What Is Social Media Advertising? And Its Pros and Cons

It may be a small world, but Social Media has made the world even smaller, especially in the last decade. Not only has Social Media made human interaction faster, but more accessible and convenient too. This feature makes it an excellent platform for Social Media Advertising. Social Media Marketing Consultants and Advertising Experts can use one or more networks to spread the good word about your business!

Social Media has been combined with the newest technological innovations in communication. As a result, various platforms have become more powerful. Such platforms have also proved helpful for their users, including business owners implementing Digital Marketing campaigns.

For instance, you can utilize Social Media Infographics to get the attention of potential customers, driving traffic to your website. Content Marketing is perfect for engaging with casual users and converting them into loyal followers, and you can always make the most of content publication and sharing using a social media scheduler to maximize your reach and overall effectiveness.

Thus, how can you say if Social Media is a good or bad channel for your business? Should you dismiss Advertising using Social Media because of its drawbacks? Or should you take the risk despite them and focus on the benefits you may reap?

People and Social Media Platforms Today

As of April 2022, there are already 4.65 billion social media users globally. Some of the most popular Social Media platforms worldwide include Facebook and Instagram. So, here’s the full list, ranked according to their number of active users.

• Facebook (2,910 million)

• YouTube (2,562 million)

Source: Clipchamp.

• WhatsApp (2,000 million)

Source: WhatsApp Business API.

• Instagram (1,478 million)
• TikTok (1000 million)

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub.

Image Source: Statista.

Let’s use Facebook, with its potential market of 2.7 million people, as an example. Imagine how big an opportunity this network is for Social Media Marketing Consultants to promote their brands!

Because of its opportunities as a marketing channel, Social Media Marketing made its way to the globally-known network. So, technological evolutions in Digital Marketing could bring Social Media Marketing forward. As a result, this has led to Social Media Marketing’s popularity today.

For some Social Media Advertising Experts, the strategy streamlined their marketing efforts. Customer approval and satisfaction are primarily due to the many potential targets to introduce products and services.

However, some business experts disagree with them. They consider Social Media Platforms as double-edged swords that can either make or break their businesses. Still, advertising with Social platforms can significantly benefit your business.

What is the Meaning of Social Media Advertising?

Social Media Advertising is a strategy that runs paid ads on social platforms. So, Social Media Advertising Experts can promote content on Social Media to a casual user base. Thus, paid advertising on Socials has a broader audience reach than posting on your feeds for loyal followers to see. By doing so, more potential customers can get interested in your brand.

Additionally, your advertisements don’t just appear to every Social Media user! Marketing Experts will tell you that it may cause friction with people who don’t need your products or services.

Social Media’s advantage of having millions of users means that they can help you segment demographics! As a result, you can target audience segments by age, gender, location, etc. So, your Social Media Ads can reach the audience that best responds to your brand, which boosts your Conversion Rates.

You must understand Social Media’s effects on your marketing activities, so let’s dig into its pros and cons.

What are the Advantages of Social Media Advertising?

Below are five advantages that your business can get when using Social Media Marketing:

Increases Brand Awareness

Creating a Social Media Profile for your business is a powerful way to expand brand awareness and increase Click-Through Rates. In addition, social networking sites can assist your brand marketing initiatives.

Aside from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you can also use other online platforms. These platforms include TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, and even Tumblr. You can also use LinkedIn.

Generally, the wider your reach is, the more audience exposure you can get. Moreover, Social Media platforms are incredibly beneficial, especially for new businesses. These platforms can help expose your brand to the public, thus broadening your reach. Social Media has become such a staple marketing strategy that even hotels win the Social Media game.

Promotes Customer Engagement

Engaging with customers is a fundamental factor in marketing that boosts Conversion Rates! Businesses and Social Media Advertising Experts have been promoting their respective brands for many years. So, it’s an integral factor in guaranteeing that your customers seek you whenever they need your products and services.

Of course, Social Media Marketing Consultants can also effectively build lasting customer relationships through engagement.

Social Media platforms are created mainly for communication and interaction. As such, it’s only natural that Advertising on Social Media encourages people to engage with your business.

Thus, we highly suggest making it an everyday routine for your business. As you continue to engage with your customers, you also increase their chances of purchasing your products or services.

Assists in Monitoring Competitors

With Social Media advertising tools like Facebook Ads, you can research their competitors’ latest trends and activities. By checking out your rivals’ latest activities, you can determine how best to market your products and services.

These activities may include business strategies or marketing efforts your consultants can adapt and incorporate into your plans.

So, if you see your competitors using a particular marketing strategy, you can try to adapt it to your campaigns. Of course, you need to modify them to serve your business’ unique goals and needs.

If you do this, you can formulate marketing strategies that would help you match up with or even surpass your competitors. As a result, you get to improve your marketing campaigns and activities. Also, you ensure that your target audience finds you on their socials and avails of your products or services.

Provides Accessible Consumer Insights

Most Social Media user bases are vocal about their opinions on the latest trends. So, if you consider this, the platforms can help Social Media Advertising Experts identify what their consumers want or need.

Therefore, what you can do to make this possible is gather customer insights from various social media platforms. Then, make sense of these insights and apply them to your marketing strategy.

As much as possible, you must guarantee that your products or services will cater to your customers’ needs. In addition, you should make them understand that your products are the solution to their problems.

As a result, you can build a splendid brand impression. You can also expand your potential market, keep existing customers, and ultimately increase your product sales.

For the Most Part, Economical

Creating a profile on various Social Media platforms is free ⁠— you just need to sign up with an email account. Creating a business profile may require more investment, but most times, it won’t burn a hole through your pocket. For instance, Facebook allows you to create a page for your business on their platform.

With a Social Media platform, you or a Marketing Consultant can market your products or services by posting online. Also, you can notify your existing clients about new products and encourage potential customers to purchase. Additionally, enticing followers to share your posts only requires some influence!

But take note that boosting your content’s audience reach will not come for free. Nevertheless, you have the freedom to post about your brand and promote it to the general public without paying the platform.

Next, we’ll discuss the downsides of using Socials as advertising platforms.

What are the Disadvantages?

Marketing via Social Media is difficult for various reasons.

Allows Negative Feedback

Just one comment containing negative feedback from a dismayed customer or client can go viral. As a result, it can hit your business harder than a knockout punch.

So, always note that feedback is a pressingly vital factor for business owners. Anyone can share almost everything on Social Media with others. Thus, negative feedback can impact nearly everyone.

So if a customer sees anything negative online about your business, they could lose trust in your brand. As a result, it can ruin the perception of businesses, even though they can mitigate the damage by responding to feedback.

In addition, your chances of attracting more potential clients also decrease. So, check out how you can manage negative reviews.

Costly and Tedious

Social Media Advertising is a consistent, gradual process of popularizing a brand or business, which sounds easy in theory. Still, it will require a lot of time and patience from consultants, especially regarding Social Media Management. You would most likely need a year’s worth of luck to get immediate results.

However, you can speed up the pace of your advertising campaigns by giving them a boost, at a price. But these will depend on audience reach, frequency, duration, and several other factors.

In the end, Social Media Marketing is a financial risk that you and your business should be ready to face.

Presents a High Volume of Content

More than half of the world’s population today has access to the Internet, including the available Social Media platforms. Consequently, more businesses go online and use Socials for advertising and raising brand awareness.

But there’s a massive amount of content from companies that utilize social media in their marketing and ad campaigns. Thus, the chance of a potential customer finding your brand would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Thus, for business owners, especially those still new to online marketing, increasing brand awareness is not an easy task.

Susceptible to Misleading Information

It’s no secret that Social Media contains a lot of fake news and misleading content. Unfortunately, other people even believe those posts immediately without properly cross-checking for validity.

If you offend or disappoint a customer, they may use the power of Social Media to spread rumors of your business.

So, users who cannot filter through misleading information could fall into that dismayed customer’s lies. A customer’s negative announcements on Social Media could cost you potential and even existing clients. Thus, misleading information could tarnish your business’s reputation on a large scale.

At-Risk to Possible Security Breaches

With the rise in technological advancements also comes the rise of hackers and other malicious individuals. So, consider them if you plan to create a Social Media account for your business.

We’re constantly informed that our accounts, applications, and websites are highly protected; however, they’re not. As a result, they’re still at risk for possible security breaches from online hackers.

Then, when these hackers access our Social Media accounts and channels, they could harm us in many ways. They would have the power to destroy your business’ image and reputation by then. So, although this rarely happens, the stakes are still higher for business owners when it does.

As you can see, understanding the possible positive and negative effects of Social Media can help you strategize more efficiently.

So, remember to handle Social Media Advertising critically while tailor-fitting strategies according to your business. But then, if you decide to use the channel, you’ll need help from Social Media Marketing Consultants.

Take the Risk, Reap the Rewards!

Facebook Marketing and Social Media Ads can get your business far on a user base of millions, depending on the network. On a final note, you should know that successful business owners need to be calculated risk-takers. In business, staying within one’s comfort zone doesn’t take you anywhere. Furthermore, there are no returns without a healthy amount of risks!

Do you want to be successful in your digital marketing campaigns? Then get assistance from a Social Media Marketing Services Provider in the Philippines. With their help, you can use Social Media as part of your business strategy today!

About Axel May Rivera

Axel is an avid fan of many dramas and songs. She is always eager to explore and discover more when it comes to movies and entertainment, especially in Korean and Filipino culture. In her free time, she enjoys reading books and playing badminton.