High Social Media Marketing Cost: What Are the Alternatives?

Credit: LoboStudioHamburg

Social media continues to be one of the most preferred platforms for marketing, given its vast reach and the ease of communication it provides between brands and consumers. However, social media marketing cost has been steadily rising and this could pull down returns. In a 2021 report published by Skai, it was revealed that the cost per thousand impressions (CPM) on social media had gone up by 41% and paid search spending by 60%, year-over-year. This could put a damper on the plans of smaller firms, some of which may be pressed to look for alternatives.

The average advertising cost in 2022 might seem small when taken by units but could swell when accounting for full-fledged campaigns. On average, Facebook CPM is valued at $7.19, $7.91 for Instagram, $6.46 for Twitter, and $9.68 for YouTube. Meanwhile, the monthly ad spend on Facebook ranges from $200 to $1,500, on top of campaign management costs valued between $1,000 and $2,500 per month. Other essential platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter fall in the same cost range.

The high social media marketing cost has led companies to typically apportion 13% of their marketing budgets to social media. And this may leave other marketing areas with smaller funds to work with. After all, there are other promotional strategies that could help brands convert more. In fact, these strategies come as cheaper alternatives to social media marketing.

Email Campaigns

People check their email several times daily since work-related documents, reminders, and appointment details are sent there. It also serves as a primary means of communication for offices that restrict access to social media. As such, email is a popular avenue for promotion, carrying an open rate of 29.55%, a clickthrough rate of 1.27%, and a conversion rate of 15.22%. This surprisingly outperforms ad campaigns on Facebook, the most favored social media platform by brands and marketers. Facebook ads only have a conversion rate of 9.25%.

Brands can opt to invest in email marketing software to reach hundreds or even thousands of people in one go. Some platforms enable users to organize email sending workflows and automate the whole process for minimal effort and maximum productivity. This combination of productivity and output makes email campaigns an ideal alternative when faced with a high social media marketing cost.

SMS Campaigns

Instant messaging may have replaced SMS as the primary mode of digital communication, but when it comes to promotions, it remains a worthwhile avenue. In fact, the numbers are astonishing. SMS promotions come with a 98% open rate, a 30% clickthrough rate, and a 29% conversion rate, outperforming other platforms in the aforesaid areas.

It also helps that mobile phones account for 58.03% of internet searches as of April 2022, higher than desktops (39.5%) and tablets (2.46%). This means people spend a lot of time on their phones, making the devices a viable target for promotions.

Push Notifications

Social media is often leveraged to notify consumers about the latest products and promos. But Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube aren’t the first things a person sees when using a mobile device. Push notifications hold this acclaim. On average, a mobile phone in the United States receives 46 push notifications daily, coming from the apps installed on the device.

Given their ubiquity, push notifications increase app engagement by 88% and clickthrough rates by 23.3%. Leveraging it with proximity marketing improves those numbers even further, potentially raising clickthrough rates by 60.7%.

Although these alternatives are effective, it is advisable to still pursue social media marketing. After all, as of January 2022, there are 4.62 billion active social media users. And they primarily communicate through social media. Rather than making these avenues alternatives, leverage them as complementary or supplementary methods to connect with audiences. They can take center stage when brands are about to exceed their social media budgets.