Six Reasons Businesses Need To Advertise On Social Media

It is no longer enough for small businesses to rely solely on organic posts to succeed on social media.

Those days are long gone.

Today, organic post engagements, comments and likes are fast declining.

Social media platform algorithms are changing and limiting the reach of organic posts to only a few people.

So how do you expect your business to reach more people, attract new leads and succeed on social media?

The answer is to advertise.

I know some small business owners would not like to hear this, but the best way to succeed on social media today is by incorporating paid advertising with organic posts.

To further convince you of the need to consider advertising on social media platforms, here are 6 benefits you would get that organic posts would not do for you.

Six Reasons Your Small Business Needs To Advertise On Social Media

1. Increase Brand Reach & Awareness

The algorithms on top social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn have made it super difficult for organic posts to thrive.

This is why running paid adverts on platforms relevant to your small business is important.

Because it allows your business posts and offers to reach more people than organic posts could reach.

It increases brand awareness because through paid adverts on social media, your brand is constantly in the face of target customers.

2. Cost – Effective Way To Advertise

Social media advertising is still the cheapest way to showcase your goods and services to a large audience.

Compared to Radio, TV and Newspaper advertising, it gives your small business a chance to reach a few thousand people at a budget-friendly price.

You could for instance run a 24-hour advert for your small business on Facebook for as low as a thousand Naira (Varies depending on your industry).

Advertising on social media is uniquely cost-effective because the amount spent daily is set by you as your budget allows.

3. Enhanced Audience Targeting

Paid advertising on any of the top social media platforms gives you the power to target your audience to ensure that only target customers can see them.

For instance, if you are a Baker in Enugu, you could run an advert that targets women in Enugu who love cake between the ages of 25 – 40.

Or on LinkedIn, you could target professionals by their roles, location, industry, etc.

This is another advantage an organic social media strategy can not offer your business.

4. Measurable Returns On Investment

When you advertise your small business on TV or Radio or Newspaper, you would never get an idea of the number of people it reached, or how well it performed.

You just make a lot of assumptions and go your way.

But with social media adverts, you would be getting data, and insights per advert and campaign.

From the number of people it reached, the demographic of people it reached, how they interacted with it, and whether you achieved your objectives for advertising.

Such information is important to optimize your marketing spend, and help you improve and be in a better position to reach more customers.

5. Audience Retargeting

Another advantage of paid advertising on social media is that it allows you to tailor your adverts to follow up on customers that watched your videos, visited your website, abandoned a cart on your eCommerce store and more.

Retargeting helps your small business target a specific subset of your target audience that took an action like abandoned a cart and create an advert that fits their stage on your sales funnel to ensure that more of your customers convert.

It is such a powerful tool, that unfortunately many small businesses are not taking advantage of because they are not advertising on social media.