Facebook Marketing ROI: 75% of Small Businesses Failing

Facebook Marketing: The Low-Down on Why Over 75% of Small Businesses Fail to Get a ROI

When it comes to reaching out to your targeted audience, one of the most cost-effective ways of getting it done is through social media marketing. Unfortunately, recent research is showing that more than three-quarters of small businesses are not realizing a positive return on investment (ROI for short) when doing this, in particular from Facebook.

A recent study of more than 4,700 small business in the United States with less than 10 employees found that just under one-fourth of them were realizing a positive ROI. With so much information online that can assist small business owners in developing a solid strategy for social media marketing, these numbers should be much higher.

Here are four reasons why small businesses may be finding it difficult to achieve those positive returns on investments from Facebook:

Reason #1: Failing to Have a Strategy in Place.

One of the most common reasons that small businesses fail to realize a ROI from Facebook is because they never developed a strategy. And, honestly, this isn’t just small businesses – it’s also big-time organizations.

A strategy is an important piece of the overall puzzle, and it’s more than just posting a status update and images. You have to figure out what your end goal is, what channels that you want to utilize in order to achieve that goal, outline a plan and then allot a budget for advertising. These four things are what make a solid social media marketing strategy that can be measured and optimized.

When you have a strategy, you will be able to align all things that your brand does on Facebook and other social media platforms.

Reason #2: Being Too Obsessed and Fascinated with Tactics.

When it comes to showy tactics, your strategy is always going to win.

For instance, when Snapchat first came out, everyone wanted to have a go at it for marketing purposes. But, then, Instagram and Facebook both started implementing some of the most interesting and fun features of Snapchat in order to give that same experience to their large user base. For Snapchat, this isn’t good news since those once-unique features aren’t so unique anymore to entice users.

So, the point here is that you need to always stay true to your strategy under all circumstances and avoid new and enticing tactics that come about, as they may come and go. You need to focus on what works rather than what is new and flashy.

Reason #3: Failing to Invest Time.

In the previously-mentioned study, it was also found that three-quarters of small businesses didn’t even spend two hours each week on their social media marketing efforts. This is very surprising data. Here is the breakdown of the information gathered from the study:

Question Asked: How much time does your small business spend on Facebook marketing each week?

• 58 percent said less than one hour
• 16 percent said one to two hours
• 5 percent said three to five hours
• 5 percent said six to 10 hours
• 10 percent said 10 or more hours

To put this into perspective, would you be able to lose weight and truly get yourself into shape if you were to spend two hours or less at the gym each week? Would you be able to proficiently learn a new language if you were to only practice two hours or less each week?

Not only is the above data surprising, but it is also astonishing that many businesses aren’t posting regular updates to their Facebooks.

Question Asked: How frequently is your business posting updates on Facebook?

• 9 percent said once a day
• 7 percent said one to three times a day
• 6 percent said more than three time a day
• 20 percent said a few times per week
• 58 percent said a few times per month

If you are planning on spending just a couple of hours a week on your Facebook and other social media accounts and only post a few times each month, then there is no reason at all to even have your social media accounts. These efforts will not drive your business results.

If you want results and you want the cost-effective benefits that social media marketing is known for, then you must be willing to invest the time that is necessary.

Reason #4: Lack of Advertising.

Several years ago, it was possible to utilize Facebook to drive traffic to your website by reaching thousands of users. Today, your results depend greatly on the budget that you have set aside from advertising.

However, the good news is that you don’t have to put yourself in the red. Here, at WebDetail, we have worked with plenty of small businesses that only have a couple hundred dollars to put toward Facebook marketing and have been able to successfully generate a positive return on investment. Essentially, it isn’t all about the money, but it is important that you realize that it is going to be a long journey if you don’t have an advertising budget.

If the aforementioned information has resonated with you, then let’s talk. It is time to get down and dirty with your social media marketing game. Get in touch with us so that we can start making a plan that will allow your brand to finally start seeing the positive results that you have been hoping for.