As a business, you have a set budget to allocate to advertising, and of course you want to be certain that it goes as far as possible and has the greatest possible impact.

When you’re deciding where to spend your advertising budget, which options do you consider? Perhaps you’re thinking about pay-per-click on Google or (less likely) on Bing.

Hopefully, if pay-per-click ads are on your radar, you’ll be thinking about advertising on social as well.

You might also be thinking about print advertising. ‘Traditional’ advertising (I’m thinking print and radio) is still a big industry.

If you’re feeling the lure of the printed page, ask yourself why. Is it because you’re seduced by the perceived prestige of seeing your business’ name in print?

Even a digital agency has to admit that the printed word can be powerful. Used in the right way, appearances in print publications can be a great boost to your image.

Really though, that right way is through newsworthy appearances, where your business is telling a story or doing something that will get people interested. Print PR is an incredible tool, and definitely not one to be underestimated.

However, I’d argue that paying for printed ads is another story. When it comes to social advertising vs print advertising, it’s pretty clear-cut.

Here’s why I’d argue that your ad budget is better spent on social than on a full-page spread in the local paper.

Reach

On social media, your reach is limited by the targeting options you choose. You could simultaneously show the same ad to someone meeting your criteria in the UK or in the USA, for example– whereas with print ads, your reach is limited to the readership of your chosen publication. Even a big publication is unlikely to offer you the flexibility to target multiple countries at once.

Price

Taking out a full-page spread in a national newspaper isn’t cheap. Reportedly, the cost of a full page ad in the Daily Mail would set a business back over £30,000– more reason, if any were needed, to avoid them like the plague. On a smaller scale, even newspapers can charge a substantial amount for their ad spreads.

Advertising through social media, on the other hand, is miles more affordable. For a well-optimised web traffic campaign on Facebook, you could expect to pay perhaps 12p per click– and at a minimum budget of £5 per day, that’s a whole lot more bang for your buck.

Don’t forget, too, that when taking out print ads you’ll pay upfront, before you see any results– whereas on social media, you’ll only ever be charged for the results your ad generates.

Measurement

How do you measure the results of a paid print ad? It’s notoriously difficult– not least because many of the figures involved come down to estimates. You’ll know in theory what the circulation numbers of your chosen publication might be– but how many of those people actually saw your ad? How many responded? How many took action?

When so much of the response to a print ad happens offline, it’s difficult to track– which also means it’s hard to calculate the return on your investment.

The analytics on paid social campaigns give you exact figures to work with. You’ll see how many unique people your ad has reached, as well as how many times it has been viewed in total. You’ll be able to see exactly how many people have taken a desired action– for example, clicked through to your site– and, if you use conversion-tracking pixels, exactly how many of those people carried out a desired action.

With those numbers, and knowing how much a conversion is worth to you, you’ll be able to work out exactly what return your social media ads are generating.

Where it’s viewed

Think about it. If the ultimate goal of your advert is to encourage people to purchase a product from your website, you want your audience’s journey there to be as straightforward as possible. It should be minimal effort for someone to go from ad to website, and social media makes that transition as smooth as it can be.

In one click they can be on your desired landing page and ready to take the next step toward converting.

If someone views a print ad offline, there’s no way for them to click and find out more. You’re relying on them to remember your ad or be so excited by what you have to say that they Google you on the spot– which, if we’re being honest with ourselves, is unlikely to happen.

Who it’s viewed by

I mentioned targeting a little earlier, but I think it bears mentioning again. Social advertising gives you such incredible control over who sees your content, almost no other form of advertising can match it.

All of the information you enter into your social profiles– not just your age and occupation, but all your interests, hobbies, causes– is fodder for canny advertisers. You can use your advertising budget to reach only the people who are relevant to your business, and who are already likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

By contrast, in a printed publication, you can only target your ads broadly. All you know about the people who see your ad is that they read a chosen publication– and although you might be able to make an educated guess about the kind of person they are, it will always just be guesswork.

Now, of course I’m biased. It should be no surprise to anybody that a social media manager thinks that social media ads are an incredibly affordable and powerful option for large and small businesses alike. Rest assured, though, that I wouldn’t be arguing the case if I hadn’t witnessed it time and again for myself.

I’ve seen social media achieve some incredible results for our clients where print ads have failed.

So if you’re thinking about your business’ advertising strategy and haven’t included advertising on social media, I’d certainly counsel you to think again.