Let’s Explore Digital Advertising 2016
In our previous post, we discussed the basics of social media advertising. Also, and primarily how a significant number of entrepreneurs confuse the nature and the immediate return on investment of a well-developed online presence and compelling content marketing pipeline and an online advertising initiative. The two are not the same and, under normal circumstances, do not produce the same results, although they can be complimentary. Establishing a strong online presence and compelling content marketing provides the foundation of your overall digital marketing strategy, and producing a steady stream of good content will “organically” attract an audience over time. This in turn can be funneled back to your website and, hopefully, converted into customers or clients.
Creating a social media advertising campaign can generate an audience for your content much more quickly and efficiently, as said content will be presented to your target market exclusively. But realize it is not a substitute for a strong online presence and compelling content marketing. Before you change your digital marketing strategy or invest a significant amount of resources into a social media advertising campaign, it’s important to determine if such a campaign is a right fit for both you and your business.
The Advantages Of Social Media Advertising
Social media companies are becoming online advertising powerhouses, generating billions of dollars in revenue each year from their advertising services. What makes social media advertising such an attractive option for businesses and organizations, especially small businesses? Larger than life Internet companies like Google and Microsoft and social media networks acquire a significant amount of personal data from their users, most of which is supplied voluntarily through user-create profiles, personal content and search queries. While the vast majority of these companies do not share user data or even their user’s names with advertisers, they allow advertisers to pinpoint a very specific subset of users, often by demographic and geographic information. This in turn allows advertisers to construct advertising campaigns and initiatives in an extremely specific and efficient manner, and often at a cost that is significantly lower than most forms of traditional advertising.
Now For The Disadvantages Of Social Media Advertising
The most obvious disadvantage of social media advertising is that it’s not always the best choice for every industry. The public at large does not utilize social media uniformly, in fact there are subsets of the population that rarely use social media or only use it for relatively limited purposes, such as maintaining contact with a personal circle of friends and family. While a business targeting suburban teenagers may find their social media advertising campaigns to be highly effective, another business targeting less tech-savvy consumers may experience far less success.
It can also be difficult to determine your Return On Investment (ROI), as a boosted post may fail to funnel a significant number of users back to your website due to unengaging or ineffective content marketing, rather than strictly on the merits of the advertising platform itself. Finally, it can be difficult to determine which social media service or platform is the best fit for your business – for instance, Facebook and Twitter are dominant players with enormous and diverse user bases, but your target market may be using a less prominent service, such as LinkedIn or Pinterest. Determining the best platform and service to utilize may be more difficult than you initially believe, costing your small business valuable time, resources and money.