Why & When To Advertise on Social Media

If you’ve come across our blog, you probably don’t need convincing as to why advertising on social
media can effectively elevate your business. However, we still encourage you to listen to this lesson as
advertising efforts that quote unquote “Don’t work” will inevitably happen as you start the journey. When
this happens, it’s easy to have second thoughts and even contemplate giving up as no one on the planet
wants to lose money.

Remember that advertising is meant to make your life easier. Advertising allows leads and sales to come to you while you sit back, enjoy your coffee, or focus on other areas of your profession.

Organic vs. Paid

Organic social media, which involves posts and stories without an ad budget, is a fantastic tool for any
professional, especially the budget-conscious. However, if you need a steady stream of leads, are opening
another store location, or want to take business to the next level, advertising will save you time which in
our opinion, is far more valuable than money. Why you ask? When money is lost, it can be gained back.
When time is lost, it is gone forever.

Organic Social Media is also arguably more time consuming and more creative skills are required to keep
your audience engaged and entertained. Advertising on the other hand does require time for campaign
prep and creation, however once an ad gains momentum and performs well, the ad managers within META
(Facebook), Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn pretty much do the work for you. Now, we don’t recommend
to “set it and forget it” once a campaign is live, as you may need to do some A/B testing. Also, there’s
always room for improvement for either increasing results or maintaining performance while decreasing
budget.

Let’s say you A/B test 2 images to see which gets more calls from your ad. The time it’ll take you to
duplicate an ad and swap out an image is between 5-15 minutes. If you’ve wondered why so many
marketing pros and agencies provide ppc (pay per click) services, this is why – it is the best gig in the
business.

When To Advertise

If your overall advertising budget is limited, we recommend to be mindful of when you sponsor/boost
posts or launch campaigns. Typically it’s best to save money for advertising during your busy season so
that when the slow season arrives, you’ll have funds available for advertising to compensate for lower
sales.

Now if your company or employer has significant name recognition, a branding campaign with a modest
budget will probably suffice for busy seasons. When the slow season arrives, add a lead generation
campaign to your repertoire and increase the overall budget. Large companies like saving money too, so
keep that in mind when sales are high and the company is able to allocate funds for future advertising.

Conclusion

Balance is key, regardless of budget. It’s true that you need to spend money to make money, but there are
many, many ways to save money while promoting your business, especially on social media.