Last week, we helped guide you on creating a plan for the final three months of the year to finish a challenging year strong. Now it’s time to begin putting that plan into action. If you’re using social media as part of your marketing strategy, then I highly suggest having an advertising budget.
In the old days (10 years ago :)), you could easily communicate with the audience you’ve built on Facebook just by posting to your page. It’s since become a pay-to-play platform, so understanding the different advertising options can help you properly allocate your budget.
The question I most often receive on this subject is the amount needed to see success. As you can imagine, that’s a tough question to answer since we all range in size, revenue, and industry. That said, I typically say that $300-500 a month for a small business is a good place to start. You can split these funds between a few different ad options and measure your results.
Below are a few examples of the different advertising options Facebook/Instagram offers that we like to use for our clients:
- Post Engagement- this type of ad helps you generate more activity on your posts and helps you get more organic followers quickly by offering them the kinds of posts they’ll see more of if they follow you.
- Offers- these could be discounts, holiday deals, or content-specific offers to promote.
- Lead Generation- this allows you to collect lead information without forcing your audience to leave the Facebook app.
Find out more about Facebook ad types HERE.
Here is another very helpful resource for planning your Facebook ads for the holidays. Keep these in mind to get the best results possible from your campaigns:
- Optimize your website for Facebook ads traffic- the Facebook pixel is key because it allows you to track your campaigns, re-target your warmest leads, and find people similar to your buyers.
- Strategically plan to reach people at different stages of the funnel- For example, if someone visits your website and views a product or service but doesn’t complete the sale, you could start by showing them an ad with an offer of free delivery, 10% discount, etc.
- Test your Facebook audiences and ad creative- take the time to test audiences to understand how best to reach your buyer on Facebook.
Ultimately, for ads to be successful, it requires constant tracking and a lot of trial and error. See what works best for your company – and your audience!
So here are some questions I’d like you to answer:
1. Does it make sense for your business to have a social media ad budget? Should it increase during the holiday season?
2. What goals or objectives would you like to accomplish with social media ads? More likes? Better engagement? New leads?
3. What is a reasonable budget for November and December to test some ad campaigns?
4. How will you measure success? (Grow my email database by ___ %, number of likes, website visits, etc.)
5. Do you have someone in-house to create and run these ads, or do you need external help?
I hope the above content and questions will help guide you in determining if social media ads are right for your Q4 digital strategy and will ensure you get the best bang for your buck. We offer digital advertising as part of our suite of services, so feel free to reply to this email if you’d like more info on how we can work together.
Talk next week!
Corey
