Are you one of those businesses who believe advertising on social media platforms is not for them? You may have even tried before without much success, but what if I told you, that social media plays a much more important role in your sales funnel than you think?

We would like tackle one of the most recurring things we hear from different people and businesses alike: Social media advertising isn’t for me!

The use of social media advertising is really widespread these days and although it's true that the latest news regarding Facebook's future are not that encouraging, it is also true advertising in social media keeps being really key for companies.

Chances are your business has attempted to give it a go, in which case you may have ended up in one of two general groups: you either see the benefits of advertising and will continue to do so or you think that was a waste of money.

If you’re in the second group, I suggest you keep reading as we will try to demonstrate that social advertising can be more useful than you think in today's business environment.

Purpose

The first thing to understand about advertising in social media is what you want to achieve with it. Your objectives and therefore expectations will determine whether or not you consider your efforts worth the time and resources.

In order to illustrate this, let me share an example of one of our customers: Hemmingodden Lofoten fishing lodge. They are a small hotel in the Lofoten islands and offer other extra services to complement their value proposition: from small boats you can rent, to fishing gear all the way to the most amazing food in their restaurant, their goal is to let the client experience the Lofoten lifestyle.

Their customers come from all over the world and outside Norway, Germany and Austria are their biggest marekts. For non norwegian clients especially, planning the trip requires quite a long time, since the communications can be complex in the north of Norway and other aspects like the state of the roads or the camping availability also influence the process. As a result, their customers average up to 6 months before they decide to book the experience.

Here is where advertising in social media can and is effective. If you think about it, from the moment you think of Lofoten as your next holiday destination, to the moment you become a paying customer, up to 6 months can elapse and it that time you can get cold feet call everything off. What we do with Hemmingodden is to keep running highly inspirational ads showcasing the vibe and what the client can expect, in order to keep the hype train up. Granted, Facebook or Instagram ads rarely bring us direct sales, but they are fundamental in keeping the customer engaged until they decide to jump the gun and book their trip.

This approach can yield a conversion path like this:

As you can see there are multiple touch-points the customer uses before deciding to book and social media is rarely if ever the last-click before the purchase happens. However, disappearing from social media would reduce our chances to convince a prospect of what they can expect by visiting the business.

Of course this example fits this narrative and it is possible your business differs quite a lot from our customer's situation. However, even if you are selling directly to other companies, remember this: businesses are made by people and people are present in social media. So there is a chance you can impact a procurement manager, a CFO or a CEO with an ad on Instagram!

Watch our video on this subject here if you prefer it!