Of the various aspects of marketing I address, one topic that typically yields the most questions is social media. As someone who works with clients who have a limited budget for advertising at first, I focus on building a strong foundation of organic community management in order to grow reach and brand awareness. However, the pressure to advertise on different social platforms is one that a lot of small businesses feel. So, if you are evaluating this for your business, let’s address the value of low-budget advertising and boosting posts on social media.
The main message I want to get across is that boosting posts or advertising is only as good as the next action you encourage your audience to take.
Boosting posts or #advertising is only as good as the next action you encourage your audience to take. #business #smallbiz #smallbusiness Share on XSome business marketers tell me that they throw an extra $5 or $10 at posts here and there to get more reach. They consistently arrive at a conclusion (that I am not sure how they got to) that “it’s better than nothing.” This blanket statement isn’t necessarily true. I say that it’s best to use the $5 or $10 most efficiently.
In some cases, these marketers are putting that advertising budget into posts that have no direct call to action or clear next step for the audience. Although I am a believer that we need to limit the percentage of overt sales posts we do within our social media strategy, the time to make strong calls to action is when you are paying to advertise. Have a plan for what you want the audience to do next and assert it. You are paying because you want results, but how can you get results if there is no result to measure?
The time to make strong calls to action is when you are paying to advertise. #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz #biztips #microbusiness #entrepreneur Share on XIn a perfect world, your next step would be to get them to a lead magnet or somewhere they can sign up or show up and identify themselves. In a less perfect world, you get them to content on your website that will allow them to circulate there and get to know your business. But when you advertise and send them nowhere, you leave no room for generating meaningful leads from the audience you are paying to reach.
Of course, it is possible to argue my point saying that any extra reach is good for brand awareness. It’s true, brand awareness is lovely. However, this is not the most efficient use of your money, and if you are minding your budget you are probably looking for efficiency.
Another reason that this approach is not an efficient use of money is that many platforms – especially Facebook – get smarter as your budget increases. Why is that? As your advertising budget is spent and the platform starts to reach more people with your ad, the platform gets information about who is responding. When people begin to engage and click, the platform can start to assess who those people are and target more people like them.
The more information the platform holds about your ideal targeted audience, the better it can serve you. If you are only throwing in a little budget here and there, you are stopping the ad before it can be targeted correctly. For marketers who are intentionally running bigger ad campaigns, they usually start to see better results with budgets in the several hundred to the thousand dollar range.
So, is boosting posts or lower-budget advertising right for you? Remember the first point: It’s all about what you are trying to promote.
Let’s reframe this and think about magazines as the platform instead. If you were going to be featured in an article, how would that be written? It would probably be positioned as a story, with enticing or relatable details about you or your business. That is similar to the function of a standard social media post meant to generate conversation. On the other hand, if you flip through the magazine and see ads, what is their positioning? They are putting the focus on the product or service and giving you a way to follow through with your interest. It’s the same for ads on social media.
There is a time and a place for each of these approaches, and it is up to you to strike the right balance. But advertising should be something you do intentionally and with a purpose in mind – not just paying a little extra so you can get more eyes on content that doesn’t play a significant role in pushing people further into your pipeline.
Advertising should be something you do intentionally and with a purpose in mind. #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz #microbusiness #entrepreneur Share on XDon’t get me wrong. Advertising can be a great thing to do! All I am saying is, advertise responsibly. Just because you spent an extra $10 and more people saw it doesn’t mean your money was spent efficiently.