Getting your product or service out to the world can be a daunting task and can be hard to do organically. That’s where digital advertising comes in. It’s one of the best, and fastest, ways to get your product or service out to the world. Digital advertising leverages mediums such as social media, email, search engines, mobile apps, and websites to display your ads and messages to your target audience.
Digital ads tend to run cheaper than print ads and are more immediate. Rather than having a potential customer or client come into a brick-and-mortar store, they can make their purchase or request for service right then and there, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
As amazing as it all sounds, digital advertising isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s not an easy task and not a quick win either. The internet is full of small businesses all trying to vie for that ever- important spot on your Google search or social media platform.
That’s why it’s important to know exactly how to run your ads and the practices you should follow to get the most out of your advertising budget. We’ll cover what digital advertising is, the different types of ads available, and the digital advertising process.
What are digital ads?
Technically speaking, digital advertising is the distribution of promotional content through online channels, such as Google and social media platforms. In more basic terms, it’s advertising on the internet. Digital ads are just one part of a brand’s digital marketing strategy.
Digital ads are a way of purchasing ad space in the online world, and can appear in a number of different formats including banner ads, flyers, videos, animations, and can appear on a number of different channels (social media platforms, websites, search engines).
There are 2 main types of ads that small businesses use to get their brand out to the world, namely Google ads and social media ads.
What are Google Ads?
Google ads are a way to get your brand and product or service, out to millions of people across the world. When you search for a product or service on Google, you’ll often notice the first 2-3 results with the tag “ad” on them appearing at the top. These ads are the result of Google ads.
Google ads uses a bidding system where you bid on keywords along with your competitors to appear at the top of the search engine’s results page. Ads are generally either pay per click, where you pay every time someone clicks on your ad or cost per thousand, where you pay for every 1000 impressions on your ad, regardless of the amount of clicks. You set the budget for your campaign, and only pay based on the success of your ads.
Within Google ads, there are 2 different types of ads that you can run, search and display ads.
1. Search ads: With search ads, you pay for your name to be at the top of the search engine results list when someone searches for a keyword or phrase related to your business or product.
2. Display ads: Display ads are a lot like what they sound – ads that use text and images/videos and appear on websites that are affiliated with search engines or other ad networks. Display ads can be in the form of images, text, banners, pop-ups and video ads. They are also one of the most recognizable digital ads out there as they tend to contain eye-catching imagery and catchy ad copy.
What are social media ads?
Social media ads are exactly what they sound, ads that appear on social media. They can appear on any social platform including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn etc. Not only can they be used to promote your products and services, but they can also help you to build your community, and generate leads.
Essentially, small businesses pay for their social media posts to rank higher on their preferred platform’s algorithm and appear in the feeds of non-followers who may have similar interests or browsing habits to your product/service.
How to choose which one is right for you?
Both Google Ads and social media ads are beneficial to your business, but they each come with their own set of pros and cons. Ultimately, it boils down to the goals of your business and what you’re really trying to achieve.
If you’re trying to build a brand and a community, then social media ads are the way to go. You can build a community of followers to help promote your brand, without spending a ton of money on your campaign.
If you’re already an established business and you’re looking for high quality leads that you hope to turn into customers, then Google Ads are the way to go. Google ads are best used when you’re trying to promote a new product or service.
What key metrics should you look for in your campaigns?
Whether you choose social media ads or Google Ads, there are a few metrics you will want to measure and track to determine the value and success of your campaign.
1. Reach and Impressions
There are 2 different ways to gauge how many people have set eyes on your ad. Reach is the total number of people who see your content. Impressions are the number of times your content is displayed. Because ads can be shown to the same person more than once, the number of impressions may be higher than reach.
2. Click-through ratio
The click-through ratio (CTR) tracks how many viewers engaged and clicked on your ad. Essentially, it is the percentage of clicks to impressions, for example if you get 2 clicks for every 100 impressions your CTR would be 2%. This metric is generally used to gauge the effectiveness of your ad campaign.
3. Conversions
Conversions are the number of people that performed your Call to Action (CTA) by clicking your ad and completing the intended action. For example, how many people bought your product or requested information after seeing your ad.
4. Return on Investment
Return on investment (ROI) is the best way to gauge the effectiveness of your campaign. ROI measures how much revenue your campaign generates compared to the cost required to run the campaign.
5. Cost per click
The cost-per-click is the amount you pay each time your ad is clicked. It is an average that is calculated throughout your campaign and determines how much you will pay for your ads based on the number of clicks the ad receives.
What are the 5 digital advertising best practices?
To get your next ad campaign off and running on the right foot, it’s important to keep these 5 best practices in mind as you create your campaign.
1. Have a strong call to action
A call to action is a strong text or prompt that encourages your audience to take action. This could be something like “Download now”, “Buy now”, “learn more” etc. The call to action can advance your marketing strategy and help you to gain leads, boost conversions and turn viewers into loyal customers and followers.
2. Keep it simple
When it comes to writing text in digital advertising, less is definitely more. Your audience doesn’t want to read through mile-long copy to get to the point of your ad, they want something that is clear, concise and to the point. So, the simpler the ad, the more successful it will be!
3. Create multiple formats
The more ad formats you create, the more opportunities you have for your ad to appear. This holds true for both Google Ads and social media ads. You should also be mindful of the various types of devices that could be used to view your ads and ensure you are creating ads that are easily visible on mobile, desktop, laptop and tablet.
4. Keep your brand at the forefront
When you start creating your ad campaign, remember to keep your brand at the forefront of your design. At the end of the day, your brand is what people are looking for and what you are trying to get out to the world through your ads. Make sure your ads are on brand, with brand colours, logo, and fonts.
5. Test!
With any ad campaign, A/B testing is an important practice to help you understand what resonates best with your audience. It also allows you to experiment with different ad creatives, and allows you to try different ad copies, backgrounds, images, and call-to-actions to see which one performs the best.
These days, small businesses need a diverse marketing strategy to be successful: design, audience targeting, and analysis, – to name a few. Social media, and search engines are flooded with traffic, making it hard to gain traction organically. Paid advertising is the most effective way to get your content to the top of people’s feeds and search engine results pages (and at the top of their minds) in the shortest amount of time. Not sure where to start with digital ads?
Then give the team at Trilogy Solutions a call, we can help!
