A new report finds that a good number of small businesses (29%) are spending somewhere in the sweet spot of ($750-$2499) monthly to get the data needed for good online advertising results.
WordStream’s Online Advertising Landscape in 2019 report also found that only 10% of the respondents had a monthly advertising budget less than the low end plateau for effectiveness of $750 monthly. That’s good news and shows a trend that small businesses are recognizing the importance and complexity of digital advertising.
Objectives for Advertising
When the report asked businesses to rank their objectives for advertising, increasing ROI was number one with website traffic number five and optimizing for mobile in last place.
Many of the respondents either didn’t know how to optimize for mobile or didn’t have the time. Over half (59% ) used video to advertise. A full half of the respondents said they did all their marketing in-house.
Small Business Advertising Statistics Reveal Hurdles
The report was relevant for small businesses since 27% of the companies that answered the questionnaire had 50 or more employees. Another segment of the respondents (25%) had 2 to 5 employees with 23% having 11 to 50 workers.
However, the report did find a few hurdles preventing these SMBs from getting the best for their advertising dollar. For example, 21% of those who responded didn’t have a dedicated marketing team. That makes it all the more difficult for small business owners who take on the responsibility of trying to run multichannel advertising strategies by themselves.
Social Media Posts
These often include continuous social media posts, updating websites and producing videos, constant customer engagement and working even more traditional channels like print and radio.
The research amplified the need for more staff by highlighting 69% of people in smaller businesses who work in marketing are on teams of no more than five.
Common Issues
WordStream’s Online Advertising Landscape in 2019 also found some other common issues. When asked what the biggest roadblock was to growing their businesses through online advertising, 39% offered up a limited budget. A full 40% earmarked limited time.
The research also broke down advertising investments YoY by what’s available through the search engines and social media.
Google Search Investment
For example, 46% said that they would increase their Google search advertising investment. At the same time only 7% said they would decrease that commitment. A full 44% decided to tread water and keep the investment the same in 2019.
There are different types of search advertising which helps small businesses to place ads in search engine results like those on Google.
Increasing Investment
The trends for Google Display were similar with most respondents either increasing investment or keeping it level year-over-year. This feature allows small businesses to show Gmail Ads at the top of prospects’ inboxes. There are also a variety of other options.
Results for the Google Shopping Network didn’t fare as well. In fact, a full 76% of the respondents said they didn’t use the feature at all.
Other Search Engines
Results were included for other search engines. For example, 44% of respondents said they didn’t advertise on Bing. That makes for an almost even split with the 48% of those polled who do advertise on that search engine.
As far as some of the more popular social media and retail templates went, the advertising dollar wasn’t being spent anywhere in volume. In fact, half or more of the respondents said they didn’t advertise on either Instagram or Amazon.
Video Platform
Although the video platform is a popular way to expose small businesses, 61% of respondents said they didn’t advertise on YouTube. Similarly, almost 80% said they didn’t spend any advertising dollars on Twitter Ads.
Facebook provided some better results. Almost 90% used image ads and 55% used video ads.
As far as other digital marketing channels besides advertising, most businesses used SEO, email marketing and content marketing in that order. Almost all of the respondents (95%) used Google Analytics.
WordStream polled hundreds of their clients for Online Advertising Landscape in 2019. They are a Google Premier and Bing Elite Partner providing software and services in the online advertising space.
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