How big is social media advertising? The 2022 Global Social Advertising Trends report produced by Smartly​.io and Insights Worldwide Business Research shows marketers continue to pour money into this format. As the number of platforms increases and the variety of ad formats grows marketers need help with social media campaigns. Here are the details.

How You Can Help Clients with Social Media Campaigns

The 100 respondents in the Smartly​.io and WBR Insights survey spend between $100,000 (1% of respondents) and over $1 million (49%) on social media advertising annually. And they all operate in the B2C sector. Four in 10 of these marketers allocate nearly 50% of their marketing budget to social media. With a significant percentage spending nearly $500,000 a year on social media advertising, it’s easy to see why the effort could be overwhelming. This year, 29% of surveyed companies plan to outsource more of their social media marketing effort. The continued struggle to hire qualified employees has impacted marketers. 36% have faced challenges finding the right talent to carry out their social campaigns. In addition, 33% admit to having trouble managing multiple social platforms. This scenario presents the perfect opportunity for you to promote your social media management services.

Current Social Media Spending

In the B2C world of commerce, over 90% of marketers buy ads on Facebook and Instagram. 88% spend on YouTube and 71% have a presence on Twitter. TikTok (43%), LinkedIn (42%) and Pinterest (27%) also capture some of the social media spending.

Researchers also tracked trends over the past 12 months and reported that marketers have cut back on Facebook and LinkedIn ad spending in favor of Instagram. “46% consider Instagram the platform with the best 'return on ad spend' (ROAS) from their social media advertising campaigns.” This impressive statistic explains why 44% of marketers spend the most on Instagram. Only 19% spend the most of Facebook. Interestingly, only 23% of marketers say Facebook yields the best ROAS.

Keep in mind that specific audiences use social media platforms to varying degrees. To determine which platform most engages your client’s target audience, run a Digital Audit produced by AdMall at SalesFuel. The report shows the percentage of the audience using each major social media platform. You’ll also find the number of reviews and ratings. If these ratings aren’t at the top of the charts, you can talk with your client about how to improve them.

Projected Social Spending for 2022

The research shows over 40% of marketers will increase their social media ad budgets this year. Despite not having the best ROAS, Facebook will be the beneficiary of increased spending with 87% of marketers planning to buy more ads on the platform. If this strategy is in your client’s plans, it’s worth asking about. Are they boosting ad spend on the platform because it’s familiar or well known? Help them review whether their audience spends a significant amount of time on that platform. Doing so shows your intent to help them get a better ROI on their investment. 73% of marketers will boost ad spend on Instagram, and 5% will do the same for YouTube.

Marketers are always looking for ways to reduce costs, and 73% of survey participants believe they spend too much time creating social content. This aspect of marketing may also be the most difficult to automate as they need “unique and attractive” messaging to help them stand out from their competitors. If one of your organization’s strengths is content creation, leverage this pain point when you talk with prospects that need help with social campaigns. You’ll likely experience success if you specialize in video as 47% of marketers will use more of that format in 2022.

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