Targeted Advertising Archives - Post and Courier Advertising

Charleston’s Choice 2026

Posted on April 7, 2026 | by Thom Leaman | Leave a Comment

The Big Idea: Turn Local Love Into Measurable Growth

How Charleston’s Choice 2026 helps established favorites and emerging brands turn community love into year‑round revenue.

years of Charleston’s Choice
celebrating local favorites

30,000+

engaged readers invited to
nominate & vote in 2026

6,000+

businesses nominated
in 2025 across the Lowcountry

125,000

votes cast in 2025,
creating massive word‑of‑mouth

Charleston’s Choice is not just a contest—it is the moment each year when the Lowcountry pauses to recognize the businesses they simply cannot live without. Now in its 11th year, the 2026 program again invites more than 30,000 engaged readers to nominate and vote for their favorite local businesses across 350+ categories, from food and nightlife to home services, health, shopping, and more.

In 2025, over 6,000 businesses earned nominations and more than 125,000 votes were cast, giving local brands massive word‑of‑mouth exposure and recognition that lasts long beyond the ballot. For 2026, Charleston’s Choice is designed to serve two core groups: long‑time favorites ready to defend and expand their reputation, and emerging businesses that want to get on the map fast.

▲ Why It Matters for Established Favorites

Turn past wins into a 2026 loyalty engine.
If your business has been nominated or placed before, Charleston’s Choice is now part of your brand story—and 2026 is about amplifying that advantage. A pre‑populated ballot means prior nominees are already in the system, making it easier for loyal customers to find and support you during Phase 1 (May 1–29).

Built‑in head start

Upgrade listings into full‑funnel touchpoints.
Upgraded listings let you stand out with photos, descriptions, and links, turning a simple “vote” button into a full‑funnel brand touchpoint. Instead of a plain name on a list, customers see who you are, what you offer, and how to engage with you—right at the moment they are most motivated to choose their favorites.

Visibility + depth

Layer on sponsorships for market dominance.
Category, group, and package sponsorships add premium visibility: fixed 728×90 placements, print ads, and high‑impact digital positions across postandcourier.com and the ballot itself. Your name stays front and center while customers are actively deciding where to spend their money in the year ahead, creating proof you can use in advertising, hiring, and sales all year long.

Defend & grow

■ Why It’s a Launchpad for Newcomers

Compress years of awareness into one season.
For businesses that are new to Charleston’s Choice—or even new to the market—this promotion compresses years of awareness‑building into a focused, highly visible window. Readers are actively looking for “the next great” restaurant, shop, service provider, or experience in their neighborhood, giving newer brands a rare chance to be discovered alongside long‑time favorites.

Fast‑track exposure

Tell your story with upgraded listings.
An upgraded listing gives your brand the space to properly introduce itself: your story, your visuals, your links, and a built‑in share button that makes social amplification easy. Instead of hoping people stumble across your name, you give them a clear reason to click, explore, and vote.

Brand introduction

Choose packages that scale with your ambition.
Entry‑level options like upgraded listings or single‑category sponsorships provide an efficient path into a crowded marketplace. Bronze, Silver, and Gold packages add multi‑channel reach with bundled print, digital, and ballot exposure—helping new businesses quickly earn finalist or winner status, then leverage that badge on their website, signage, and marketing all year long.

Flexible investment

★ What’s New in 2026: Frictionless “Text to Vote”

Turn everyday interactions into votes.
The 2026 program introduces dedicated “Text to Vote” keywords, giving both established and new businesses a low‑friction way to turn everyday customer interactions into nominations and votes. With a simple SMS—no links, no QR codes needed—customers can take action in seconds, whether they are in your storefront, on the phone, or seeing your message on social or email.

Frictionless action

Add Text to Vote as a built‑in or standalone lever.
These keywords are included in packages, group and category sponsorships, and upgraded listings—and can also be sold on their own. That flexibility lets you test the waters or layer “Text to Vote” onto your existing marketing mix, creating a seamless bridge between your real‑world customer base and the Charleston’s Choice ballot.

New 2026 lever

▼ How Charleston Businesses Plug In

Understand the three phases and pick your level.
Charleston’s Choice runs in three clear phases: Phase 1 nominations (May 1–29), Phase 2 finalist voting (June 5–July 3), and Phase 3 celebration and publication of winners and finalists in The Post and Courier in September. Throughout, you can choose the level of participation that matches your goals and budget—from upgraded listings to Bronze/Silver/Gold packages and the exclusive Title Sponsorship for maximum market dominance.

Structured timeline

Lock in sponsorships before they sell out.
To reserve a group or category sponsorship, or to discuss the right package for your business, contact charlestonschoice@postandcourier.com and secure placement before key categories are sold out. Whether you are defending your title or stepping into Charleston’s Choice for the first time, the big idea is simple: show up where local love is being measured—and turn that love into measurable business growth.

Act early

The Big Idea: Stop Asking AI For Help, Start Giving It a Job

Posted on April 7, 2026 | by Thom Leaman | Leave a Comment

Time Saver: AI Workflow Automations

Five practical AI workflows Charleston teams can “hire” to reclaim hours every week.

70%

of knowledge workers expected
to have an AI “robot” by 2026

4–8

hours per week saved
by automating reporting alone

50%

faster research & prep
with AI‑generated briefs

60–70%

of reading, writing &
coordination time AI can touch

Most teams still use AI like a smart search bar. The real edge comes when you give it jobs instead of one‑off tasks. Click into each workflow below to see what to automate, how it works, and how to localize it for Charleston.

▲ Gaining Ground: AI Workflows You Can “Hire” Today

🤖The Big Idea: From Prompts to Workflows
▾

Most Charleston marketers still copy‑paste from AI into existing processes. The leaders are turning recurring loops—research, reporting, follow‑ups—into AI‑run workflows that quietly save hours every week while you focus on judgment calls.

Mindset shift

📚Workflow #1: Auto‑Research Briefs for Pitches
▾

Drop a new company, category, or RFP into a simple “Research Queue” and let AI build a one‑page brief: recent news, local trends, likely goals, and objections. Your reps start every Charleston pitch with a cheat sheet instead of 10 browser tabs.

Pre‑meeting time saver

📝Workflow #2: Meeting Shadow Assistant
▾

Use a transcription tool in Zoom or Teams, then feed the transcript to AI for summaries, decisions, action items, and a draft recap email. Instead of spending Sunday nights writing follow‑ups, you click “approve and send” after each key meeting.

Instant recaps

📥Workflow #3: Inbox Triage & Draft Replies
▾

Route emails and Teams messages into “Urgent,” “Needs response,” and “FYI,” then let AI draft thoughtful replies in your voice. You batch‑review and send in 15–20 minutes instead of losing half a day to inbox avoidance and context‑switching.

Calmer inbox

■ Holding Steady: Core Channels, New Brains

✉️Workflow #4: Prompt‑to‑Campaign Builder
▾

Modern platforms can take a plain‑language brief—“re‑engage 60‑day inactives in Mount Pleasant with a locals‑only offer”—and build the email series, subject lines, and timing for you. You still approve and localize, but AI handles the heavy lifting.

Faster campaigns

📊Workflow #5: Weekly “Robot Reporter” for Metrics
▾

Every Monday morning, AI pulls your web, ads, newsletter, and CRM data, then writes a 10‑bullet summary: what’s up, what’s down, and three moves to make this week. You start with a story instead of a spreadsheet.

Reporting on autopilot

🧠Human‑in‑the‑Loop Guardrails
▾

The best AI workflows don’t send anything without a person checking tone, accuracy, and timing. In Charleston’s relationship‑driven market, AI drafts and organizes while humans protect nuance, brand, and local context.

Still essential

⚙️Use the Tools You Already Have
▾

You don’t need a new platform for every workflow. Start by connecting AI to the stack you already live in—HubSpot, email, calendar, project tools—so the friction goes down instead of up for your team.

Low‑lift adoption

▼ Losing Steam: Busywork You Can Retire

🔁Random One‑Off Prompts
▾

Asking AI to fix a sentence or brainstorm headlines is fine, but it doesn’t move the needle if the underlying workflow stays manual. The real ROI comes from automating loops you run every week, not one‑time requests.

Low leverage

📉Manual Reporting & Slide Decks
▾

Copy‑pasting numbers into slides and then staring at them until a story appears is fast becoming a relic. AI can assemble the first draft of your dashboards and commentary so humans can focus on decisions, not data wrangling.

Replace with AI drafts

📅Unstructured Meetings Without Recaps
▾

Meetings that generate no clear notes, decisions, or follow‑ups waste the very time you’re trying to save. Pairing transcription with AI‑written recaps turns every key conversation into a documented plan in minutes.

High hidden cost

🧩Always‑On Tabs & Context Switching
▾

Jumping between inbox, calendar, reports, and chat all day quietly kills productivity. When AI runs the connective tissue—triage, summaries, and drafts—you recover focused blocks of time for deep work that actually moves the needle.

Quiet time drain

Level Up Your Local Marketing

Posted on March 18, 2026 | by Thom Leaman | Leave a Comment

Level Up Your Local Marketing

What’s gaining ground, holding steady, and losing steam in Charleston marketing right now.

96%

of marketers
now using AI tools

22%

of local 3-pack results
now show paid ads (up from 1%)

49%

of orgs increasing
in-person event budgets

451%

increase in qualified leads
with marketing automation

Click into each trend below to see what Charleston marketers are doubling down on — and which tactics are quietly fading out.

▲ Gaining Ground

🤖AEO & AI Search Visibility
▾

Answer Engine Optimization is overtaking traditional SEO. Charleston firms need AI‑readable content to appear in Google AI Overviews and voice answers.

Rising fast in 2026

✨In‑Person & Local Events
▾

Live events are back as a growth engine. Lowcountry roundtables, sponsor activations, and community meetups are delivering bottom‑funnel results.

49% budget increase

📈Marketing Automation
▾

Email sequences, lead nurturing, and CRM automation are essential for Charleston firms to compete. Avg ROI: $42 for every $1 spent on email alone.

451% more leads

👥Buying Group Targeting
▾

Smart marketers in Charleston are shifting from chasing individual leads to reaching entire decision‑making groups across finance, IT, and leadership.

New best practice

■ Holding Steady

📍Local SEO & Google Business
▾

Still essential for Charleston visibility, but organic reach is shrinking as paid ads crowd 3‑pack results. Maintain & optimize — don’t abandon.

Requires paid boost

🎥Video Marketing
▾

Short‑form video remains a reliable engagement driver for Charleston brands. 60% of B2B companies now invest here. Human‑led content outperforms polished production.

60% B2B adoption

✉️Email & SMS Campaigns
▾

The Lowcountry’s most cost‑effective channel. 70% of marketers report positive ROI. Personalization and segmentation are now table stakes.

70% positive ROI

📝Content Marketing
▾

Long‑form blogs and thought leadership hold value for credibility — especially for Charleston professional services. Quality over quantity is the 2026 standard.

75% plan to invest

▼ Losing Steam

🔒Gated Content & MQL Funnels
▾

Traditional “fill the form, get the PDF” tactics are losing traction. B2B buyers now research independently. Ungated content builds more trust in Charleston’s market.

Funnel control fading

📤Cold Outreach & SDR Blasts
▾

Spray‑and‑pray email blasts and cold LinkedIn DMs are hitting diminishing returns. Charleston decision‑makers tune out generic outreach. Signal‑based targeting wins instead.

Declining conversion

🔍Keyword‑Only SEO
▾

Stuffing pages with keywords without structured, AI‑readable content is obsolete. Google’s AI Overviews reward clarity and entity trust — not keyword density.

Organic clicks dropping

📅Generic Social Posting
▾

Scheduled posts with no community strategy generate minimal pipeline. Charleston businesses need employee advocacy and authentic storytelling to stand out.

Low organic reach

Why You Are Not Reaching The Right Audience

Posted on July 9, 2021 | by Post and Courier Staff

As any good business owner knows, your audience drives your success. Why? Because without an audience, you are not selling anything. Therefore, you do not have a business.

It is a simple equation that even the best entrepreneurs and business savvy individuals miss the mark on.

So, why are you not reaching the right audience?

Your Content Falls Flat

Content is key. So, why is your content not everything?

Perhaps you pour a significant amount of money into content creation, but you still are not seeing the results you desire. It may be you

r messaging.

Does your content reflect your business? Does it tell a stranger everything they need to know to entice them to engage with your advertising or business?

Your content should tell a story without overwhelming a potential lead.

Check out this way to be seen by 1.8 million people

Your Audience Is Not Defined

Identifying who you want to sell to is going to benefit your business and save you money overall.

If you do not have a defined audience, you could be overspending on advertising. Your advertising may be getting seen, perhaps skyrocketing with interactions. But the leads are minimal.

Why? The money you invested in digital advertising is being fed to the wrong viewers.

People are seeing your ad, maybe interacting with it, but a target audience was not defined. This causes Google, Facebook, Instagram – whatever the platform – to focus on one goal: spend the money it was given.

For example, Facebook and Instagram ads are great ways to reach people and grow your business in a digital space. But, if you do not identify who your audience is, target the right interests, income, area – you may be reaching the wrong people and wasting money.

Without a deep understanding of your audience and digital advertising, you are nurturing an expensive brand awareness campaign. Brand awareness is great, but leads are better.

You Do Not Know Who You Are Selling To

As a business owner, you engage with customers, know who they are, and can determine any customer’s needs. But do you know your community, the place where you are offering your services/business?

A common mistake business owners make is that, while you are passionate about your business, does your potential audience feel the same?

Take the time to research your local community. Find out the median income, are there more families or single individuals, what is the most common pastime? Questions that resemble a dating profile should be the questions you ask yourself when determining your target audience.

If you have a better understanding of who the audience is that surrounds your business, the better you can tailor content, spend your ad dollars, and grow your business.

The Post and Courier knows the community and has built up more than 250 years of trust within that community. Better yet, the community knows The Post and Courier. We have developed a trustworthy, affluent, and statewide audience over the years. With that, The Post and Courier has developed a team of knowledgeable experts that efficiently tailor your message into captivating content for digital advertising and print advertising campaigns that help you tap into THE audience.

7 Things Facebook Advertisers Should Know in 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 | by Peyton Riddle

2021 is bringing more changes to the social media advertising landscape than we’ve seen in a long time. Between redesigns, new apps, and a major shift around user data privacy, businesses have a lot to pay attention to over the coming year.

Here are some of the most pertinent changes and updates that affect advertisers on the largest social media platform.

User data privacy changes

Facebook has wrapped itself up in an ongoing conflict with Apple. As Apple emphasizes the importance of user’s data privacy, Facebook has growing concerns about how this limits advertisers’ ability to efficiently target people.

As Apple’s latest privacy-focused iPhone operating system rolls out to phones across the globe, Facebook is implementing changes to ads manager that prepare for limitations and delays on ad analytics and user data. The biggest thing Facebook is recommending advertisers do to prepare is create and prioritize 8 “events” that report how users interact with your website after clicking on your ad.

Facebook’s Redesign

The redesign of Facebook was loved by many, and not-so-loved by many more. Regardless, it’s here to stay. The primary change to note is that the design places more emphasis on Groups and Events – the “two biggest reasons people visit Facebook every day.”

Business manager settings have also shifted around as a part of the redesign. If you find yourself unable to find certain features, there is a way to get back to the old interface for your business page.

Users can no longer opt out of Facebook’s redesigned interface.

To do this, rather than clicking on your page from a shortcut on the main Facebook “feed” page, start in the business manager homepage, business.facebook.com. From here, you can select any of your pages in the center of the screen. Clicking the “Go To Page” button will bring you to the page interface you’re likely much more familiar with.

One thing I’ve found is that it is much easier to search and sort through your page’s posts in this interface. The redesign has removed the “posts” tab entirely from pages.

This frustration with the redesign is alleviated somewhat by the “creator studio” feature, which shows valuable data on your posts and allows you to boost posts through your content library. But for those who are familiar with promoting their page though an older interface, there are still options for you.

More text is allowed on ads

Facebook once penalized ads with higher amounts of image text in auctions and delivery. As of September 7, 2020, this has seemingly been changed. All warnings and labels that previously told advertisers that overusing text would limit their ad’s reach have been removed. It’s hard to say if this means the policy changed, or if Facebook simply no longer warns advertisers about this.

Hashtags on Facebook

While most creators will steer clear from adding hashtags to Facebook posts, the platform is implementing recommended tag listings within the post composer. In September of 2020, the test had only expanded to a specific audience, as not all users see the new listings. It could be a good way to broaden your conversation. Statistically, they do seem to be taking flight, but implementing them may or may not be worth the added effort.

New “Collab” app

Facebook has begun rolling out its latest TikTok competitor. While the Facebook-owned Instagram already has “Reels” to compete with the short-form video content app, Collab will focus on collaborative music making.

Advertisers should be paying attention to Collab, Facebook’s latest answer to TikTok.

The standalone app recently came out of public beta testing and launched on the App store in December 2020. It is not fully clear yet how advertising will play into the service, and if the existing ads manager platform will adopt Collab ads.

With the meteoric success of TikTok, it’s worth paying attention to all competitors in 2021.

Image owner rights

According to the social media behemoth itself, about 3 billion people use Facebook’s platforms, including Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. In other words, where Facebook goes, its other platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp are sure to follow.

Facebook announced in late 2020 that “certain partners” can claim ownership over their images, and then moderate their usage across Facebook’s platforms. As it stands, this implementation could affect re-posted content on Facebook and Instagram in various ways. The current options that an image owner has when it identifies unauthorized usage are:

– Let the image stay up
– Issue a take-down notice
– Or use a territorial block, making it invisible in copywritten countries

Facebook Business Suite

As Facebook continues to roll its main platform and Instagram together, as shown by the merging of messages on both apps, the company has introduced another platform for content creation and scheduling.

Business Suite helps users to:

Save time – Post to Facebook and Instagram at the same time and manage posts in one place to stay connected to both communities.
Stay up to date – Get all your Facebook and Instagram messages, notifications, and alerts in one place so you can stay up to date and respond to all your customers more easily.
View business results – See what is working with Facebook and Instagram insights and learn what your customers are looking for.

While the message management tool is the same as Pages Managers, there is also a user-friendly analytics integration, making it easier to get an in-depth look at post performance.

As this tool is rolled out, keep in mind that Facebook intends to make Business Suite “the main interface for businesses of all sizes who use Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.”

Breaking down Facebook and Apple’s fight over targeted advertising

Posted on January 5, 2021 | by Peyton Riddle

There is a war raging between Facebook and Apple, two of the biggest controlling forces in the targeted advertising space. The conflict has been building for months, and it is now in full swing, with both users and businesses caught in the middle.

The struggle is over Apple’s fight for user data privacy vs Facebook’s need to gather user data in order to help businesses deliver targeted ads. So let’s first break down the changes Apple has made that started this all.

Apple’s push for privacy

When the iPhone operating system iOS 14 released last fall, Apple doubled down on their continued efforts to ensure users that their personal data is protected on an iPhone. The company detailed an upcoming system that would force every available app to ask the user for permission to save their data.

Users have always had some level of control over their privacy on iphones, which continued to be the most sold smartphone in 2020, but this update made a large splash. Now, users would be presented with a large notification upon first opening an app that tells them they can deny the app any ability to track them. Surely most users would make the choice to protect their data.

All apps are required to show users this message when first opened

This could have a strong, negative impact on businesses that rely on user data to help their social ads target the right audience.

There was such a strong initial pushback against the requirement that Apple decided to delay the enforcement of this feature until 2021 after its announcement in September 2020. And now that the feature has arrived on app-makers’ doorsteps, Facebook is scrambling.

Facebook’s campaign against Apple

Facebook’s fight against this change began with a series of announcements to users across its main app and its business manager platform.

The message read, “Apple has announced product and policy changes that may significantly impact the way you can run ads, measure performance, and engage customers.” It also linked to a blog update that laid out a more detailed response to Apple’s decision.

In a more reactionary section titled “Our Response”, Facebook said that they disagree with Apple’s approach, but they have no choice but to comply, or else Facebook will be blocked from the App Store. They claim that rejecting the policy and being blocked would “only further harm the businesses and users that rely on our services.”

Perhaps the most attention grabbing tactic Facebook has taken was placing multiple full-page ads in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Washington Post. The second ad, titled “Apple vs. the free internet,” the tech giant aligned itself with the needs of small businesses and free ad-supported websites in an effort to appeal to readers.

Apple CEO Tim Cook took to Twitter to defend the company’s decision, saying “We believe users should have the choice over the data that is being collected about them and how it’s used. Facebook can continue to track users across apps and websites as before, App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 will just require that they ask for your permission first.

How this affects your business

It needs to be made clear that both businesses wrapped up in this conflict are invested only for the financial impact these features have. Facebook clearly cares how much money businesses are willing to spend on utilizing Facebook’s swath of user data for targeted ads. And Apple is leaning into privacy features because it has become a major selling point for their products in recent years. It is perhaps their largest marketing push in the last year.

So while Facebook claims this campaign is being done in support of small businesses, this is clearly an appeal to the humanity of users. They want negative word of mouth to start spreading against Apple, in hopes that the feature gets rolled back.

But at the same time, nothing Facebook is claiming is false. This change does have the potential to decrease the reach and link clicks of businesses advertisements through the platform.

So in the end, it falls on your business to decide how you want to market yourself while this fight ensues. If the bulk of your marketing is done through facebook ads, it might be worth investing in other ad platforms that aren’t as impacted by Apple’s privacy feature. Some businesses are focusing more on their Android phone applications, as the Google Play Store is not presenting users with the same privacy notifications.

What’s important here is that businesses don’t need to pick a side. These are two major tech companies fighting to keep their marketing effective. Don’t get caught in the middle, just stay informed and find ways to shift your marketing efforts while users make their choice for either privacy or personalization. It truly could go either way.

To read more from us about balancing targeted ads in the age of digital privacy, check out our recent blog.

Better 4 Business: Facebook or Instagram

Posted on December 1, 2020 | by Post and Courier Staff

Social media has become a dominating platform with 3.2 billion users worldwide. Facebook and Instagram making up a large portion of that use, especially when it comes to business and social media marketing.

While the excitement of using social media to gain more business is intriguing more than ever, you may not need to utilize both social media platforms to see immense success.

The decision and comparison can be overwhelming. We have taken the top attributes of each and broken them down for you to decide which is Better 4 Your Business.

Facebook 4 Business

Facebook, being the matriarch of social media, has many attributes that it brings to the business table.

Industries like alcohol, Food & Beverage, sports teams, hotels, and non-profits being the breadwinner of engagement. So, businesses do well.

For starters, a wider audience. Facebook has 1.6 Billion users, while Instagram has about 112.5 million. This audience is heavily diverse but has an older audience. What those numbers tell us is that Facebook has more opportunity for more people to see your content, paid or organic.

What those numbers also tell us is that while there is a high potential for more people to see your content, they most likely will not see or engage with it. Facebook has a significantly low engagement rate of only 0.09%.

This is why targeting ads is so important. And Facebook does this factor in a great way.

The implementation of an interactive carousel ad. This ad format has shown great success for a B2B audience. This leads to retargeting.

Retargeting tracks when prospects visit your site and then display a relevant ad to that user when they are on the platform.

Using a look-a-like audience to target the ideal audience is also a feature that Facebook does well. You can specifically target individuals with a specific demographic, interest, etc. This helps to strategically pinpoint an audience rather than hoping your ad reaches who you want it to reach.

In addition, retargeting via Facebook not only gains a more specified audience but plays well in SEO tactics.

“Facebook retargeting, in cohesion with SEO tactics, places an undisputed level of efficiency. Rather than targeting a new demographic of customers, using the pixel you are targeting users who have shown the initial interest based on SEO.” Seo Marketer

Another point worth mentioning is that Facebook’s online shopping presence is top-notch. Facebook Marketplace is a mogul in social media shopping.

Outside of shopping, Facebook’s business pages are highly reputable. In fact, having a Facebook Business Page unlocks several benefits for your business in the long run.

Insert Instagram.

Instagram 4 Business

Instagram has captured social media like its iconic logo. So much so, that other social media platforms actually use its design as a model, Facebook included.

Instagram is the trendier of the comparative duo. The demographics reflect this. Instagram tends to attract the younger audience, millennials more specifically.

What is most intriguing about the fact that a young audience drives Instagram stats, is that users report that they follow at least one business religiously.

Another thing to note? One-third of Instagram users have made an online purchase within the Instagram app. Sixty-percent of users uses Instagram to seek out new products, or have discovered new products using the app. This is why the influencer industry is booming!

Perhaps the best part of advertising with Instagram is that about 72% of marketers are currently making use of it.
Instagram also shines in social media for the median 1.22 percent engagement rate it carries. The lowest engagement industry is retail which is .67 percent.

That’s nearly 7 times higher than Facebook’s median engagement rate. In fact, this is 5 times higher than the highest engaged industry on Facebook.

Now, to be fair, again – Instagram does have a significantly lower amount of users than Facebook.

One thing Instagram undoubtedly does well at is the Instagram shop capability. Similar to Facebook’s carousel feature of showcasing products or a list of services in a way that does not feel like you are being sold to, this does exactly that.

Instagram also uses the same targeting, retargeting, and look-a-like audience models as Facebook. Actually, Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012. So, while they are two different companies, the puls side is that they both use Facebook Business Manager to post ads.

Then, the most obvious difference between Facebook and Instagram is that Instagram is more visibly pleasing. For most ads that you are served within the app, you do not even realize that you are viewing an ad. The flawless advertising makes Instagram a successful platform in this sense.

Best 4 Business

So, who reigns champ? Let’s review.

Facebook has 1.6 billion users compared to Instagram’s 11.2 million users. However, Instagram’s median engagement rate is nearly 7 times higher than Facebook’s. While this may attribute to more users causing the engagement rate to water down, breaking down the engagement rate per industry returns the same results.

Instagram is also geared towards a younger audience, but an audience that yearns to shop. Facebook also has a great Facebook shopping capability, the site shows great plays in carousel advertisements.

Additionally, having a Facebook Business page may hold a greater weight than not having one. Facebook Business is a noteworthy complement to your website and business.

Also mentioned above the fact that Facebook owns Instagram. So, regardless of which you prefer, both have the same advertising tools out of Facebook Business Manager. You won’t be jipped of that aspect if you choose exclusively Instagram.

Honestly, the two things the decision boils down to are what you want your content to be and who your audience is. Are you looking for more pictures or videos? Younger or older audience? Broad or specific audience? Breaking those down will help you to decide which is better 4 your business.

Another truth?

Having one over another will not hurt your business. Having both definitely will not hurt your business. What will hurt your business is not accurately strategizing your content and advertising on these platforms.

What could be Better 4 Business is partnering with The Post and Courier.

What is Digital Marketing?

Posted on November 3, 2020 | by Post and Courier Staff

What is ‘Digital Marketing’?

If you’re a business owner, you hear this a lot. In short, digital marketing is the term for your company’s online marketing efforts.

Tools To Use

Google search, social media, email, online advertising, and your website are all examples of tools you can use to enhance your company’s digital presence.

Do I Have to Pay For All of Those?

While social media, email marketing, and your website are not technically paid advertising. Each avenue contributes to the overall online presence of your business.

When people naturally come across your social media posts, for example, the sharing of that content helps reach an even larger audience without any cost to you!

Is Social Media and a Website Digital Marketing?

It is important to have a website and social media profiles to be an information location for potential and continuing customers.

A great example of digital marketing is having a review section on both your website and social media for customers to tell others how great your business is.

A website is also key to having your company on the digital map.

By having a well-put-together website, your business will be found easily by potential customers via Google search. It is also a place for online ads to be linked to when seen by potential customers in other areas of the internet.

How Does My Investment Help Me With Future Marketing?

Another reason to invest in digital marketing is that it is the easiest way to reach your target audience: online.

This will allow you to see real-time, measurable results from your marketing efforts. You can adjust as you need to, and using that data to create future advertising.

Using your website and social media, you can funnel money into your marketing to best reach your target audience.

Paid digital marketing efforts include displays and banners, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and boosted social media posts and Facebook Ads.

Find out how you can apply digital marketing to your business with the Post and Courier here!

4 Unique Hacks for Facebook Advertising

Posted on October 13, 2020 | by Peyton Riddle

If you have any experience running multiple ads on Facebook or Instagram through business manager, you probably think the process is standard and straightforward.

The truth is, it can be. You can duplicate your old ads and change up the creative or targeting slightly, and get a whole new audience for your advertisements. You can save tons of custom audiences in your ad account and reuse them for various ad campaigns. The process is quite easy to get a hang of.

But the tools that business manager provides you with can allow for some creative ways to market your business and find a valuable audience online.

I’ll run through some of the more unique and useful hacks for Facebook Advertising through business manager.

Unicorn Ad Targeting

This hack goes against conventional advertising wisdom, at first glance. But depending on your business, it could lead to stronger customer acquisition and retention.

The idea of unicorn ad targeting is that you can combine unrelated interests to get such unique targeting that the customer can’t help but pay attention. Audiences have become very used to seeing advertisements that target one of their interests. But they aren’t used to seeing ads that target multiple of their unique interests.

For example, you can target someone who has an interest in boating and sunflowers. Your ad can sell them a boat flag that features a sunflower. The people who fall into this audience and see this ad will be very surprised to see this overlap and will think something like, “wow, this ad really was made for me.”

The goal here isn’t to shy away from the public’s aversion to data tracking. The goal is to lean into it so that the viewer stops in their tracks and strongly remembers your ad. You’re not hiding anything here, when it comes to customer targeting.

The reason why I said this goes against conventional wisdom, is because this might feel like a weaker use of your money. Why spend $50 to target such a small group of people? Surely your estimated reach numbers will be higher if you were to align related interests in your targeting. This is true, but through unicorn targeting, your ad will catch attention much better and customers will naturally remember you more.

Create a Web Traffic Bomb

Facebook ads can be used to send a rush of users to your product or web page. This is especially useful if your business benefits from being listed on any page that shows trending products, pages, or articles.

The idea here is that you can use business manager to serve ads to the widest and cheapest audience possible. This tends to be by using audience network as your placement, since this tends to be very cheap and reaches a large number of users.

You can also expand your location targeting wider than you typically would want to. It doesn’t matter so much if the users end up purchasing your product or service. You just want the clicks.

Once this traffic bomb starts occurring on your page, aggregate or other “trending now” type of services or websites will lift you to the top and people will find you that way. This creates a stronger impression with the user than your original paid ad would have. They are being told by a trusted service that your business is valuable among their peers.

Utilize Messenger Ads

One of the more underutilized placements in business manager is Facebook Messenger ads. These ads appear like traditional ads in the users feed, but the clickthrough takes them into facebook direct messaging, rather than a landing page you provided.

These ads can create a conversational relationship between your business and your potential customers. And the approach you should take to make the best of these ads is to use them for customer segmentation.

You have the unique advantage through messenger of finding out more about your customer lead. You can make note of what the users actually says their interests or traits are. And you can ultimately send them into applicable funnels for further marketing.

But how should you converse with the user once you have permission to message them? One good way is to apply active listening. You can set up a default initial message, when they click through, that asks them if they are a novice or expert at your industry service or product. And then you can make note of their experience level in your reply.

You don’t actually have to come up with a new product to sell them based on their experience level, if you don’t already have one. But you can acknowledge their answer and present them the product in a way that addresses their experience level.

As an example, lets figure you’re selling a standing desk product. When the customer clicks on your messenger ad, they get a message from you asking if they are a first-time standing desk user, or an experience user looking for a better desk.

If they respond saying they are a new user, you can reply saying “our desk is great for new users and is easy to swap between standing and sitting, as you get used to standing at work!”

If the user is an experienced user, you can craft a response saying “our desk outperforms the competition by using advanced hydraulics to achieve a smooth and fast lift into standing mode!”

Both responses fluff up the value of your product, but don’t’ distinctly state that your product is either only for beginners or experts. You sell these audiences the same product, but you make them feel listened to and acknowledged. The path to conversion then becomes much easier for you.

Skip Straight to Remarketing Ads

This hack says that remarketing is so much more valuable than regular marketing that you should skip the first step entirely.

Traditionally, you would set up an ad to run on facebook networks and then capture the info of the people who interact with your ad and then remarket to them. You create a second impression on the user after they already have brand recognition with you. They are now much more likely to make a final purchase.

The truth is that remarketed ads are 10 times more effective than regular display ads. The click through rate for retargeted ads averages at 0.7% compared to the average of 0.07% for traditional ads.

If your business spends $100 of your marketing budget on targeted ads, but only $10 on remarketed ads after running your initial campaign, you’re doing it backwards. Even if you don’t skip out on the initial ad campaign, as I suggested in the header of this segment, you should at least spend the heavier portion of your budget on retargeting.

The cost per click for remarketed audiences is significantly lower and you’ll end up with more conversions, under the same ad budget.

Social Media Advertising: Facebook vs Instagram

Posted on September 29, 2020 | by Peyton Riddle

The year 2020 has shown us that social media advertising is here to stay, and that allocating your budget to successful campaigns with a high ROI is more important than before. Many times businesses feel the return on print advertising can’t be accurately measured. The beauty of marketing via social media channels is the variety of insights provided that can be analyzed to continually improve your campaigns to achieve successful results.

Gone are the days where social media was solely for social interaction. In fact, research shows that 52% of all online brand discovery still happens in public social feeds (organic & paid). This suggests that the majority of consumers use Instagram and Facebook to investigate a new company before even visiting their website!

Build brand awareness and loyalty by engaging with your followers and curating a feed that gives consumers a feeling of trust and relatability. Of course this means understanding the algorithms and the importance of curating captivating content. Let’s break down common questions surrounding social media advertising.

What are the benefits of social media marketing?

Social media is proven to increase brand awareness, inbound traffic, conversion rates, customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and most importantly is measurable and cost effective.

Audience Growth: Facebook v Instagram

Of all social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram are proven to be the most interactive and can produce the best ROI. However, the benefits of each are very subjective and depend on which features are being used, your industry, audience, and other factors.

Facebook
- Facebook launched in February 2004, and introduced Facebook Ads in November of 2007. The platform was originally created to help people stay in-touch with family and friends and became an advertising powerhouse with the launch of Facebook Ads and Business pages in 2007.According to Statista, Facebook reported almost 1.79 billion daily active users and overall, daily active users accounted for 66% of monthly active users. This number continues to grow by 9% compared to the year before, despite the speculation that Facebook is “dying”.

Instagram
- Instagram launched in October 2010 and is a younger platform focused on storytelling through images and now instagram reels and stories. Instagram ran its first ad in November 2013. By 2017, Instagram was averaging more than 2 million businesses with purchased ads, compared to Facebook’s 5 million.
- However, according to Statista, Instagram has over 500 million daily active users out of 1 billion monthly active users, making Instagram a powerhouse when it comes to audience engagement.

Audience: Facebook v Instagram

Facebook may not have the highest engagement, but because it is the oldest platform the audience is huge, with more than 2.45 billion monthly active users. Facebook differs from other social media platforms that show strong trends in users by age. The average age for a Facebook user ranges from 18-49, with little variance in between. However, Facebook is the most popular social network among seniors and the majority of the users are in the United States.

Of this 1.79 billion daily users, the ad audience reach for the U.S. is only 183 million people. This audience size has also seen a decrease in the past year from 3% to .4% - a fairly significant dip.

Instagram’s growth continues to be studied and monitored by marketers. In the United States, the network reaches over 37% of the population. The global audience is diversified, with only 11% of Instagram users represented by the U.S. eMarketer estimates 2020 will reveal a growth of over 5% in the U.S. compared and anticipates this number to continue growing at this growth rate.

More adults use Instagram than you would think, with 37% in 2019. The network is also significantly more popular amongst the younger generations. 67% of users are between the ages of 18-29. Here’s a breakdown from Hootsuite:

- 18-27: 67%
- 30-49: 47%
- 50-64: 23%
- 65+: 8%

Another important and interesting insight to Instagram’s audience is that the gender demographics are pretty even - 48% female and 52% male.

All of these statistics are important to research when considering your buyer personas. You should always analyze your business’s audience and design your strategy based on this information rather than the overall network statistics.

Brand engagement: Facebook v Instagram

It’s no surprise that consumers rarely engage with branded social content compared to all content on a social platform. A study by Forrester revealed that on six of the seven social networks, the brands studied had an engagement rate of less than 0.1%. So, between Instagram and Facebook, which platform has the highest engagement? Depending on the blog you read, you’ll render different results. According to the Forrester study, one platform stood out the most: Instagram.

Facebook launched Facebook Business Pages to support the Facebook Ads launch in 2007, and now has over 60 million business pages. 39% of Facebook users that follow Facebook Business Pages do so because they want to receive special offers. Interestingly enough, the average organic reach of a Facebook post is only 6.4% of the Page’s total likes. Statista reports that in 2019 the social network’s marketing spending reached almost 9.9 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of over 2 billion U.S. dollars from 2018. However, despite this level of spending, the engagement on Facebook with paid branded content is still under .1%.

A study by Merkle reveals that ad spending on Instagram is 23% higher than facebook. What is driving this shift in ad spending to Instagram’s platform? Story ads and higher engagement.

Types of Ads: Facebook v Instagram

Facebook offers Facebook Ads Guide for types of ads. These ad types include: Image Ads, Video Ads, Carousel Ads, and Collection Ads. Facebook provides thorough research where their teams explored the effectiveness of ads based on engagement, exploring text, timing, and format considerations. You can find some of this research here. Facebook’s targeting tools are considerable, and allow you to narrow down by purchase behavior, interests, location, demographics, Facebook communities, and more. You can create Core, Custom, and Lookalike Audiences for your ad delivery to increase relevance, thus leading to higher ad engagement.

Instagram ad types consist of feed posts and story ads. Both types look just like regular posts and stories, but are labeled with a “Sponsored” label and include a call to action button with options to send to your messages, website, Instagram profile, etc. According to AdEspresso, the average engagement rate for Instagram branded posts is 4.3%, compared to Facebook’s 1.5%.

The user experience for Instagram story ads shows most users don’t realize they’re seeing an ad play back to back, revealing a smooth experience that isn’t too interruptive. Additionally, because an Instagram story takes up the entire screen there is no competition with other content and when targeted correctly, the experience feels organic. Therefore, consumers are more likely to engage.

Both are measured by reach & impressions. Reach is the number of unique views on a post. Impressions are the total number of times a post was seen. Both metrics provide helpful insights to your ad performance and allow you to make adjustments to improve your ad engagement overall.

Cost: Facebook v Instagram

A study in 2019 found that the average CPM for Instagram is $5.14 per 1000 visits. While the average CPC for Instagram ads is between $.20 and $2.00. Compared to Facebook’s CPM of $5.12 and CPC of $.80, Instagram wins again in this category. This study is a broad estimation, and certain factors like your target audience will affect these costs. Let’s discuss a few factors that affect the ad costs.

Ad Relevance - Facebook takes into account the relevancy of your ad amongst your selected target audience and factors this into the cost of the ad. Facebook and Instagram provide a relevancy score that changes while your ad runs. If you receive high engagement, your score will increase. If consumers are hiding your ad, your score will go down. A/B testing is a great way to determine what is relevant to your audience. Remember to only change one factor so that you receive concise data. Similar to a Google algorithm, the more relevant your content is to your target buyers and ad audience, the less expensive your ads will be.
Target audience - If you are targeting a popular audience that is high-demand, the cost will fluctuate.
Time of year - like any retail or sales strategy, the time of year will determine the cost of the ad. Popular times of the year, like holidays, will affect the ad cost.
Ad Run Dates - Obviously, the longer you run an ad the more your cost will increase. The average ad doesn’t necessarily need to run for a long period of time. Assessing your impression and reach goals will help guide you to determine a reasonable ad length and price.