The Power of Social Advertising for Small Businesses

Almost every type of business can benefit from building a social media presence. It’s not just for media companies and large, national enterprises – local retailers and service providers like HVAC and plumbing benefit from creating a social media presence and using it to engage with local customers.

Consumers use social media to discover new businesses, read reviews, and find up-to-date information, among other services. But while building an organic social media presence is a great first step, social advertising can be a cost-effective, high-value option for extending your brand’s reach and engaging your customer base in a more direct way.

Curious how social ads deliver results for small businesses? Here are some of the big benefits that come with social advertising.

MAXIMIZING YOUR CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

No matter what kind of business you run, social media is where your customers are spending their time. More than half of all Americans check social media several times every day. When they do, they tend to be more engaged with the content they come across, which means that ad clicks from your target audience tend to receive high levels of engagement.

As a small business, it makes sense to place advertisements in places where they’re going to get the best engagement possible. While it’s still up to the advertiser to craft a compelling message and engage the right customer segment, the channels you choose can have a big impact on the end results.

Given the role social media plays in day-to-day life for most Americans, it makes sense to meet your customers where they’re at—especially when social ad targeting makes it so easy to find them.

HARNESS UNMATCHED TARGETING CAPABILITIES

One of the strengths of social media is the large active user bases for each of these platforms. Facebook alone claims nearly 2.5 billion monthly active users—almost one-third of the entire world. The sheer size of that audience gives Facebook’s advertising platform the ability to target and refine an audience in a way that no other advertising platform can.

Even if your business is targeting a niche audience, you’ll be able to find that audience through social media advertising. The targeting and filtering capabilities give small business owners the ability to carefully define their target audience based on any number of characteristics or data points of their choosing. This includes zip code-level geographic information and basic demographic data, but also social media behaviors, stated hobbies and interests, and audience targeting based on the friends, connections, and follows for any individual user.

Want to target a local audience that follows your competitors on social media? No problem. In fact, that’s just the start of social media’s targeting capabilities.

OPTIMIZED SPENDING, REAL-TIME FEEDBACK

Social media advertising is in high demand, but it isn’t limited by rigid ad inventories. In addition to making ad campaigns more customized and targeted to individuals, this also allows social media to offer much more cost-effective advertising, which means advertisers can choose an ad volume that works for them.

As these ad campaigns are launched, real-time performance data can offer insight into your campaign’s success. If your campaign is significantly underperforming your expectations, you can easily pause a campaign and review its details to determine whether an error has been made in the targeting, messaging, or other aspects of your campaign. Thanks to this real-time feedback and easy ad management capabilities, advertisers are able to optimize their spending on social media, maximizing their potential returns.

Social isn’t just a channel for engagement—it’s also a channel for relevance. Want to position your business as the best solution to your customers’ needs? If so, you need to make social media a priority in your ad strategy.

Need some help getting started with social or creating your overall advertising mix? Working with the right advertising partner can help.