In today’s super-competitive business environment, leveraging digital marketing to grow your business is one of the smartest moves you can make.
Your competitors are already using it, so by neglecting digital campaigns, you’ll be losing the competitive edge.
That said, how much should you allocate to your digital marketing budget to get results?
In this post, we take a closer look at the average costs required to run a successful digital marketing campaign.
Let’s dive right in.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is one of the most effective forms of digital marketing. SEM can be either in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or paid search.
While you can run an in-house SEO campaign if you have the experience, it would be best to work with a reputable SEO or digital marketing agency like Growth Generators to run your campaign goals.
According to Moz, here’s what it’ll cost you to outsource SEO services.
Hiring a professional SEO freelancer – $80 to $130 per hour
Contracting a digital marketing agency – $1,500 to $7,500 per month
Running a one-off SEO campaign – $1,000 to $7,500
Of course, before you hire an agency or a freelancer, you’ll want to do a background check to ensure they deliver what they promise.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social media marketing includes social media advertising and social media optimization (SMO).
Just like SEO, you can run an in-house social media marketing campaign if you have the experience.
You can leverage the advertising options such as sponsored posts on various social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
The cost of advertising on these social media channels can vary from $100 to $10,000 per month, averaging $3,000 to $7,000 per month depending on factors like the platform, target audience, and the frequency of your posts or ads.
You must be thinking – why should you spend such hefty amounts on advertising on social media when it is readily available?
Well, social media marketing involves more than creating and uploading social media posts or sharing images.
It entails paying the social media platform to pass your posts to your target customers. In addition, if you don’t have a sizeable following, you’ll want to work with social media influencers to help you reach the people you want
Better yet, you can partner with experienced social media marketers to help you create a realistic digital strategy that can yield results.
To give you a glimpse of social media advertising dynamics, let’s look at how things work on two popular social media platforms: Facebook and Twitter.
Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads run on a cost-per-click (CPC) model. Essentially, this means that you pay Facebook for every click by your target audience. You can also opt for the cost-per-thousand (CPM) model. Under this arrangement, you pay Facebook every one thousand users who see your post or ad.
A CPC campaign costs $0.50 to $2.00 per click, while a CPM campaign averages about $11.
Twitter Ads
Twitter Ads, just like their Facebook ads, allow you to reach target customers that aren’t following your brand.
Your tweets pop up in their Twitter feed when you run a sponsored tweet campaign. The average Twitter ad offered through CPC costs $1.35 each time a user replies, retweets, or clicks on your ad.
The social network also allows you to promote your brand to gain new followers. The cost for every follower gained ranges between $2 and $4.
On top of that, you can promote a trend or hashtag to get people talking about your business for a flat rate of $200,000, a package designer for large businesses with huge advertising budgets.
Pay-per-Click (PPC)
PPC is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies to spur business growth if done correctly. Popular PPC platforms include Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising, formerly known as Bing Ads.
Google Ads, formerly known as Google AdWords, allows business owners to display their Ads on Google’s search network.
Bing Ads are similar to Google Ads, only that they appear on Bing’s search network.
Search marketing revolves around helping people find the answers they’re looking for on search engines. By advertising on a search network, you have the opportunity to reach your target customers exactly when they’re looking for answers.
The beauty of Bing and Google Ads is that you can customize your ads as per your marketing goals and budget.
How much does it cost to run display ads campaigns?
Most small and medium-sized businesses spend about $9,000 to $10,000 per month on average. The average advertising costs of an ad on the Google search network is about $1 to $2 per click.
While these figures sound outrageous, you can customize your advertising spending depending on your budget, as previously stated.
Email Marketing
Running an email marketing campaign will ensure business growth and help you meet your sales goals.
In fact, email marketing is one of the best digital marketing strategies if you’re on a limited budget.
According to statistics, including email as part of your overall digital marketing plan can result in an impressive 4,300 percent ROI.
What’s more, emails are excellent for building your brand loyalty, generating leads, and improving your conversion rates.
Plus, it is easy to integrate email marketing with your other digital marketing tactics. For example, you can repurpose your content and include it in your email marketing campaign if you’re using content marketing.
So, how much does email marketing cost?
A solid email campaign can cost you $300 to $2,000 if you outsource the digital marketing services. The average costs can be cheaper if you do it in-house.
Video Marketing
According to HubSpot’s digital marketing statistics, video remains a crucial internet marketing strategy for digital marketers. In fact, 87 percent of these marketers say video has helped them increase traffic and boost their brand’s online presence.
Leveraging video for online marketing can help increase your conversion rate by 85 percent. In addition, video can complement your content marketing strategy to increase engagement and generate leads.
An agency that offers video marketing as part of its digital marketing services will charge you $1,000 to $50,000 to run a video-based marketing campaign.
If you’re on a limited budget, you can leverage sophisticated cameras offered by mobile devices these days to create high-quality content that can showcase your customers and generate sales.
Videos recorded using your smartphone can be great for social advertising on social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok.
Voice Search Optimization (VSO)
VSO is the new and one of the most sought-after digital marketing strategies.
An agency offering VSO as a package in its digital marketing services customizes your featured snippets with relevant keywords to improve search.
VSO is finding its way into major online advertising platforms due to the increasing popularity of voice-activated assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, and Cortana.
With the voice control market project to reach $27.16 billion by 2025, VSO is quickly becoming one of the most valuable digital marketing methods for savvy business owners.
Be sure to set aside $600 to $2,000 per month for a VSO marketing campaign that’ll boost your business goals.
…before you go
How to Make the Most of Your Digital Marketing Budget
According to statistics, most big brands spend 10 to 20 percent of their revenue to bolster digital marketing efforts.
If you’re a small business with a tight budget, these tidbits will help you maximize your spending.
Set your Marketing Goals: Create realistic, specific, and measurable goals to track your campaign’s success.
Choose the Right Marketing Channels: All digital marketing channels aren’t the same. So make sure that you’re choosing a channel that works for your business model. Ideally, you want a channel that allows you to reach as many potential customers as possible.
Customize your Targeting: Marketing leaders should develop a campaign that targets the right market. Put differently, identify your target audience from the get-go to enable. The last thing you want is to spend your marketing money on the wrong group of people.
Set your Budget: This is a no-brainer. You need to establish your budget before starting your campaign to avoid overspending. Set an annual budget, then break it down into monthly spending. Also, track your budget.
Keep an Eye on the Trends: Be on the lookout for the latest digital marketing techniques to help you know what’s working and what’s not.
The Bottom Line
Digital marketing is not only effective but more affordable than traditional marketing.
Still, it is essential to know how much it’ll cost to run an effective digital marketing campaign.
Further, it is important to understand cost may vary depending on the size of your business, timelines, and target audience.
If you’re interested in running a digital marketing campaign that generates leads, increases conversion, and spurs your business’ growth, we can help.
Book a free consultation session today to speak to one of our digital marketing experts.
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