Shifting marketing dollars: Digital advertising for growing business

An eMarketer study published June 2012 found marketers allocate less than 20% of their ad budget for social media. The principle discrepancy— especially for small business— may be a lack of confidence in social media’s ROI. Small businesses, in particular, seem uncertain about allocating advertising dollars for digital and social media, and whether or not the investment is a smart move. With leaner budgets, less online presence, and a localized consumer, the idea of “playing with the big boys” on the field of SM marketing seems a bit daunting. Truth is: the size of your business is relatively irrelevant. Large and small companies can win with social media commerce.

Going social with your marketing strategy is not just about rethinking where your ads will be or how much they’ll cost – it’s about what they’ll do. Marketing on social media channels like Facebook allow for list-generation— not only reaching consumers, but establishing a relationship with them. Facebook allows a business to build a community, and with the right tools, to collect a database for remarketing.

Why not Google? While Google still has a far greater market share than Facebook, there are certain pitfalls of advertising with the search engine behemoth. For one, Facebook offers a lower degree of competition when it comes to fighting for keywords and search-result priority. What’s more, Google doesn’t offer the casual internet user the comfort that Facebook does. Google is not as personalized, so advertisements tend to seem intrusive. Facebook is the consumer’s space, not yours, so the presence of a business there is far less invasive.

The cost of Facebook advertising is the most appealing factor for small businesses. Ads can cost less than ten dollars a day, pay-per-click can cost as little as a penny, and advertisers can set caps, constraints, and limitations on how much they’re willing to spend by the day, month, or lifetime of their campaign.

Facebook is not the only outlet for a business’ social media advertising budget. Among options, Twitter now has double the mobile revenue of Facebook. While Facebook still has a much larger market share, Twitter’s present and projected growth are giving Facebook a run for the money.