Social Media Advertising vs Traditional Media Buying: Which One to Choose?

We’re experiencing digital breakthroughs each and every day. As marketers, we have a serious urge to maintain the control over our working routine. That means besides doing our usual work – that involves developing content, building products, or advertising on different channels – we still need one more thing.

That one important thing is the complex process of staying up to date with the marketplace’s changes. You see, if you want to make a profit, no matter what business you have or advertising methods you practice, you still need to be up to speed with the new opportunities.

So today I’m presenting two of the most relevant marketing environments that seem to be practiced quite frequently in the present times. Those two are social media advertising and traditional advertising (media buy).

Therefore, in case you need to convince yourself which environment you should focus on the most, we’re presenting some pros and cons of each of these ways. We’ll present them in the format of PROs that automatically link to the CONs of the other alternative.

Advantages of Social Media Advertising in Relation to Traditional Media Buying: 

1.      You Can Target Your Audience Better:

Social media networks give you great advertising features that allow you to create personalized campaigns. Each of these campaigns can be made differently, according to the knowledge and intuition of the marketer.

For example, Facebook gives you so many advertising angles that you would need to perform millions of campaigns in order to create all the combinations. In fact, if you think about it, the targeting possibilities are endless considering that you can target different pages and demographics. 

2.      You Have More Control Over Your Campaign: 

Traditional media buying doesn’t give you much control over your campaigns. You pay for the ad, you see how many people see it, and you get some little more extra details. On the opposite side, social advertising campaigns are full of metrics and analysis opportunities. You can see exactly how your customers behave and react to your offers, and you can quickly optimize them for the better.

3.      You Get Instant Feedback from Your Prospects: 

Feedback is important for any business. In order to maintain the consistency in quality, you need to understand that your customer comes first. With social media channels, it is so easy to get in touch with them. You simply need to post a campaign, wait for the results, and see for yourself.

The feedback could be direct and indirect. Direct means that your customers or potential customers are actually leaving their feedback on your products and services. Indirect feedback means that you observe whether your target audience is engaging with your ads or not, so you know which angles work and which doesn’t.

Advantages of Traditional Media Buying in Relation to Social Media Advertising: 

1.      It Has Been Proven to Work Countless Times: 

Traditional media buying works. That’s a fact, and it has been proven countless times. You have the proof under your eyes right now – people still do it. Companies, to be more exact, understand the importance of covering such broad audiences. Their main purpose is to enlarge their brand awareness up to the point where thousands of people know their products or services names.

2.      No Tools or Internet Access Requirements:

When you choose a traditional media buying opportunity, you need to dig deeper and understand your target audience (yes, even if it’s on TV). The people that you’ll target will be accessible to you even if they don’t own or use smart devices or an internet connection.

That’s a huge advantage in case you’re targeting people that could be elder, or less into technology. However, don’t forget that these people do have money to spend, and they could all go into your pockets.

3.      You Generally Cover Immense Audiences: 

When you play your ad on TV, radio, or place it on a famous newspaper in your country, it’s pretty obvious that you’re getting a huge reach. People from all over the country – or, who knows – maybe even from the entire world will see your ad. That’s a great chance to capture the attention of your possible customers.

Conclusion: 

You first need to assess your business. What are you aiming for? If you want to expand your product awareness because you’re planning to sell it in supermarkets, you should go for traditional media buy. But then, if you want to sell to a single audience of a restrained niche, you’d better choose social media.

Either way, you need to test and see. Once you’ve invested a bit in your testing, you should be able to make the right choice. Then, you need to stick to the environment that brings you the most value while you keep optimizing it over and over again.

About author: Olivia is an incurable optimist who always sees the glass as half-full. She likes nature, knows how to enjoy silence and keen on writing for different websites as well as for aussiewritings.