Small businesses are diverse and in our Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) survey of small businesses we look at segments like the smallest of small businesses in terms of their advertising buying power. The smallest of small businesses we call “Core SMBs,” as they spend less than $25K annually on advertising and promotion. Their average budgets are very small, for 2017 the average was around $4,068. No wonder they are taking advantage of low cost digital and social advertising channels. Thanks to these low cost and free advertising channels the smallest of businesses don’t invest their ad budget all in one basket; they use an average of 10 different media channels for advertising and promotion. And most do the advertising themselves. Their top channels used include free social accounts, Facebook pages and community sponsorships. Money is tight with Core SMBs and their advertising budget is often based on whatever money is leftover after their other expenses are paid. If you are a provider looking to sell to this group you need to show them that you can perform the service cost effectively and do it better than they can do it themselves.
Source: BIA Kelsey, January 2018
