5 Important Reasons Why Social Media Advertising Is Not Enough

Social media provides an amazing platform for reaching your audience and staying connected. Today's businesses have more access to their customers than ever before. They have more information about what their customers need and can gather more data while connecting with them directly. Likewise, customers can connect with the brands that mean the most to them, allowing them to better understand exactly what those brands have to offer.

Social media advertising alone, however, isn't enough. 

In order to see a significant increase in your customer base, you must utilize a method that shows people who you are and what you have to offer. While promoting your business through your social media pages remains a critical part of marketing your business, you must also utilize platforms like television to help expand your reach to a wider potential audience. Here are five reasons why social media advertising alone isn’t enough.

1. Social media alone won't allow you to reach your full target audience. 

By only advertising on social media, you are limiting yourself and missing out on an opportunity to expand your reach significantly. While around 79% of the US population utilizes social media, not everyone uses every platform. Not only that, but you may also discover that it's hard to reach people on social media who do not already have an interest in your business. 

Television and OTT ads, on the other hand, have the potential to reach a portion of your target audience that you have never come into contact with before. This allows you to share information about your brand with people who may be ready to make a purchase in your industry for the first time. It may also help you reach those who have recently had a bad experience with a competitor, making them susceptible to switch to your brand. This is key in establishing awareness of your product and services.

2. Through social media alone, you are only advertising to those who already know you.

Around 84% of the fans of your Facebook page are current or former customers of your business. They already have a solid idea of what your business has to offer. That's a great advertising style, especially when you want to share new opportunities, content, sales, and promotions, or products with your existing audience. 

When you only utilize social media advertising, however, you cannot reach those customers who do not yet know about your business. Television and OTT advertising gives you the opportunity to get your brand in front of those customers who have not previously made a connection.

3. Social media platforms own your content.

When you post to social media, those platforms own the content you produced. By agreeing to their terms of service, you may give them permission to use your content for their own purposes. That can lead to content used in ways you don't anticipate ahead of time. 

By advertising on your own website or creating commercials for television, you have more control over how your content is used and dispersed. 

4. You aren't guaranteed visibility with social media. 

Organic reach may total only around 6.4% of your page's total likes. When you make organic posts, without boosting them through ads, you cannot guarantee that they will reach your audience. Not only that, but you may also find it incredibly difficult to determine how many people your posts actually reach. Social media ads may have a relatively narrow reach, especially if you inadequately fund your campaign.

Other forms of advertising, such as television, OTT, and display ads, have a much higher visibility rate. Not only that, many customers watch TV while also using their other devices. That means they may see your ads on multiple platforms at the same time. This simple strategy can substantially increase your ability to reach customers where they already are when they're most likely to make a decision regarding your product. 

5. Your social ads might be missed.

Many users do not spend a lot of time absorbing each piece of content on social media. Instead, they might simply scroll aimlessly through the material, often without actively interacting with it. Search ads, on the other hand, generate a higher rate of engagement. Television and OTT ads increase the odds that consumers will actually see the content you've worked so hard to create. 

While social media does prompt a high level of engagement, unfortunately, there is no way to control how people will engage with those posts. Even what you consider to be your best content might not prompt the reaction you're hoping for. With OTT, you get similar targeting ability without the likelihood that consumers will share and comment on your content in unexpected ways.

Social media is a great means of advertising, but it’s best to integrate it with your other marketing efforts. In order to create a solid advertising campaign, you should ensure that social media is not your sole means of advertising. Instead, focus on a multi-platform approach that will allow you to reach consumers who have never heard of your business before or who might have an unexpected need in your industry and watch your advertising successes soar.