Maximising Brand Impact with Paid Social

At Clear Click, we understand the power of paid social media marketing in amplifying your brand reach and driving meaningful results. Our strategic paid social strategies are designed to help you achieve maximum brand impact, connect with your target audience, and achieve your business objectives.

With our expertise in crafting compelling ad creatives, precise audience targeting, and data-driven campaign optimisation, we ensure that your paid social campaigns deliver the desired outcomes. From creating engaging social media ads to optimising campaign performance, our team of digital marketing consultants leverage the latest technology to drive brand awareness, engagement, and conversions.

Let us help you unlock the full potential of paid social advertising and elevate your brand.

Reach and engage: the advantages of Paid Social

Brand visibility

Paid social amplifies brand reach by targeting specific audiences based on demographics, interests, and behaviour, increasing brand awareness and recognition.

Increased engagement

Paid social media campaigns drive higher engagement and conversions through compelling ad formats like video, carousel, and interactive ads, leading to increased website traffic, leads, and sales.

Precise audience targeting

Paid social media advertising enables precise targeting of your ideal audience, optimising your budget and maximising ROI by reaching a relevant and receptive audience interested in your products or services.

Getting results: our Paid Social formula

At Clear Click, we leverage the power of paid social media advertising to amplify your brand reach, engage your target audience, and drive meaningful outcomes. Our expert team crafts strategic campaigns tailored to your unique business goals, using industry knowledge, cutting-edge tools, and best practices. From defining campaign objectives to creating compelling ad creatives and optimising performance, our data-driven approach ensures maximum impact and exceptional results in the competitive social media landscape.

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Audience profiling and segmentation

Visual design for social media advertising

Platform-specific campaign configuration

Data-driven optimisation and improvement

Discover our latest Paid Social articles

By
Alistair Mains
How Much Does Digital Marketing Cost?
February 27, 2021
• 4 min read
Paid Social

Digital marketing can be the ideal solution for a wide range of business problems. Whether your aim is to increase brand awareness or drive more online sales, investing in a digital marketing strategy can drastically increase your business performance. If you’re still not sure what is digital marketing then visit our basic

How Much Should A Business Spend On Digital Marketing?

Regardless of how large or small your business is, it’s very important to research into how much you should be spending on digital marketing. Digital marketing agencies vary in their pricing, but plenty claim to offer services at very cheap rates - and this is something your company needs to look out for.

In nearly all cases, you get what you pay for. Choosing a digital agency that is the cheapest today might mean having to swap over to another agency in 6 months time. Make sure to choose a digital marketing agency your business can scale with into the future.

With so many agencies out there, setting a reasonable budget will help you shortlist and choose the right one for your business. What is a reasonable budget, though?

Although several factors affect digital marketing budgets which we will explain later in this blog, the average digital marketing budget ranges from £20,000 to £100,000 for small-to-midsize businesses (SMB) per year. Do keep in mind that digital marketing is an ongoing process, so budgets may change as you scale up your business.

4 Key Factors Influencing Digital Marketing Costs

Marketing Budgets

It may seem like an obvious factor but businesses with conservative budgets are often limited. Low-cost digital marketing options include creating and building social media presence and blogging. Whilst services such as pay-per-click advertising often require larger marketing budgets. The larger your budgets are, the more time it will take for an agency to manage your campaigns, and this is often reflected in the price of the service.

It is very important to remember that one of the main goals of any digital marketing agency is to get results for your business. So, the money you invest into digital marketing should eventually return the business through online revenue, customer acquisitions, and brand awareness.

Business Size

The size of your business has a substantial influence on your digital marketing costs. If you are a SMB, the prices you pay will be much lower than that of an international corporation.

The size of your business often affects the type of digital marketing agency you partner with, too. To scale well with a digital agency you must find one offering the services you need, and be comfortable with their expertise in the services they are providing you with. In conclusion, if you’re a SMB you are unlikely to partner with a digital marketing agency that serves only the world’s biggest organisations.

Complexity of Strategy

The intricacy of your digital marketing strategy influences the budget you’re working with in most cases. If your strategies include aggressive pay-per-click campaigns, then you should expect to pay more than if there was a less aggressive strategy. This is because aggressive strategies often require more time, expertise and technical ability, so you can expect to pay more.

If your digital marketing strategy includes a number of digital services such as SEO, PPC, and Paid Social then you should expect to pay higher digital marketing prices due to the number of services you are using. The more complex your strategy, and the more channels you are using then the more money you should expect to pay.

Timelines

Some digital marketing services, like SEO, have less strict timelines than pay-per-click advertising. If you’re hiring a digital marketing agency and have clear goals with predefined timelines of when you need things done by, then you can expect to be charged not just for the services you are buying, but the speed at which the service must be delivered.

Clear Clicks 3 Tier Guide To Digital Marketing Costs

To gain a firm understanding of the costs associated with digital marketing we have broken down the service types into 3 tiers. Basic, intermediate, and advanced.

Basic Digital Marketing - Suitable for small businesses that don't have large digital marketing budgets. Low cost methods such as blog writing, social media management, and basic SEO are cost effective ways to increase your online presence. Agency fees for these services start from around £500 per month.

Intermediate Digital Marketing -  Ideal for medium-sized companies with sizable budget and ambitions for growth. An increased budget allows medium sized businesses to broaden their online presence by using more sophisticated marketing platforms such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Agency fees for these services start from around £1,000 per month.

Advanced Digital Marketing - Optimal for large businesses with substantial target audiences requiring several marketing channels working in conjunction to achieve business goals. At the advanced digital marketing tier, expect to see all of the above mentioned services on a larger scale with new services introduced such as website optimisation and data analytics. The cost of outsourcing all of these services to an agency starts from around £5,000 per month.

How Clear Click Can Help

At Clear Click, our experienced teams integrate strong digital marketing strategies for businesses of all sizes. If you are looking for a digital marketing agency to partner and scale with, then contact us today!


By
Nicolaas Kerkmeester
Paid Social Media Advertising: A Valuable Investment?
February 27, 2021
• 4 min read
Paid Social

Paid social media advertising is a heavily invested digital marketing channel for many businesses. In 2020, an estimated £72 million was spent on social media advertising worldwide, a 9.1% increase from 2019. The average daily user time spent on social media in 2020 was 82 minutes, 7 minutes per day more than the previous year. With growing ad spend and the time users devote to social media channels rising, we can expect social media advertising to become a very important part of every businesses digital marketing strategy.

Social media channels provide value to businesses in many forms. Increased brand awareness by leveraging audience targeting and delivering advertisement to highly relevant audiences is one of them. If increasing brand awareness is a goal for your business then this short article will help you understand what paid social is, and how you can reach your business goals by using it.

Paid Social Media Advertising Explained

Paid social media advertising or paid social for short is a method of display advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

If you're new to paid social media advertising you will want to understand the fundamental components that make it work. Read on to find out more about the different terminologies and start to feel more confident with paid social media advertising!

What Is Ad Spend?

Ad spend is like adding fuel to a car, the more fuel you have in your car the further you can go. Ad spend is much the same. Appointing a budget to your campaign influences how many users it will reach. Having a small budget will limit your campaign reach, whereas having a larger budget will increase your campaign reach.

What Is Audience Targeting?

A target audience is a group of users that have specific interests, behaviours, and demographics. Advertising platforms allow businesses to handpick their targeting choices, so businesses can place their ads in front of their target market.

This benefits business by allowing them to curate content for specific audience types and ensures users with very limited interest in the businesses service or product will NOT be shown the advertisement. This minimises the risk of wasting ad spend on irrelevant audiences.

Audience targeting is a popular feature of paid social media advertisement and the key reason to invest in paid social media advertisement. Precise targeting will increase your businesses chances to convert users into customers and provide a positive return on ad spend (ROAS).

What Is A Social Media Bidding Strategy?

The bidding strategy you choose will affect how much you spend on your campaigns. There are 4 main bidding strategies you can choose from when using social media advertising. But which one should you choose? Let’s take a look.

Cost Per Action (CPA)

CPA bidding is a bidding method that allows your business to tightly control ad spend. Rather than paying the ad platform every time a user clicks on one of your ads, CPA bidding requires you to pay every time a user action is completed.

For example, every time a user calls your business or a contact form is filled out, you will be charged. The “action” a user takes is a metric that you define when you set up the campaign, allowing you to align your campaign spend with your business goals.

Variable Cost Per Thousand Impressions (vCPM)

vCPM bid strategy measures how frequent an ad is viewed by your target audience, only charging per “mile” or one thousand impressions. Setting out the maximum cost you are willing to pay for every thousand impressions on your ad.

This bid strategy is the best option for a business that wishes to leverage brand awareness or get a message in front of a large number of people for a low cost. It’s the most cost-effective strategy to get brand awareness but not necessarily a high interaction of click.

Effective Cost Per Thousand Impressions (eCPM)

eCPM bid strategy provides business with a model to define the effectiveness of an ad. The eCPM is calculated by taking the revenue that an ad generates per thousand impressions. For example, if a winning bid costs £1 per click and you receive 10,000 clicks for every 100,000 impressions you will end up paying £10 with an eCPM bid strategy.  

An eCPM bid strategy is best applied when several bid strategies are used at once to determine the most efficient strategy. It’s the best way for business to see where ad spend is most efficient and providing the best ROAS.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

CPC was the first bid strategy introduced for social media advertisement, it is often the most used bid strategy because it involves fewer variables. To calculate the CPC divide the total cost to run the ad by the number of clicks it received.

The reason why CPC bidding is a valuable choice for many businesses is that it's simple to set up and run. Once target audience parameters have been set, social media advertising platforms will drive the most relevant traffic to take action on your advertisement. It’s a valuable and recommended strategy to drive traffic to your website.

Social media bid strategies are a great way to ensure your business gets high quality leads at a low cost. With advertisement controllable at the bid strategy level and the audience targeting level, it provides business many opportunities to optimise performance to reach maximum ROAS.

3-Step Guide To Choosing The Right Social Media Channel

Now that we understand the basics of paid social media advertising, how can you choose the right platforms to advertise on? Our 3 steps guide will help you choose the right platform for your business.

Step 1 - Identify Where Your Target Audience Is

If you are a business selling gym clothes to young adults, then you would assume Facebook & Instagram to be the most relevant social channels to advertise on. However, if you are a SAAS business selling to professionals then you might find LinkedIn to be the most relevant channel to advertise on. Be realistic, and try to think about what social channels are relevant to your target audience.

Step 2 - Choose Targeting Parameters

After identifying your target audience, you will want to work out the best way to target them. Each platform has its own targeting parameters to choose from to help businesses target users relevant to the product or services. So, when choosing your social channels to advertise on, make sure to pick targeting choices that will give you the highest chance of reaching a relevant audience.

A good example of the different targeting parameters available is LinkedIn’s ability to target users based on their job title, company name, industry, and professional interests.

Step 3 - Define Your Ad Content Format

By defining the format (video, photo, text) that is most suited for your advertising campaign, it narrows down and identifies the social media platform best suited.

For example, short videos will work well for ads on Instagram, but for longer video ads over 30 seconds, they will be better suited to Youtube. So, think logically, the ad content format will dictate the channel it's most suited for.

The Best Social Media Ad Platforms In 2021

There are 4 main social media channels that your business should be leveraging right now. Let’s dive into what these channels are, and how they can help you reach your business goals.  

Facebook

Facebook's advertising platform is powered by Facebook Business Manager. Its audience targeting is the most powerful feature of this platform, due to the amount of user data Facebook possesses. Facebook has 2.7 billion monthly users, making it the largest social media platform in the world.

Facebook ads can be created in all shapes and sizes. Having the ability to create ads in different formats gives your business the ability to test video and imagery to see what your audiences engage with the most.

Advertising on Facebook is affordable but not the cheapest option with the average cost per click (CPC) approximately £1.27. This is important to keep in mind when defining ad spend.

Instagram

Instagram is owned by Facebook and powered by Facebook Business Manager. Instagram ads focus heavily on visual content such as photos and short videos. With 1.15 billion monthly users and the main demographic using this platform under the age of 49, it’s again a valuable option for any business selling directly to consumers.

Because Instagram uses the same ads platform as Facebook (Facebook Business Manager) the audience targeting and placement are just as vast, allowing you to narrow down your audience and target those most relevant to your business.

The average cost per click (CPC) on Instagram is around £0.37 - £0.74, making it a very affordable advertising channel.

YouTube

YouTube ads are powered by Google’s ad platform known as Google Ads. YouTube has 2 billion monthly users, making it the second-largest social network to advertise on. YouTube focusses both long and short video content. YouTube is a versatile advertising platform suitable for businesses who sell directly to consumers, and those who sell to other businesses.

Audience targeting is another valuable aspect of the YouTube platform, using the Google Ads platform it allows businesses to target users based on their interests and online search history.

The average cost per view (CPV) on Youtube is £0.30, making it one of the most affordable advertising channels.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn ads are powered by LinkedIn Campaign Manager.  LinkedIn is a professional social network with 260 million monthly users, perfect for B2B advertising. Linkedin ads have come a long way since the main text ad placement when it first started, now supporting video and photo format, in a range of placements.  

The average cost per click (CPC) on LinkedIn is around £5.00 - £8.00 making it one of the most expensive advertising methods. Keep this in mind when appointing ad spend to this specific advertisement channel.

The True Value Paid Social Provides

Paid social gives your business powerful audience-based targeting, allowing you to focus on users who are most likely to engage and convert with your ads.

Secondly, paid social generates results quicker than many other digital marketing channels. For example, SEO can take 4-12 months to start delivering results, while paid social can be deployed almost immediately.

Lastly, ad campaign results are easily scalable. By simply increasing the depth of the advertising campaign, this broadens the overall reach and impact.

How Can Clear Click Help

Our paid social specialists are here to help your business grow and leverage opportunities with paid social media advertisement. We optimise your advertising campaigns to ensure you're getting the most value for money. With experience advertising for a wide range of business sectors, we know how to get the most out of any social media platform.

Learning more about how paid social media advertising can benefit your business, by taking a look at our Paid Social media advertising service.

Want to leverage your brand using paid social but don't want to do the heavy lifting? Let us do it for you! Get in touch with one of our paid social specialists, we would be happy to give a free consultation and then prepare a customised strategy for your business.


By
Nicolaas Kerkmeester
What Is Digital Marketing?
February 27, 2021
• 4 min read
Paid Social

With digitalisation upon us, businesses are adapting their marketing presence online, digitally transforming to stay ahead of competitors and in front of customers.

Traditional marketing efforts alone are not enough, companies must focus their efforts online to reach their audience. But what is digital marketing? What are the benefits of digital marketing for any company? And how much do digital marketers charge? This will be explained, but first, it’s essential to understand the basics of digital marketing.

What Is The Digital Marketing Definition?

The digital marketing definition is essentially using the internet, search engines, and social media platforms to target, reach, and convert large audiences into new customers. Some digital marketing experts refer to digital marketing as a new era. Where a new skill set is needed to understand, reach and adapt to customer behaviour digitally.

In comparison to traditional marketing efforts like billboards or magazine advertisements, where communication is one-way and the audience interaction is unknown. Digital marketing allows for two-way communication between businesses and potential customers, allowing marketers to understand audience engagement. Data analytics in digital marketing provides actionable insights to improve the performance of audience engagement and increased revenues.

Different Ways To Conduct Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is an umbrella term for many different digital marketing channels, each with a unique approach to positioning a brand in front of potential customers. There is no one specific formula that works for all businesses, every business is different and will need to take a unique approach to its digital marketing strategy. Below are some of the most common methods of digital marketing;

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - SEO organically increases the quality and quantity of website traffic from search engines such a Google or Bing. Read more about what is SEO the fundamentals explained.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) - PPC, pays for advertisements on common search engines (Google or Bing) to increase brand visibility. Businesses are only charged when someone clicks on their advertisement. Still unsure what Is PPC? Discover the Basics of PPC Marketing.

Paid Social - The use of paid advertisement on social media channels (Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn) to promote a product or service. Read more about Paid Social, to find out if Paid Social media is a valuable investment for you.

Email Marketing - Email marketing allows a business to send promotional emails to their customer database or prospective customers.

Content Marketing - Content marketing refers to the use of publication and distribution of text, video, photos and audio to an online audience. Blogs, Youtube videos and podcasts are commonly used by businesses to Increase their presence online.

Website optimisation - A process of providing a website experience that provides for optimal user experience and increased conversion. Want to know more about website optimisations then read here.

In summary there are many digital marketing channels and methods a business could use. Often multiple approaches are tested by businesses throughout their digital marketing strategy in order to find out what performs best.


What Are The Benefits Of Digital Marketing For Any Company?

The Benefits of Digital Marketing are untapped by most companies today, unknowing the potential reach and revenues gains with digital marketing. Digital marketing reaches potential customers on an everyday basis, when active on social media, reading an online article or watching a video. When a potential customer is exposed to marketing regularly and in a natural manner it has many business benefits;

Reach - Digital marketing is not constricted to a specific geographical area, the internet allows for a global reach. Business can easily reach potential customers on the opposite side of the globe.

Low Entry Cost - Unlike traditional marketing, the cost to launch a campaign and reach customers over the other side of the globe would be exceptionally high in comparison to digital marketing. For example, a small business can launch a website, manage social media accounts and publish blogs with a relatively small budget.

Measurable RIO - To get the most out of any marketing efforts, return on investment (ROI) must be evaluated. This is difficult and sometimes nearly impossible with traditional marketing. On the other hand, digital marketing allows businesses to see real-time insights on effective performance. Businesses can therefore make data-driven decisions to increase sales and revenues.

Targeting accuracy - With digital marketing, businesses can target potential customers with specific behaviour and interests. This provides business with better accuracy to reach and engage with potential customers.

Adaptability -  Digital marketing is very flexible and provides businesses with the opportunity to adapt and adjust their marketing efforts in real-time if needed. This kind of adaptability is ideal for business in rapidly changing industries or volatile markets.

Immediate Connection - Today's customers will often do online research before making a purchase, evaluating a product/service and its reviews beforehand. Businesses can make immediate connections with these potential customers using SEO, SEM and PPC methods.

Relationship Building -  With social media playing a big role in today's society, customers want to interact where they feel most comfortable. A business using social media marketing (SMM) as a method to engage with potential customers can build strong long-term and loyal relationships with potential customers.


How Much Do Digital Marketers Charge?

The answer to how much dose digital marketers cost? Can not be answered by one cost first all scenario. Digital marketing has many different methods and strategies, so every business must have a bespoke strategy to fit businesses individually. A different digital marketing strategy would be needed for a small business as compared to a larger business.

To get a better understanding it’s best to break digital marketing down into levels of business, a larger company will spend a lot more than a smaller company. For example;

Basic Digital Marketing - In general, small and startup businesses don't have an extensive budget for digital marketing. So lower cost methods are feasible, such as leveraging websites, blogs and social media management to increase sales and revenue. The cost for basic digital marketing services can start at several hundred dollars per month.

Intermediate Digital Marketing -  Medium-sized companies will have more concrete avenues of revenue and therefore be able to spend more on digital marketing services. More advanced services such as SEO, SEM and PPC will become common. Intermediate digital marketing services can cost several thousand dollars per month.

Advanced Digital Marketing - Large businesses or enterprises will execute digital marketing services on a global level. With a wide development strategy, they often use all digital marketing channels. These types of businesses will allocate larger budgets and resources to develop their digital marketing strategy. Advanced digital marketing services can be tens of thousands of dollars per month.  

The cost of digital marketing services depends on business size and goals as seen above. Smaller businesses will start with basic digital marketing services and advance over time, there are limitless possibilities and strategies. Overall, digital marketing is ideal for all businesses, strategies customised to meet the needs of different goals and budgets.

If you are looking for digital marketing services for your business, our team of digital marketing experts are happy to help get you started. Contact us to set up an introduction call, where we are able to better understand your business needs.