Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is an integral part of the social media strategic equation. Take a look at your annual marketing budget and each item with its cost. You likely have the following: digital, print, email, in-person activations, sponsorships and charities.
How do you decide the spending per category? There are categories you choose to foster a more significant investment in as the year progresses. Take a look at your print and digital advertising plan. The questions arise as to which direction is best, print or digital. How does it compare to the others? If you had to order costs from largest to smallest or vice versa, which appears first, which appears last?
When you invest in print or direct mail, you receive a precise bottom line cost from vendors and companies who help you. With social media, the entire process of value is your choice. You select the cost per click (CPC), the total cost of the ad spend on a campaign and the customer acquisition cost (CAC). Do you see the difference? Print marketing is telling you what to spend, whereas social media is giving you freedom of choice. Think about that one for a minute.
Here is what then happens, you are so familiar with paying and sitting back to have another company take over the plans in print (traditional advertising); however, with social media, you have to go into your account to run the ads. Social media requires your time to learn the tools to create and strategize marketing. You then feel overwhelmed by the creation. The creation of a social media ad is a process to prioritize. Your ad is only as powerful and attention grabbing as your creative mind.
The other component of social media ads is setting the cost. However, do you go about that process? In traditional media, the companies set the price on your behalf. On social media, you are experiencing a free, open marketplace where you can place anywhere from a $10.00 to a $10,000 ad spend on campaigns.
Facilitate your time by setting a nominal cost per month. Equate your social media spend to traditional. I even recommend a higher pay. Honestly, only spending your ad dollars in a social media environment is smart since technology and the smartphone is the power tool today. Start with one campaign for one week; see where you get. Keep in mind; you are now competing for the newsfeed or your prospective client with Fortune 500 companies who are spending $10,000 or $100,000 per month on social media alone. These giant conglomerates are squeezing the space you once had at your lower spend. Have confidence in your strategy and keep it simple. Start on one social platform to familiarize yourself with the service. Then, move forward to the others. Your client is technology savvy, no matter the demographic. Our world is getting more and more convenient.
