AffinityX

Video Offers SMBs Opportunity Outside of Social

Facebook and Twitter are immensely popular with SMBs. In September, eMarketer published findings that they were the two most popular marketing channels for SMBs, with 80% of respondents to a survey saying they used Facebook and 51% using Twitter. The same poll found that the use of newspapers (17%) and television (10%) is flagging among SMBs.

Meanwhile, marketers aren’t simply using the social channels for display purposes, but are using them to deliver video ads. In fact, 75% of respondents planned to use more video throughout 2017.

This research shows that SMBs are rightfully seizing on digital methods to reach consumers. Unfortunately, it also shows that their approach to digital, and video especially, is limited in scope, which will hinder their ability to truly deliver a wide impact.

SMBs are clearly attracted because of the ease, but are also restricted by the walled garden nature of these social media platforms. The AffinityX team has advised SMBs in the past that Facebook should not be their only partner in creative and advertising endeavors. This holds true for video as well. Only delivering video via social media -- where it shows up in the feeds of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook users -- means that SMB advertisers are beholden to these channels’ rules and also limited to their scale.

Streaming video is an incredibly important part of the online consumer experience, providing SMB advertisers plenty of opportunity to reach and interact with consumers as they view video across the web. What SMBs may not know is that it’s not difficult or prohibitively expensive to leverage this kind of video advertising.

There is a huge opportunity here for the companies that already sell advertising to SMBs -- whether it’s print, TV, radio, search or traditional display -- to also offer programmatic video services that will help these SMBs get their ads outside of Facebook and across the web. This utilizes the same targeting logic behind social media advertising -- it can find both existing customers and prospects, down to specific regions, demographics and behaviors, and deliver them targeted advertising that will help SMBs grow.

If video is a priority for SMBs into 2018, then it’s of the utmost importance that anyone selling advertising to these SMBs helps guide them toward solutions to get their videos outside of social media’s walled gardens and in front of even more consumers.