How to Budget for Social Media Campaigns

© 2009-14 CafeGive, All Rights Reserved.
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BUDGET
BUDGET
BUDGET
SOCIAL MEDIA
CAMPAIGNS
SOCIAL MEDIA
CAMPAIGNS
SOCIAL MEDIA
CAMPAIGNS
for
how to
$
$
$
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Every marketer’s favorite and least favorite word.
Your annual marketing budget is the key to doing
your job effectively by staying on schedule,
keeping ahead of the curve, developing tactics,
and spending only where it counts. Part roadmap,
part script outline, part playbook, the budget is
the marketing department’s best friend, setting
the stage for unforgettable campaigns and
helping you prove ROI well into the future.
The big problem with marketing budgets?
Creating them.
$
BUDGET.

3
It’s time to get serious about next year’s budget. Maybe
you’re deep into the process; maybe you haven’t begun
to think about it. In either case, chances are your mind is
filled with questions about the year ahead, not the least
of which is social media.
Right now, there are a multitude of different digital media
channels to promote and communicate your brand’s
message. By next year, that number will only increase,
and the role of social media will grow even greater. On
platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram,
and YouTube, marketers are achieving successes and
encountering challenges heretofore unknown to the
field.
- HOW TO BUDGET for Social Media Campaigns -
?
??

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The industry at large agrees that social
media is the future of marketing, but
planning for it raises a number of
seemingly unanswerable questions:
“Should we delegate social media
responsibility?”
“What platforms should we focus on?”
“How often should we post?”
“How many campaigns should we run?”
“Who creates the content?”
“Should we hire a firm, or do it in house?”
“What technological changes are coming?”
And, above all else:
“How do we budget for
social media and social
media campaigns?”
“How do we measure
goals for all of this?”
and

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At CafeGive, we’re here to help you navigate the next year of
social media, plan, and budget properly. In this guide, we’ll be
focusing on a digital strategy centered on regular social media
campaigns throughout the year. Read on for our considerations
on budgeting social media campaigns this year and beyond.

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1. OVERALL Digital Budget
Considerations
In 2013, social media accounts for ten percent of the average digital
marketing budget, and only three percent of the overall budget. That
may not seem like much, especially considering your ad budget is
most likely between one tenth and one quarter of your entire budget,
but don’t let its size fool you: Social media is quickly becoming one of
the most effective marketing strategies today.
http:/
/technorati.com/business/article/technorati-medias-2013-digital-influence-report/
6

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For digitally active brands, especially small ones, social media vastly outpaces other forms of
media in lead generation and customer conversion. And for marketing teams of one to five
employees, social media is responsible for nineteen percent of lead generation spend, with
SEO and email marketing following at sixteen and twelve percent respectively.
That number will only increase in the years to come. Social media activity is now a key
determinant in SEO algorithms; The more socially active you are, the higher you’ll appear in
search. Social media is proving more effective than pay-per-click (PPC), for both B2C and B2B
companies alike.
- 1. OVERALL Digital Budget Considerations -
2013 Digital Influencer Report
19%
of lead
generation
spend
FOR MARKETING TEAMS OF ONE TO FIVE EMPLOYEES,
SOCIAL MEDIA IS RESPONSIBLE FOR:

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• Advertising
• Display
• PPC
• Mobile
• Content
• Writing
• Graphic design
• Video production
• Audio/recording
• SEO
• Technology
• Agency/consulting
• Social media
• Listening/research
• Social ads
• Promotions
That said, we still recommend a multichannel approach when it comes to digital budget
planning. Banner ads, PPC, and SEO will get your message seen by people who may not be
active on social media, and all continue to play a key role in customer conversion online.
The key is to avoid overspending on digital by setting two types of allowance: a baseline
monthly digital budget and a quarterly campaign-based budget, then breaking those
amounts into activities and ad buys in several main categories:

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“So, how much am I spending?”
There is no such thing as an average marketing budget, and putting a digitalbudget into numbers
can be even trickier.Whetheryou have $10 million or$10,000 to spend on marketing onyourhands,
the keyis to approach the question using ratios.The recommendations beloware givenwith a
medium-sized business in mind. Lateron in this guide,we’lladdress the question ofsize—specifically,
howthese ratios change as businesses decrease and increase in revenue.
Ifyou’re like most marketing departments,you’ll
probablywant to set aside anywhere between
twenty-five and forty-five percent ofyour
budget foradvertising.Afterthat,you’llneed
to budget forcontent—not just its creation, but
optimization, distribution, and analysis:Another
thirtyto fortypercent ofyourbudget.Then
comes SEO,yet anothertwentyto thirtypercent
ofyourbudget.Which leaves uswith, again,
around ten percent forsocialmedia.
25-45%
30-40%
20-30%
10%
MARKETING
BUDGET
Social Media
SEO
Advertising
Content

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Butwhat about public relations, brand development, and market
research? That’swheresocialmediacomesin.Thoughyou’llprobably
spend the smallest portion ofyourbudget on socialmedia,whatyour
brand does on Facebook,Twitter, Pinterest, and othersocialplatforms
governs the direction ofthe rest ofyourdigitalstrategy.


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If you haven’t developed an overall social media strategy, this is the
time to start. A proper strategy informs not only the return you aim to
achieve from social media, but the intended audience, content goals,
frequency of engagement, style template, internal best practices, and
overall organizational investment in social media. You may want to look
within for expertise or hire a social media consultant or firm to help
determine your social media needs and capabilities.
2. SOCIAL MEDIA is the
Lifeblood of Digital

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Your strategy depends on your
industry and customer base.
Social media is not only useful for
distributing marketing content,
but inspiring and improving it.
The insights you gain from an
active social media presence will
influence the types of blog posts,
videos, and graphics you create:
- 2. SOCIAL MEDIA Is the Lifeblood of Digital -
The Social Media/
Content Loop
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If you’re feeling uncertain about what kind of content you create, where you post it, and
how often; take a look at your customers’ needs and your competitors’ strategies, and find
the opportunity therein.
For example, a jewelry retailer with a large variety of stock may find a
wide audience on Instagram or Pinterest, where large catalogs of photos
stand out. A watch repair shop, on the other hand, may have better
success on Yelp or LinkedIn, both of which thrive on customer
reviews and recommendations. In either one of these cases,
the content and community goals follow business goals.
Though the watch repair shop and the jewelry store exist in
adjacent industries, lead generation and
customer acquisition happen in radically
different ways.

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In other words, to quote an old adage, “the medium is the message.” You’ll need to find the
platform or mix of platforms that delivers the highest return for your communication style.
Unsure about what each platform is best suited for?
Facebook
• Community building and engagement
• Celebrating company milestones
• Promotions
• Contests
• Fundraising
Twitter
• News and press
• One-on-one conversations
• Customer support
YouTube
• Guides and how-to videos
• General advertising
• Viral marketing
Google+
• SEO
• QA’s
• Customer acquisition
Pinterest
• Brand awareness
• Showcasing products
• Consumer research
LinkedIn
• Networking and relationship building
• Targeted lead generation
• B2B marketing
• Long-form content promotion
Instagram
• Building buzz
• Going behind the scenes
• Storytelling through pictures
Tumblr
• Blogging
• Trend hunting
• Connecting with specific
customer segments

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Finding the Right Ratio
As a small business, your marketing budget and
resources may not be able to encompass every
aspect of digital marketing. In this case, social
media is crucial. The less you have to spend,
the more you should invest in a social media
presence and content development. Without
enough spending power, ads and SEO efforts
will prove largely ineffective—you simply can’t
compete with bigger brands on a raw financial
level in these areas.
Social Media
+
Content
Social Media
+
Content
Social Media
+
Content
Ads
+
SEO
Ads
+
SEO
Ads
+
SEO
DON’T NEGLECT FACEBOOK
However you choose to divide your social
marketing efforts, your brand needs an active
Facebook page. Period. Facebook is the social
media standard, with over 1.4 billion users—
that’s 11% of the Earth’s population. While
it won’t necessarily be at the head of your
campaigning, Facebook is the best platform to
engage your existing community and catalog
all of your social media efforts in one place.
Facebook is also a key advertising destination.
In fact, the average social media advertising
budget breaks down as follows:
• 57% – Facebook Ads
• 13% – YouTube Ads
• 13% – Twitter Ads
• 2% – Pinterest Ads
• 15% – other
FOR SMALL BUSINESSES WITH LIMITED BUDGETS:

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Instead, devote the majority of your budget to social media and content, where the playing
field depends less on money spent and more on fan and follower engagement. Focus on
your community, and you’ll discover the power of the crowd to amplify your message and
motivate more involvement with your brand.
For businesses whose annual revenue falls
below $500,000, we recommend lowering
advertising and SEO spending to around
twenty percent each, and increasing social
media and content development to twenty
and forty percent respectively.
For businesses making less than $100,000 a
year, we recommend leaning into social and
content as much as possible—you may even
want to pursue a 60/40% content/social
media ratio.
20% SOCIAL
40%
SOCIAL
40%
CONTENT
60%
CONTENT
20% SEO
20%ADS
$500K
REVENUE
$100K
REVENUE

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Large companies and organizations can’t
afford to ignore social either, however. Even
if your marketing department handles a multi-
million dollar brand, social media spending
needs to remain a priority. Big brands have more
opportunities to create compelling content with
professional filmmakers, writers, actors, and
artists; and social media remains just as valid a
communication channel to promote this content.
Never spend less than five percent of your budget
on social media, or you may end up not just
missing out on the lucrative market segments
who are socially active, but losing control of your
brand. On social media, the conversation is what
determines winners and losers. The only way you
can lose is to refuse to participate.
NEVER
LESSTHAN
5%

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Once your strategy is in place and your social profiles are
created, you’ll need to assign staff and/or outside talent to
the following responsibilities:
• Campaign planning
• Content creation/facilitation (for blog posts, articles,
interviews, infographics, as well as video and audio editing)
• Community management
• Research, monitoring, and reporting on performance
Your social team will need to stay in close communication
with your web developer, SEO manager, and marketing and
sales staff. All in all, small businesses and nonprofits should
budget for the equivalent of one at least full-time social
media staff person. If you can’t dedicate a staff member to
social media completely, it’s likely that you’ll need support
from a contractor or intern.
- Campaign planning
- Content creation/facilitation
- Community management
- Research, monitoring,
and reporting

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While consistent, daily conversations are essential for any social
media presence, the only way to draw in more followers and attain
real, measurable results is through frequent social campaigns.
3. CAMPAIGNS
Go Front and Center
CAMPAIGN

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Social media campaigns give you the chance to energize your audience by taking the
knowledge and connections you’ve acquired from daily posting, and using them in support of
a goal. Campaigns are storytelling opportunities, and for members of your social community,
they’re a time to get excited by and involved with your brand. Want your supporters to attend
an event, take advantage of a product deal, share a picture or video, participate in a contest,
or raise money for a project or cause? Incorporate that action into a campaign, and use
the power of social networking to extend your reach, virally. Campaigns direct content and
messaging needs, saving you time and synchronizing communication on disparate platforms.
- 3. CAMPAIGNS Go Front and Center -

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Beyond standard PR buzz, however, social media campaigns also present internal benefits
for your organization. From executives to administrative supporters, employees of every level
can get involved in a social media campaign, interacting with customers and constituents,
and sharing links with personal networks. Campaigns require team-wide cooperation and
showcase all kinds of employee skill, be it communication or community leadership.
Finally, campaigns are the perfect opportunities
to collect data on social media efficacy. Each
campaign is an indicative slice of your overall
social media strategy, providing insight into
statistics like fan/follower engagement, reach,
clicks, and digital conversion rate.
How many campaigns you decide to annually run
depends on the size of your marketing team and
overall budget. We recommend four per year—
one each quarter—at minimum, but encourage
you to plan up to twelve major social media
campaigns for anywhere between two and four
weeks at a time.

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Tracking and Controlling Your Spending
Campaigns provide an excellent method to track your spending and frame costs in service
of marketing goals. Not all campaigns are created equal however, and some may cost more
than initially anticipated, leaving you with fewer resources to fund the next one.
When initially budgeting for campaigns, think carefully about what will be required for each.
Leave your department enough room to learn and experiment with each campaign, and use
each piece of content as a stepping stone for the next. As you determine which members of
your social audience most engage with and amplify your message, reaching out to those fans
and followers will become easier, leading to continual campaign improvement.
Campaign apps are another great way to make sure your campaigns stay within budget
limitations. CafeGive Social’s own subscription-based services combine full range of social
media campaign options with the flexibility and customization options to run campaigns
on your terms and schedule. You’ll find more about our apps and services under
the Tools section of this guide, and at cafegive.com/apps.

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Cause marketing is the new general marketing, and corporate social
responsibility (CSR) is now mandatory. As we detailed in “How to Step
Up Your CSR,” the only organizations that will stay in business and
thrive in the coming years are those that are serious about their social
and environmental commitment. And that means communicating
it—integrating information about giving back in every marketing
message.
4. INVEST in Cause Marketing
and CSR Development

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Cause marketing is the number one driver of brand preference, most notably among
millennials, whose actions and purchasing decisions will shape the future of branding
and marketing communications. Cause marketing and CSR can’t simply be a component
of your budget; Your cause-related efforts should be the centerpiece of your social media
marketing strategy.
Consider the facts:
• 91% of global consumers want to hear more about CSR efforts
• 75% want to engage with brands around CSR efforts
• 62% already engage with brands on social media about CSR efforts
Social media is the fastest, widest-reaching, and most cost-effective method to reach
these cause-minded consumers. With over 600 million people active daily on Facebook
alone, brands who don’t engage their social communities with CSR messaging are
missing out on a crucial market segment.
2013 Cone Communications/Echo Global CSR Study
- 4. INVEST in Cause Marketing and CSR Development -

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Brands and movements are taking advantage of this opportunity and achieving monumental
success with campaigns that marry social media engagement with CSR:
• Chase Community Giving is the most successful financial institution page on Facebook,
with over 3 million Likes and more than $20 million raised for nonprofit partners since 2009
• In 2013, #GivingTuesday inspired Social Media users to give over $19.2 million to charities
and nonprofits, a 90% percent increase in donations from the same date a year prior
• Girl Rising, a documentary and movement
for girls’ education around the world, used
social media to raise money and awareness
for the film and crowdsource screenings,
eventually becoming one of the top 100
grossing documentaries of all time,
and growing

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Chances are your organization
already has a CSR program
and/or a nonprofit partner in place.
The key is communicating and
strengthening that commitment
through social media. Just as
campaigns increase brand
awareness and consumer action,
they can take your social good to
the next level.

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Campaigns, contests, employee engagement, cause-related content,
constant social monitoring, reporting, nonprofit partner buy-in, fundraising
events...Sound like a budgeting headache?
It doesn’t need to be. With the proper tools and services, everything from
social media planning to running analytics reports can be done while a
cup of coffee is brewing, and within the proper budget percentage.
We’ve published a guide outlining inexpensive and free tools for
resource-strapped marketing departments, available here.
5. Find the RIGHT TOOLS

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Waterfall is a mobile platform that combines text message
marketing with CRM, allowing marketers to develop personalized
engagement with their customers. For marketers serious about
mobile (that should be all of you), there’s no better platform than
Waterfall for incorporating on-the-go messaging with social
campaigns. Waterfall has Enterprise and API plans available for as
low as $699/month and $499/month respectively.
But if that’s not enough, we’ve included a few
more social media-wrangling tools here as well:
- 5. Find the RIGHT TOOLS -
The Resumator lets you recruit talent for your marketing team
through social media. Along with a full-fledged database of
applicants and interviewees, the Resumator can also spark word-
of-mouth referrals through direct messages in social networks,
ensuring you find the most qualified person for the job, wherever
they are. Resumator has various plans available, from $99/month.

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Addvocate solves the challenge of disseminating a message through
multiple team members. When you want to take advantage of your
staff members’ social networks, Addvocate makes it easy by finding
and suggesting content for employees to share, thus getting everyone
involved in campaigning. Addvocate is free for the first five users, with a
$5/month fee for every user thereafter, or $299/month for a hundred-
person company.
Tagboard takes the guesswork out of hashtag monitoring. Simply
search for your keyword, and the site will generate a board that
aggregates posts from various social networks. Tagboard is free, and
currently beta testing its partner program.
Memes are one of the easiest to create and most shareable forms of
social media content out there. Luckily for us, imgur has made it even
simpler to browse create memes with its memegen tool, which takes
seconds to use and is completely free.

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CafeGive Social offers social media cause
marketing campaign solutions that integrate
each aspect, with pricing at every level of
affordability. Subscriptions combine our brand-
able campaign apps with the flexibility to run
social media campaigns on your timeline
with your goals in mind. Contact us today to
gain access to these tools to integrate your
comprehensive social media and CSR goals,
and take your brand to the next level.
It’s as simple as that.
Now all that’s left to do is plan
the rest of the budget...

Ready to jump in?
Contact us to schedule a demo
get started on your next social media
campaign.
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How to Budget for Social Media Campaigns

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