For businesses looking to add social media advertising to their digital marketing campaigns, the first step is often choosing which platform(s) to run ads on. Next, you’ll need to decide how you are going to manage your campaigns.
There are three options when it comes to social media advertising management: run your campaigns yourself, run your ads with automated software, or hire an agency to handle your campaigns for you. Each option has its own pros and cons, which can help you to decide which is going to work best for your company.
Run Social Media Campaigns Yourself
The cheapest way to run social media campaigns is to manage them yourself. This option doesn’t require you to purchase any special software or subscriptions. Instead, you simply go to your chosen platform, set up an ad account with your company credit card, and build your ads.
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Pros
Allows you to utilize 100% of your budget toward ad spend
Gives you 24/7 access to performance metrics
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Cons
Requires you to learn how to effectively build and run campaigns
Risk of wasting money on ineffective campaigns
Can take up hours of your time every week
This option is really best for businesses with very small budgets to dedicate to social media, or those with an employee with existing social media marketing experience.
Run Social Media Campaigns With Software
Social media marketing is extremely popular, which means that, these days, there are hundreds if not thousands of 3rd party software options to help you run campaigns. These options are not just utilized by business owners, but also often have a place in agencies, in-house teams, and freelance social media marketers.
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Pros
Are often more user-friendly than on-site ad managers
Break down performance metrics into simpler terms
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Cons
Require you to pay monthly fees
Can sometimes require long-term contracts
Leave you to self-troubleshoot issues when campaigns aren’t performing
Software options can be less costly than hiring an agency, but come with the same trade-offs as self-managing your campaigns. If your campaigns aren’t generating results, you’re the one who has to try and solve the problem. This doesn’t just mean dedicating hours of your time to A/B testing and the like, it also means you are wasting your money on campaigns that just aren’t working.
When it comes down to it, while trying to run social media campaigns yourself sounds like a great way to save money, it can actually cost you in the end. Unless you have a staff member with social media marketing experience, you are more likely to get a higher return on your ad dollars if you hire an agency to handle the task for you.
Hire an Agency to Manage Your Campaigns
While hiring an agency is the most costly option up-front, it is also going to get you the best possible results. Why? Because agencies are staffed and run by people who know social media marketing. Many have degrees, whereas others have honed their skills with years of research and experience.
It is also the simplest option for business owners. You work with the agency to choose a budget, campaign objective, and platform, and they do the rest of the work. They build the campaigns, monitor them for performance, and then provide you with monthly reports showing you exactly how well your ads are doing.
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Pros
Totally hands off for business owners, which means saving time
For those without experience in social ads, get the best return on investment
Saves you from wasting money trying to figure out what works
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Cons
Biggest up-front costs
Must do research to find a quality company
The only real risk with hiring an agency to handle your social media marketing campaigns is ending up with one that doesn’t deliver on their promises. With the huge increase in popularity of social media marketing, there are thousands of sham companies that exist only to take your money without the intention of running campaigns, or running the simplest campaigns without ever working to ensure they perform to their best possible advantage.
Hire a Company With Experience
If you’re looking for a reputable company to handle your social media marketing campaigns, Gulf Coast Web is here to help. With over 25 years of experience in managing all types of advertising and marketing campaigns, we have the knowledge necessary to build social marketing ads that appeal to your audience and generate you quality leads and conversions. Our staff consists of highly-trained web design and digital marketing professionals who are both passionate about their jobs and excel at what they do. Contact us today to book a consultation with our team. We look forward to outlining exactly how we can help you grow your business with our digital media agency services.