6 Reasons To Consider Social Media Advertising in the UK

The global pandemic has completely transformed the purchasing habits of people in the UK.

Where once people enjoyed visiting stores and surfing through aisles before their purchases – now, they are more inclined to make purchases online via e-commerce stores.

Social media advertisements have majorly influenced their shopping habits

Did you know four out of five UK consumers are digital buyers?

No matter the size of your business, if you really want to connect with your target audience, social media ads are imperative. 

It’s no longer a ‘should-have’ but a ‘must-have’.

Its virtues go beyond the essentials and provide you and your business with more than what you get organically.  

In the UK, there are several reasons to consider advertising on social media

1. You’re losing your target audience’s attention there
2. A Better Way to Narrow Down Your Target Audience
3. Multiple formats of advertising are available
4. You should take advantage of it too, just like your competitor
5. Drive more foot traffic to your business
6. Cost-savings in marketing

Social Media Advertising Benefits

The number of businesses and entrepreneurs who implement social media advertising is rising every year.  

As a business owner, if you’re not putting much thought into advertising on social media, you are literally missing out on tremendous opportunities.

According to reports, a whooping £2.76 billion ($3.38 billion) was spent on social media ads in 2019 from the UK.

With a 20% year-on-year increase in social media advertising, it’s evident that most businesses understand the true potential of social media advertising. It is the perfect way to get your name out there!

Still dicey on whether or not to invest your time, money, and efforts in social media advertising? Take a look to understand the benefits or reasons for having social media advertising, why you should invest in it, and how you can leverage it for your business.

6 Reasons To Deliberate Advertising On Social Media In The UK

Within the UK alone, social media ad spending is projected to increase to £6,503m by 2025.

It’s clear that more and more businesses are realizing (and seeing) social media advertising benefits on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

 However, there are still companies that resist the flow.

Noted below are the reasons to advertise on social media. 

1. Your Target Audience Squander Their Time There

If you think social media advertising is limited to Facebook, you are not singing the right tune. Social media stretches far beyond.

In fact, every social media platform has some form of advertising platform that businesses can utilise to the optimum.

Social media platforms give marketers and businesses the opportunity to push their ads in front of their target audiences, regardless of which platform they use regularly.

If case you are not sure where your target audience hangs out the most, these statistics can help:

• Facebook: 19% of users are men between the age of 25 to 34 years old.
• Instagram: 50.9% women and 49.1% men. Its 35% of users are aged between 25 to 35 years old.
• Twitter: 29% of Twitter audiences are between 25 and 34 years old.
• LinkedIn: 61% of users are professionals between the age of 25 to 34 years.
• Snapchat: 61% of users are women, and 82%of users are younger or more.

2. You Can Narrow Down Your Target Audience Better

A social media account reveals a lot about individuals, and you can utilise this information and data to showcase your social media ads to ultra-specific target groups.

Take your time to go through the demographics, interests, and behaviours of your target group across various social media advertising platforms:

Location: this allows you to target users based on where they live or places where they have visited recently.

Demographics: this helps you target an audience based on their age, gender, income, and parental status.

Interests: Understand the user’s behaviour, hobbies, favourite sports, food, and music, which will help you target them better.

Education: allows targeting on the aspects of the user’s education, the college they are educated from, and a particular field of study.

Additionally, when you set up new ad campaigns, each advertising platform will ask you for an objective. It can be anything like post engagement, video clicks, likes and more.

 Once the objective is defined, the platform will use the users’ previous behaviour data to put the most relevant ads in front of them – so that they can undertake their desired action.

3. There Are Multiple Advertising Formats

Yes, there are numerous social media advertising platforms accompanied by social media advertising benefits. But social media accounts offer marketers and businesses a wide range of social media advertising formats.

Text, videos, carousels, images, slideshows—you can use any advertising format to convey your messages in different ways that appeal to them the most.

 You can also test various advertising formats to know which one works the best.

4. Your Competitors Are Taking Advantage Of It – And You Should Too

If your competitors are dominant in one platform that is majorly used by your target audience, and you are not on the platform – you are simply missing out on opportunities. Also, your business is at a disadvantage.

To get the most from social media advertising effectiveness, check out your competitor’s social media activity. Find out what type of content they are posting.

 Most importantly, know what type of content is getting the most engagement and likes from their followers.

5. Increases Your Foot Traffic

The benefits of social media advertising are not only restricted to digital traffic and awareness. There is a lot more this marketing effort can bring to your business.

Advertising on social media can improve your in-store traffic.

In fact, 21% of users buy a product in a physical store after they have been influenced by the brand’s social media ads.

6. Reduces Marketing Cost

 Yes, social media ads require you to invest money to reach the right audience. But what businesses don’t realize is that it helps reduce your marketing costs with its accurate targeting capabilities.

 How?

Because in social media advertising, you only promote your products to social media audiences who are actually relevant and interested in your product or service. You are not advertising to any unnecessary audience.

 In other words, by advertising on social media, you are spending your money only to reach the right audience. This results in more clicks and conversions.

 You are not wasting a single penny on ads that do not lead to sales. It’s a win-win situation for all!

Ready To Relish Social Media Advertising Benefits?

Whether you are a marketer or running your own business, social media advertising can be an absolute saviour for your business (only if you understand the benefits). Obviously, there is a lot to consider (platform, budget, research, KPIs) – but every step is worth the time and effort.

Now that you know the true potential of social media ads, get down to action and make it happen. Targeting, measuring and improving your social media ads are a part of the total process.