously to process advertising information. Thus, unlike hierarchy-of-effect models,
hierarchy-free models do not employ any fixed processing sequence and are more customer-
centric.

Memory-Affect- Draw on evidence from psychology and consumer neuroscience which

Cognition Model suggest that consumers process information via different pathways
rather than in any linear/sequential manner.

Cognitive Also known as the central route to persuasion, assume that consumers
Information are rational decision-makers and that advertising provides consumers
Models with information utility by reducing the need to search for other
information about a brand.

Consumers process information at a cognitive level before forming an

attitude to the brand and purchase intent.

Pure Affect Also known as the peripheral route to persuasion, suggest that consumers
Models shape their preferences for a brand based on the feelings and attitudes
elicited by exposure to an advertising message.

When consumers view an advertisement, they not only develop attitudes

toward the advertisement and the advertiser but also develop feelings
and beliefs about the brand being advertised.

Pure affect models help to explain the consumer’s emotional responses

to advertising and brands.

Based on these models, it is suggested that advertising messages do not only need to be
informative to be effective; consumers must also like the advertising for the message to be
effective.

Integrative Models

Integrative models assume that consumers process advertising information via two paths – both
cognitive (thinking) and affective (feeling) simultaneously; of which the FCB grid and the

Basics of Advertising 7
Rossiter-Percy grid. These grids are very popular with advertising practitioners because of their
ease of application.

Foote, Cone, Belding (FCB) Planning Grid

The FCB planning grid was developed by Richard Vaughn under the name of the advertising
agency where he works as senior vice president.

The planning grid has two dimensions, involvement (high/low) and information processing
(thinking/feeling). These form a 2 × 2 matrix with four cells representing the different types of
advertising effects.

Source: Vaughn (1980).

The model of the four different types emphasizes three elements:

- Learn: refers to the level of knowledge and beliefs held by individuals about a product
- Feel: is the component that is concerned with feelings, sentiments, moods, and
emotions about an object.

8 Advertising: Concept, Theories, and Strategies

 - Do: is the action component of the attitude construct and refers to the individual’s
disposition or intention to behave in a certain way.

The Rossiter–Percy Grid

Rossiter and Percy disagree with some of the underpinnings of the FCB grid and offer a new one
in response. The fundamental ideas of this model are reproduced in this figure.

Source: Rossiter and Percy (1997).

The Rossiter-Percy grid suggests the need to consider two communications objectives: brand
awareness (including brand recall and brand recognition) and brand attitude before deciding
on the copy variable and execution strategies to be used.

The execution strategy for the brand attitude communication objective is dependent on two
variables:

(1) Consumer involvement; i.e., perceived risk on products (familiarity):

- low risk: trial experience sufficient,

- high risk: search and conviction are required prior to purchase.

(2) Consumer motivation:

- informational: negative emotions deal with facts and figures,

- transformational: positive motivations are about changing perceptions or
feelings.

Basics of Advertising 9
 GROUPS ACTIVITIES
- PART 1

Activity Objective Group’s members Presentation

1 Find three different ads of the same ERRABBAHI Zakaria

brand from different decades. What are
MANIL Nouhaila
the similarities and what differences or
SETTAR Amina
changes do you notice?

2 Find three different ads and describe EL MAJRINI Mohamed

their meaning based on the Semiotics
FATINE Salma
theory of advertising analysis.
HOUCHAM Achraf

3 Find three different ads which move the BOUKANE Imane

consumer from understanding a
ELKHATIMI Salaheddine
product’s benefits to linking those
ELOUARDI Ayoub
benefits with personal values.

4 Find three different ads and analyze the AMZIL Yahia Seddik
attributes related to gender, art,
DAOUDI Imane
culture, and music.
HAOUARI Salma

5 Find three different types of ads for a EL ABBAR Maryem

company (informational,
NIGROU Safaa
transformation, and corporate*) and
SOSSI LALAOUI Aya
emphasis the purpose of each ad.

10 Advertising: Concept, Theories, and Strategies

 6 Find three different ads that were EL AIDOUNI Salma
banned. Explain why.
HILALI Asmaa

TAI Meryem

7 Find three different ads which follow an BOUSSARHANE Yassine

emotional approach to present the
OUSALAH Kaoutar
selling idea. Explain what emotions are
SAJID Ayman
expressed in these ads.

8 Find three different ads stereotyping BAROTY Khaoula

genders, beauty standards, and origins,
HADRAOUI Nihal
… Explain.
HARRACH Chaymae

9 Find three different ads that you think GUEMGOUL Hafsa

are artistic. Explain how these ads are
HAKIM Asmaa
reflecting art.
LOTFI Khalid

* Informational advertising uses messages that predominantly provide information about product and
service attributes and features. Transformational advertising uses messages that are essentially
emotional and which have the capacity to transform the way an individual feels about a product or
service. Institutional or corporate advertising is undertaken by organizations to express values,
intentions, positions, or other organizational-based issues.

Basics of Advertising 11
“
Advertising is an integral part of society.
”
Fill Chris
Author

12 Advertising: Concept, Theories, and Strategies

 1.2. Advertising Strategy

As advertising is part of marketing communications, an advertising strategy is also part of

marketing communication strategy. Advertising strategy needs to reflect and be consistent
with the strategies at other levels of the business. Additionally, several marketing strategies
can be legitimately used to develop advertising strategies.

Source: Fill et al. (2013)

There are many possible advertising strategies that are vitally concerned with two dynamics;
audiences and positioning. This is similar to the segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP)
marketing model that assists in classifying population segments according to their needs and
common characteristics, selecting specific segments, and developing products and services for
this particular segment(s).

Audiences are about segmenting and targeting members of a population that are the most
interested in the company’s products/services.

Market segmentation and targeting are prerequisites to successful positioning. The way in
which an audience understands the offering through use and/or communication (perception)
refers to brand positioning1. The offerings of businesses are visible and recognized to the

1
Positioning is about identifying proposition for chosen customer segments (the company's product/service, how it
is differentiated from competitors’ offerings, and by which means it will reach the customer). We distinguish two
categories: the strategic/market positioning and the brand positioning. Strategic positioning is concerned with

Advertising Strategy 13
targeted segments; what the brand means and how it differs from similar offerings and as a
result positioned in their minds. Through advertising, businesses aim to maintain a strong
position or reposition the brands' offerings by improving their visibility and recognition and
influencing the audiences’ attitudes and perceptions.

The elaboration of an advertising strategy is thus based on the characteristics defined by STP.

1.2.1. Positioning Strategies

The three generic Ps of marketing communication strategy emphasize the communication

flows of organizations that can be applied to influence the way we want the targeted customer
segments to position the offering in their minds.

Strategy Target audience Message focus Communication goal

Consumers Product/service Purchase
Pull
End-user B2B customers Product/service Purchase
Developing relationships
Push Channel intermediaries Product/service
and distribution network
Profile All relevant stakeholders The organization Building reputation

Based on this broad communication strategy, companies can place ads aimed at different
stakeholders by focusing on products/services or the organization itself and having different
goals.

• Pull positioning strategies: are intended to influence end-user customers (consumers

and B2B);
• Push positioning strategies: are intended to influence marketing (trade) channel
buyers;
• Profile positioning strategies: are intended to influence a wide range of stakeholders,
not just customers and intermediaries.

1.2.2. Influence Strategies

setting the basic direction on which the development of the brand positioning can take place. With regards to
advertising, we refer to the brand positioning.

14 Advertising: Concept, Theories, and Strategies

Advertising strategies are often described in terms of the kinds of appeals the content of the
advertising uses. Essentially these are emotional or informational. However, this demarcation
is too broad and there is always a blend of emotional and informational content in all ads.

Emotional involvement Touches feelings or emotions so that there is empathy

between a consumer and the brand, a relationship develops
and choice is influenced.

Fame Seeks to get a brand talked about and to make it famous,

so that it is perceived as bigger and more important than
before.

Information Uses a logical, rational argument about a brand (user or

category).

Persuasion Seeks to get the audience’s interest through information

and news, and then adds an emotional element in order to
make the message memorable.

Reinforcement By maintaining existing behavior through encouraging

increased frequency or weight of brand usage, the aim is
to build loyalty.

More complex These combine two or more of the above influence

strategies.

1.2.3. Advertising Campaign Planning Process

Developing an advertising campaign goes through a number of steps. As shown in the figure
below, Hughes & Fill (2008) conceptualized this process into 8 steps.

Advertising Strategy 15
 Source: Hughes and Fill, 2008.

Managing advertising campaigns can be reduced to four key decision areas:

Target audience Who do we want to talk to?

Message (or creative) strategy What do we want to say to them?

Media strategy How will we reach them?

Were our messages received in the intended form
Measuring advertising effectiveness
and with the desired outcomes?

16 Advertising: Concept, Theories, and Strategies

Case Example: Advertising Campaign of Pringles in China

The snack brand Pringles had only a small share of the highly competitive market in China. The
product was made ‘crunchier’ than earlier offerings. An integrated campaign was launched
aimed at promoting the functional product benefit – ‘crunchiness’ – fun and engaging.

Target audience

Generation Y – single males and females 18–24 years old.

Campaign objectives

• Engage the target audience.

• Strengthen brand equity attributes (crunchiness).

• Drive sales and profit.

Media selection and planning

• Online videos.

• Application games and social networking sites.

• Bulletin Board System (BBS) program (internet forum).

• Flash mobbing video in Beijing (video-sharing sites).

• Online press releases.

• In-store activity.

Advertising development and testing

Consumer insights were gained via visits to Gen Y homes, accompanied by store visits and social
interaction. Other information was gathered from published market research, magazines, blogs,
and websites. This identified that Gen Y spends little time watching TV compared to online
sources of entertainment.

Implementation and scheduling

Three branded online videos were launched at the end of July 2009. Two weeks later, three
unbranded videos with twisted endings were released.

• The game and brand zone were live in mid-August 2009.

Advertising Strategy 17
 • End of August – BBS program launched.

• Flash mobbing, one month after online videos.

• August–September – in-store activities, point of sale, and tastings.

Campaign evaluation

• Sales outperformed the category's average annualized growth.

• Online videos achieved an excellent impact on brand metrics and significantly increased
all Pringles brand equity attributes. Over 10 million hits in eight weeks.

• Brand zone and application games performed much better than most site campaigns.

• Flash mobbing video generated over 1.1 million views.

18 Advertising: Concept, Theories, and Strategies

“
Some advertising sells brands.
Great advertising also builds them.
”
Zimmerman Jordan

CEO & Chairman

Zimmerman & Partners Advertising Agency

Digital Advertising 19
2. Digital Advertising: A Focus on
Social Media Platforms

20 Digital Advertising: A Focus on Social Media Platforms

 2.1. Digital Advertising

Digital advertising is an addition to digital marketing. It refers to an online advertising strategy

fueled by data that can reach consumers wherever they are in the buying funnel.

Digital advertising gives access to many pieces of data (demographics, interests, keyword
searches, web activity, …) that can help create the most personalized and targeted campaign
to reach potential customers. Digital advertising gets ads served to the right people, and does
it with whatever budget the company sets.

2.1.1. Digital Advertising Channels

Digital ads can be placed in many channels that provide a variety of options in order to deliver
the right information at critical points. It is beneficial to combine different channels to form
a powerful integrated digital strategy. Including social media platforms, digital ad channels
involve the following:

Gmail Ads

Gmail ads are ads that appear at the top of users’ inboxes (promotion & social inbox category)
and look like another email in their inbox.

Mobile Ads

Mobile ads include in-app and in-game ads (for example when playing games watching an ad in
return for a reward) which can be in the form of a banner/video or much like product
placements.

Over-the-top (OTT)

OTT refers to video streaming platforms ads, such as YouTube & Netflix. It is a form of display
ads where you showcase video/post ads within content. These ads can appear at the beginning,
middle, or end of the content people watch.

Search Engines

One of the most popular places to run online ad campaigns is through search engines like
Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Besides Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a slow, free/earned, and durable strategy, of which
search engines like Google rely on more than 200 ranking factors to index a website on the

Digital Advertising 21
search engine results pages (SERPs), fast and paid options are available through Off-Site SEO
and PPC.

Off-Site SEO (affiliates or display ads) refers to third-party websites2 that direct traffic to a
particular product/service which can be free or in exchange for a share of the product's sales
revenue. This includes as well off-page SEO through backlinks, social media sharing, and more.
Pay-per-click (PPC) is a paid text-based ad that appears at the top of SERPs to drive qualified
traffic.

This type of digital advertising channel consists of correctly keywording the business’s website
and blog posts, optimizing the user experience, and helping businesses to increase web traffic,
enhance branding, and earn a top spot in the SERPs.

2.1.2. Bidding Models

Digital advertising channels offer a variety of options on how to pay for ads:

• CPC - Cost Per Click: pay when someone clicks.

• CPM - Cost Per thousand impressions: pay when the ad earns 1000 impressions or views.
• CPL - Cost Per Lead: pay every time the ad generates a new lead (this works best for
B2B businesses, a lead can be for example a person interested in the advertiser's product
or service providing its contact information).
• CPA - Cost Per Action: pay when a user completes a desired action, this is often used
on social media channels (an action is, for example: buying a product, signing for the
company’s emails, following the company’s social media page, …).

2
Third-party websites are any other websites than yours where you can place display ads. These websites are part
of Google’s Display Network. Visual ads appear in the margins of these websites, within the text on their pages, and
more.

22 Digital Advertising: A Focus on Social Media Platforms

 GROUPS ACTIVITIES
- PART 2

Activity: Open discussion

Objective: How are visual ads designed? Experience feedback and practical tips.

Moderator: Ms. Khadija HAMDANI

Guests: Ms. Amina SETTAR; Mr. Mohammed ELMAJRINI; & Mr. Salaheddine ELKHATIMI

Group Activity: Presentations

Objective: Analyze the advertising strategy of a campaign of a Moroccan brand/company based

on the advertising campaign planning process of Hughes and Fill (2008).

Group’s members Company/brand Presentation

1 – KAA BAROTY Khaoula

HAKIM Asmaa RAIBI JAMILA

HILALI Asmaa

2 BOUSSARHANE Yassine

DAOUDI Imane Royal Air Maroc

EL AIDOUNI Salma

3 EL ABBAR Maryem

HADRAOUI Nihal Danette

TAI Meryem

Digital Advertising 23
 4 ELOUARDI Ayoub

ERRABBAHI Zakaria Sanlam Assurance

HOUCHAM Achraf

5 AMZIL Yahia Seddik

Maroc Telecom
GUEMGOUL Hafsa

6 HARRACH Chaymae

NIGROU Safaa Sidi Ali

OUSALAH Kaoutar

7 BOUKANE Imane

HAOUARI Salma AICHA

SOSSI LALAOUI Aya

8 FATINE Salma

MANIL Nouhaila McDonald’s

SAJID Ayman

24 Digital Advertising: A Focus on Social Media Platforms

 2.2. Social Media Strategies

2.2.1. Social Media Platforms: Types and Role

A wider classification of social media (SM) platforms can be approached based on the control
type of content. The content shared in owned media platforms is controlled by the
administrator or the editors of these platforms who have control or editing
authorizations/permission (e.g., blogs). The content of earned or shared media platforms is
controlled by others (subscriber/user) (e.g., social media).

Another classification of SM platforms can be done based on the services they are offering;
social content-sharing services (YouTube, WordPress, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, …);
social-networking services (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, …); messaging services (WhatsApp,
Telegram, Messenger, …); social-bookmarking services (Google reads, …); Social news services
(Reddit, …); social geolocation and meeting services (Meetup, …); community-building services
(Wikis, TripAdvisor, …). One platform can fall under more than one service offering type.

SM platforms offer a fast, two-way, response-driven, and cost-effective means of

communication. Through these platforms, businesses are able to:

• build brand awareness,

• increase the customer base,
• connect and engage with current customers,
• reach the target audience,
• enhance brand loyalty, and
• promote networking and development of partnerships.

2.2.2. Strategies for Getting Started in SM

Decide which social networks will work best for your business

Think about what each particular social network brings to the table. Unless you're a big company
with the resources to plow full speed ahead into every potentially viable social platform,
chances are you're better to focus on one or two “core” social networks first.

Identify which social networks your target audience already "hangs out", or use customer
personas research of social network demographics to judge where your business will best be
received. Experiment, track your progress, and then either build on your achievements or

Social Media Strategies 25

steadily begin to experiment with other platforms on which you might have additional (/better)
success.

Which networks does your target audience use? Where your business will best be received?

Define and assess your goals

Before you start posting content to social media, it is useful to define the guiding themes and
overall goals of your strategy. The SMART technique is functional in creating actionable social
media goals:

Specific: Be specific in what you want to achieve. Do you want to raise awareness of
your brand? Increase sales? Improve customer service? Strengthen loyalty?

Measurable: How will you know that your goal has been achieved? What analytic tools
will you use to track your progress?

Achievable: Is your goal realistic? When you are just starting off, don’t aim too high at
the risk of being deflated if you don’t hit your projected goal; getting really adept at
all this stuff takes a while (particularly if you are approaching social media marketing
seriously for the first time).

Relevant: Is your goal aligned with your company's mission, vision, and values?

Time specific: When do you want to have achieved the goal? To add a focus to your
marketing, stick to one overarching goal at a time.

How will social media align with helping you achieve your business goals?

Perform an audit to help shape your content strategy

First, identify your competitors (you’ll probably know them already, but a simple web search
will tell you), then visit their websites and social media profiles for a nose around. Make notes
on how often your rivals publish blogs and status updates on social media, and which content
seems to perform best for them based on the number of likes, comments, and shares. You can
gain further insight by identifying how much of this content appears to be original versus shared
from other sources, and what the topics and tone of voice used are like. Use the information
you gather to mirror successful types of content in your own social media strategy, but also to
identify gaps and opportunities where you can do better.

Conduct an audit based on the 5 Ws:

26 Digital Advertising: A Focus on Social Media Platforms

 Who Where – What When Why
Your List all of the social Record what they Review when they Look at calls to
media channels they are are posting. post: frequency, action and the
competitors
using. times, and days of purpose of the posts
(pick 3 to 5) the week. plus engagement.
Your List all of the social Record what posts Review when they Look at how and why
media channels they are they engage with are active: they interact with
customers
using. more. frequency, times, different types of
and days of week. posts.
Your business

Get an idea of the kind of social media content strategy that will resonate with your audience,
take time to identify your audience's needs, desires, and interests on social media - ask yourself
what problems you can help them overcome, what questions you can answer, what type of
content they prefer (e.g., text, photo, graphics, video), and when they are most likely to be
around to see it. Be specific, but aim to inspire. Keep it short and simple, plus, it should always
be closely aligned with your business mission and vision.

Why your network has to follow you? Why does your social media profile/page exist? Who is
your content for and what does it help them achieve? Why will your community be unique? How
does your social media presence compare to that of your competitors? How will you help your
audience overcome problems?

Plan ahead with a social media content calendar

One of the stiffest tests facing brands on social media is to consistently publish high-quality
content for their fans. Since it's this consistency that can really help to boost levels of
engagement (by enabling fans to anticipate your next post) and foster a stronger relationship
with your audience (who will keep coming back for more), one of the best ways to help get it
right is by compiling a social media content calendar. An editorial calendar will allow you to
plan your activity for weeks - or even months - in advance. This foresight will allow you to build
seasonal themes into your updates and prevent you from posting subpar stuff just because you
need to publish something. Of course, spontaneous posting to social media still has a place, but
for the foundations of your strategy, a content calendar is highly recommended.

What are the themes, special occasions, and offers (where customers will be searching on
social media for deals, discounts, advice, etc.) that are relevant to your business?

Repurpose content across social media

Social Media Strategies 27

Distribute and market one piece into different content pieces. For social media: blog about it,
tweet, make a video, share on Facebook, turn it into an infographic for Pinterest, etc.

What are the different possibilities that you can use to communicate about each offering of
your business?

Get social – find and define your social voice

Your social voice is the tone that you are going to use to communicate with your customers.
This is managed through copywriting and includes the language(s), communication and writing
style, voice tone, and the use of emojis, …

What is your communication style? How will you interact and exchange with your audience?

Humanize your brand and be emotive

People use social media to connect with other people, so lower your barriers and show fans the
real you, and the people behind your business; be transparent, open, and authentic in all of
your communication.

What are your business's true values and personality? How will you showcase them on social
media?

Don't over-promote: build relationships and provide value

People use SM to interact with family and friends and to be entertained. Even the most
passionate fans won't care to see every single post you publish, it is your job to convince people
to enjoy having your business as something that is a big part of their everyday lives. You do this
by building trusting and loyal relationships, being friendly, sharing great content, and helping
people with customer service issues. Strive to become a seamless part of your audience’s
expected social media experience, not a jarring element that they want to skip past. Change
your mindset from “what can we sell you?” to “what can we do to help you?”.

It is crucial that the content you post touches people on a personal and emotional level as social
media followers will resonate more with a brand that they can love and trust, much more than
one whose sole purpose seems to be to encourage them to open their wallets at every
opportunity.

What value are you providing and what purpose are you serving?

Consistently post high-quality content

28 Digital Advertising: A Focus on Social Media Platforms

It is almost impossible for all of your followers to see all of your posts; SM platforms algorithms
filter the content to be shown in people’s news feeds according to a list of factors and generate
an average of 1500 possible posts, chances of your posts to be seen and engaged with becomes
low as organic reach is dropping with the amount of content being shared constantly.

In order to make sure that as many people as possible encounter the content you post it must
be top quality; the kind of entertaining, helpful, inspirational, valuable stuff that people will
like, comment, click (if a link is included), and share. Post about current events which people
are already buzzing about, show how you live your values as a brand, partner with a well-known
brand, and repost content that your customers post.

How will you communicate your offering?

Diversify the type of posts to get the most engagement

Use different types of posts (image, text, video, links, …) to reach users and encourage them
to interact. Use the trend (images work better than text, reels, videos optimized for voice-off,
…) as a guide but always focus on providing awesome, valuable content first. Continue to test
and tweak with a close eye on your own stats, and keep adapting to push on with what is
working best for your business (not everybody else) at any given time.

What are the possible content formats you will use?

Don't get hung up on reach; focus on creating loyal, passionate customers and meaningful
relationships

Think less about chasing "likes", follower numbers, and post reach as these metrics although
having some influence and merit can often be arbitrary. Instead, concentrate more on
producing great content that will grow you a loyal following of people who love what you do
therein encouraging more people to invest in your cause.

How will you build long-term loyal relationships with your customers?

Provide great customer service, handle complaints right

Deal with customer service issues as soon as possible after they arise. Suggest that a response
time of anything up to 24 hours (on weekends, too, if you can manage it) is acceptable to most
people. People's expectations for a swift and effective response to their queries or problems
are higher than ever.

Social Media Strategies 29

Instead of constantly monitoring for problems, simply assign a few dedicated batches of time
in a day to respond to customers and handle issues. Using the “About” sections of your social
profiles to tell people when you will be available to help and how long they can expect to wait
for a reply is a sound strategy to set expectations and prevent customer frustration.

The best way to avoid customer service issues being played out publicly on social media is to
prevent them from happening. To facilitate this, give people several options to solve problems
themselves, and for making contact - online FAQs, email, telephone, and private messages, and
place them where people will see them easily, like in your main bio or about section.

The simpler it is to contact you, the more likely a customer is to try that first to help resolve a
problem, rather than spouting off angrily at you online. Demonstrate your willingness to accept
that problems do sometimes occur. Ignoring them will make them go away, don’t delete it:
Just bad (if not worse) than ignoring negative feedback is to delete a post submitted on your
profile. Other fans who see what you have done will think ill of you, too. Go off on the
defensive, and admit your mistakes.

What tools will you use to assist (listen and help) your consumers? How will you manage
customer enquiries? What will be your policy and procedures for the after-purchase
(cancellation, exchange, return, and refund)?

Automate repetitive tasks

Save time and stay flexible by making use of automation. Automation will allow you to save
time, stay flexible, and plan your social media content down to the minute. Automatically
sharing posts across many platforms at once, but also enabling you to find new content and
share the same great content multiple times across several social networks. Getting bored with
overwhelming and mundane tasks that need to be done on social media day by day. A bigger
delay between each share would be more apt.

On that note, when you do prepare to share the same link multiple times, you’re best off
restyling it to make each share as unique and engaging as you can.

Schedule posts to publish just before or after the hour (rather than right on the dot) as a way
to catch people who are checking social media at the start of their day, during lunch break,
after work, between meetings, etc. But one-to-one interaction and real-time content should
remain at the core of your work.

What tools will you use to automate repetitive tasks?

30 Digital Advertising: A Focus on Social Media Platforms

Social media is time-consuming

Plan your activity ahead and set up a reasonable, feasible, controllable, and achievable posting
calendar. Keep a manageable rhythm of your social media activity and outsource when possible
and needed.

How many times will you post per week/day/month?

Draw up a social media policy, make employees ambassadors

A clear, company-wide social media policy will clarify the concerns of staff mentions of your
brand on social media and empower them to positively support your brand, helping to make
you a more socially active business. Encourage employees to share updates about the company
following a well-established policy. Try to summarize the most important points in a document
no longer than one or two pages and highlight the benefits that responsible use of social media
can bring to the company as a whole.

How can your employees contribute to your brand’s reputation and image?

Social media marketing isn't free; experiment with paid ads

With greater competition and a more astute audience, paid promotion is all but essential. Use
paid promotion and think seamlessly instead of disruptively.

How will you use paid SM to achieve your business goals?

Reconsider return on investment (ROI) metrics

Consider metrics such as brand awareness, word-of-mouth promotion, traffic driven to your
website via social media, and strengthening loyalty and engagement with existing customers.
These can all be just as valuable in the long run - leading to plenty of sales over a longer period
of time, rather than a short-term gain that dies off quickly.

How will you measure the outputs, outcomes, and impact of your SM activity?

Measuring performance

Use analytics tools (social networks’ native tools) to set goals, see where your social media
strategy is working best, and work out how your customers are finding you so that you can fine-
tune and optimize your efforts as you advance. Evaluate your progress and refine your social
media strategy. It is unlikely that you will nail your social media strategy on the first attempt,

Social Media Strategies 31

so evaluate your progress often, and don't be afraid to test the water with new ideas, tweak
old ones and repeat what works for you.

What will be your key performance indicators – KPIs? What tools will you use to measure the
effectiveness of your SM strategy?

Slow and steady wins the race; be patient and ignore scams

Social media success does not happen overnight, building social media presence takes time and
does not pay off instantly. Some people just take longer to warm up to you and convert into
paying customers than others. Sometimes the metrics that don't pay off instantly are the ones
that will have the greatest impact on conversions later on down the line. If you're not serious
about working on social media for not just weeks or months, but years, you are already setting
yourself up for failure. Ignore 'get followers fast' scams only end up with hundreds of random
strangers - or bot accounts - who don’t care about you or your business. 50 interested, engaged,
and loyal followers are insurmountably better than 5,000 who are not. The only real “secret”
to growing an audience on social media is to be consistent and patient in your efforts.

How will you maintain your presence and activity on social media?

Above all, enjoy the ride; build strong, meaningful relationships

The stronger someone acquaints with your brand on social media, the more likely they will
remember you and pass the positive word on to their friends and family. Be consistent, present,
real, and genuine in all of your communication if you want to foster genuine interaction with
customers on a slow and steady path to creating loyalty, sales, and brand advocates for life.

32 Digital Advertising: A Focus on Social Media Platforms

“
We don’t have a choice on whether we
do social media, the question is how well
we do it.
”
Erik Qualman

Author

Social Media Strategies 33

 2.2.3. Paid Social Media

Definition & Types

Paid social media, or social ads, is advertising that relies on social information or networks in
generating, targeting, and delivering paid marketing communications.

Native advertising: is paid marketing that delivers useful, targeted content along with and in
a form that looks like the social media non-ad content.

Influencer marketing: focuses on leveraging key leaders to advocate on behalf of a brand to

reach the larger market.

The Role of Paid Ads

• Increase brand awareness. Make your brand known to more people by reaching people
who don’t follow yet your brand page.
• Encourage engagement. The social media platforms algorithms optimize your ad
campaigns in order to show your ads to people who are interested in your offering and
who are more likely to engage with your content.
• Target more people. Boosting your brand affinity is a step up after visibility
and engagement, long-lasting relationships.
• Generate more leads. Each social media ad is connected to a landing page on your
website. Some social media platforms like Facebook allow you to place a landing page
right in the ad. Because your landing page includes a call-to-action (CTA) like “Buy Now”
and often a form to fill (such as email or phone number), your landing page is how you
generate and monitor leads.
• Earn more sales. The more often people interact with your ads, the more you’ll be at
the top of their minds when they feel ready to make a purchase.

Factors of Social Ads Strategy

5 key aspects to consider in social ads strategy:

(1) Set your budget

(2) Define Your Objectives: the message you want to convey to your audience
(3) Define Your Audience, targeting options of the platform
(4) Define Which Channels to Use
(5) Determine the Duration of Your Campaigns

34 Digital Advertising: A Focus on Social Media Platforms

Ad Objectives, Targeting, and Types of Social Media Platforms

AD OBJECTIVE AD TARGETING TYPES OF ADS

Facebook Awareness Saved audiences/ Custom Single image/ Photo/
Consideration audiences/ Lookalike Video/ Carousel/ Canvas/
Conversion audiences Stories
Instagram Awareness Saved audiences/ Custom Photo/ Video/ Carousel/
Consideration audiences/ Lookalike Stories
Conversion audiences
Twitter Awareness Keywords/ Demographics Promoted tweets/ Twitter
Engagement and interests/ Lookalike GIF/ Promoted video/ In-
Traffic audiences/ Remarketing stream video ads and
App installs sponsorships/ Website
Followers card/ App card/ Direct
Video views message card
LinkedIn - Demographics/ Company Sponsored content/ Text
info/ Job/ ads/ Sponsored InMail
Matched audiences
Snapchat - Interests and behaviors/ Snap ads/ Collection ads/
Demographics/ Location/ Story ads/ AR lenses/
Custom audiences/ Filters
Lookalike audiences
TikTok Traffic, Location, Age, Gender, Brand takeovers/ In-feed
Conversions, App Languages, Interests, ads/ Hashtag challenges
Install Devices

2.2.4. Things to Keep in Mind

• Using social media to complement but NOT replace your

AVOID
traditional marketing and promotional efforts. • Bullying/
stereotyping.
• Social media changes on a frequent basis. Stay up-to-date
• Not giving credit
on the changes made to platforms and the topics being where credit is due.
discussed by people. • Sharing too much.
• Social media is about being “social”. Don’t be a • Flame war outrage.
programmed robot. • Over automation.

• You are what you present yourself as online. First impressions are all that count.

• Be authentic and consistent, not a constant salesperson.

• Everybody is online, yet organic traffic is dead; it is important to invest in ads.

2.2.5. Social Media Stats in Morocco

Two main findings regarding Moroccan internet users:

• Mobile is the most used device to access the internet. Develop with mobile in mind

Social Media Strategies 35

 • Chrome is the most used web browser. Develop your website to be compatible with the
browser.

Overview of social media use in Morocco

NUMBER OF SOCIAL YEAR-ON-YEAR AVERAGE DAILY TIME AVERAGE NUMBER OF

MEDIA USERS CHANGE IN SOCIAL SPENT USING SOCIAL SOCIAL PLATFORMS
MEDIA USERS MEDIA USED EACH MONTH

23.80 MILLION +8.2% 2H29M 5.8

+1.8 MILLION

SOCIAL MEDIA USERS SOCIAL MEDIA USERS SOCIAL MEDIA USERS SOCIAL MEDIA USERS
vs. TOTAL vs. POPULATION AGE vs. TOTAL INTERNET BY GENDER
POPULATION 13+ USERS

63.4% 82,2% 75,3% FEMALE: 40.2%

MALE: 59.8%

N.B. USERS MAY NOT REPRESENT UNIQUE INDIVIDUALS.

Statistics of early 2022.

The number of users, the ad reach, and the ad audience in Morocco by platform

USERS AD REACH AD AUDIENCE

of the total population of total internet user base Female Male
YouTube 21.40 million 57.0 % 67.7 % 49.0 % 51.0 %
Facebook 18.95 million 50.5 % 60.0 % 37.8 % 62.2 %
Instagram 9.30 million 24.8 % 29.4 % 45.9 % 54.1 %
Messenger 8.35 million 22.2 % 26.4 % 34.7 % 65.3 %
TikTok 5.97 million 23.1 % 18.9 % 47.3 % 52.7 %
Snapchat 5.50 million 14.6 % 17.4 % 68.4 % 30.4 %
LinkedIn 3.50 million 9.3 % 11.1 % 34.5 % 65.5 %
Twitter 2.85 million 7.6 % 9.0 % - -
Statistics of early 2022.

Find more statistics at Data Reportal

36 Digital Advertising: A Focus on Social Media Platforms

“
A man who stops advertising to save
money is like a man who stops a clock to
save time.
”
Henry Ford
Founder
Ford Motor Company

Social Media Strategies 37

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