A Nottingham retail brand with a strong high-street presence had almost no online revenue.

The store was well-known locally. Footfall was decent. But when the owners looked at their website analytics, online revenue was near zero: £1,200 in the last full year against £800,000 through the physical shop. They had an e-commerce site that nobody could find because it had no SEO, no product feed in Google Shopping, and no paid advertising.

A Google Shopping campaign combined with on-page SEO for the most searched product categories launched their e-commerce operation. In six months, online revenue grew from effectively zero to £47,000. ROAS across the paid campaigns was 4.1x.

From zero to £47,000 online revenue in 6 months. ROAS 4.1x.
34%
Shift from in-store to online spending by Nottingham consumers since 2020
Nottingham City Council 2024
£47,000
Online revenue generated in 6 months for a Nottingham retailer starting from zero
Asquare AI client data
2nd
Nottingham is the UK's second largest retail centre outside London by footfall
Springboard 2024
Plain English

What social media advertising actually is, explained simply

Word of mouth used to be the most powerful marketing in the world. One happy customer would tell three friends. Social media advertising is word of mouth at scale: except instead of telling three friends, one piece of well-placed content can reach three thousand people who look just like your best customers. The catch is that you have to earn the right to be there. Nobody forwards an advert. They share something that taught them something, made them laugh, or made them think. The skill is making content that does one of those things AND sells.

Permission marketing is the privilege of delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages to people who actually want to receive them.

Seth Godin
Permission Marketing (1999)
Godin's insight, written before social media existed, predicted exactly how it would work. Interrupting people with irrelevant ads builds resentment. Earning permission by being genuinely useful, entertaining, or interesting builds the kind of audience that actually buys. The brands winning on social media in 2024 have permission. The ones losing are still interrupting.
NEWS
34% shift from in-store to online spending by Nottingham consumers since 2020. Nottingham's retail sector is adapting rapidly to online, with local businesses reporting a 34% shift in consumer spending from in-store to online since 2020. The e-commerce opportunity is substantial.
Source: Nottingham City Council Retail Report 2024
The social media reach funnel
How audiences move from unaware to customer
Awareness reached by content
Consideration engaged with post or ad
Intent visited your website
Conversion contacted or purchased

Retargeting is the mechanism that moves people from Consideration to Conversion. It shows ads to people who already know you, at the moment they are closest to deciding.

Why Nottingham businesses are investing in social media advertising now

34%
Shift from in-store to online spending by Nottingham consumers since 2020
Nottingham City Council 2024
£47,000
Online revenue generated in 6 months for a Nottingham retailer starting from zero
Asquare AI client data
2nd
Nottingham is the UK's second largest retail centre outside London by footfall
Springboard 2024

Nottingham is home to Boots HQ, Capital One UK, Vision Express, and Paul Smith. The corporate anchor shapes the city's business culture and talent market. The growing SME community operates in the shadow of these big names but has real advantages: speed, flexibility, and local knowledge. Digital marketing is increasingly how Nottingham SMEs compete against national businesses.

Industries we serve in Nottingham

Retail (Boots, Vision Express, Paul Smith) Financial services (Capital One UK) Healthcare and pharmaceuticals Creative and digital agencies

Social Media Advertising services
for Nottingham businesses

Paid social campaigns that target the right audience with creative that stops the scroll. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn advertising managed end-to-end.

Audience strategy and targeting

Audiences built from your actual customer data: demographics, interests, lookalikes from your best customers, and retargeting lists of people who have already visited your site. We target people likely to buy, not just people who loosely fit a category.

Creative development

Ad creative that earns attention. Images, carousels, and short-form video scripts. We brief, produce, and test multiple variations. Most accounts run one creative for months without testing. We test systematically to find what actually converts.

Meta advertising (Facebook and Instagram)

Full Meta campaign management across feed, Stories, Reels, and Messenger. Every placement and bidding decision is made against your actual conversion data, not default settings.

LinkedIn advertising

LinkedIn lets you target by job title, seniority, company size, and industry. Higher cost per click than Meta, but for B2B businesses with high-value clients, the lead quality is in a different category. We manage the full setup and optimisation.

Retargeting campaigns

Ads shown to people who have already visited your site or engaged with your content. Retargeting consistently delivers the highest ROAS of any paid social format because the audience already knows who you are.

Performance reporting

Cost per result, ROAS, reach, and frequency reported monthly with analysis of what is working and what we are changing. We do not dress up weak results with impressive-looking reach numbers.

Questions from Nottingham businesses

Is Facebook advertising still effective in 2024?
Yes, for the right business types and with the right creative. The mistake most businesses make is treating Facebook ads like print ads: a static image with a logo and a phone number. The ads that work in 2024 look like content, not ads. We build creative that fits the feed, not creative that interrupts it.
Should we use Meta or LinkedIn for B2B advertising?
It depends on who you are trying to reach. LinkedIn gives you more precise job title and company targeting, which is valuable for reaching specific decision-makers. Meta has far larger reach and lower CPCs, which works for B2B businesses with a broad target audience. Most B2B businesses benefit from both, used for different objectives.
How much of our budget goes to Asquare AI versus to the platforms?
We charge a management fee for running your campaigns. Your ad spend goes directly to Meta or Google. We will explain the split clearly in our proposal. Our management fees are structured to scale with what you are spending, so they represent a smaller percentage as budgets grow.
Is Nottingham worth investing in digital marketing, or is the market too small?
Nottingham is the East Midlands' largest city and many businesses here are underinvesting in digital, which means lower competition for keywords and ad placements than Manchester or Birmingham. That advantage will not last.
Do you work with Nottingham retailers?
Yes. Nottingham's retail sector, anchored by Boots, Paul Smith, and a strong independent retail community, is a significant part of our East Midlands work. Retail SEO and Google Shopping are central to our offering.

Ready to grow your Nottingham business?

Get a free social media advertising audit for your Nottingham business. We will identify your biggest opportunities and tell you exactly what we would do first.