Last year, $333 million in marketing was spent online to reach Augusta, Georgia area consumers, according to projections based on the 2021 IAB Internal Advertising Report.  This is 35% more than was spent during the prior year.

There is a correlation between the massive amount of money being spent to reach CSRA consumers online and the extraordinary amount of time that these consumers are connecting to the internet via websites and apps.

According to Nielsen, 47.4% of Augusta adults are spending 10-plus hours during an average week online. Furthermore, The Pew Research Center, a public opinion research company, reports that one-in-three consumers say they are online constantly. A 50% increase from 2015.  In all, 85% of consumers say they connect at least once daily.

To successfully market and advertise a Augusta business on the internet requires a full-scale understanding of precisely what online marketing is.  Spoiler alert, having a website or having a social media site is not enough.

According to Nielsen*, 359,403 adult consumers in the Augusta, Georgia area use social media every month, an audience that continues to expand. As a result of this growth, social media has become a crucial part of local advertising campaigns.

Social media allows Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) business owners to continually be in front of their target customers and to stay top-of-mind. It allows businesses to communicate daily and be the first company on call when needed. Social media has become essential for marketing local goods and services.

The best part is that social media is free to use for both CSRA consumers and business owners.

There is no subscription service for social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram which, according to Nielsen, are used by 76.7% of Augusta area consumers each month. There are no monthly payments or premium memberships required to unlock more services.

Augusta, Georgia area business owners are expected to spend $121 million advertising online in 2022. This, according to Borrell Associates, a company that tracks advertising expenditures across the country.

Borrell's forecast indicates that almost 50% of CSRA online expenditures will be in the form of paid search. The most recognizable type of this advertising is the paid ads that appear adjacent to the results of almost every search query on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Borrell's forecast also indicates that approximately 27% of online expenditures will be in the form of display advertising. This consists of traditional banner ads that appear across millions of websites and apps, including social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. According to SmallBizGenius.net, the average Augusta area consumer is served more than 1700 of these ads per month.

Video advertising in the CSRA is forecast to account for 23% of all online ad dollars in 2022. Like search and display, millions of websites can support this type of advertising. This includes sites, apps, and platforms like YouTube, Roku Channel, Hulu, Paramount+, and most social media sites.

The remainder of online advertising dollars is expected to be spent on audio advertising, including streaming sites like Pandora and Spotify; or email marketing campaigns.

There are 15,499 small businesses in the Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC Metro Area, according to the US Census Bureau. Based on projections from the National Federation of Independent Business Owners (NFIB), nearly half of these companies have job openings they cannot fill.

As a result of the acute labor shortage, says the NFIB, 29% of small business owners rank the quality of labor as the most important problem they face. A year ago, only 21% said finding workers was their biggest issue.

The labor crunch in the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) is being driven, in big part, by a record-high number of employees voluntarily quitting their jobs. Just last month, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4.5 million employees across the country left their current place of employment.

According to the Wall Street Journal, those who are not currently working say they are in no hurry to return to the workforce. The lack of urgency stems from five primary reasons:

• 29% say they don't need to work right now because their spouse is employed
• 28% say they cannot return to work because of care responsibilities at home
• 25% say they don't need to return to work because they have a financial cushion
• 20% say they are fearful of returning to work because of COVID-19
• 5% say they do not need to return because of current unemployment benefits

There seems to be little chance that these resigned workers can be lured back into the labor force. Therefore, to fill open jobs, local business owners will need to focus their efforts towards recruiting among the CSRA's "passive" job candidates.

Every month, 340,000 adults in the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) use social media, according to Nielsen. Seventy-five percent of these consumers use Facebook, far more than other sites like Instagram (also owned by Facebook), Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

As a stand-alone medium, Facebook is used by more people in the CSRA than watch local TV stations. Only Augusta radio and local cable reach more consumers.

The large audience commanded by social media has attracted a significant amount of advertising dollars from local advertisers. According to Borrell Associates, a company that measures advertising expenditures across the county, Augusta area businesses are expected to spend $31.7 million on social media advertising, a 26.2% increase over 2022. The overwhelming majority of these dollars are being spent with Facebook.

Yesterday, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the company was changing its name to "Meta".  This change, though, only affects the name of the parent company. There will be no change to the company's brands like Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp.

How will this name change affect Augusta businesses that advertise on Facebook?

Nealy 96% of Augusta area adults have access to the internet.  Ubiquitous technology such as computers, tablets, smartphones, and connected TVs allow Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) consumers to go online whenever they choose, which, for some adults, is always.

The Pew Research Center, a public opinion research company, reports that one-in-three consumers say they are online constantly. A 50% increase from 2015.  In total, 85% of consumers say they connect at least one time every day.

So, how are CSRA consumers spending all this time connected to the internet?

According to Nielsen, streaming audio and video content, social networking, checking the weather, and banking are the top online activities for Augusta area consumers each month.

According to projections based on Nielsen data, 437,000 adults in the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) have access to the internet, equivalent to 95.7% of the population. On average, local consumers are spending 9.86 hours per week online.

CSRA millennials, the first generation that grew up in a digital world, spend considerably more time online. Nielsen reports that, on average, CSRA's 25-39-year-old consumers are clocking 12.7 hours connected to the internet.

So, how are CSRA consumers spending their time online?

According to Nielsen, streaming audio and video content, social networking, checking the weather, and banking are the top online activities for CSRA consumers each month.

The number of job openings in the Augusta, Georgia area has exceeded pre-pandemic levels, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Businesses of all sizes are adding employees in a big way, according to the ADP Research Institute, but still, large numbers of positions remain unfilled.

With the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) unemployment rate still at 4.8%, Augusta area business owners wonder why they are having difficulty attracting applicants for open positions.

According to a recent article posted in The Economist, there are two major reasons why many sidelined workers aren't anxious to come to work. The first is fear.

Central Savannah River Area business owners are expected to invest $96-million during 2021 to advertise to consumers connected to the internet. This forecast was produced by Borrell Associates, a company that tracks business advertising expenditures across the country.

These online marketing dollars will be spent on banner advertising, search engine marketing, email, as well as audio and video advertising. This is all to capture the attention of shoppers and buyers as they go about their connected days.

According to Nielsen, 95.2% of adult consumers in the Augusta, GA area have access to the internet. They connect, primarily, with desktop and laptop computers; smartphones; or tablets.

Ninety-four percent of Augusta adults spend at least one hour per week online, with most spending at least 10 hours connected.

Over 95% of Central Savannah River Areas adults have access to the internet, according to Nielsen. Almost 70% of these consumers spend more than five hours a week connected.

Nielsen reports that Augusta area consumers go online to stay connected to friends and family; research products and services; learn the latest news, and obtain directions to where they are going and know what the weather will be when they get there.  

Here are some of the many reasons why CSRA internet users go online each month

• Social Media: 77%
• Weather: 60%
• Online Banking: 59%
• Maps/Directions: 50%
• Product Reviews: 48%
• Sports Scores/News: 43%
• Current Events: 42%
• Restaurant Reviews: 37%
• Real Estate: 19%
• Job Search: 17%

And, of course, there is shopping.  Over the past three months, according to Nielsen, 76.7% of Augusta consumers shopped online for every imaginable product and service including, cars, golf clubs, office supplies, wedding rings, mattresses, tires, medicine, shoes, socks, and eyeglasses.

To reach local consumers while they are online, Augusta businesses will spend $95 million for digital advertising in 2020, according to Borrell Associates.  Here is how the money is being spent:

Following the lead of many national marketers, some Central Savannah River Area small business owners are considering canceling or, at minimum, pausing their advertising schedules with social media network Facebook and its co-owned photo-sharing platform, Instagram.

According to the New York Times, "more than 400 companies, from Coca-Cola and Adidas to Ford and Lego, have vowed to halt advertising on the social network, in a growing protest over how it handles hate speech and other harmful content".

With the pandemic figured in, CSRA small business owners were expected to spend $14.7 million on Facebook and Instagram advertising in 2020. This is according to Borrell Associates, a firm that specializes in the collection and analysis of local marketing expenditures in every city across the United States. But these expenditures could shrink if the protests become louder.

Every type of CSRA business imaginable, including clothing stores, plumbers, HVAC repair, funeral homes, restaurants, dentists, and nonprofits, has come to realize how powerfully social media can contribute to their bottom lines.

Part of what makes Facebook and Instagram attractive to small business owners is the enormous reach these platforms have among consumers. Locally, the audience size for these two social media sites now rival Augusta radio, TV, cable, and newspaper outlets.

For small business owners considering a hiatus from social media advertising, there is a viable way to redirect these dollars into a different medium without losing the marketing equity or momentum built-up on Facebook.

Facebook usage has swelled since the onset of the Covid-19. 

According to Nielsen, before the current chaos, 62% of Central Savannah River Area adults used Facebook each month. This was significantly fewer than were reached by local radio or television each week.

According to the New York Times, however, since the start of the Coronavirus, daily Facebook traffic has increased by 27%. This compares to 33% growth in the amount of time consumers spend listening to local radio during a similar period.

Based on the surge in Facebook consumption, Augusta area small business owners might be tempted to purchase advertising on the social media platform to augment their regular, free postings. Here are are few facts these businesses should consider before investing.