Since the beginning of the year 2020, global economies have been affected by lockdowns, border restrictions, and other business challenges caused by COVID-19. Local companies and other small businesses have hit the hardest as most of these providers don’t have the financial capital to keep them afloat during the pandemic. The only choice these companies have is to find the most cost-effective ways to attract new customers and bring in some revenue to cover their operations expenses.
Social media has long been regarded as a valuable source of potential leads for small businesses. Let’s take a look at the reasons why small businesses should be buying Facebook ads and give you a few tips on how to control your marketing expenses properly.
The Competitive Landscape Has been Reshaped
Small businesses that run social media ad campaigns find themselves in a tough position. Event cancellations and reduced marketing budgets are arguably the two biggest challenges today. But companies that have the vision to seize the moment can bounce back faster and see much better results from their Facebook and other social ads. No matter how the government policy changes, social media traffic volumes, and engagement rates have increased significantly. This means that consumers are still using social channels, but for different purposes, so you have to adjust your Facebook ads to meet your audience’s new intent.
Almost 70% of companies expect to decrease their ad budget by the end of 2020 and this number is probably higher among small businesses. Many marketers are trying to reel in more customers with reduced budgets, so even if their ad costs are low there will always be a limit to the number of leads that can be produced. The silver lining is that only 7% of companies are seizing the opportunity to market their services during the pandemic, so marketers who decide to take the opportunity will see significantly less competition.
Small Businesses and the Chance to Capitalize
Business owners and marketing managers need to be proactive and develop a plan to mitigate the effects of the economic downturn through strategic cost optimization. In other words, you need to create a blueprint that allows you to reel in new customers while reducing costs and maintaining the quality of your products or services. Social media is a great place to start as it’s traditionally more affordable than search engine PPC. This channel also allows you to target different demographics, which can be engaged through valuable or interesting content. This, combined with the fact that there is less competition, makes this the best time to craft campaigns that perform well even on a limited budget.
Facebook and Google: Offering a Roadmap to Success
Facebook and Google run two of the biggest ad networks out there, so both of these companies have developed resources to help small businesses get through the imminent recession. Below, we’ll go over the most important points for small businesses listed on the different platforms.
Facebook Business Resources
Facebook has a wide list of business resources for companies that advertise on its platform. This includes a small business grants program, the ability to sell digital gift cards to your customers, and food ordering via stickers on Instagram. Additionally, Facebook suggests that you:
Take the Time to Inform Your Team
According to the social network’s guidelines, you should follow recommendations from leading health organizations as well as your local government. Keep your team informed about the steps you’re taking and what they need to do to ensure the safety of themselves, your providers, and your customers. This will also allow you to set up a communication system that results in quick responses whenever there’s a major change.
Ensure that Your Communication Lines Work Well
As part of your COVID-19 response plan, you should set up effective communication lines with customers as well as your internal team. This can be via chat groups or other direct means.
Prepare a Service Plan for Customers and Provide a List of FAQs
Customers will likely have questions and requests due to the global pandemic. Create a service plan that allows your team to handle these inquiries quickly and accurately. You can set up auto-response emails and chatbots that reply to questions in real time. Creating an FAQ page specifically about COVID-19 is also a good idea to reduce the volume of inquiries while also letting customers know you’re taking the necessary precautions to keep everyone safe.
Google Small Business Resources
Google has also created a resources page to help small businesses through training, skill shops, and other free digital tools. The most important tips for small businesses include:
Keep Customers in the Loop
Make sure your customers know exactly what you’re doing differently to help keep them safe. You can do so through newsletters, announcements on your site, and other highly visible means.
Adjust Your Marketing Plan and Continuously Adapt to New Patterns
Different user intent and reduced budgets are just two of the new challenges marketers have to face in the wake of the global pandemic. Make sure you adjust your marketing plan for these variants and monitor the performance of your campaigns to make further changes if necessary.
Run Your Business Remotely Whenever Possible
Shared documents, free video conferencing tools, and faster browsers allow you to run a large part of your business remotely. According to Google, small businesses should use these tools whenever possible to ensure the safety of the community as a whole.
How to Adjust Your Facebook Advertising Costs
To create a predictable marketing model, small business owners need to know the potential costs of their Facebook ads. ADCostly is a powerful tool that allows marketers and business owners to access this information before launching their campaigns, allowing them to allocate their resources to the most profitable areas early on. Furthermore, this marketing analysis tool also allows you to examine the most popular ad formats, placements, and calls-to-action (CTAs) in different industries. With the information available through ADCostly, you can:
Identify the Audience Interest that Is Trending
Most companies start by investing more money into marketing their most expensive items, but this doesn’t mean that consumers are interested in these offers. ADCostly allows you to know what audience interest is trending, you can focus your marketing resources on related ads and produce income to acquire more inventory.
Optimize Your Budget for Less Cost
ADCostly also provides information about the age range, CTR, CPC, and CPM between industries, so you can set your targeting options and only invest in formats that have the highest chance of bringing in new customers.
Conduct A/B Testing to Control Costs
If information from your specific industry is not available, ADCostly will give you enough information to conduct A/B tests from the moment you launch. This marketing analysis tool can tell you how traffic from each area is converting in similar verticals, so you can set up comprehensive tests that help you keep your costs under control.
Learn More about Optimizing Your Facebook Ad Spend
Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world with more than 2.5 billion active monthly users. This platform is a valuable source of business for small companies, so marketing decision-makers need to take the time and understand how to use this social channel to reel in more customers. The tips above should help you understand why right now is the best time to purchase Facebook ads. If you want to learn more about using ADCostly to improve your marketing strategy, contact us today and we’ll be glad to help.
