How Much Should Manufacturers Spend on Digital Advertising?
Digital advertising is a great way to grow your manufacturing business, but it’s not always clear how much you should be spending on each channel. Before digital advertising was around, the options for marketing were more limited - newspapers, print magazines, billboards, etc. Today, you not only have these offline channels but dozens of online channels as well! So how much should you be spending on each tactic?
Let’s break down the top advertising channels and how much you can expect to spend on each.
(Please note that these are just moderate estimates. What you should spend depends on your industry, geographic area, popularity of searches, aggressiveness and what you’re comfortable spending. The nice thing about digital marketing is that you can learn as you go and adjust your budget accordingly.)
Google Search Ads
No matter what type of manufacturing business you have, Google Ads should receive a decent chunk of your budget. Here’s why. When consumers search for terms related to your business, they are showing a high level of interest in your services. Even though this high-intent web traffic only accounts for a small percentage of your overall traffic, it’s more likely to convert.
Google search ads are effective at capturing this interest. When you create ads on Google Search Network, they can be found in the search results and on other sites when your keywords are relevant to the search. This helps you reach your target audience. There are also different ads to experiment with, including text ads, dynamic search ads and call-only ads.
Starting budgets for Google Ads should be between $500-$5,000 a month depending on the size of your manufacturing company, your target market, your audience size and how aggressive you want to be in growing your business.
Google Display Ads
Google display ads are different from Google search ads because they are shown to users across millions of websites, videos and applications that are part of the Google Display Network. You can find these ads on advertising-supported sites.
There are many differences between display ads and search ads, which is why we recommend doing both. For instance, people who come across your search ads are already looking for your service. People who see your display ads are targeted because of their online behaviors, such as watching a particular video or browsing certain sites on the web.
Because Google display ads are a great way to build brand awareness, you’ll want to invest a decent amount of money into these as well. Typically, $300-$1,000 a month is a good starting point based on the number of lists you’re targeting and the number of users on your lists.
As a manufacturing business, LinkedIn is the best social media channel for you to be on. It is one of the more expensive ones, but it’s also built for B2B businesses. Consider these statistics:
● 68% of B2B customers conduct some type of research online before buying a product or service
● B2B customers conduct roughly 12 searches before engaging with a brand’s website
● More than half of B2B buyers say that content plays an important role in the decision-making process
As you can see, manufacturing companies that have a strong online presence are going to connect with potential customers and earn the majority of online sales. If you don’t want your business giving away sales to competitors, it’s imperative that you are visible on social media, more specifically, LinkedIn.
Social media is expensive, so you’ll want to track analytics like cost-per-click, cost-per-lead and return on investment (ROI). A $2,000 monthly budget is a good place to start because that gives you about $66 a day to work with. The good news is that you can set aside money for LinkedIn advertising and know pretty quickly if it works for you.
Search Engine Optimization
As a manufacturing business, you need SEO to bring relevant traffic to your site with the intent of converting a visitor into a lead. SEO can be broken down into three categories:
● On-page SEO is mainly your keywords, titles, headings and meta descriptions.
● Off-page SEO is everything from other web pages that help your website rank such as backlinks from other sites.
● Technical SEO is what goes on “under the hood” of your site. It includes fast-loading webpages, having an SSL certificate and more.
To be successful in SEO, you must understand your client base and the type of information they are looking for. You can then use this information to create content that your audience will find valuable and useful. The great thing about SEO for manufacturing businesses is that once it starts working, you’ll essentially get “free” traffic to your site. We generally recommend starting with a budget of $1,000 a month.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing channels you’ll come across. In fact, you can get away with spending just $10 a month on email marketing if you do it yourself! If you work with an agency, we typically suggest putting away $300-$500 to start an email marketing campaign.
It doesn’t cost much to create a newsletter and send it to your audience. Keep in mind that you are a B2B business, so your newsletter should include informative content that moves leads through the funnel. In your monthly emails, share updates about your procedures and processes, links to recent articles and behind-the-scenes images of your staff working.
Conclusion
Digital advertising is incredibly flexible. With most of these marketing strategies, you can set your daily budget to whatever you feel comfortable with. By keeping an eye on your analytics, you can quickly determine what works for your manufacturing business. This ensures you don’t waste money on ineffective marketing strategies.
WSI Net Advertising will help your manufacturing business gain visibility in the search engines and capture more high quality leads. Contact us today to learn more about our digital advertising services and how they can help support and grow your manufacturing business.