Switching from print to social media without losing enquiries

Key takeaways

Switching from traditional advertising to social media should be done in stages, with tracking in place before anything is cancelled. Move the weakest booking first, run both for a period and let cost per customer decide how far the switch goes.

• Track the old channel before you cut it.
• Move 1 booking at a time, weakest first.
• Overlap old and new for at least 8 weeks.
• Keep any traditional channel that still pays.

Why are firms switching?

Firms are switching because audiences and money have moved. The Advertising Association and WARC report that more than four-fifths of UK advertising spend now goes to online formats. Social media also offers small budgets something print cannot: a test that costs a few hundred pounds and reports its own results.

• Social media marketing vs traditional advertising: what works better for SMEs?
• Is traditional advertising dead? What the UK figures say

What is the risk of switching too fast?

The risk is cutting a channel that was quietly working. A print advert may bring only three calls a month, yet those may be your best customers. If it stops before social media is producing, enquiries dip and the new channel gets blamed.

• Pros and cons of traditional advertising for small businesses

What should you do before changing anything?

Measure first. Add a code or dedicated number to each traditional advert for one cycle and ask every enquirer how they heard of you. You need a cost per customer for the old channel, or you will have nothing to compare the new one with.

• How to track offline advertising: six methods that work
• Call tracking for small businesses: which advert made it ring?

What are the stages of a safe switch?

Work through five stages over about six months.

• 1. Track every existing advert for one cycle.
• 2. Set up social profiles, reviews and a tracked page.
• 3. Move the weakest booking's budget into a social test.
• 4. Run old and new together for eight weeks.
• 5. Compare cost per customer and move the next booking.

• How to test an advertising channel in six weeks
• Cost per lead by channel: comparing social media and offline

What needs to be ready on the social side?

Before spending, make sure a stranger who finds you sees a complete profile, recent posts of real work, reviews and an easy way to enquire. Decide who will reply to messages within a working day. Paid adverts sent to an empty profile waste the budget you have just freed.

• Social media strategy for UK small businesses
• Social media for a new business: the first 90 days

What does the switch cost?

The media money usually moves across like for like. A £600 quarterly print booking funds a few months of paid social at £300–£500 a month. The new cost is the work: content and replies. Most UK SMEs using an agency pay £950–£2,500 a month for managed social media.

• Is social media marketing free? The real cost of 'free'
• Social media agency pricing in the UK

Will existing customers still find you?

Customers who know you from print may not follow you online. Tell them. Put your social profile and website on invoices, vans and any remaining print. Older audiences are well represented on some platforms, and Ofcom's 2026 research found 89% of adult internet users use at least one.

• Reaching over-50s on social media in the UK
• Facebook strategy for UK small businesses

When should you keep the traditional channel?

Keep it when its tracked cost per customer is as good as or better than social media, when it reaches people social media does not, or when it supports the name locally at low cost. The goal is the best mix, not the most modern one.

• When traditional advertising works better than social media
• How to split a marketing budget between traditional and digital

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see with firms that switched overnight: every print booking was cancelled in January, social media was started the same week and by March enquiries were down. The channel was not at fault. There had been no overlap, no tracking and no time for the new presence to build.

• Advertising payback period: how long until it pays for itself?
• See client work
• Social Media Marketing for UK businesses

Next step

Rank your traditional bookings by renewal date. Add tracking to the one that renews last, and plan to move the one that renews first.