Online advertising is one of the best strategies for companies of all sizes to broaden their markets, attract new clients, and diversify their sources of income.
Many people think that online advertising no longer works the way it used to. But it all depends on strategies and implementation.
In this post, we are going to talk about the different options up to how to plan your campaigns to achieve successful results.
What Is Online Advertising
Online advertising is the art of persuading the targeted customer with an online marketing message to perform a specific action, such as making a purchase.
Benefits Of Online Advertising
We can think of many benefits, but we are going to highlight the following:
- Target your potential customers
- Help you achieve objectives in every stage of the sales funnel
- Measure your marketing effort
- Low costs, unlike traditional advertisement
Are You Ready For Online Advertising?
You don’t want to throw money away. If you want to have steady results, you need to be guided by a digital marketing strategy.
See if you assess the following points:
- You’ve done your market research
- You know your segmented positioning in the market
- You’ve set up your strategic objectives and KPI’s
- Your website is optimized
Types Of Online Advertising
At Creativisocial, we’ve helped many businesses and brands grow by leveraging the power of online advertising.
Here are the types of online advertising that can help yours.
1. Paid Search Advertising
Paid search advertising is a very effective channel.
According to Statista, as of July 2022, Google had a share of around 83 percent, while Bing had nearly 9%, and Yahoo, 2.55%.
So people searching on Google, they click on the first result they believe it solves their inquiry. Even though you can position yourself organically, with paid search, you’ll capture a more targeted.
How does Google deliver your ad?
Through keywords.
A keyword is a word or more words (a phrase) that users enter on Google in search of something.
For instance: If we search for “criminal law New York”, Google gives us the following results.
Keywords are crucial. It is important that you do keyword research, both for paid ads and SEO (organic).
Paid search ads are more expensive than other type of ads. The average cost per clicks (CPC) is around $1-2, and even more, depending on the industry.
While we can get immediate results, it’s highly competitive.
2. Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is the second-largest digital advertisement market. It has many advantages:
- Point to very specific target audiences
- Use variety of ad formats
- Drive leads and sales
We are going to cover the major social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube.
Both ad formats and the cost of social media ads vary depending on the channel. Check out the following table.
1. Facebook
With roughly 2.96 billion monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2022, Facebook is the most used online social network worldwide, according to Statista.
So it’s a platform with great opportunities to reach your audience.
There are three types of audiences you can target on Facebook:
- An audience based on interests, age and geography.
- A custom audience, based on people already know you.
- A lookalike audience to reach people who are similar to your customers.
Besides, you can consider six campaign objectives: Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, App promotion, and Sales.
2. Instagram
Through Meta Platform, you can also advertise on Instagram.
With 1 billion users worldwide, Instagram belongs to the most popular social networks worldwide, according to Statista.
How can you advertise on Instagram?
- Promote posts and stories directly from the app.
- Create ads from your Facebook Page
- Create ad campaigns through Business Manager, which we recommend.
The type of ads you can create are photos, stories, reels, shopping posts ads. Reels ads are having a broaden reach and better results.
3. TikTok
TikTok is a very popular social media channel, among young audiences. Yet more and more is used by brands to reach new audiences.
The type of content is more laid back, so it allows brands to showcase their more authentic and human side.
Use different types of ads to run your TikTok marketing campaigns.
TikTok is a platform to discover new products and services, so if you are looking for more sales, test the following types of ads:
1. In-Feed Ads –
In-Feed Ads are the video ads that appear in between user videos as you scroll through your For You page (FYP).
2. Spark Ads –
Spark Ads is for promoting your existing TikTok content and user videos, rather than create a video from scratch.
3. Brand Takeover Ads –
Brand Takeover Ads are full-screen ads and appear on the FYP immediately after someone opens TikTok, directing viewers to a Hashtag Challenge or landing page.
4. TopView Ads –
TopView Ads are the ones that appear upon opening the app — presenting a full-screen video to your targeted audience. They’re full-screen and auto-play with sound.
5. Branded Hashtag Challenge Ads –
The Branded Hashtag Challenge Ads are featured at the top of TikTok’s Discover Page for greater engagement.
6. Branded Effects-
Branded effects are branded shareable stickers, AR filters, and lenses in their advertising mix.
Remember to strike the right balance between promotion and entertainment.
Related content: Instagram vs TikTok: Key Differences
4. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is perhaps the best platform for B2B advertising. As of the end of 2022, LinkedIn has 875 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.
What’s available on LinkedIn is their ability to target users by unique demographics, which are not available in other social media platforms.
With your ads, you can segment by job title, function and industry.
One of the most powerful types of ads is message ads, where you can text your prospects to drive action right away. Be careful, though. Don’t be to be spammy!
5. Twitter
The majority of users of Twitter are people between 35-65 years old. Although it’s less common used, many B2B businesses are having many opportunities because of its high engagement.
You can create ad campaigns on Twitter with five goals: Awareness, Tweet engagement, Follows, Website clicks, and App downloads.
6. Pinterest
Pinterest is a social media platform with a female audience predominantly. It’s a visual channel, and users like to search for inspiration, but also for purchases.
You can create an ad by following the next steps:
- Create a Pinterest account.
- Go to create an ad.
- Choose your objective.
- Set your targeting criteria.
- Select your pin.
- Track your results.
7. YouTube
YouTube currently has more than 2.6 billion active users. It’s the second large search engine, after Google.
With YouTube ads, you can target relevant audiences. Its segmentation relies on demographics and interests.
3. Display advertising
Display advertising is a very common type of advertising, yet also very controversial. It’s an intrusive way of advertising.
Machine learning allows advertisers more effective ways, being both Google Display Network and Facebook Audience Network leaders in display advertising.
They are cost-effective, and highly used for brand awareness. The downside is they are ignored or blocked most of the time.
4. Native advertising
Native advertising is a camouflage-type of advertisement. Which means these ads don’t look like ads at all.
Brands partner with publishers to sponsor, usually articles where they promote their business while providing value.
While native ads build trust, on the other hand, there’s no high return on investment.
Check out native.com
How To Create An Online Advertising Strategy For Your Business
Here are the steps you can follow to creating an online advertising strategy.
Step #1 – Set up smart objectives.
Write down your business objectives, and make sure they are SMART –specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
Step #2- Know your target audience.
Who’s your target audience? Who do you want to reach with your ads? It’s important you know their age, gender, demographics, location and interests.
Step #3 – Allocate a budget
So how much do we have to spend? That’s a frequent question. If you can afford only an amount of money, then this will be your budget. Otherwise, you can spend as much as to reach your smart objective.
Step #4 – Choose a channel
To choose a channel, you must consider different factors:
- For certain keywords, Google Ads can be very expensive.
- If you wish to increase your followers, you must pick a social media channel.
- With the first online advertising campaign, stick to one channel.
Step #5 – Create and launch your campaign
Creating a campaign goes from keyword searching to designing creatives, according to the type of online advertising chosen.
Remember to use tools that help you get results quickly.
Step #6 – Optimize your campaign
Data will help you know what works and what doesn’t. Optimize as best as you can.
Conclusion
Businesses can leverage their marketing efforts with online advertising. Here we’ve put together an eye bird’s view of the online advertisement landscape.