Social Media Success Stories to Inspire Your Next Campaign

Social media channels are among the most popular avenues for brands and companies to connect with their target audience, whether they’re promoting products and services or sharing any type of message. These platforms offer marketers and business owners a range of formats and options to craft a personalized experience that aligns with their brand and meets the preferences of their customers.

However, creating successful social media campaigns is not something simple, nor something you can do from day to night. It requires strategic planning, knowledge, and many other skills that define your campaign’s success and whether you develop engaging content or not.

Looking for inspiration for your next social media marketing campaigns? We’re here to help with that. Here, we will show you a series of examples that will help generate insights and ideas on what you can do for your next social media campaign to catch the audience’s attention and produce eye-catching and creative content. 

Make sure to look at each example to see how they relate to your business and how they can help take your company’s marketing department to the next level. Here’s everything you need for a successful campaign:

Why Social Media Presence Is Important

Featuring social channels is not only something companies do to have more options when advertising their goods and services. This is an essential part of any business that wants to grow, both in the online environment and locally.

Social media has been growing a lot in the past years, and according to SmartInsights, at the beginning of 2024, the internet registered over 4.7 billion active social media users. This shows how present these spaces are in everyone’s life, whether through videos on YouTube, social media posts on Instagram, or anywhere else.

If you want your business to reach the largest audience possible and create campaigns that generate tons of new leads and potential customers, social posts are the way to do that. Not only that, but investing in a social platform also helps you do a competitive analysis of your industry and work on content creation that takes you a step further when compared to other companies. There are several reasons why a social campaign can help communicate your brand values and generate more engagement between clients and your products. 

Paid Social vs. Paid Search

One of the most common mistakes when creating paid content on social media is thinking that it is the same as sponsored content on Google Ads or any other search engine. There are critical differences between them, and knowing these aspects is essential to ensure quality campaign content that matches your objectives and helps you reach successful results.

One of the critical differences between them is that, on paid social, you go after the prospective customers It can be done whether through ads based on what they’re looking for or any other kind of strategy that helps you connect with users who are interested in what you sell. On the other hand, paid search works by defining specific keywords and terms for your content. This way, the customer goes after you by typing what they want to find.

For example, if you sell clothes online, when doing a paid search, you’ll bid on keywords that customers would most likely type when looking for what you sell. These could be “shirt,” “sneakers,” or anything like that. That said, when they look for the product, they will find your company. But when doing paid social, you’ll invest in ads for users who are likely to purchase from your brand based on their online behavior.

What to Pay Attention to When Doing Social Media Content

Several aspects are involved in advertising a business online, but some items are more important than others. Whether when it comes to small businesses or large companies, having a well-structured social media strategy helps inject personality into your actions and develop more efficient strategies, whether when promoting content or sending direct messages to your customers. 

Here are the main items you should pay attention to if you want to stay organized as a company and effectively reach your audience through social media ads.

Brand Voice

Discovering your brand’s voice can be a journey that takes time and several iterations, yet it’s also a crucial aspect of any campaign. It revolves around how you communicate with your audience, whether through text ads or any other form of post.

Some brands would rather have more professional and straightforward communications, like lawyers. On the other hand, for specific industries and companies, having more friendly and humorous communication might be a better option, which is the case for video game businesses, which usually communicate to younger audiences.

If you seek success advertising your products and services online, creating a solid brand voice that is constant throughout all your content is indispensable. This doesn’t mean you must develop unique ways to speak with your customers. Still, the communication has to align with your objectives and match who you’re advertising to.

Analyzing your customers and leads is the best way to create a tailored voice for your brand. Understanding their profile and online behavior will show you what kind of language and tone speaks to them.

Successful Brand Voice Creation

One of the most renowned companies when it comes to brand voice is Airbnb. Their entire language and online behavior revolve around provoking the users’ emotions and identification. The way they communicate their campaigns aims to create identification and belonging to those watching or reading, whether a video or a simple Twitter post.

One of their most famous campaigns is the “Belong Anywhere” case. A collection of assets and actions revolving around the sense of belonging to where you are at the moment and how Airbnb can help create this sense through their services, connecting hosts and guests who want to explore the world and find their place. 

It is an inspiring example of how powerful finding your own voice can be. It is aligned with the objectives and values of the business, being one of the best social media campaigns of the last few years. If you want to learn more about this case and how “Belong Anywhere” was created, you can read Medium’s analysis of the idea and why it made such a strong connection between the brand and its users.

Choose the Right Platform

One of the biggest benefits of creating a social media marketing strategy is having an infinity of platforms to choose from. Sometimes, you can even select multiple ones and work simultaneously to reach even more users. Everything will depend on your strategy.

But along with this benefit comes a common problem: not knowing which one to pick.

Choosing the wrong platform to advertise your business can significantly impact the performance and return on investment you’ll obtain. Knowing the best option for you will depend on a series of factors, but mainly the type of campaign you want to develop and where your audience is located.

For example, if you’re communicating with a younger audience, investing in TikTok Ads might be a good alternative since a large part of your audience probably uses the platform. On the other hand, if you’re an insurance company, this might not be the best option, and Facebook Ads might be better.

Successful Platform Pick

Here’s a good example of using paid TikTok ads to create content that matches the audience and drives engagement and clicks to your landing page. Zoomerang is a video edition and creation app dedicated to vertical platforms, like TikTok and reels, so there’s no better place to advertise than in the platform itself.

Along with that, it also uses the platform’s characteristics in its favor. TikTok is known for its quick videos and fast scrolling, so the company uses that short time to advertise the advantages of its app and that editing using it is as fast as watching the ad. It also tells the user its interface is easy to use, and anyone can edit even if they’re not experts.

It’s a great example of how paid ads can be very effective when you select the right platform. Their website is also full of short videos and other assets, being a great landing page that gathers more clicks and interactions thanks to its optimization and looks.

Assets Quality

Creating eye-catching images, videos, illustrations, or any kind of asset is one of the best ways to increase the number of clicks on your ads and, consequently, the return on investment it will bring. It is always a good rule to feature good-looking images or videos on your social media feeds, especially if you want to increase the click-through rate of your campaigns.

Investing in a third-party artist might generate extra costs for the campaign, but the results will definitely compensate for the initial investment.

Quality doesn’t relate only to the resolution of your image or how pretty the style is. It also regards how you organize the information and what message you communicate with them. It is always a good idea to show actual pictures of the product when possible and use these assets also to show the customers the advantages of acquiring your product. 

Doing this is vital in the decision-making process and can be a decisive factor whether they visit your website or not. Make sure to keep this in mind when doing social media ads.

Pro Tip: If you’re doing Reels for Instagram, make sure to render your videos in 1080p. When you render them in 4K, the platform will downgrade its quality by converting them to 1080p. Due to that, your video gets a smaller file size and looks better since it was not compressed automatically. Make sure to always take a look at the formats and sizes of each platform to create the most optimized assets.

Successful Asset Creation

If there’s a brand that should be followed when creating assets, it is Adidas. The company is famous for creating simple yet very effective images and videos for its campaigns through social media. 

For the “Impossible Is Nothing” campaign, the brand posted pictures of athletes wearing Adidas clothing and equipment in numerous sports. All assets have clean and straightforward communication. Each picture comprises three main elements: the high-quality photo, the logo from the company, and the “Impossible Is Nothing” phrase. 

With this, Adidas created one of the most successful campaigns of the last few years in the sports world and gathered millions of clicks throughout the different platforms where it was advertised. The investment in paid social media was worth it, and it was commented on by people worldwide, which generated successful metrics on every social media post.

According to Medium, Adidas reached a whopping number of 1.3 billion video views throughout the different platforms where it was shared. Not only that, but the company also registered over 18 million social engagements, whether through comments, shares, or other actions.

If you liked the campaign, you can also visit Adidas’ Blog and check out their article on Impossible Is Nothing and the main objectives of the campaign.

Other Successful Social Media Stories

We showed you some successful stories directly related to specific aspects of quality social media campaigns, but there are dozens of others to explore and get inspiration from. Here, we will show you some other successful social media campaigns that truly guide you in creating quality content that helps take your business to the next level. These stories have numerous valuable lessons on achieving marketing success and creating content aimed at your company’s and target audience’s pain points.

Spotify Wrapped

You know it’s a successful story when the first attempt is an absolute blast, and the company keeps doing it yearly. This is the case with Spotify Wrapped. 

Instead of using other social media platforms to create marketing actions, they use their own app to create a fun experience for the users that will organically be shared throughout the different channels. This way, they spread their content throughout these spaces without necessarily investing in paid social actions.

Wrapped is a retrospective inside the app that shows you data regarding how you used the app throughout the year. It shows information such as your most played artists, the genres you spend time listening to, and many other fun things.

With this, the brand can promote awareness about its available services and artists and engage in user-generated content. This generated a tradition where every year, the platform’s millions of users wait for the wrapped season, during which they’ll see what they most listened to and share the results on their social media accounts.

According to Spotify, in 2023, over half a billion users did their Spotify wrapped showcase to check out their main statistics. This shows how successful the campaign was and how effective a creative idea can be, no matter if it’s complex or as simple as a retrospective.

#ShotOniPhone

Another clever idea for user-generated content is Apple’s campaign “Shot on iPhone.” It consisted of professional pictures taken using an iPhone instead of a professional camera. The idea of the campaign was to show the quality of the phone and that it could easily substitute your professional equipment for doing any kind of photo.

The campaign was posted both through paid ads and organic posts. Apple used Meta Ads, Twitter Ads, and many other platforms to reach a large audience, especially iPhone users. Along with that, the hashtag ShotOniPhone was already created so those with the equipment could share pictures taken using it. This way, their users started developing content for the campaign and spreading brand awareness throughout the platforms. 

According to TheBrandHopper, the campaign generated over 70 million interactions, including pictures posted, comments, shares, and many other forms of engagement. This shows how powerful a simple idea can be and that you don’t need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars producing a video or anything like that.

This directly impacted the company’s sales and gathered numerous followers for their profiles. This is the perfect example of how to identify an opportunity to mix organic and paid content that encourages user engagement and participation.

Real Beauty

Dove’s Real Beauty campaign is always an interesting case to study, mainly thanks to its simplicity. As the name suggests, the main focus of Dove is to show women’s beauty beyond Instagram filters or makeup. It is also something recurrent for the brand; they have already done multiple actions related to this topic. Dove wants to show that we don’t need numerous Instagram filters, effects, or anything like that to look good. What people consider “imperfections” are also beautiful characteristics and part of our identity. 

The main asset of their campaigns is always a well-produced video shared throughout the different social media platforms where the brand is present. Real Beauty is a true digital marketing success story that granted the company a lot of brand awareness and numerous prizes in the industry, including several Lions in Cannes.

Real Beauty has become a standard in Dove’s history and it doesn’t have only one version. Throughout the years, the company has launched numerous actions under the same name. As for its results, Strixus says that Real Beauty was responsible for increasing Dove’s revenue by 10%, directly impacting the company’s financial performance and granting a huge return on the investment.

Duolingo’s Adoption Center

We all love the green bird and its creative campaigns, and this is the perfect example of why. When we think of social proof and quality marketing actions, there is no doubt that Duolingo’s social media team rules.

The Adoption Center was a campaign shared through numerous platforms to promote their new family membership program, where you could have multiple accounts with premium plans and get a discount by doing that. The idea was to show that learning a new language with other family members or friends supporting you brings numerous benefits and increases your chances of not giving up on these studies.

The adoption center campaign featured numerous pieces of art containing the app’s main characters and texts talking about these innumerable benefits. It includes a good call to action and shows how the membership can help you stay focused and learn the new language faster than all by yourself.

It aligns paid posts with creative construction based on some of the main pain points of the community to create a campaign that encourages people to keep studying and gathers more students to learn along with them.

The campaign gathered millions of impressions and video views along the platform. It also drastically increased the number of premium members in the app since the first week of the campaign, being one of the best brand success stories of the last few years.

Harvard Business Review: Special Coverage – Coronavirus

Harvard is not the type of company that is constantly involved in mainstream campaigns and actions to appear on trending topics. Still, the Business Review department made a brilliant move that granted the university a lot of attention. The best part is that they did that on a platform that most people often forget has social media purposes: LinkedIn.

During the pandemic, it was challenging for businesses and entrepreneurs to keep up with the problems, and the population was constantly fed with fake news all over social media. Due to these problems, Harvard Business Review decided to do its part in this fight and help people through helpful information and tips regarding the virus.

It’s a successful story of how helping people with simple actions can grant excellent visibility to your business and generate massive engagement. The campaign used LinkedIn ads and organic posts to keep people informed, which resulted in very positive numbers for the company, including many followers on LinkedIn.

We know the platform is not the one with the largest number of interactions, comments, or likes, but this didn’t prevent Harvard from getting over a million impressions throughout the multiple posts and more than ten thousand likes from members of the social media platform. It might not look like a lot, but for LinkedIn, this is actually a pretty big number. Remember that the objective was to inform people about the pandemic and spread helpful information.

Want to Write Your Own Successful Story?

Developing successful campaigns that take your business to the next level is not easy and takes time, but it is also not impossible. Everything needs to be carefully planned and aligned with multiple aspects, such as the target audience and the message you want to spread among your followers. 

The best way to do that is by partnering with a professional marketing agency to develop campaigns aiming directly at your objective. Having an experienced marketing team that analyzes your actions and helps you design the best actions based on your goals can bring numerous benefits in the most optimized time.

The GamerSEO team has the best professionals on the market with years of experience in turning dreams into reality. Whether you’re looking for quality social media services or a complete PPC campaign, we have everything you need to take your company further.

We ensure the best results and campaign development, aiming directly at your objectives. Join us, and let’s create quality marketing together.

Time to Start Your Social Media Efforts

Social media marketing has become ubiquitous across all industries, with companies dedicating significant time and resources to crafting attention-grabbing campaigns aimed at propelling their businesses forward. Some campaigns have the power to resonate with diverse audiences, becoming success stories that inspire other business owners and marketers to launch their initiatives. Whether through emotional connections or creative concepts that foster engagement between users and the brand, there are numerous strategies to elevate brand awareness and ensure your brand stays top of mind.

We showed you some of the most inspiring success stories, but there are numerous others to find out. Make sure to look at each one and see how their lessons can be applied to your company.

Read also about 5 Inspiring Marketing Success Stories That’ll Change Your Brand.

Now, it’s time to start developing your social media activities. Don’t forget that hiring a professional company can be the best way to achieve the desired results in the most optimized period.