It’s crucial to know the pros and cons of each of the main social media channels accessible today, whether you’re a small business searching for low-cost choices to add to your marketing mix or a large brand attempting to identify which platforms will provide you the most return on your cash. While social media advertising often yields a high ROI, your company must first ascertain if a certain platform is a good match. So that you can make an informed decision, I’ve outlined the benefits and drawbacks of the most popular social media sites that also provide advertising services.
There are currently 2 billion active Facebook users per month.
Positives of Using Facebook
- Facebook is a great option for businesses of all sizes because of its low cost and scalability.
- Facebook Ads are self-service, and the company provides a multitude of resources for new marketers through its Facebook Blueprint training programmes. All jokes aside, you can find a class on practically anything these days.
- Facebook’s microtargeting features allow advertisers to reach their desired demographics by narrowing in on specific users based on a wide range of criteria, including but not limited to demographics (such as age, gender, geography, and language), interests, and activity.
- Audience Size Facebook boasts 2 Billion active users every month, and these users come from all walks of life and all generations. Advertising on Facebook is the best bet if you want to reach the most people in a social media campaign.
- Users’ subsequent activities after engaging with your ad may be monitored with the use of the Facebook Pixel, allowing for retargeting. By doing so, you may learn useful information and retarget visitors to your site who have already engaged in a desirable behaviour.
- One of my favourite features of Facebook Advertising is the opportunity to reach people who resemble previous customers. Do you seek out fresh users who will be most interested in reading your whitepaper? In order to locate more users like the ones who have already downloaded your app, you may use a lookalike audience.
Facebook’s Drawbacks
- Advertisers have seen a dramatic drop in their organic reach as a result of Facebook’s recent modifications to the algorithm powering its NewsFeed, and this downward trend is expected to continue. So, it will be necessary to invest more money in ads in order to reach your target audience, and less on organic engagement with your page posts.
- (Potentially) Advertising that are optimised for link clicks may be shown to Facebook users who aren’t very interested in the advertised product or service, resulting in lower-quality leads.
- Time-Intensive: In order to maximise your business’s Facebook advertising efforts, you must constantly analyse your ads and replace them with new ones. Not devoting enough time to this endeavour might reduce the quality of the end outcome.
- The creative process on Facebook requires a shift away from text-based advertising like those found in Google AdWords and towards more visual forms of expression, with a priority on video and mobile optimization. You can’t expect to get any results from your Facebook ads unless you have access to high-quality creative materials.
- We don’t think Facebook users are leaving in large numbers, but we understand why some businesses have voiced anxiety over the #DeleteFacebook movement and other Facebook scandals that have unfolded in the first half of 2018.
Instagram Has “Captivated” Users, They Say.
The Positives of Instagram
- Instagram advertisements are designed to be aesthetically captivating. Photos and videos of excellent quality attract more users and help spread the word about the company.
- Specific Targeting: Like Facebook, Instagram can zero in on a specific audience (and Instagram is owned by Facebook, in case you did not know). Because of this, you can target the ideal customer for your product and speak directly to them about the benefits you can offer.
- Instagram’s shopping and collections features are particularly useful for brick-and-mortar stores and online merchants since they let you feature many goods in one post or tell viewers more about the item(s) they’re seeing in an ad. Providing a user with a Call-to-Action button helps boost in-app transactions.
- Instagram is an interactive platform since it encourages personal expression and friendly dialogue. In comparison to Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, engagement rates are 10, 54, and 84 times greater, respectively.
Difficulties with Instagram
- Instagram’s target demographic is narrower than that of rivals like Twitter or Facebook because 90% of its users are under the age of 35. Brands aimed at a younger demographic, such as clothing lines, will benefit greatly from this.
- Instagram users like to see photographs and videos, so posts with a lot of text won’t fare well.
- It takes a lot of time and effort to keep social media sites like Facebook updated and relevant, and to interact with people, especially when compared to search platforms like AdWords. It is unlikely that an internal marketer who is responsible for all channels will be able to commit as much time as is necessary to both learning and output.
- In the same way that businesses have seen a decline in organic reach on Facebook, they are observing the same thing on Instagram. Although organic reach continues to fall, the importance of sponsored promotions continues to climb.
As a Closing Remark
It’s likely that at least some of these channels currently feature your brand’s content, but you might not be making the most of the paid advertising opportunities they present. We hope this list will serve as a helpful resource as you evaluate potential paid services for your company. You want to get started and need additional details. For more blogs about social issues, see the Social Topics page.