With limited resources, small and medium sized businesses usually find themselves choosing between two alternatives. In the case of online marketing, those choices often come down to maintaining a Facebook page or maintaining a robust website. Increasingly, it seems, firms are opting for the former — a trend that will only accelerate as Facebook rolls out its online ad service for small businesses, within the next few days.
Briefly, it plans to offer free $50 advertising credits for up to 200,000 small businesses. When an ad is clicked, the advertiser pays a set rate predetermined for that click through. It also comes with Facebookâs targeting capabilities.
The Case for Facebook
Already Facebook is the social network with the highest rates of satisfying SMBs, according to a Q1 2011 survey conducted by Borrell Associates, which found that 76.5% of SMBs are somewhat or very satisfied with their Facebook pages.
A more recent survey by Pagemodo, in addition, found that 47% of SMBs queried reported that Facebook is driving traffic to their websites and 48% indicated that having a Facebook page has increased their business' sales.
The Value of a Page
Another study, however, by Eden Platform, reports that a standard web page can deliver more advertising value than many companies realize.
During the one-month measurement period, which began on August 1st 2011, Eden Platform measured pages and visitors for a sample of more than 100 small business websites. The findings showed that each page on a small business website produced an average of 55 unique visitors during the measurement period.
Small businesses often pay between $2.00 and $3.00 per website visitor using other online advertising methods like paid search engine ads and banners. This means that an average website page generates $137.50 of advertising value each month, or $1,650 of advertising value each year. Adding one new page of content to a business website each week can be as effective as having a $90,000 advertising budget, the study concluded.
