Why Social Media Advertising is Worth Your Marketing Dollars
Advertisers and marketers around the world have had to shift their perspectives and strategies drastically since the dawn of social media. In its early days, it was considered a novel way for people to connect and stay in touch. Forward-thinking marketers paved the way for what a social business account should look like, but most people failed to capitalize on it. Within a few short years, however, social media advertising became a vital part of the marketing mix of competitive companies. Skeptical marketing pros asked why they would pull dollars from traditional media to invest in this new format. Here are some of the major reasons why that is precisely what you need to do.
You Can Micro-Target Your Audience
Regardless of the specific platform, social media has broad reach that any advertiser would covet. It simply hits people who are not reliable television watchers, radio listeners, or newspaper readers. Beyond that, its key feature is its ability to hit incredibly specific demographics. Whether your business has a digital marketing company deploying an aggressive social strategy for you, or if you’re a CEO/CMO/Social lead/Army of one doing it all yourself, you can capitalize on this feature. The ad buying interfaces in Facebook and Twitter especially allow you to customize and save audiences based on demographic info like gender, income level, interests, and geographic location.
Hopefully, key stakeholders in your company have a clear picture of who your core and target audiences are. If so, it’s very easy to serve them social ads. Ad buying in traditional media is nowhere near this precise. Traditional media outlets can provide broad demographic information about their audiences, but not with the kind of accuracy social platforms have at their fingertips.
You Can Customize and Schedule to Hit Nearly Any Budget
Social media ad buying tools also allow you to build and automate your schedule. The practical ramifications of this are obvious; you can set up your creative days, weeks, or months in advance and schedule it to appear without lifting a finger in real time. This is especially helpful for savvy marketers who have studied social media usage trends for their target audience. Not only will this help them decide which platform or platforms to focus their attention on, it will also tell them what days of the week and times of the day their potential customers are using them.
Once you have set up your accounts with major social platforms, you are essentially in control. Technical support is available, but unlike traditional media, account executives with quotas and commission goals will not try to steer you towards certain products or upsell you. Whether you have a $200 or $200,000 budget, you’re in control. Obviously, more money will increase your reach and frequency, but if you’re working on a small budget, you may find success by buying smarter than spending more. Laser-focus on specific core demos and send them ads at relevant time, and you’ll hit the right targets.
The Backend Analytics Are Invaluable
What makes an advertising campaign successful? The most obvious answer is that a successful campaign results in increased traffic or revenue. At least, those were the most popular metrics used for traditional media campaigns. In the digital age, it is possible to dive much deeper. In fact, it’s not only possible, but that information comes free when you place a social media ad buy. You will be able to see how many people watched a video ad to its completion, or what the click-through rate on a call to action spot was. You’ll see, in nearly real time, how people are reacting to your ads. Over time, you will see trends emerge that may inform ways to adjust your messaging and creative. In short, you see what works and what doesn’t in a way that used to require tens of thousands of dollars of research.
Good, bad, or indifferent, social media has firmly planted itself into consumer’s psyches. Marketers ignore it at their peril. Hopefully these points have shown you the importance of including it in your media mix.
