Two major contenders for that marketing budget include search engine marketing (SEM) and social media. Both can be effective and unique ways to connect with fans, followers, and prospective customers online.
But which one will get your business better results?
Like almost any other marketing avenue, both SEM and social media have some pros and cons to consider. If you’re about to go over your marketing budget for 2022, understanding some of the benefits and drawbacks of these two options can make shifting your budget around easier.
So, let’s take a look at where you should be spending your marketing budget next year.
The Benefits of Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing is the process of paying for advertisements on websites and in search engine results. When many people think about “marketing” on search engines, they use a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. The difference between these two techniques is that one is paid for, while the other is not.
Unlike SEO, which focuses on using content to receive organic results, SEM uses monetary strategies to get results. It focuses on:
- Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
- Adwords
- Advertising budgets
- Target demographics and campaigns
SEM also uses banners and other types of advertisements on websites that are considered authoritative. These banners link back to a business’ website, products, etc. Things like call-to-action messages are actually very important on websites, so linking those messages back to your business can have a big impact on your success.
Though it does cost money, some of the benefits of SEM include:
- Being able to target specific audiences.
- Setting a fixed budget.
- Getting reports/data very quickly.
- Increased visibility.
- Greater return-on-investment.
As you can see, there are plenty of benefits to going the “search” route when it comes to your marketing strategy. But what about social media?
Staying Social — Is It Worth It?
Social media is hugely important for businesses. It’s a great way to connect with customers and followers, and allows your business to be more “human.” After all, being social is the name of the game. On Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you can directly interact with your followers by answering questions, providing customer service responses, and more.
Those are the things that should be the main focus of your social media strategy. As you might have noticed, none of those cost any money.
So, what about social media marketing when it comes to paid advertisements?
The truth is, there are plenty of benefits to social media marketing. Over 1 billion people log on to Facebook each day. That doesn’t include those who use other social media apps or websites. That’s a pretty big audience to view your ads! But that’s not the only benefit.
Social media advertising happens fast. You can create and post an ad in a matter of minutes, and once it gets approved, you’re in business. When you’re creating that ad, you can target very specific audiences based on location, age, gender, and a number of other factors. Social media marketing also can boost your web traffic by directing people to your website for more information on your business.
It’s also inexpensive. If you create a Facebook ad, for example, you could spend just $5.00 and reach 1,000 people. Your advertisement data is also easily-trackable, so you can see real-time results.
While social media advertising does work and can increase your ROI, it often takes a lot of time and expertise to do so. It could end up costing you thousands of dollars and a long time before you start to see the results you want.
Making the Most of Your Marketing Budget
So, should you go with SEM or social media marketing next year? The good news is, you can have your cake and eat it, too. You don’t necessarily need to cut out one form of marketing entirely.
In fact, SEM and social media can work nicely with each other, since both of them can help to boost your web traffic.
But if you want something a bit easier that tends to provide faster results, we’d recommend spending more of your marketing budget on SEM. Set aside some of the budgets for social media, so you can learn more about it and get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. The more comfortable you get with it, the more you can increase that budget.
These strategies are prepared and used by JatApp marketing experts, for more click here. So by keeping them in mind and distributing your marketing budget in a smart, effective way, 2022 could be your business’ biggest year yet for appealing to new people and gaining new customers.
