How Sequential Messaging Builds Your Brand on Social Media

Never forget that advertising is storytelling.

Your goal is to develop advertising that resonates with your audience, and nothing resonates more than a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Once you understand your audience and what makes them tick, then you can develop a compelling story.

Sequential messaging in social media is a perfect example of how storytelling can cut through the clutter of generalized advertising and connect with your audience, especially as marketers search for solid ground in an age where user data may soon be scarce.

What is Sequential Messaging?

Sequential messaging is essentially telling a story to the people you know are following along. Rather than bludgeoning the same audience with the same ad over and over again, you use a series of ads to target users at different stages of the user journey. Ads are shown to users based on what ads they have already seen and how far down the funnel they have traveled.

By serving ads in a sequence, you reduce the chances of ad fatigue and keep messaging strong and consistent. The end goal is to funnel them from awareness to intent to conversion.

Leveraging Sequential Messaging in a Post-iOS 14 World

Sequential messaging is not a new concept, but it has become more valuable than ever to marketers in the wake of Apple’s iOS 14 privacy update. The change to their privacy and data sharing policies allows users to decide whether to allow apps to track their user behavior. When they decline, that limits the ability of marketers to measure the efficacy of their ad campaigns.

That impacts how brands advertise on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and every other social media platform, which is where many of today’s consumers are discovering brands for the first time. The iOS 14 privacy update, coupled with increased competitiveness across the different social channels, has not only made it more difficult for brands to break through the noise, but it has also made it more challenging to find your target audience and create a strong connection.

Sequential messaging offers a potential workaround using in-app data signals.

Take for example a 30-second social ad targeted at a broad, upper-funnel audience, making that first introduction to your brand. If a user were to watch all 30 seconds of your ad, that would signal intent or interest at the very least. You can then build an audience in the backend of the platform, grouping together anyone who watched all 30 seconds of your ad, and begin delivering them a sequence of ads that moves them through the funnel.

You are gradually warming your audience, building to more prospecting or lead-generation focused ads once a user has been exposed to your brand at multiple touch points.

With growing uncertainty as to how marketers will be able to collect data online now and in the future, strategies like sequential messaging allow you to leverage the tools you still have at your disposal. Contact Spinutech today if you’re ready to talk about how sequential messaging on social media can help you build a better connection with your target audience.