Author: Franz Malten Buemann

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Let’s face it: There’s quite a bit of negative sentiment around targeted advertising. It’s not unwarranted — consumers often complain that collecting information from their individual browsing behaviors, such as page visits and searches, to optimally select which advertisements they see, is invasive and, some might even say, “creepy.”

Done right, however, ad targeting has the potential to attract new customers, help retain existing ones and boost your brand profile. Here’s how.

Where Can You Publish Targeted Ads?
Brands have a host of options when it comes to publishing targeted ads. For customers that have opted-in to newsletters and offers, email is a great way to serve up advertisements to consumers that are already interested in your brand.
To reach a broader audience, meanwhile, marketers can pay for targeted advertisements to be shown on social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.
Other options include publishing targeted ads in users’ Google search results or via the Google display network, which reaches 90% of Internet users worldwide. Both fall under the larger banner of Google Ads, and costs are based on an auction system. Marketers input the maximum amount per click they’re willing to pay for an ad, and Google then determines ad pricing and position based on overall ad quality and maximum bid. Worth noting? Brands are only charged when someone clicks through on your link.
So how do you put ad targeting to work for your business? Here are 10 best practices to boost your ad impact.

1. Give Consumers Content They Care About
Instead of telling customers what they already know, use targeted ads as an opportunity to provide consumers with new information and other offers that might interest them based on their previous buying and browsing behaviors. Make it clear to your customers that you care about them by giving them content that is carefully targeted toward what they would want to see in an ad.
The takeaway: Consumers want new, fresh content .
2. Keep it Interesting
The reason they call marketing “creative” is because it should be exciting, attention-grabbing, and anything but boring. We all know that ads are easy to ignore, so for a targeted ad to perform well, it has to really stand out from the rest.
The takeaway: Make your ads eye-catching.
3. Set a Cap on Frequency
You need to remember that while proper ad targeting should provide a benefit to your customers, too much of it will most likely have the opposite effect. Consider the perspective of a consumer and think about how annoyed you would be if you were constantly served the same ad on dozens of different websites.
The takeaway: Don’t bombard your customers with ads.
4. Find the Right Place
Not every platform is the ideal place for your ads. While simple and streamlined ads make sense on Google search results, it’s worth taking the time to craft more intricate advertisements for Instagram or Facebook marketing campaigns that are more likely to see users stop on scrolling when they reach your ad and click through, either to a new page or to watch a video.
The takeaway: Just like real estate, effective ad targeting is all about location, location, location.
5. Pinpoint Your Audience
The key to any targeted advertisement is finding your target audience. If you’re serving up ads to customers that don’t match their preferences, you won’t see the click-through rates you’re looking for. As a result, it’s critical to do your research: Find tools that let you create custom ads based on personalized customer data and also help you see the bigger picture by identifying common traits among your audience.
The takeaway: Even the best ad won’t work on the wrong audience.
6. Don’t get too Specific
On the other side of the coin, it’s important to make your ads broad enough that they capture a decent segment of your target market. For example, while you could create an ad that specifically targets redheaded men between 20 and 22 living in Kansas who own golden retrievers and drive electric cars, the specificity of this ad is so high that it likely won’t show up on many social or search feeds and won’t capture a large enough audience share.
The takeaway: Effective marketing walks the line between targeted efforts and too-specific ads.
7. Think Outside the Box
Building targeted ad campaigns means thinking about what your audience wants. Let’s say you own a real estate company and you’re looking to help customers sell their current homes or buy new ones. Your obvious target market is people searching for realtors in their area or checking out the home prices in their neighborhood.
But it’s also worth considering parallel markets that are tied to your primary target. When it comes to real estate this might include searches for moving boxes, truck and van rentals, or storage lockers that could indicate customers are preparing to move. By thinking outside the box to include parallel markets, you can expand your reach without losing your focus.
The takeaway: Targeted marketing relies on both depth of personalization and breadth of interest.
8. Test, Test, Test
Even the best-laid advertising efforts don’t always go to plan. As a result, it’s worth conducting regular A/B testing to see which ads perform the best in specific scenarios and which can’t keep pace. Once you’ve identified frontrunners, you can tweak them even more through ongoing A/B testing to get the best return on investment.
The takeaway: Nothing works perfectly the first time. Test your ads to improve their performance.
9. Cast a Wide Net
Chances are that one advertising platform will work best for a new ad campaign. The caveat? You won’t know which one until you try them all. While it’s not worth spending your entire ad budget to blanket the Internet with new marketing efforts, it’s worth dipping your toe into multiple ad platforms to see what sticks.
The takeaway: Wide nets let you find where customers are swimming and adjust tactics to match.
10. Measure your Impact
If ads are getting seen and clicks are coming in, then everything’s going to plan, right? Maybe, maybe not. To ensure targeted ad efforts are paying dividends, it’s critical to define key performance metrics and regularly measure these metrics to ensure ads are living up to expectations. For example, you could measure the total value of conversions against the cost of a targeted marketing campaign to see if the numbers add up.
The takeaway: Track the numbers to make sure ad spend makes sense.

It’s one thing to read about best practices — it’s another to see them in action. To help you visualize what effective ad targeting looks like, we’ve collected seven great examples.
1. The New York Times

This ad works because it targets a specific audience segment — those in their 20s — and offers actionable advice for their health. Sure, there’s part of that segment that won’t respond because they’re not worried about health habits, but those that do click through are primed to engage with the targeted content being served.
And while the Facebook reactions show a number of “mad” faces, this isn’t necessarily a downside, since it indicates the ad is prompting user interest.
2. Nom Nom

This ad targets a high-spending group: Pet owners. It also incorporates a customer testimonial to help convince viewers that it’s worth clicking through to find out what’s being offered.
It’s also worth noting the tagline in the bottom-left of the ad — “the only dog food like it”. This is a big claim to make but has a good chance of capturing targeted audience interest. And if the claim is backed up when they click through, there’s a solid chance of conversion.
3. Slack

Pandemic pressures have made it clear that companies need to find better ways of doing work. One of the biggest productivity killers? Meetings. That’s why this targeted Slack ad works — the campaign offers the potential of 25% fewer meetings by making communication better across the company. While this kind of ad requires business decision-makers to get on board, if enough staff see and mention the ad it can generate significant corporate traction.
4. Tentsile

Who knew that tree tents and tree hammocks were a thing? Probably not most people. That’s the genius of this ad — while it targets a smaller segment of the market looking for the “best” tree hammocks, it also casts a wider net by introducing a larger group of users to the concept of above-ground tent products.
Even better, it promises a look into “real vs. fake” products, giving visitors a chance to see what the difference is by clicking through.
5. 360Learning

Saying that something doesn’t work in an ad is a risky bet — unless you can back it up. That’s the idea behind this 360Learning ad, which claims that Netflix-style “binge” learning can’t address the current issues with remote and online learning.
The promise of an eBook is a good way to get users to click through, and so long as there’s actionable information available it’s a solid start on customer engagement that could lead to more sales.
6. Kay Jewelers

The image above is enough to give an idea of what’s going on — the dog is bringing a piece of jewelry to its owner, courtesy of their partner. The actual Facebook ad itself is a video that shows the owner happily receiving the gift and does a good job of conveying a sense of love, family, and connection.
Perhaps even more importantly, however, is that no other context is needed to understand the video. There’s no text aside from the Kay logo and tagline, and no sound is required to parse what’s happening. Here, emotions are the target and the ad hits home.
7. Peloton

Peloton had a banner year in 2020, but as pandemic pressures begin to ease the interactive bike manufacturer is experiencing a slowdown in growth. This targeted ad speaks to those interested in the bike but daunted by its high price tag.
By offering a 100-day home trial with the option to return the bike for a full refund at the end of the trial, Peloton is looking to capture and convert a historically hesitant section of its audience by giving them the chance to experience the product risk-free.
Hitting the Bullseye
Not every ad will land exactly as expected with your audience. But with targeted ad efforts that follow best practices and keep in mind the key rule of ad targeting — give the customer what they want — it’s possible to avoid criticisms of “creepy”, capture customer attention, and drive increased conversions.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2011 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Compared with public relations, social media is the new, cool kid on the block, and since the early 2000s has become a significant means of communication between brands and their audience.
These days, PR departments, regardless of the brand or organization, go to social media first to spread the latest information about services and products and gain the broadest coverage.

By aligning social media and PR, brands can boost engagement and keep customers aware of the latest developments.
In this article, you’ll see six tactics to help improve your social media public relations. We’ll also see examples of brands that have used some of these tactics.

How has Social Media Changed Public Relations?
Social media has completely changed the PR landscape. Press release has ceded the throne to the much younger, much more persuasive heir: social media.
Communication
Brands can now use different channels to communicate with consumers through social media. Whether through engaging posts on Facebook, Reels on Instagram, or Tweets on Twitter, brands can develop a personality that resonates with consumers and form a personal connection with their audience.
Unlike traditional PR methods, for example, press releases, social media allows consumers to interact with their favorite brands. This two-way communication street can be a massive advantage for brands that know how to use it.
Influencing
Social media has allowed ordinary people to become influencers who can help brands promote products and services to specific audiences.
Brands can now work with bloggers, vloggers, experts, and more to create impactful PR campaigns.
Instead of creating the content by itself, a brand can leverage the creative powers of these influencers. Influencers with a large following are highly sought-after for obvious reasons. However, it’s vital to look past the follower count to see whether the influencer is suitable for the brand.
24/7 Cycle
The internet never sleeps, which allows PR professionals to deliver news at any time, safe in the assurance that the message will reach consumers.
However, while the ability to reach consumers at any time is excellent, it also has its drawbacks in that PR messages have a shorter lifespan in the consumer’s memory.
Consumers are in an endless mill of information, which challenges PR professionals to keep up. Bad reviews and news travel very quickly, so PR agents have to be proactive and nip such problems in the bud before it escalates.
How to Use Social Media for PR
How much does the typical PR campaign cost? $10000? $100000? $1000? You can get a PR campaign for these prices and even less — it only really matters how effective the campaign is.
So, how can you use social media for PR regardless of how much you’re spending? Here are some valuable tips to help you.
1. Add social share buttons to your message.
A super-easy way to use social media for PR is to add social sharing buttons to your message. For example, if you have a press release, you can add social sharing buttons to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms.
Adding these buttons allows consumers to share your press releases and do some of the legwork for you.
Additionally, you can embed social media links within the press release. It drives traffic and increases engagement.
2. Work with influencers.
One of the best ways to create PR for your brand is to partner with an influencer.
When choosing an influencer to become a brand ambassador, look for more than follower counts. You should want authentic coverage that hits on a personal note with actual people.
An influencer or ambassador must share, or even create, relatable, emotional, and personal content. The right influencer for your brand is just as concerned about delivering the content right for their audience as they are about doing good work for you (and getting the check).
Furthermore, when you cultivate an audience of people who genuinely love what you’re doing, you’re building a pool of loyal, engaged brand ambassadors who’ll stick with you not just because you’re paying them but because they truly feel connected to your product and are honored to be ambassadors with the brand.
3. Be consistent.
To get the best from using social media for PR, you need to be consistent. This consistency includes showing up with regular posts and interacting with consumers as soon as possible.
It also involves being consistent with your brand voice and tone. By being relatable, helpful, and valuable, you can build a social media presence that boosts your reputation.
4. Be proactive.
Adulation from social media is fickle, and those that praise you today can quickly turn on you and ‘cancel’ your brand.
Therefore, you must have a proactive crisis management system to handle the flames when they come. PR teams should take advantage of the ability to reply instantly and tackle crises as soon as they arise.
4. Create good relationships with the media.
PR professionals have always realized how meaningful a good relationship with media outlets and journalists can be. So, cultivate a good relationship with these essential parts of the industry. Having a good relationship with them will increase the chances of getting positive press with the right outlets.
You can kick off the relationship by sharing necessary, practical, and valuable information to extend conversations.
A note of warning: Spamming media houses, journalists, and even influencers with pitches and press releases can come off as annoying and disrespectful. Be professional and have some self-respect.
5. Take advantage of hashtags.
Hashtags are used on almost all social media channels, and you can use this tool to boost your PR campaign.
Hashtags offer the following advantages:

Let you monitor the consumer conversation
Engage your audience
Direct the audience to the right content

Social Media Public Relations Campaign Examples
1. LEGO
Hashtags can transform your PR campaign on social media, and LEGO is an excellent example of a brand that has used and still uses it.
The #RebuildTheWorld hashtag has been used for many years now to relate enjoyable, uplifting, and exciting stories about the brand.

2. Axis Bank
Social media is a powerful means brands and companies use to release the latest information. Incorporating social media into press releases is an excellent way to run a PR campaign.
Axis Bank used this method to good effect recently.

3. Foundation
Today, many brands use social media to spread the word about their products and services. The brand feels more human and personal by getting C-level employees and other lower-level employees to talk about a brands’ products and services.
Foundation is a popular marketing agency with C-level employees who tweet and often write about its services.

Bridge The Gap Between Your Social Media and Public Relations
Gone are the days when dropping a press release and sending emails were all the PR department had to do to inform customers. Now, customers expect more from organizations and brands.
Using social media and your PR campaigns can improve customer engagement and build the positive press.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Marketers need the advantage of real-time customer data to effectively do their jobs.
The right iPad and iPhone apps can help — in this piece, we’re diving into 11 Apple device applications that can help take your marketing to the next level.

1. HubSpot

Price: Free
Need a better marketing framework? The HubSpot mobile CRM suite has you covered. Get one-tap access to key documents, stay organized with follow-up actions and quickly review customer calls to help inform both current marketing plans and develop new initiatives. Best of all, and can do everything anywhere, anytime from your iPad or iPhone.
What we like:
Not to toot our own horn, but HubSpot offers end-to-end support for managing contacts, handling emails, tracking tasks, and monitoring marketing efforts.
2. Meta Business Suite

Price: Free
Meta (formerly Facebook) is one of the most popular social marketing platforms, so it goes without saying that you should have the Facebook app installed on your mobile device. The Meta Business Suite takes things a step farther with the ability to view messages that require attention, schedule and manage posts and prioritize key marketing activities.
What we like:
To succeed with personalized, digital marketing efforts Facebook is essential — the Meta suite makes it possible to unlock the business side of this social app.
3. Bitly

Price: Free
Bitly is known for its link-shortening service but the Bitly app is also a great choice for marketers. Teams can easily connect multiple social networks and track the performance of links across the networks to see where campaigns are working and where they come up short.
What we like:
The “Daily Widget” feature lets you see your top-performing links each day with a simple swipe to the right.
4. Google Analytics

Price: Free
True to the original desktop version, the Google Analytics app for iPhone offers detailed information on your website’s visitors, referral sources, top content, and more. The app even supports multiple Google Analytics accounts. All these rich features are nicely packed into a mobile interface.
Any good marketer doesn’t just ‘do’ marketing, but also measures the results of their marketing efforts. Analytics Pro will help get this job done, anytime and anywhere.
What we like:
The sheer amount of data available to Google makes it the clear leader in customer analytics, so it only makes sense to tap the Google Analytics app as part of your marketing efforts.
5. GoDaddy.com Mobile

Price: Free
GoDaddy.com is a popular domain registrar. It helps you buy and manage your online domains. The GoDaddy.com iPhone app provides a neat interface for you to do these things whenever the inspiration or need strikes. You can track activity across websites, product orders, and social media all from the app.
What we like:
See new reviews for your site with just a few taps and gain insight into the effectiveness of your current campaigns.
6. Buffer

Price: Free
Buffer lets you schedule social media posts to the platform of your choice. This is a great way to keep your content current and engaging — without overwhelming customers. The app makes it easy to centralize cross-platform social marketing to cut down on the amount of time teams spend switching apps and scheduling posts.
What we like:
Keep your social content neat and tidy with the option to add the first comment on platforms like Instagram, ensuring the first comment users see is in line with your branding.
7. Hootsuite

Price: Free
Hootsuite lets marketers create, edit and publish social content all from a single iPhone app. Teams can schedule posts to publish on the channel of their choice at the frequency they prefer, and can see what’s coming up with Hootsuite’s easy-to-use calendar function.
What we like:
Hootsuite lets you monitor likes, mentions, and conversations across topics that matter to your brand.
8. Later

Price: Free
Later also lets you schedule posts across multiple platforms, but where it differs from apps like Hootsuite or Buffer is the ability to visually map out your feed on platforms like Instagram. With simple, drag-and-drop functionality, teams can create a content schedule that’s both content-rich and visually appealing.
What we like:
Images and videos can be uploaded directly from your phone, and there’s no storage limit.
9. Canva

Price: Free
A picture is still worth a thousand words, and Canva helps you say it just right. Using pre-built templates, the Canva app lets you drag and drop image elements to create images you want to share — and that reflect the voice of your brand. Plus, integrated social sharing lets you easily push images to social media platforms.
What we like:
Canva’s free tool is a great choice if you need a simple image editor. If you need more features, just $10 per month gets you the Pro edition.
10. Rep

Price: Free
Love it or loathe it, influencer marketing is here to stay. Rep lets influencers and brands connect on a single app to kickstart mutually beneficial marketing relationships. Influencers can search for like-minded brands (and vice versa) and can bid on paid jobs offered by companies.
What we like:
Brands can quickly check an influencer’s engagement metrics via the app to see if they’re a good fit.
11. Grammarly

Price: Free
When it comes to marketing, good grammar matters. It might seem like a small thing, but a poorly-written and worded ad can convince customers to take their business elsewhere. Grammarly can help save the day. This iOS app offers writing suggestions, grammar fixes, and synonym options to help reduce wordiness and improve the impact of your ads.
What we like:
Grammarly automatically provides feedback as you type to provide real-time suggestions.
Making the Most of iPhone Apps for Marketers
All of the apps listed above can help improve your marketing efforts. From social media management to sentiment tracking to influencer partnerships, the right iPhone app can help build marketing programs that align with company goals and deliver on expectations.
Here, your best bet is to try out a few apps and see what sticks. While most offer in-app purchases, all of the applications listed above offer free versions that let your team explore the benefits they can bring to your brand. Once you’ve found the mix that works for you — pro tip, start with HubSpot’s comprehensive offering and build out from there — you can create an Apple marketing ecosystem that captures customer interest and drives increased sales.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2010 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Seeking opportunities to give back has always been part of the Buffer DNA. We started the wonderful tradition of profit sharing and charitable contributions at the end of 2017. Since then, we’ve been in the privileged position to make donations to charitable organizations every year as part of our profit sharing. We set aside 8 percent of our 2021 profit for profit sharing, we then match 20 percent of that total for our charitable donations. This came to a total of $17,966 for this year’s charitable contribution.This has always been a unique opportunity for us to come together as a team to celebrate what we’ve accomplished last year by giving back to charities that have a positive impact in our world – selected by all Buffer teammates together.How We Decide Which Charities to SupportWe go through two stages when determining which charities to support, nominating and voting. In the first stage, we invite the entire team to nominate their favorite charities based on a set of guidelines provided. We have evolved our selection guidelines over time based on Buffer’s values and vision, the diversity of our global team, and the potential impact of our donation.Here are the guidelines that we share with the entire Buffer team:The charities should focus on causes that are important to Buffer. Traditionally, those have been: 1) Climate Action and 2) Racial Justice.The charities should have a strong alignment with Buffer’s values and vision.The charities should have a global reach and be of a size where our donation will be meaningful.The last one can be hard to evaluate so we also shared some examples:GiveWell conducts in-depth research to determine how much good a given program accomplishes per dollar spent.Giving Green is an evidence-based guide to help donors and volunteers fight climate change.Founders Pledge shares research designed to identify the most strategic opportunities for impact.Here is a guide on how to choose an effective charity.Charity navigator is also a useful resource for researching U.S.-based charities.In the second stage, we move to voting. Based on the nomination from the team, we put together a shortlist of charities. Every teammate would vote for one charity for each of the two causes, and the two charities that receive the highest votes overall will receive the donation this year. At this stage, we also included a survey to get the team’s feedback on the overall process.The final results were:Climate Action: The top choice is Cool EarthCool Earth works directly with rainforest communities to halt deforestation. They do this by meeting and learning from the rainforest communities across the world – many of them are indigenous communities that have intimate relationships and immense wisdom. Cool Earth partners with these communities to develop solutions that are unique to each location. In many situations, they support the local communities to develop sustainable incomes so they can be self-sustainable without causing harm to the rain forests.Racial Justice: The top choice is Village EnterpriseVillage Enterprise’s mission is to end extreme poverty by equipping and empowering first-time entrepreneurs in Africa with the resources and skills to start sustainable businesses and savings groups.At this point, our decision was to split the total of $17,966 between these two wonderful organizations so that each of them will receive $8,983 in a donation.A last-minute change to our charitable contributionsAs we were planning the charitable contribution in February 2022, significant events were developing quickly around us including the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As we learned more about the situation, the tragedy was weighing heavily on many of our minds, and many of our teammates have family or friends in Ukraine.Conversations about what we can do as individuals start to pop up in our Slack channels, and it was clear that collectively, we wish we could do more about the devastating crisis. As we were approaching the deadline to make a final decision on the charitable contribution, I sought advice from a few teammates and our leadership team on potentially allocating some of our charitable donation budgets towards helping people who would bear the severe consequences of the invasion.In the end, we decided that we’ll split our charitable contribution into three donations:$5,988 will be donated to Village Enterprise to champion racial justice.$5,988 will be donated to Cool Earth to tackle the climate crisis.$5,988 will be donated to Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund by GlobalGiving to help meet the most urgent and immediate needs of the Ukrainian people.As a small business, we want to embrace our ability to be flexible in an ever-changing world and to take quick actions that reflect our values and the concern of our team. This decision was met with great support by our teammates and the leadership team, and I’m proud that we had this unique opportunity to support causes that matter the most to us and to help people in need of urgent help.Learning for next yearOur charitable contribution process has evolved over the years based on identifying causes that are aligned with Buffer’s values and learning from the diverse perspective of our global team.From the survey on the nomination process this time, we learned that it can feel like a great responsibility to identify effective charities that are aligned with Buffer’s vision and values, especially for teammates who are based outside the U.S. and the U.K. (For legal reasons, Buffer is only able to make a large sum of donations to charities registered in the U.S. or the U.K.)Based on this feedback, we are thinking about appointing a small group of diverse teammates who can be dedicated to conducting the research required to nominate a shortlist of charities for the entire team to vote on. We hope this can streamline the process while still enabling the entire team to get involved in the process.We also would love to think more deeply about how we can have the most impact as a small business. Should we donate to the same charities for multiple years, or should we change that every year? When it comes to world events, how do we decide when it feels appropriate to give our support? We will continue to have these discussions within the team.Over to youDoes your company make charitable contributions on a regular basis? How do you decide which charities are selected each time? We’d love to hear the criteria you put in place or the process you use to involve the team. Send us a tweet!