Social media is a major part of most people’s lives and 80% of consumers expect businesses to have a social media presence. So, if your business, large or small, isn’t maximising the benefits of social media advertising, you’re probably missing out.
This guide will explore some of the biggest social media advertising benefits and how small businesses can boost their social strategies. By providing some tips of the trade to help you improve brand engagement, we’ll enable you to grow your business and become the ‘bee’s knees’ online.
Skip to:
- The differences between organic and paid social media advertising
- 11 benefits of social media advertising
- Final thoughts
The differences between organic and paid social media advertising
Before jumping into some advertising on social media benefits, it’s important to understand the differences between organic and paid social media marketing. Let’s start with organic methods.
Organic social media advertising
Organic social media advertising utilises free content and no paid ads. Instead, you’ll post regular, helpful, engaging content that appeals to your audience, usually as part of a long-term strategy.
A key focus of organic social media advertising is learning which social media content converts best. This helps you establish yourself as a thought leader and build your brand on your chosen social platforms.
Patience is important with organic marketing and learning which content works best for your audience will probably take some trial and error. However, once you’ve found that sweet spot, your socials will be ‘buzzing’ with engagement.
Paid social media advertising
Paid social media advertising gets your content in front of users, even if they don’t like or follow your profile. You can pay for ads on all major social media platforms, from Facebook (now Meta) to Instagram, Twitter (now X), TikTok, and LinkedIn, and each has its own set of benefits and drawbacks depending on your business and goals.
One of the key benefits of paid social media ads is the fantastic user targeting options that allow you to drill down on specific demographics, behaviours, and interests. They also help you capture people’s attention quickly and set up campaigns relatively simply, and they’re great for time-specific campaigns with a clear objective of selling a product or service or promoting an event.
Discount codes and other promotions can also benefit from paid ads, and they can help you attract the attention of lots of potential customers in a short period. However, a combination of organic and paid social media advertising is advised for small businesses looking for long-term, sustainable growth.
11 Benefits of Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is a must-have for small businesses and helps you promote your business locally. Let’s look at some of the key advertising on social media benefits and how you can implement them.
1. Increase brand awareness
Brand awareness is how familiar people are with your business and it’s a key benefit of advertising on social media, helping you find new leads and higher conversion rates. More brand awareness also helps you gain the trust of your customers and get ahead of your competition.
Instil some personality into your social media posts to boost brand awareness online and establish your brand’s identity. You should also keep your business branding consistent on each platform, so your brand is instantly recognisable, and regularly share unique insights on industry trends and news.
All of this helps you stick in the minds of consumers and helps them attach an identity to your organisation.
2. Access detailed analytics
Analytics are the cornerstone of business growth and a marketer’s dream. Social media analytics are particularly powerful and can show you which posts work best, and which aren’t cutting the mustard with your audience. You can then optimise campaigns to be more successful based on the information you uncover.
In addition to teaching you more about your audience, social media analytics can help you learn which platforms your content performs best on. With detailed tracking and monitoring, you can assess engagement and focus your energy on the better-performing platforms. On the flip side, you can also use analytics to do more with underperforming social media platforms and reach new demographics.
3. Improve your SEO strategy
SEO and social media work together and the pair go hand-in-hand for boosting engagement. Backlinks, for example, can be achieved by sharing website content on your social platforms, driving website traffic. These kinds of backlinks have limited SEO value, however, but they can increase the visibility of your pages to users and search engine bots.
Social media profiles can rank for search terms, too, so if you have some keywords or phrases you’re trying to rank for online, you aren’t limited to website content. That’s why it’s important to incorporate social media into your SEO strategy and because the two are interlinked, you can rank highly for the same keywords on different platforms.
4. A cost-effective marketing option
Organic social media advertising is technically free, and while this isn’t the case for paid ads, they’re usually more cost-effective than traditional marketing techniques. This is because most social media advertising is either PPC (pay-per-click) or PPV (pay-per-view), so you only pay when people click or see your posts.
Realistically, all forms of social media marketing have costs, be it from scheduling tools, content creation software, outsourcing your requirements, or a combination of the three.
All in all, paid ads are a massive benefit of advertising on social media. They help you keep costs down, reach your target audience, and find quick engagement on social media platforms. They also allow for detailed tracking and analytics, making them a no-brainer for small businesses looking to make their mark without breaking the bank.
5. Engage with your audience
Social media advertising allows businesses to post about their services and interact with customers in real-time. As well as replying to comments on posts and adding your two cents about industry news, you can also use social media to respond to customer messages and deal with complaints or issues. This is more important than ever in a world where 63% of consumers expect brands to offer support via social media.
Influencers are another popular marketing method for small businesses and since social media is their playground, they can help you reach your target audience. On top of building your reputation with content on your social media channels, you can piggyback on their often-massive reach by having them post content on theirs, as long as they’re relevant to your industry.
In addition to the above, social media contests, hashtags, and giveaways can work wonders and give you the edge online, helping you engage your target audience and express your personality as a brand.
6. Social media can be outsourced
Starting and running a small business is time-consuming and many owners don’t have the resources to handle social media management in-house. Fortunately, social media outsourcing is increasingly popular and can yield fantastic results with the right company.
Helping you reach more customers without the legwork, outsourcing is a major benefit of advertising on social media, and it enables you to increase enquiries without any additional effort.
At WebHummel, we have years of social media marketing experience and can help you thrive online. From planning content to implementation, we also offer free social media ad spend deals with each of our social media packages.
7. Build brand loyalty
By interacting with customers on a platform they use daily, like Facebook, you can create a lasting bond with them and garner brand loyalty. This will help you increase customer acquisition and retention and grow your business.
There are several techniques to use on social media to boost loyalty. For example, you can showcase your expertise with customer testimonials and case studies and interact with customers via messages or comment sections to help them feel connected to your brand. These connections are more likely to build relationships and ultimately, more loyalty.
8. Share content quickly
Traditional SEO can take a while to gain traction, but a huge benefit of social media advertising is that your shared content can be seen instantly. This can boost your digital presence and establish your business as a thought leader because people can find the latest news from your social media pages.
You can also attract real-time feedback on your campaigns which can help you evaluate them more effectively. People are quick to say what they don’t like, especially on social media, and if an image or piece of copy is rubbing customers up the wrong way, you can quickly hit the edit button to improve performance.
9. Encourage recommendations
According to Lyfe Marketing, 71% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand to friends or family if they’ve had a positive experience with it on social media. Positive experiences can be anything from replying to customer concerns and queries, interacting with people on public posts, or even something as small as reacting to comments.
Any of these can help you develop relationships with your customers and thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations, enable you to reach more people.
10. Learn more about your competition
If competitors in your industry are outperforming you but you don’t know why, head to their social media pages. Examine the kinds of content they post, which content is the most successful, and how they position themselves in your industry to figure out their success.
You can also establish the trends they’re capitalising on, areas they’re falling short in, and which platforms they use most effectively. Competitor research on social media can also help you learn when to post and which keyword searches to try and rank for.
There’s a lot to learn from doing a bit of digging and you don’t have to pay for expensive tools to see where your competitors are thriving because lots of information is readily available in the form of likes and comments. This is another major benefit of social media advertising as it’s free and effective.
11. Increase website traffic and business leads
Increasing website traffic is the goal of most marketing campaigns and social media advertising can help your business achieve it. By playing around with different social media ad types and platforms, you can see what’s the most effective and what doesn’t resonate with your target demographic. Then, you can alter your strategy and create a winning formula for your brand.
For example, if an image ad campaign on Facebook is more popular than a video ad campaign, you can run additional image ads to drive traffic and website sales. This can be applied to any and all social media content and ads, from Snapchat lenses to TikTok effects, Instagram live streams, and more.
12. Remarketing possibilities
Remarketing is the process of targeting previous customers or website visitors with further interactions. The goal of remarketing is to engage positively with potential leads and achieve more sales.
Remarketing can take multiple forms online. You can target people who abandoned their cart on your website, bought products in the past, or have interacted with discount codes and links, for example.
In the world of social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest offer social media pixels which allow you to gather data about how people engage with your socials and website. Using pixels, you can analyse consumer behaviours and target individuals and groups with relevant social media ads that capture their attention.
13. Collaborate and build partnerships
Another benefit of social media advertising is the ability to connect with customers in communities in Facebook Groups, which have over 1.8 billion monthly users. Of course, you must only post in groups that are relevant to your industry and avoid spammy content that will put people off.
Social media also enables you to engage with other businesses, and LinkedIn offers the chance to interact with thought leaders in your industry and collaborate with them online. Collaborations might come in the form of guest articles, podcasts, or video Q&As, all of which can be shared on LinkedIn, your other social platforms, and your website.
Advertising on Social Media Benefits – Final Thoughts
The benefits of social media advertising are abundant and small businesses can implement lots of techniques to improve their digital presence. Helping you boost brand engagement and loyalty, learn more about your customers, and more, social media advertising could be the key to sustainable business growth as a small business.
For help with your social media advertising, no matter the size of your business, give our experts a ‘buzz’ at 01904 373 069 or email beefoundonline@webhummel.co.uk.
