"For most SMEs, online promotion has become the main vector of sales and business growth, given the limited budgets for marketing. However, the economic conditions in 2024 are the most difficult in recent years. The competition is fierce, and many local companies face pressure from international players or companies that apply unfair practices. For this reason, over 60% of businesses in Romania allocate a budget for online promotion, in Google and Meta, but many fail to reach the performant sales necessary to combat economic difficulties. You don't need tens of thousands of euros to increase sales. You need experts who understand the company's business, think of a sales-oriented promotion plan, and get maximum sales from every penny invested by companies, experts to take the business to the next level through paid advertising Until then, as most SMEs depend on online sales, the risk of rapid decline or even closure of the business may become a reality," declares Alex Popescu, co-founder of Pixer Agency.

The existence of SMEs increasingly depends on online promotion

The biggest problems that SMEs face in 2024 are inflation, unfair competition, and salary increases, according to the National Council of SMEs in Romania (CNIPMMR). At the same time, the ONRC data show an almost 10% increase in the number of insolvency applications in the first half of the year compared to last year, being another indicator of the economic difficulties for the local business environment. Thus, to withstand these difficulties and avoid possible insolvency, the demand for digital marketing shows a spectacular increase year by year, being 30% higher in recent years, both from companies that sell products and from companies that sell services. Increasingly interested in online promotion, in Google, Meta or TikTok, are small businesses, at the beginning of the journey, which otherwise cannot survive without advertising in the context of increasing competition and high inflation.

Also, as a result of the increasingly difficult economic context, companies that sell on the B2B segment, to other companies, are increasingly relying on online promotion, especially through Google Ads, but also Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads and campaigns of email marketing, which generates the most qualified leads. There is a 35% increase in requests for PPC (pay per click) services from B2B companies, especially in the healthcare, professional services or photovoltaic industries.

How much do SMEs invest in online promotion

Local businesses invest in Google Ads or Facebook Ads promotion from hundreds of lei to thousands or tens of thousands of euros, depending on the level of the company and the budgets they have. E-commerce, tourism, and healthcare businesses are the biggest investors in digital marketing. For example, the fashion and local services companies are among the biggest investors, with monthly budgets between €1,000 and €30,000 on Facebook alone. Anyhow, the most important indicator is the return on each expenditure in online promotion, Pixer Agency specialists point out.

To differentiate itself in an increasingly fragmented and competitive digital marketing market, Pixer Agency has proposed a new approach to increase sales return for clients' money invested. It has developed a complex system that addresses all paid promotion needs and maximizes results through an advanced PPC structure. For example, the agency generated over 400% growth in the Food Delivery business in 6 months, with an online promotion budget between RON 85 and RON 3,200 per month. For a fashion company, in 45 days, it generated revenues of RON 1.5 million with a well-adjusted strategy of remarketing and precise targeting, and for a dental clinic, it generated revenues of €1.4 million in a year.

“For most businesses, especially new ones, paid promotion is the fastest way to grow because it's the easiest way to get in front of the right audience. In happy cases, companies that do not invest in paid promotion rely on SEO and organic content strategies, but the results come later. Precisely because of this, it is extremely difficult to record year-on-year growth or even to survive. Many of the businesses that come to us face difficulties in generating qualified leads, i.e. attracting potential customers. Many are unhappy that it is difficult for them to find a collaborator who is involved enough to understand their business and give them the best advice and results. In this sense, we have developed a very complex workflow on the Lead Generation side, in which all local businesses are interested, through which we managed to increase the presence rate of people coming from paid traffic campaigns from 5-8% to over 30-35%. This means that with the same marketing budget invested, we can bring in more customers who show up or complete the purchase. To increase the conversion rate, we started to implement dedicated and sales-oriented landing pages, and we have developed email and SMS automation where we inform the potential customer of each next step and notify them of the schedule. This workflow interconnects several tools in one - landing page development, SMS/email automation development, management of customers from paid traffic, scheduling calendars, etc.," explains Adrian Stoiculescu, co-founder of Pixer Agency.

Founded by specialists with more than 8 years of experience in the field of marketing, Pixer Agency comes with a unique approach in the market, developing a system that includes PPC services (Facebook Ads, Google Ads, TikTok Ads, LinkedIn Ads), graphic design and editing video, conversion-oriented landing pages, email automation, SMS and WhatsApp, integrated scheduling system, copywriting and SEO articles. Pixer Agency has more than 200 clients in its portfolio from 35 fields, and the team includes 8 specialists who have set up more than 7,500 campaigns with successful sales, managing budgets of more than €15 million.