Social media marketing (SMM) has taken on increased importance to casino affiliates as social networks like become friendlier towards real money gambling apps.
As they learned to navigate this new marketing terrain, a lot of businesses, big and small, outsourced their SMM to consultants who handle their entire campaigns.
But as these companies began feeling more comfortable in the social space, many of then have been wondering whether or not it’s time to bring their SMM in-house.
The decision to wean a business off the talents of an expert consultant is a big one that should not be entered into lightly, as was pointed out in a recent posting on Nanigans titled, Social Media Marketing: Why You Should Bring it In-House, by Laurie Cutts. Here’s a breakdown of why she thinks in-house SMM is the way to go.
Cost Efficiency
No matter how talented they are, all consultants are middlemen and middlemen add additional expenses to any process they’re involved with.
Removing the middleman from your SMM campaigns can create significant costs savings in the ad purchasing process. That’s because most SMM consultants and agencies markup their ad inventory by as much as 30%.
By Cutts estimate, purchasing ad inventory via an in-house platform can save businesses as much as 50% on their social advertising expenses.
Cutts’ suggestions to social media managers who bring ad-buying in-house are to re-invest the savings into additional ad purchases. That’s sound advice considering the fact that social media marketing campaigns can demand huge ad inventories.
You Own It
Do you trust your consultant or SMM agency with your customers’ most sensitive data? Though answering that question can be awkward, it’s also completely necessary. Cutts points out the question of, who-owns-what-data? can create some very tricky legal situations when working with outside sources.
Besides, she adds, no one is better positioned to leverage your company’s historical data and insights than one of your own employees.
Developing In-House Expertise
If there’s no one out there who knows your company better than your employees, then there’s no reason to have anyone else handling your SMM campaigns – once they’ve developed the proper skill set.
Developing in-house expertise like this not only leverages your employees’ unique knowledge of your market space, it also creates an additional layer of transparency to ad buying process. When it comes to making those critical, granular-level, decisions, that’s a very big deal.
Finally
Outside help has its place, especially when you’re just getting your feet wet in the SMM space. But once you’re comfortable with the ad-buying/bid process, there are plenty of good reasons for bringing that work in-house.