How to Target Facebook, Pandora and Snapchat Users

These days, millennials are the primary target audience for many advertisers. Reaching them, however, can be quite a challenge. Recently, executives from Facebook, Pandora and Snapchat released tips on how to connect with millennials. 

Adweek reports that marketers are constantly working social media sites and creating digital ads to attract millennials. Several marketing agencies are engaging in nontraditional forms of advertising, but many young adults are still turned off by ads in any form. The group of executives advised marketers to spend more time analyzing how millennials use digital media, and then build strategies. Here are a few key insights from these social media elites.

Decrease Video Ad Lengths on Facebook

Autoplay video ads: they are annoying to many consumers, but surprisingly effective. Scrolling through a Facebook feed without autoplay video ads is simply impossible nowadays, but the social media platform has had a lot of success from autoplay videos. Facebook is a strong advocate for quick and easy information. Its global agency team director believes that marketing agencies should produce four, eight and 10-second videos that instantly grab viewers’ attention and spark curiosity.

Think Like a Local for Better Snapchat Targeting

Snapchat’s director of operations and strategy says that businesses need to take the local approach. This is done by creating full-page video content for the app’s Live Story feature, which advertises local events to users. Millennials hate feeling like they’re being advertised to, so marketing agencies should produce locally-themed content to appear relevant and authentic.

Be More Specific with Pandora Listeners

Targeting a specific audience on music-streaming mobile apps and desktop sites is a tricky task, which is why segmenting and strategizing is a must in this environment. Pandora executives discovered that people like to listen to different things on their mobile devices compared to their desktop. For example, they found that women ages 18 to 34 enjoy listening to YouTube violinist Lindsey Stirling, but 80 percent of users only listen to her on the mobile app, notes Adweek. 

This type of information can shape how marketing agencies create campaigns and determine whether they should run on mobile or desktop. Targeting young adults with digital ads can be complicated, but businesses everywhere realize that millennials are today’s “in” crowd. Take it as a lesson from the pros: autoplay ads are successful at the right length, local ads work best for authenticity and segmenting is critical when choosing between mobile or desktop ads.

Aubrey Andersen-Bakker writes for Fusion 360, an SEO and content marketing agency. She writes for many other clients as well.