SMBs Allocate More Budget to Social Than Other Channels

Small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) allocate more ad dollars to social than any other media platform, according to a report by BIA/Kelsey.

In its latest study, entitled Local Commerce Monitor, BIA/Kelsey found that 74.5 percent of SMBs (companies with less than 100 employees) have been leveraging social media to promote their businesses.

The report also found that on average, SMBs spend 21.4 percent of their total media budgets on social, compared to 18.9 percent last year.

Among the social media channels, Facebook lead the way with 55.1 percent of SMBs reporting that they have a company page on the network, and 20 percent using the ad service.

 

According to Steve Marshall, research director of BIA/Kelsey, 8 percent of SMBs’ social media spend goes to Facebook Pages, and 1.9 percent to the platform’s paid ads and promoted posts.

“Facebook is a whole ecosystem. And more so, it’s an older and larger network than a lot of the other social media channels. It’s a user-friendly platform that can really help SMBs reach their business goals,” says Marshall.

BIA/Kelsey’s new survey is consistent with G/O Digital’s Facebook advertising report released last month, which shows that Facebook is more effective than Twitter and Pinterest for SMBs to drive offline sales in the short run.

The Local Commerce Monitor study was based on an online survey of 546 small and medium businesses, conducted in July.