People often confuse social media marketing with social media advertising. Are they the same? Should your budget for one include the other? Is the former enough to run a campaign that converts? Before we answer these questions, we must make the difference between these two concepts clear.
A company’s social media strategy is a rundown of its objectives and plans. It serves as a guide as they implement their campaigns and as an evaluation tool to see if they’re making progress. Social media marketing and advertising are parts of these strategies. However, while the former focuses on unpaid methods like posts and shares, the latter refers to paid strategies like PPC ads.
Advertising on Social Media: A Deeper Look
The types of media used for advertising could come in various placements and formats. It could also support an array of creatives, from photos to videos and immersive experiences. Also known as paid social, these social media ads are more branded, visual, and native to a platform. As such, some may have a hard time identifying them as ads.
How Big Should Your Budget Be?
It’s a no-brainer why you should have a comprehensive budget. This document will specify how much you intend to spend on your paid social media advertising efforts. Your specific budget should include monthly, quarterly, or yearly costs. The same budget should also create a clear picture of the cost of running your campaigns.
Your budget information is better presented in a spreadsheet or with tools like Airtable or Notion. But if you plan to use other tools, ensure the data is helpful, relevant, easy to understand, and well-presented. It should help you analyze where your money should go and the projected return on investment (ROI).
There’s no rule on how much a brand like yours should spend on social media advertising. Since businesses are different, the budget size would depend on certain factors like business goals, revenue, industry, team size, and company size.
The 2022 CMO Survey revealed that marketing budgets grew by 10.4% compared to the previous year due to the growing importance placed by organizations on marketing. The CMO’s research showed that these budgets account for 8.7% of a brand’s revenue.
Suppose your company has a yearly revenue of $1 million. In that case, your marketing budget should be around $87,000.
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What Should Be Included in Your Budget?
Your paid social media advertising budget should include provisions for content creation, tools and software, paid campaigns, influencer marketing, training and development, and social media management.
Content Creation
To make it big on social media, you must place content creation at the core of your budget. Engaging and highly optimized content should be your bread and butter. It means you shouldn’t skimp on allocating a massive chunk of your budget to creating thought-provoking content. You should include the following items in your budget:
- Images
- Video
- Copywriting, translation, and editing
- Graphic design
- Production cost
- Talent
These factors should account for 40% of your total advertising on social media.
Social Media Strategy Management
Entrusting the management of the company’s social media account to an intern is not recommended. The daily responsibilities of devising strategies, creating content, scheduling its publication, and analyzing its effects should be handled by an experienced social media manager. This aspect of the campaign deserves 30% of your entire budget.
Paid Campaigns
Mixing paid and organic content is the key to the best social media advertising campaign. The good thing about this holistic strategy is that it blends conversion with awareness. More people know your brand and buy your products and services. If you intend to incorporate paid campaigns into your strategy, consider including a mix of ads on the following platforms:
- TikTok
- Snapchat
- Facebook Messenger
The expenditure for your paid strategy will be contingent on your business and its objectives. Nevertheless, it’s best to start with a modest budget and gradually increase it rather than invest thousands of dollars in a paid social media advertising campaign when uncertain about its effectiveness and outcomes.
PPC campaigns are great investments because of the dramatic visibility boost they generate. That is why you should devote time to managing them. Otherwise, your competition will easily outwit you. This factor should account for 10% of your total budget.
Tools and Software
Having a tech stack is essential when running campaigns. Depending on the size of your business, your social media advertising cost could go as high as hundreds of dollars spent on customer service technology, project management tools, and video editing software. It could also be as minimal as a few dollars per month on publishing platforms.
Take advantage of free software plans or free trials with basic features to minimize your spending. This factor should only account for 10% of your total budget. Apart from the abovementioned factors, you should also allocate 5% for influencer marketing and another 5% for the training and development of your team.

Clicta Digital as Your Social Media Advertising Agency
You may have a well-designed website filled with great content, but it won’t give you the desired results if people don’t know about it. We can make people want to visit your site and buy the product, idea, or proposition you’re selling. We’re not only good with words, but we always honor our commitment.
Results-driven
One thing we can guarantee is that if you hire us, we’ll make sure to deliver results. We will create and manage your pay-per-click ads and pay-per-click sites. As a social media advertising company, we’re adept at what we do.
As proof of our passion and commitment to our client’s goals, we’ve helped various companies and businesses grow their bottom line by boosting lead generation quality and increasing website traffic. We work strategically to deliver the results our clients want.
Experience
Our PPC specialists are skilled in every aspect and phase of the digital marketing process. Plus, we don’t rest on our laurels — we continuously educate ourselves on the updates and new strategies that can better help our clients.
Transparency
Even if we offer social media advertising services and run your PPC campaigns, you’re still on top of every project with the reports we generate and submit consistently. These reports are personalized and reflect our activities within a specific project cycle.
Talk to Us Now!
Don’t waste time. Don’t wait until you see your competitors reaping their investments’ fruits. Leverage social media and let your audience get to know you and buy what you sell. Clicta Digital is here to help.
If you’re ready to run a pay-per-click campaign and make the most out of your marketing initiatives, we’re one click away! Contact us today and get a free social media advertising quote.