In the rapidly evolving world of social media trends, platforms, and standards, audience targeting through paid media has become increasingly complex. As privacy laws reshape social advertising, marketers are faced with the challenge of acknowledging demographics and their cultural nuances without resorting to stereotypes while reaching their intended audiences without confining them in a hypothetical “box.”
In our latest Latino Audience Report, we unveil that despite Latinos making up almost 20% of the entire U.S. population, only 6% of total U.S. media spend is going toward this audience. This underserved audience presents a missed opportunity for marketers to serve this community with tailored strategies and messaging.
So how do paid social advertisers reach the Latino audience in new ways?
START WITH THE FRAMEWORK
Whether your goal is to further diversify your current paid media campaigns or to launch a dedicated effort to reach the Latino audience consistently, our recommendation remains the same. Given the inherent variability of each campaign— factors such as product/service, geographic location, interests, and platforms—we recommend starting with a 3-month campaign. This initiative aims to engage the Latino audience with tailored ad messaging and creative.
Within this framework, each month, spotlight one ad with multiple headlines and images to maximize engagement. To ensure sufficient data collection for informed decision-making, we suggest an initial budget of at least $35 per ad, per day for enhanced optimization within your desired platform. This timeframe allows the campaign to run with multiple ad units and be properly tested over the specified duration. The plan is also adaptable depending on your budget, and flight dates can be modified to shorter or longer time frames as needed.
TARGETING STRATEGIES
When building the audience, we suggest keeping these key elements in mind:
- First and foremost, avoid overly segmenting your audience by getting too granular with specifics. You’ll want to keep the audience defined with geographic location, interests and with the language specifically set to Spanish (this is the most important part of the build!) but not too granular that it’s limited in reach.
- Utilize the geographic locations (DMAs, cities, zip codes, etc) and interests that make the most sense for your business and objectives. If this Latino campaign is running in tandem with other campaigns that have similar creative, be sure to avoid audience overlap.
CREATIVE STRATEGIES
Given the minimal targeting, the most important takeaway from these campaigns should be identifying the creative that resonates best with the Latino audience. The results can then be taken and used in new ad campaigns or incorporated into pre-existing campaigns.
For enhanced creative insights, we recommend utilizing multiple headlines, images and copy within your Latino campaign. Additionally, if your target audience includes Spanish speakers, it's essential to ensure that all ad copy is in Spanish and is tailored to be neutral and culturally appropriate for the diverse Latino communities you are targeting.
We have adopted these strategies to reach the Latino audience for our own clients, and below are two approaches demonstrating the effectiveness of these strategies in the following case studies:
CASE STUDIES
WHEN THE AUDIENCE'S LOCATION IS NOT INITIALLY KNOWN
Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau
To reach the Latino audience throughout Atlanta’s Key DMA’s, we deployed the 3-month campaign strategy. Throughout the 3-months, we were able to identify that the Latino audience engaged the most with content related to sports and itineraries of things to do around the city. Additionally, we identified the top demographics of those who interacted most frequently with the content.
These insights informed the integration of Spanish speakers content into a pre-existing year-long campaign originally designed for English speakers. As the ad content now is featured in both Spanish and English, the Discover Atlanta team was able to further diversify their marketing efforts, while identifying content that appeals to both audiences.
WHEN THE AUDIENCE'S LOCATION AND COMMUNITY ARE KNOWN
Visit Santa Barbara
As Visit Santa Barbara already has a specific targeting model utilizing zip codes and various interests to reach their intended audience, our approach to reaching the Latino audience was slightly different but had the same effect. We utilized Santa Barbara’s specific zip codes for geographic targeting, added a Spanish-speaking layer, and ads within this campaign feature copy exclusively in Spanish. Post-campaign, we analyzed insights to identify top-performing content and optimize future campaigns accordingly.
Both of these case studies offer valuable insights for engaging with the Latino audience, whether you're just starting out or fine-tuning your approach. Remember, in the ever-changing world of social media, it's all about experimentation and adaptation.
What's Next
As paid social media platforms and the world evolves, so should your marketing strategy. Marketers have to find new ways to discover and uncover their targeted audience by being open to shorter campaigns that can produce key learnings. Because of this, collaborating with advertising partners who aren’t afraid to test ad content to make more informed, data-driven decisions is key. While these strategies and takeaways provide a solid foundation, crafting a comprehensive campaign is essential for sustaining a meaningful engagement with the Latino audience. That's where we step in. Reach out our team to leverage our expertise and resources for your next campaign.
