Customer acquisition is a huge challenge small to medium-​sized businesses (SMBs) face. According to a report by Constant Contact, 60% of SMBs consider it their biggest challenge. But there are so few hours in the day that owners struggle to decide what marketing efforts to focus on. Dedicating time to crafting social media ad campaigns could be the answer they’ve been searching for.

SMBs Can Generate HUGE Results from Social Media Ad Campaigns

SMBs Need Help with Their Social Campaigns

According to Constant Contact, only 24% of SMB decision-​makers consider their marketing sophistication as advanced or expert. All the others’ knowledge is either basic (30%), intermediate (43%) or they don’t do any marketing at all (3%). That means that the majority of SMBs only have some marketing activities and use digital platforms moderately at best.

If SMB decision-​makers want to craft successful social media ad campaigns, they need the help of agencies. Your help. Specifically, they need assistance with:

• Attracting new customers: 59% of SMBs need help with this, on average
• Marketing to their target audience: 39%
• Converting leads to sales: 35.3%

Not only do SMBs struggle with these challenges in general, they’re also ones that are the most time consuming.

They Know It, Too

The good news for agencies is that SMBs know they need help with social media ad campaigns. Specifically, 59% of B2C SMBs and 48% of B2B SMBs, says Constant Contact. They’d also like help with customer relationship management and online ratings and reviews, both of which can be handled via social media.

How Social Media Helps SMBs

If your SMB clients/​potential clients aren’t one of the enlightened ones in the percentages above, you may need to show them all social can offer. Like…

Making a Good First Impression

When consumers go looking for a product or service they’re interested in, most will begin their buyer’s journey with online research. Constant Contact points out that, “there’s a good chance that someone’s first experience with your brand will come via social media.” So, being active on social platforms and having relevant social media ad campaigns going on will help make that first impression a good one.

If you and/​or your SMB client aren’t sure which social media platforms their target audience(s) is/​are active on, you can find the answer on the audience’s profile on AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel. There, you can also see what percentage of that audience took action after seeing ads on social media within the last year.

Social Media Ads Connect Consumers to More Contact

It’s important to note that social ads aren’t designed to keep consumers on the platform. They’re meant to get people to explore the brand’s website, sign up for email ads, etc. So, even if your client isn’t sold on the power of social media ad campaigns on their own, let them know that they make a great addition to multi-​channel marketing campaigns.

Social Media Ads Have Advantages Over Others

Brands across the U.S., large and small, said that social was the top candidate they allocate more of their marketing budgets to in 2023, according to a previous SalesFuel blog based on data from Mediaocean. Why? Because social media platforms offer them:

• “Better creative and production tools: 49% of marketers agree
• Better ad performance: 40%
• Resolved social identity across platforms: 40%
• Time savings via automation: 32%
• Cost savings: 25%”

Basically, social media ad campaigns give SMBs the opportunity to make more creative ads that will catch and hold consumer attention and get them to take action. And it’s all using methods that are less time consuming and costly than on other platforms.

The longer your SMB clients sleep on social media ad campaigns, the longer it’s going to take them to solve their biggest challenges and get the results they’ve been looking for. Don’t let them miss out.

Photo by Medienstürmer