If you have ever wished you were a fly on the wall to see what your competitors are up to, here’s a bit of insight you might want to hear: There’s a good chance they’ll be investing more in social media ads.

According to a CMO report, social media advertising budgets are expected to almost double by 2023. There’s a good reason for that. Last year, there was a 13% rise in people using social media. That’s 3.196 billion people, and studies show that 70% of North Americans use social media. The interest in digital platforms continues to rise.

Reviewing the stats will help you discover the benefits of social media, and it’s worth a few minutes of your time. Here are some impressive numbers to help you see that there’s definitely value in social media advertising.

When you consider who’s looking at ads on social media, youth prevails. Did you know that 50% of Gen Z and 42% of millennials believe social is the most relevant place for ads? Although those over 37 years old still think TV is more relevant, they actually rank social media second. In all age groups, women choose social media more so than men, coming in at 35% and 27% respectively. Relevancy means people are listening to ads, instead of getting annoyed by them.

Social media platforms were built for people to engage with each other. It is not so different for your business. Due to its interactive nature, social media is the best channel to build a rapport with followers. You can get very personal by putting faces to names and improving your customer service efforts. Interacting and even selling on social allows you to make people feel special when you speak directly to them and enjoy a conversation based on their comments. It is an excellent opportunity to engage people directly with special offers, contests, and information shared only through your posts. That can lead to further engagement with new followers.

Of course, it all takes thought and planning to ensure your content is engaging to begin with. Relevant posts, videos, and images will gain positive reactions, which helps encourage engagement as well as sharing.

Although smaller companies might be turned off by the idea of using social media as an additional way for customers to communicate directly with your team, social media provides a real-time way to converse with customers. It allows you to publicly manage damage control for customer complaints or even major events that might negatively affect your business or worry your customers. Offering contact on social media can speed up service if you are responsive enough.

Everything adds to the customer experience. As already stated, social media provides a real-time way to answer questions for your customers. It improves relationships by allowing you to reply right away to their comments while creating real connections. Again, this might be a scary prospect, but it is the best way to show you care.

Social media also becomes a self-generating FAQ resource as common questions are answered in your feed. Social is a priceless way of finding the things that customers really want to know so that you can add it to your website with confidence. Instead of generating the same old FAQs you assume people will ask, you will have the actual questions that are popping up regularly in your feed.

Social media is also the best way to make announcements to counteract negative occurrences such as the need for a recall or to respond directly to negative press your business might receive. It allows you to take a proactive approach, so people know you are aware of issues and are acting on them quickly.

Special offers can also get to people more quickly via social media posts, which, in turn, creates more happy customers. You can encourage people to follow your social media to be privy to the best offers before the general public hears about them.

Last but not least, social media provides a venting channel that at first glance might be something that gives you pause. However, if you have people venting about an issue with your brand on social media you have a chance to publicly offer to make things better as opposed to channels where a bad review might be harder to address. This method is always preferred from a customer service point of view.

Brand awareness is always important for your online presence. Consider that 50% of U.S. consumers feel user-generated content, such as videos and images posted by happy buyers, is likely to influence their purchasing decisions through social media channels. Social media allows your brand to be brought into the light in an honest way, with real people standing behind your product and stating they love it.