If your business has been thinking about getting into online advertising for a while now, or has had to suddenly pivot to online services due to the coronavirus outbreak, then this is the article for you! Here, our social media marketing team and search services team will cover all the basics of online advertising – why it’s effective, what platforms to prioritise and how to make a standout ad.
The Benefits of Online Advertising
- It’s accessible: Unlike traditional advertising media, any business can advertise online, whether they are large or small, local or international, providing goods or services. With a reasonable budget, you can quickly and efficiently reach your target audience and engage them personally and directly with your brand.
- It works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year: Online advertising is like putting up a storefront in front of the entire world instead of just one street. Your brand’s visibility isn’t just increased exponentially – it’s increased in front of the people who are looking for your products and services. As long as people are on the internet (which is more than ever these days!), your brand will be right there in front of them, sharing your new products and services, your brand’s messages and updates, and more!
- It’s efficient: With a small portion of your traditional advertising budget and some know-how, you can very quickly start getting results from online advertising. This is a big time-saver, especially when you get to grips with the advertising platforms offered by Google, Facebook, Instagram and others. With their recent AI changes, it’s more efficient than ever to set up, send out and monitor your ads.
- It’s easy to measure: When you advertise in a flyer, magazine, TV or radio slot, how do you measure return on your investment? It’s incredibly difficult! With online advertising, the opposite is true. All online platforms have in-depth monitoring and tracking capabilities, including detailed reports that can give you a breakdown of who saw your ad, who clicked through to your website, and how many people liked your pages, signed up for your newsletter or bought your product as a result. That makes analysis of your performance and tailoring your digital marketing campaigns simple and effective.
What are the Best Ways to Advertise Online?
Another great thing about online advertising is that it is very versatile, allowing businesses to choose a platform and advertising type that is best-suited to your products, capabilities and budgets. Here are a few areas to consider:
- Search engine advertising (SEM): This is the process of buying ad space on search engine results, and it’s very effective. Google Ads is probably the most well-known of these platforms, and it’s one of the most powerful too because it improves your website’s rankings in relevant search results. You can see these ads clearly in results because they have a little bold “Ad” next to them, and they take up the first 3 slots on the results page. It works on a pay-per-click basis where you bid on keywords relevant to your brand. This will show your ad when your keyword is used by a user typing a query into Google, and you will pay for each time a user then clicks through to your website from the ad.
- Social media marketing: Social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram all have impressive advertising capabilities – and huge audiences to tap into. It’s best to choose a platform that suits your business rather than to try advertising on all of them at once, and you can do that by matching the platform’s capabilities and audience with your brand’s target market. For example, LinkedIn is much more effective for B2B networking and advertising than Instagram, while Instagram has a strong presence with young, trendy adult consumers, and Facebook is a great all-rounder if you are looking for a place to start. These platforms are great because they are very affordable and allow you to use video, images and more to create captivating ads. They also allow you to segment your ads, ensuring that they are only shown to people who are likely to use your brand.
- Email marketing: The oldest form of online marketing and still one of the most dominant and effective, emails have more to offer businesses than ever before. You can encourage people to sign up for your emails through your website and social media, creating targeted email campaigns that go out to different segments of your target market. They’re great because they aren’t unsolicited – people have asked you to tell them about your sales, promotions, competitions, event s and new products. They can be very creative and captivating, using images, videos interactive elements and more. And they are versatile, so you can use them for everything from tracking orders and payments to informing people of promotions, how you are operating during the coronavirus outbreak and so much more.
Develop a High-Impact Online Advertising Campaign Today
Our digital marketing company is still operational during the COVID-19 crisis, as our teams are able to work effectively and remotely, ensuring the safety of our clients and employees. If you would like to learn more about how online advertising can keep your company afloat, effective and in touch through the restrictions set by the pandemic, please get in touch with our team of social media marketing and search engine marketing specialists today.
Sure, I’m a sales specialist – but we do things a little differently around here! For one thing, I’m not here to sell anything - I’m here to solve problems. By getting to know your business, you’ll get proven digital marketing solutions that bring in sales, leads, and results. It’s all about putting you ahead of the competition. Are you ready to be in first place?
