Although only 22% of local merchants say they have used Facebook Ads, nearly two-thirds of those who have done so (64.9%) say they would use the service again, according to a report by MerchantCircle. Meanwhile, 65.7% of surveyed local merchants say they use Facebook for marketing.
Below, additional findings from MerchantCircle's quarterly Merchant Confidence Index, based on a survey of 4,942 small, local business owners in the US.
Asked why they would use Facebook Ads again, surveyed local merchants cite ease of use (66.5%), followed by the flexibility to pause and restart campaigns as needed (64.8%).
More than one-half of local merchants (53.7%) cite Facebook's targeted display ad offering as a reason for continuing with Facebook Ads and 49.3% cite new business.
But not everyone has had success with Facebook Ads. Among the 35% of local merchants who say they would not advertise with Facebook again, 69.0% say Facebook Ads didn't help them to find new customers and 34.5% say the program was too expensive.
Top Digital Marketing Channels
Facebook is the top digital channel among local merchants (65.7%), followed by Google (53.3%), LinkedIn (45.7%), Google Places (38.8%), and Twitter (32.1%).
Meanwhile, adoption of location-based marketing dropped in the previous quarter: 22% of local businesses say they are now using Facebook Places to market their business, compared with the 32% who said so in in MerchantCircle's 1Q11 report; similarly, 7.3% are now using Foursquare, compared with 9% in 1Q11.
Local merchants have been equally cautious about using top group-buying sites Groupon (4.3%) and Living Social (3.6%) for marketing.
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