Social media marketing for radio offers a healthy buffet of options via several networks. However, one company dominates the entire industry— Facebook.
Despite a couple of turbulent years and some testy committee appearances on Capitol Hill, Facebook appears to have weathered the public relations and governmental investigative storms and come out of it all stronger and with increasing ad revenues. And, it shows in their numbers — MarTechSeries reports 68% of all adults in America are Facebook users with almost 75% of those people visiting the site daily. A rough estimate based on 2016 population data puts the social media’s daily adult visitor count just over 100 million.
Point-to-Point Marketing’s VP of Digital, Tim Satterfield talked about the reasons Facebook is the indisputable choice for a radio station looking to find new listeners and increase the listening of its’ current cume.
The answer was obvious to Satterfield,“When we’re delivering a marketing message to the most people, in the right locations, on the device they use most every day…the one in their hand, Facebook still simply has the best potential reach.”
Sure, size matters when you are looking spread a message far and wide. But, targeting and variety in targeting is also key. Facebook’s dozens of different ad formats generate thousands of possible targeting opportunities.
Facebook’s platform is one Satterfield prefers, not just for size, but for utility. For our client’s purposes, there’s no question, Facebook has the most robust targeting, really at all levels, geography, gender demo…and affinity. They (Facebook) are simply better than all the other platforms we use,” he said.
As growth in Facebook’s user slows or levels off, ad revenue continues to grow at a blistering pace. CNBC cites the social media company owned 19.8% of the total digital ad business in 2017, growing to 21.8% in 2019, with the share approaching 23% of the total market by 2021.
Google, the other online media behemoth, still owns the lion’s share of digital ad revenue. But, in recent years, that number has slid slightly from 40.8% in 2016 to 36.2% in 2019, according to eMarketer.com.
So, which approach is the right choice for a radio station’s digital marketing? Google’s display ads vs Facebook’s targeted campaigns?
Display ads are effective, but are push marketing as the user is not actively seeking the message. In the case of Facebook, Tim Satterfield explained it comes down to something more intimate,“Social networks provide a more personal user experience with the ad consumption,” says Satterfield, adding,“When people consume a marketing message in a more personal fashion, they tend to have a better recall of that message.” Higher recall = better value.
With Facebook’s current state as the market leader, we wondered, is there another social media outlet on the rise to compete with Zuckerberg’s creation? Satterfield chuckled and replied, “Yes, the biggest threat to Facebook is Instagram…which is owned by Facebook.”
Then Satterfield concluded,“Facebook has the scale, the largest user base, and the best potential reach...with 69% of people in the United State still using Facebook.” Adding,“So,the stories of its’ demise are somewhat exaggerated.”
Bigger doesn’t always mean better. But, in the case of social media networks used to effectively target listeners and market a radio station, bigger just happens to be best. Size, ease of use, better targeting, plus Facebook’s ownership of the next closest competitor in the field all adds up to an obvious answer — partnering with Facebook (and ultimately Instagram) is the logical choice for stations looking to maximize their social media presence.
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