Social media advertising has become a multi-billion dollar industry over the past couple of years. According to recent reports, social media ad spending came in at around $2.9 billion in 2014, representing about 58% growth over 2013. Clearly, many companies believe that advertising on social media is, in fact, worth it and there are a number of reasons why this is the case. The following are four of the most prominent reasons why social media advertising is growing in popularity:

Great ROI Compared to Traditional Advertising Platforms

Most industry experts agree that social media advertising offers a fantastic return on investment. The real challenge is determining how one wants to quantify that return. For example, obviously clicks and sales conversions are important metrics, but what about brand awareness? Brand awareness is sometimes the primary reason for an advertising campaign, yet there aren’t any reliable metrics to determine how much brand awareness an advertising campaign produced. That being said, most consider the cost per thousand impressions, or “CPM”, to be a reliable metric of cost-effectiveness, particularly with regard to brand awareness.

Globally, the cost to reach one thousand impressions is around $0.75, according to Facebook. However, that number varies wildly depending on the region, industry, and a number of other factors. That being said, this cost is a dramatic reduction compared to other advertising platforms, which could typically be as much as one hundred times more expensive! However you look at it, social media advertising provides an almost unparalleled return on investment when utilized properly.

Highly-Targeted Advertisements

In addition to being more cost-effective, social media advertising can be much more highly targeted to the right audience. Thanks to the wealth of personal information contained on social media platforms such as Facebook, advertisers are able to target as narrow of an audience as they’d like. Everything from geographic location, age, marital status, interests, diets, and income can be filtered for in an advertising campaign. Advertisers can even choose distinct campaigns for different targeted groups, further increasing the potential ROI of a social media advertising campaign.

Real-Time Analytics

Unlike traditional advertising platforms, such as television or newspapers, social media advertising provides real-time information on the effectiveness of a campaign. Advertisers can see precisely how many impressions, clicks, and conversions each ad has generated and can adjust strategies accordingly. This also means that the number of dollars invested in a campaign can be increased or decreased on a minute-by-minute basis.

Ability to Change the Campaign at Any Time

Along with the ability to gauge the effectiveness of an advertising campaign in real-time, social media advertising can be changed mid-campaign. In fact, one of the best ways to conduct a social media advertising campaign is to have small “experimental” campaigns running, designed to test the effectiveness of each campaign. Experimental campaigns that prove to be effective can then receive the most significant percentage of the overall advertising budget.

At the same time, the effectiveness of each social media campaign can (and should) be constantly monitored for effectiveness. Advertisements that prove to be less effective can then be replaced by “experimental” ads that have proven to be effective in their smaller trials. This is just one example of how real-time information, in conjunction with the ability to change a social media advertising campaign at any time, can facilitate a more robust and effective advertising strategy.

Without a doubt, social media advertising is an effective way to reach a highly-targeted audience. Whether or not it is right for your company depends on your marketing and advertising goals.

Sources:
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-research/15-new-facebook-advertising-statistics/
http://marketingland.com/first-half-digital-revs-23b-mobile-social-grew-104542