Social is no longer just the place to get news, to stay in touch with friends and family and meet new people. It’s also the place where a significant amount of business communications and transactions are happening. Used strategically, brands can make a lot of headway with consumers via social media. Businesses that understand this are capitalizing on social media channels to connect with the millions of existing and potential customers out there. If as a business you are monetizing the social media audience through target marketing, you are a step ahead. Social ads are affordable, effective and they have become the way to go with brand promotion.
The goals for social media advertising
45% of social media advertisers aim to increase brand awareness, 16% gun for a direct response through increased traffic and 25% target both. It is projected that advertisers will put down a cool $8.3 billion for social media advertising in 2015. Platforms social advertisers use are:
- 92% Facebook
- 35% YouTube
- 24% LinkedIn
- 23% Twitter
Predictions indicate that advertising on social media platforms will make up 19.5% of the total marketing budget by 2017. According to Go-Gulf, the estimated revenue from global social network for 2012, 2013 and 2014 were $7.72 billion, $10.24 billion and $11.87 billion respectively.
A number of top global companies contributed to the making of the large social media advertising revenue pie in 2012. At the top was AT&T who spent $12.9 billion to advertise on various social media platforms followed by Microsoft who put down $4 billion. Other top spenders were JustFab, Disney, IAC, State Farm, Amazon, Weight Watchers, University Technical Institute and Netflix.
Most businesses will use various platforms in order to reach a wider audience. The average social media advertising budget breakdown will see the following:
- 57% Facebook
- 2% Pinterest
- 13% YouTube
- 13% Twitter
- 15% other social media platforms
Research has established that 70% of marketers use Facebook to attract the attention of new customers. It is a strategy that is effective because it has also been found that 47% of Americans put down Facebook as the social media platform that has the most influence on the decisions that they make about what to buy.
