Smaller SMBs, otherwise known as Core SMBs in BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) survey of small and medium businesses, spend an average $2,471 annually for advertising and promotion. As you can see in the table below, Core SMBs that use social media(1) for advertising and promotion spend an average $2,671 annually. This is reflective of the generally lower prices points of social media. Core SMBs that use broadcast(5), on the other hand, spend considerably more annually, $5,007 on average.
(These categories are not mutually exclusive. Many Core SMB respondents are counted in numerous categories. Core SMBs use an average of 5.9 media for their advertising and promotion).
While these Core SMBs use the media categories shown in the chart above for advertising and promotion, only a percentage of their average annual ad spend goes towards those categories, as shown below.
- Social Media Users(1) – 29.3% of ad budget spent on social media
- Newspaper Users – 26.0% of ad budget spent on newspaper
- Directories Users(2) – 31.2% of ad budget spent on directories
- Video Users(3) – 11.6% of ad budget spent on video
- Mobile Users(4) – 16.4% of ad budget spent on mobile
- Broadcast Users(5) – 18.6% of ad budget spent on broadcast
- Social Media: includes channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social.
- Directories: various print and digital directories/yellow pages.
- Video: website video and video on other websites
- Mobile: text messaging, search, display, apps and other mobile channels.
- Broadcast: TV and cable
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BIA/Kelsey’s LCM, Wave 19 reports can be purchased a la carte in the new BIA/Kelsey eStore. Our LCM reports look at where particular SMBs (broken out by size, vertical, etc.) spend the most, as well as the top channels for marketing and advertising. Additionally, our reports provide analysis on the best product and service offers for highly coveted groups of SMBs.
