We were shocked by a 2011 study that found every person was exposed to the equivalent of 174 newspapers worth of data per day.

This number could rise with IoT, and more people using mobile phones. This is why it’s important for you. It means that users are not paying attention to your ads at their best, which can impact their response and engagement.

It is difficult to cut through the marketing noise. This requires extensive research, skilled planning, understanding the expense, and calculating the Return On Investment (ROI). Without proper budgeting and investment, nothing of this is possible.

Assess the past performance

You need to look back at the past and learn from them to plan for the future. You should review the media reports and analyses from the past. This will allow you to understand the impact of your investments on performance.

You can repeat the same strategy next year if the results are better than expected (with some modifications to take into account new digital trends).

Do more research if your strategy did not meet your expectations.

Did the targeting not meet the needs of the audience? Did the content not suit the target audience? Was your investment too low? Once you have identified the causes, adjust your strategy to address them and adjust your budget accordingly.

How much is everyone else spending?

According to the latest CMO survey, businesses spend 12% of total marketing budgets on Social Media.

This survey was conducted for the first time in 2009. It shows a 3,5% increase. This increase is expected to continue and reach 20% of marketing budgets by the end of five years. 

The method by which these funds are distributed will depend on the target audience you have and your online strategy.

Part of it could be used for content marketing, part to purchase visual equipment (photographs and videos, GIFs, etc.), or for paid advertisements.

Your market position is an important part of the budget. Budgeting is even more important if you’re just starting. It can be difficult for startups to budget enough money for marketing. However, it is important.

You can think of investors, bank loans, and short-term loans as sources of finance.

Where to allocate your budget?

According to the survey, the key findings show that social media funds are being allocated by companies for the following purposes:

* Brand building and brand awareness 

* Acquiring new clients 

* New products and services introduced 

* Retaining existing customers

These four factors have the greatest impact on the company’s performance: brand building, acquiring new clients, and keeping current customers.

To achieve these three goals, it is always beneficial to introduce new products or services.

Other secondary objectives businesses can achieve with social media advertising are brand promotions (e.g. coupons and contests), market research, identifying new audiences, identifying product opportunities, and improving current offers.

Budgeting for Social Media Programs:

Which platforms to use?

In order of their positive effect on performance and ROI, Facebook and LinkedIn are the top two platforms marketers from social-media marketing agencies in Miami have listed.

Facebook’s 2.2 Billion users give access to an enormous and diverse audience. It allows sharing and promotion of different content types, from images to videos.

LinkedIn on the other side is not even one billion in terms of the number of users. However, LinkedIn is a professional network that’s ideal for B2B marketing.

Snapchat and Instagram appeal to a younger audience. They rely heavily on visual marketing.

The product and target audience will determine how much money you invest in each one.

Spending categories on social media

Five essential categories are where businesses can allocate funds for social media marketing:

1. Content creation: This covers outsourced employees or in-house workers’ time required to create, write, and design content. Fixed costs include video production or stock photography.

Freelancers get paid per project, while in-house employees are typically paid by the hour.

2. Paid social advertising: You can estimate the cost of paid native and boosted ads using a content calendar. You can get a better understanding of your spending by setting daily limits. 

3. Social engagement: This includes employees responding to customers’ feedback and answering their questions.

4. Software/Tools: Tools and software are not free. To get a better understanding, break this down into monitoring, planning and scheduling, research, automation, and automation.

5. Promotions/Contests: These expenses can be used to redeem rewards, discounts, or other special offers, which are often advertised on social media platforms.

Both startups and established companies face challenges in allocating and setting social media budgets.

There is no one way to do things because everyone has different goals. This article is meant to be a guideline that you can adapt to meet your goals and needs.