To artseeone:

We own a manufacturing business that makes specialty bags. Think (t-shirts in a tube or sealed bagged fruit). Due to our business, it's not easy to gain customers. We're located in all the manufacturing directories. Yet that wasn't enough. We took to Google Adwords. We ended up spending mid 5 figures before realizing that the acquisition cost was way too high. We did gain two large accounts, which did help with the fees from Adwords. The keywords we needed to use were pricey. 

We own a manufacturing business that makes specialty bags. Think (t-shirts in a tube or bagged fruit). Due to our business, it's not easy to gain customers. We're located in all the manufacturing directories. Yet that wasn't enough. We took to Google Adwords. We ended up spending mid 5 figures before realizing that the acquisition cost was way too high. We did gain two large accounts, which did help with the fees from Adwords. The keywords we needed to use were pricey. 

Next stop was Facebook. We did better on Facebook, by promoting posts and advertising to a specific audience. We gained 22 new accounts 7 of which are very large and 2 are 7 figure deals. This is not saying that everyone will have that success, but for our business we did. The monies spent via Facebook were a quarter of what it was with Adwords. 

We have not tested Bing. Simply due to what happened with Adwords. We are open to it. We have a lot of business now and don't really need to advertise anymore at this time. We are interested in learning from other companies how they acquire and retain customers. What software they use for inventory management, etc. 

For the aggregate we use Infogroup. They have been great, it's easy to setup and you can manage all your business placings with a couple clicks. Then it updates within hours across all sites (Google biz, yelp, yellow pages, merchant circle, etc). I would never go with anyone else. 

P.S. We source our materials in the US only as well. Our customers have told us that this was one of the #1 reasons they have chosen us.

In my opinion, the usefulness of Facebook very much depends on what type of business you are running.  I don't think you mentioned that. 

My company - in the UK - is in the business of tax mitigation and profit extraction and I can't envisage ever getting business via any social media.  Our website only exists as a reference point and we don't receive business from the Internet in any way.

Greetings, I actually use my weebly site for my digital marketing freelance work, I can share what my experiences because I do all of these things for businesses like yourself.

I have not done any marketing or advertising online before. Everything thus far has been via word of mouth or fairs.  I want to start with a Facebook campaign and I am looking for some advice from other company owners who have already been down this route. What are the pros and cons of running a campaign on Facebook as compared to Pinterest or Instagram. Did you meet your targeted customer aquisition number? Did the acquisition cost end up costing more than expected? If so, was it worth it. Did they end up being repeat customers?

How do you feel about using Google or Bing? 

Pros and Cons of social media channels

Facebook has a different audience than Pinterest (and slightly different than Instagram, but ads in Instagram run through Facebook) so the audience you are looking for should dictate which platform you use. Facebook skews older, 35+. Pinterest has a higher female ratio. Pinterest and Instagram are great because their is low competition currently as not many advertisers push ads there. Facebook and Instagram are both very interesting because if you need to target a certain income range these are the only marketing channels that allow you to do it (you can show ads based on income, net worth, or liquid assets). Cons with social media marketing are these are more brand awareness channels, and although you might get leads or sales directly from them it is typically the first step in gaining a customer and is going to be slower than grabbing someone off search because a searcher already has intent/interest in you. Cost per conversion is typically lower in social media channels than in Google because of the high level of competition for most industries. It's recommended to use a channel like Facebook or instagram to promote content that will grab their attention, and use remarketing campaigns in Google or Facebook to get them back to your site a second time (and 3rd, however many times you need).

In terms of the difference between Google and Bing, these also have different audiences. Google is much larger in volume, but their is higher competition and a higher cost per conversion/click. Google's audience tends to be younger, where a Bing searcher is likely a windows user who uses whatever the default search engine for their browser is. I recommend testing multiple channels with small budgets, see what's most effectiver, and begin increasing spend in the areas that perform well.