When creating social media advertising campaigns for a client, the top and often first question I receive is how much should be invested. The answer should never be the same for anyone. However, the way to an answer is similar. Just like in any situation where you are handing over money, for personal or business benefit, you want to know what you will get in return. To explain this process in the simplest of terms, here are a couple steps you can take in determining a budget.

1. Identify Business Goals: Yes, everyone wants to make money. Knowing this is the goal, think more specific. What is needed to do in terms of social goals to grow your company? Are you looking to increase your social following by 30% over one year? Would you like to gain five reviews on your Facebook page per week? Once you’ve determined this, it’s time to look at the next step.

2. Choose Your Objectives: Facebook allows us to currently use 11 objectives to optimize social media campaigns. Each one using an algorithm to match your target audience with Facebook users most likely to perform the action you want them to take. Let’s look at this a bit closer. If you are wanting to grow your community by 30% over one year, create a Page Likes ad is a smart place to start. If they choose to React to your ad, you get to Invite them or hopefully they perform the Like on their own.

If this is your first time running a Page Likes campaign, start with a budget you are comfortable trying. Then use the results from the campaign to estimate a future budget and results. This method should be used for each type of campaign objective tested.

Example: 

$100 Budget / 150 (Followers Gained) = $0.66 (cost per Follower)

$300 (Future Budget) / $0.66 (anticipated cost per Follower) = 454 (anticipated new Followers)

Determining an advertising budget is not easy. Even after running various campaigns and determining anticipated results, there are many factors always influencing changes in this area. The time of year determines is your cost per result will fluctuate up or down. Think holiday season when everyone is promoting something or an election year. Your audience size, changes in social tools and algorithms all factor into your results.

Continuously analyzing your campaigns, making needed adjustments, and understanding what is changing in social media is critical to successful social advertising strategies. Also, remember that as your business goals change adjustments to your social goals will need to be revised. Hopefully, this has provided insight into where to start in determining a social advertising budget.

Author: Christine Melaas, SMS

Christine Melaas is a 2009 Loras College graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Relations. In both her personal and professional life, Christine has always had a passion for connecting with people. In her role as Director of Social Media & Brand Communication at Fourge Social, Christine is able to do just that.  As one of the co-founders of Fourge Social, Christine has been able to connect businesses and their customers using social media management. She and her team are the first social media agency in Iowa to become certified social media strategists through the National Institute for Social Media. Additionally, Christine is certified through Hootsuite and Syracuse University in Advanced Social Media Strategy.  To give back to her community, Christine is a Make-A-Wish Dubuque volunteer, member of Young Professionals Dubuque, and Women’s Leadership Network of Dubuque member which she was a 2018 Woman of Achievement nominee for the Tri-State Area. When she is not busy exercising her passion for social media marketing, Christine and her husband. Kyle, are spending every moment together with their first child, Clara, whom they welcomed into the world in June 2018. She loves to spend time with their dogs, traveling and being outdoors.