Studies show that 84 percent of people trust a customer’s review as much as they would trust a friend or family member’s recommendation.
This statistic alone proves that marketers have a significant opportunity for growth customer-recommended advertising. But, of course, gaining those customer reviews is easier said than done.
Luckily, there is a simple strategy you can use to mimic the efficiency of a review. The secret is social proof. From higher conversions to increased ad reach, using this one simple trick can elevate your e-commerce marketing.
So what does this term mean and how can you keep social proof with each new ad set? Follow along to learn everything you need to know about this marketing technique and how you can grow your e-commerce business with this approach.
What is Social Proof?
If you walked into a restaurant during peak meal hours and there was no one else there, what would be your first assumption?
Most likely, you would grow concerned about the service or food quality before you even have a chance to judge it for yourself. You see, the lack of other people taking part in the activity makes you weary and probably sets a bias in your head about what is coming next.
On the other hand, if you walked by a restaurant and there was a line-up outside because it’s so busy, you’d assume that this spot must be a great place to eat. The sheer volume of people flocking to this establishment makes you believe that it must have great service and delicious food. Why else would everyone be there, right?
This is a real-world example of social proof, but it can just as easily come into play with marketing and advertising.
Social proof is the element that taps into the subconscious part of a consumer’s brain and encourages them to follow a trend. When potential customers see other people responding to a post, brand, or store, they feel that the right thing to do is follow the action.
In the digital world, this social proof is created through elements of engagement such as likes, comments, and shares, as well as reviews and high-status recommendations.
Why Do You Need It?
When potential customers see high rating social proof elements associated with your brand, it gives you instant credibility. Viewers will feel that others must be onto something good and follow the crowd to find out what they are missing.
This actually promotes a higher level of trust and confidence in your products or services.
As you know, trust isn’t an easy thing to earn on the internet and customers are incredibly skeptical of e-commerce sites because they feel it may be a scam. Having social proof attached to your ads expedites the trust-earning process and improves your conversion rate.
And of course, there’s no secret around the connection between your conversion rate and your revenue. Making this one small change with your advertising campaign could be the missing piece of your profit-earning potential.
How to Generate Social Proof
The engagements that provide social proof are highly dependant on the post you share and how it’s received. Luckily, there are a few measures you can take to generate or mimic this social proof.
For starters, integrate user-created content at the heart of your ad campaign. If you have a great review on your Facebook page or website, don’t let it go unseen. Delivering this review in the form of an ad is a great way to ensure a positive impression.
Partner up with a content marketing agency to pull these positive reviews from your site and turn them into eye-catching posts. If you haven’t received any reviews on your pages yet, this is a great place for an e-commerce marketing agency to start building your online presence.
In addition to user reviews, the value potential customers place on an influencer’s opinion of a product can be a huge marketing advantage. Ask relevant bloggers, YouTubers, and other social media influencers to create a post around your product.
Once they have promoted your brand, if you get their permission, you can build their recommendation into an ad and send out the influential word.
Now that you have some built-in social proof, you need more engagements. Every e-commerce brand would love to launch an ad and gain an incredible amount of buzz from the release date. Fortunately, there is actually a way to make this look real.
A Facebook Hack to Keep Social Proof on Ads
This trick to keep social proof from past campaigns will actually carry over the engagements you received on an ad and attach the social proof to your new set.
The number one mistake an e-commerce marketer makes when trying to keep social proof is using the ‘duplicate ad’ function. This does not carry over your social proof and instead creates an identical campaign with no engagements attached.
Instead, you’ll need to use the post ID of your ad. To do this, head over to your Facebook Ads Manager and view your page posts. Identify the ad that has a high amount of social proof and copy the post’s ID.
Once you have this ID ready to go, you can build your ad by clicking ‘create’. This is where your process will change slightly. Instead of selecting ‘create a new ad’, you’ll actually choose the ‘use existing post’ option. From here, paste in your predetermined post ID, and a preview of your ad should come up.
This ad now contains all of the likes, comments, and shares that your high-performing ad did right from the start. Continue with any changes you’d like to make and generate your ad the same as you would if you were starting from scratch.
If you’re starting a whole new campaign, you can actually set up this system to work throughout your ad sets. Simply start with your primary campaign and publish like normal. Once published, use that ID to create your other ads. Follow the exact same process as above and enjoy the compounded social proof on your traffic ads.
Keep Social Proof in Your Ad Campaigns
Now that you know the importance of social proof and how to keep it on your ads, you can set forth with confidence in your e-commerce marketing approach. From gaining customer trust to cracking the Facebook algorithm, you’ll be on your way to skyrocketing your sales.
Ready to start generating social proof for your e-commerce brand? Get in touch with us today to take your marketing efforts to the next level and grow your e-commerce brand’s impact.
