Traditional vs. Digital Advertising - Why It's Time to Upgrade

Sometimes The Spark comes across business owners who tell us they’re too nervous to spend over $1,000 dollars on a Facebook Ad, but that they would comfortably spend that same amount on a billboard. Even more, they would be happy if just ONE person converted from that billboard.

Excuse us as we facepalm.

We know that every dollar you spend matters, and it’s crucial to get the maximum impact with those dollars. At the same time, we understand the wow factor when it comes to purchasing big billboards, commercials, and print ads; they are tangible purchases that you can share and feel proud of.

A physical billboard costs average $750 to $1,500 per month in rural areas, $1,500 to $2,000 in small to midsize cities, and $14,000 and up in larger markets. Digital billboards can cost over $15,000, depending on the location. For local television stations, advertisers can expect to pay a minimum of $5 per 1,000 viewers for a 30-second commercial. Based on data provided by Adage, a 30-second spot broadcast nationally averaged around $115,000 in 2020. And for a print ad, the cost can be anywhere from $500 to $20,000, depending on whether the publication is local or national, the size of your ad, whether you use color and if you’ve negotiated a multiple-ad rate. You can spend as much as $500,000 to buy the inside front cover of some national magazines!

But are you able to track how many eyes saw that ad? Are you able to then send a follow-up email or ad to every set of eyes who have seen your billboard? How about reaching the rest of the state?

In comparison, digital advertising can feel like an abyss, and there’s often fear that it’s not working because you can’t put your hands on it. But the big advantage is that with Facebook ads, you can follow your dollar. Boost a post, and it reaches 1,000 people. With a Facebook ad, you can get in front of every Facebook user in the specific area you are targeting, see how many users saw your ad, how many clicked on it, how many liked it, how many clicked through, and then how many follow up and purchase. You can literally count every dollar made back!

Here’s another example: our team was given a monthly budget of $1,200 (dedicating $3,600 total to our first quarter of ads. Period.) for a legal client. With that $1,200, our clients were able to see how many users from their targeted audience saw their ad. Then they pushed users to their website (or feed the pixel monster) and we were now able to watch where users were clicking on their website — is there a specific blog they are reaching? Is it hard for them to fill out the contact form? All these questions can be answered. Throughout the end of the month, and for less than budgeted — our team TRACKED 43 warm leads, a 43% increase in website traffic (from Facebook ALONE). Even better: they have seen an increase in consultations scheduled EVERY MONTH since launching our funnel! We are able to track every dollar made back from the Facebook Ads for them.

And what if FOOT TRAFFIC is your main goal (lookin’ at you museums, restaurants, and tourist attractions)? Facebook provides offline event tracking. We can get a rough estimate of how many users went from online engaged fans to in-person conversions, and you can keep a better track of your Return on Investment!