The past decade has seen significant growth and breakthroughs in the digital marketing industry, and it is only set to grow and evolve in the years to come. With so many online platforms available to us today, it can be hard to keep up. The good news is you’ve come to the right place!
This guide will outline the main types of digital advertising available so you can make use of the best ones for your business. Let’s get started.
Display Ads
When used properly, display advertising is a basic yet powerful way to reach your audience. Display advertising refers to images, texts, banners, pop-ups and flash ads that use graphics, audio, video or text to encourage users to click on them.
Display ads do not show up in organic search results pages, but are found everywhere else on the internet. They are distributed to third-party publishers like the Google Display Network (GDN) and are an affordable option even for small startups. The main objective of a Display Ad is to get a click – Google’s algorithm is so powerful that ads on the GDN reach 90% of web users across the world.
Because of its extensive reach and ability to target who you want, display ads are a very powerful advertising tool to make use of.
Social Media
With almost 4 billion social media users worldwide, this is a platform that every business should tap into. Social media includes Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn, TikTok and even YouTube, and it is a great way to hyper-direct your way to your target audience.
With so many social networks out there, make sure you know which one your target audience is using most and get your ads on there. Looking for Gen X? They’re most likely on Snapchat and TikTok. Targeting millennials? They love Instagram and Reddit. What about those tech-savvy mums? They’re definitely on Facebook.
The ads on social media will be fed into your target users stream seamlessly, but will clearly be marked as ‘Sponsored’ to differentiate them from organic content. Influencer marketing is also a great way to leverage the power of word-of-mouth on social media.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
This is quite a dependable advertising technique, as it uses keywords that users are already searching for. Pay Per Click (PPC) ads show up on the top and bottom of a search results page and are clearly marked as ‘Ad’ to set them apart from organic results.
Most search engine users rarely get past the first page of the results page, so targeted ads that get traction on page one is a great way to get a hold of them. Your audience is already actively looking for something, so make your headline and description catchy and to the point to get a high click-through rate.
Video Ads
According to HubSpot, over 50% of consumers want to see video content from brands they follow. Video is definitely the future of advertising and digital video takes things to the next level. You’re contending with a lot of competition and shorter attention spans, so you have to make your connection within the first 6 seconds.
Your online audience is drawn to visuals, so use video ads effectively and wisely. Make your videos bite-sized and shareable so users can distribute your ad within their network automatically giving you more publicity. Video ads can be run across platforms and devices too, making them versatile and engaging on the move.
Email Marketing
This is inexpensive and highly effective. Forget about buying email lists – that’s a thing of the past and highly frowned upon today. Most users readily sign up to brands’ email lists, so promise them great content, impressive discounts and other enticing material to get them to subscribe.
Once you have your list, you’re ready to send out emails. Create a content calendar that speaks to your target audience; it’s not all about selling, give them shareable, engaging emails that they will click on. Subject lines play a very important role here. Communicate your offering in the subject to lure the user into opening your email, and don’t forget to end with a clear CTA. And, if you’re incorporating ads within your email body, make sure the layout and designs flow without interruption.
Each type of digital advertising has its own set of advantages and uses. We recommend using 2 or 3 of them at a time to see what works for you best. Examine your goals, the timeline you’re expecting and an ROI for each, which will help you calculate what budget to allocate to each channel.
Ultimately, when used correctly, digital advertising can help grow your business, bring in new customers and ensure conversions. It’s an exciting time to experiment with digital advertising, and the formula is changing daily. Stay on top of trends to keep up and stay ahead.