Topic 6: Digital
Marketing Strategies

Social Influence Theory (Cialdini, 1984) explains how individuals' thoughts and behaviours are shaped by others through six key principles: Reciprocation, Commitment & Consistency, Social Proof, Authority, Liking, and Scarcity. In digital marketing, each principle maps directly to a tactical approach.

• Reciprocation: Offering free trials, downloadable guides, or personalised recommendations creates a sense of obligation that motivates users to purchase or share content.
• Social Proof: Displaying star ratings, customer testimonials, follower counts, or influencer endorsements reassures undecided users by showing what others have chosen.
• Scarcity: Flash sales, countdown timers, limited-edition product labels, and waiting lists exploit the fear of missing out (FOMO), driving urgent action.
• Authority: Partnering with industry experts, showcasing awards and certifications, and publishing high-quality verifiable content increase perceived credibility.
• Liking: Using relatable brand ambassadors, sharing behind-the-scenes content, and collaborating with liked influencers increase consumer affinity.
• Commitment & Consistency: Loyalty programmes, opt-in subscriptions, and interactive quizzes increase long-term brand engagement by tying users to prior choices.

Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) posits that individuals categorise themselves into in-groups and out-groups, deriving self-worth from group membership. It involves three processes: Social Categorisation (grouping by shared traits), Social Identification (adopting the group's identity), and Social Comparison (favouring one's own group).

In digital marketing, this theory supports tactics such as building exclusive brand communities, using social proof and testimonials to reinforce brand identity, and aligning brand messaging with the values or causes of the target audience — making consumers feel the brand is part of their in-group.

Setting up a Facebook Ads campaign involves three structural layers: Campaign → Ad Set → Ad.

Step 1 — Create an Ads Manager account at facebook.com/business/tools/ads-manager, confirm payment details, and save changes.

Step 2 — Choose a Campaign Objective. For a mobile app launch, the most appropriate objective is App Promotions, which optimises delivery towards users likely to install and continue using the app. Other objectives include Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, and Sales.

Step 3 — Configure campaign options:

• Special Ad Categories: Must be declared if the ad involves credit, housing, employment, elections, or social issues.
• A/B Testing: Enables comparison of two ad variants (e.g., different visuals, copy, or audiences) shown to separate audience segments to determine which performs best.
• Advantage Campaign Budget: Facebook algorithmically distributes budget across ad sets to maximise overall performance.

Step 4 — Define the Audience. Facebook supports three audience types:

• Core Audiences: Defined by demographics (age, gender, location), interests, and behaviours using the Detailed Targeting tool.
• Custom Audiences: Re-engage users who previously interacted with the business (website visitors, app users, email lists).
• Lookalike Audiences: Target new users who share characteristics with existing best customers.

Step 5 — Set Budget & Schedule. Facebook offers two budget models: (a) Daily Budget — spends an average daily amount (up to 25% above on high-opportunity days, capped at 7× the daily budget per calendar week); (b) Lifetime Budget — a fixed total spend across the campaign's entire duration, giving more spending flexibility per day but tighter overall control.

Step 6 — Create the Ad. Choose a format (Single Image/Video, Carousel up to 10 cards, or Collection), add creative assets, primary text, headline, description, call-to-action, and destination URL, then publish.

A comprehensive digital marketing strategy must account for the diverse ways consumers engage online. The seven key categories are:

• Social Networks (e.g., Facebook, Twitter/X) — Emphasis on listening, content sharing, and two-way dialogue. Facebook is central for consumer audiences; LinkedIn for B2B.
• Social Streaming (e.g., Twitch, YouTube, Vimeo) — Rich media platforms for video and live content, enabling product demonstrations and sponsorships.
• Social Search (e.g., Google, Yahoo) — Search-driven discovery; SEO and paid search ads are relevant here.
• Social Knowledge (e.g., Wikipedia, Reddit, Quora) — Informational networks where brands can subtly showcase expertise and address customer problems.
• Social Blogging (e.g., Company Blog, Company Forum) — Owned channels for long-form content marketing and thought leadership.
• Social Customer Service (e.g., Company Support Portal, Twitter) — Real-time support and complaint resolution that is publicly visible.
• Social Bookmarking / Sharing (e.g., Pinterest, StumbleUpon) — Visual discovery platforms useful for identifying trending content and reaching niche audiences.

Relying on a single category is insufficient because consumers occupy multiple touchpoints in their journey — from discovery (social search, bookmarking) to consideration (social knowledge, reviews) to loyalty (social networks, customer service). A brand present only on social networks, for instance, misses users who discover products via Pinterest or seek peer answers on Quora. Each category also offers distinct content formats, algorithmic behaviours, and demographic concentrations, making channel diversification essential for broad reach and deep engagement.

Twitter Ads offer seven main format categories:

• Promoted Ads — five sub-types: Image, Video, Carousel (up to 6 swipeable cards), Moment (curated tweet collections), and Text ads.
• Follower Ads — Promote an account to grow followers and brand awareness.
• Twitter Amplify — Pre-roll or Sponsorship video ads attached to relevant publisher content.
• Twitter Takeover — Timeline Takeover (first ad of the day at the top) and Trend Takeover (placement alongside trending topics) for mass-reach campaigns.
• Twitter Live — Promoted livestream content.
• Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) — Retargeting (showing previously viewed products) and Prospecting (finding new customers via product catalogue).
• Collection Ads — One hero image plus up to 6 thumbnail images, each with a separate destination link.

Instagram Ads (managed via Meta Business Suite) support: Image Ads, Story Ads, Video Ads, Carousel Ads, Collection Ads, Explore Ads, Shopping Ads, and Reels Ads. Instagram benefits from deep integration with Facebook's targeting infrastructure (Core, Custom, and Lookalike Audiences) and the Meta Pixel.

Recommendation: For a fashion accessories retailer seeking product visibility, Instagram is the superior choice, supported by three reasons:

• Visual-first format: Instagram's interface is optimised for high-quality imagery, which is essential for fashion retail where aesthetics drive purchase intent.
• Shopping Ads & Catalogue Integration: Instagram Shopping Ads allow direct product tagging and in-app checkout, compressing the purchase funnel.
• Reels Ads: Short-form video is the fastest-growing engagement format and aligns with fashion content trends (styling videos, unboxings).

Twitter's DPA Collection Ads are a viable complement for retargeting, but Instagram's visual ecosystem and commerce features make it the primary platform for fashion product visibility.

Social Media Marketing is defined as the monitoring and facilitation of customer–customer interaction and participation throughout the web to encourage positive engagement with a company and its brands. These interactions occur on company sites, social networks, and third-party platforms. Unlike traditional marketing, it is participatory and peer-driven, with a focus on user-generated content (UGC) and community dialogue.

Meta Business Suite (accessed at business.facebook.com) is a centralised marketing management platform that integrates Facebook and Instagram under one dashboard. It enables businesses to:

• View and manage notifications and inbox messages across both platforms simultaneously.
• Create, schedule, and publish posts, stories, and ads from a single interface.
• Access unified Insights and analytics to monitor audience growth and content performance.
• Connect an Instagram business account to the same ad infrastructure used for Facebook, allowing cross-platform targeted campaigns.

This integration reduces operational overhead, ensures brand consistency, and enables data-driven decision-making across platforms.

A/B Testing is a controlled experiment where two ad variants are shown to separate, non-overlapping segments of the target audience. The variables tested may include ad images, copy, audience definitions, or placement. Facebook determines a winning variant based on performance metrics (e.g., click-through rate, conversion rate). Critical evaluation: A/B testing is powerful for incremental optimisation but requires sufficient budget and audience size to reach statistical significance. Small campaigns may yield inconclusive results.

Advantage Campaign Budget (formerly Campaign Budget Optimisation) allows a single budget to be set at the campaign level rather than per ad set. Facebook's algorithm dynamically reallocates spend toward higher-performing ad sets in real time. Critical evaluation: This reduces manual management burden and can improve overall ROAS (Return on Ad Spend). However, it can disadvantage newer or smaller ad sets that have not yet accumulated performance data, potentially creating a feedback loop that under-invests in fresh creative. Marketers may therefore need to set ad-set-level spending caps to maintain control.