Advertising is the lifeline of businesses today because they have to beat stiff competition to catch the eye of customers. This gets even tougher if you are selling in the online space because there are thousands of competitors selling similar products and services. Whether your business is big or small, you need to have a robust online advertising strategy to make it to the top. This enables your website to get traffic and generates awareness for your brand. Further, these ads facilitate better targeting and even help you to collect user data that can be used to analyze consumer behaviour trends for creating a successful marketing plan using ad creator.
The dynamics of online ads has become complex over the years. What started as static images and pop-ups appearing on websites now covers an array of ad types that can be used to engage potential customers. The idea is to know the different types of online ads out there and identify the ones that really appeal to the audience and connect with them. Further, you cannot just rely on one or two types but need a powerful combination of ads to achieve success with your overall advertising plan. Let us list the options of online ads that every business should use.
Display ads are one of the most widely used forms of paid ads that businesses can use to reach out to the targeted audience. These ads feature on the web pages rather than search engine results. They can be visible on the top, bottom, side margins or even in the middle of the web page. Display ads are usually showcased on specific pages that are closely related to the product or service that you are trying to sell or the industry niche that your business belongs to.
Since this form of online advertising uses relevancy as the key criterion of ad placement, targeting is the benefit that you get. You can even target the ads for specific demographics, locations or languages. When you use display ads, you need to go the extra mile to ensure that they are visually appealing because they get you higher visibility and facilitate brand awareness. Also, there must be contextual landing pages that the user accesses after clicking the display ad. A well-designed and informative landing page enhances your chances of conversion and makes the display ads more valuable.
The first page of search engine results is the ticket to success for any business, which is the reason that search engine ads make one of the most useful adoptions. Google Ads is the most popular form of search engine advertising. While SEO is one way to appear on the first page, paid ads are the faster and result-oriented strategy for securing a place up there. Compared to SEO, paid advertising is the shorter process as you can reach the top by bidding on keywords which you want to rank for.
When a user searches with these keywords, they will see your ad on the top of the page and probably click. While you do compete with other businesses that bid for the same keyword, your ad gets to the top based on factors like quality score and relevancy of the ad. Search engine ads serve as an effective way to boost targeted traffic and connect with qualified leads that are more likely to convert. Additionally, search engine ads also yield useful data and analytics that can be leveraged to tweak your campaign.
Another form of online advertising that every business must absolutely leverage is Facebook ads. Considering the extensive popularity of this social media platform, this is one opportunity that you should not miss because it can give you a wide outreach with comparatively lesser effort. Kevin Buckley from Falcon Digital Marketing explains that the main difference between Facebook Ads and Google Ads is that Facebook Ads help customers find you, while Google Ads help you find customers. Using both of them is an effective way to grow your business.
Like Display ads, Facebook ads are also visible in different forms; they can appear as desktop feed, mobile feed or may be seen on the desktop sidebar. Properly designed ads can bring good engagement for your business and even entice the visitors to like or share them. In this way, these ads not only fetch you traffic for your website but also help you in increasing the awareness for your brand and extending the audience base as well. This strategy can also be highly targeted as it can connect your brand with the audience of specific demographics and locations.
Besides Facebook ads, businesses should also invest in ads on other social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon. Each of these platforms has a different audience and can be used for promoting your business to your target audience. For example, LinkedIn ads make the best choice for businesses that want to focus on B2B sales and making connections with industry leaders.
Using social media ads gives your business the advantage of targeted reach. This means that you need to spend your dollars only where they are likely to generate good ROI rather than waste it on places that will yield zero benefits. The formats of social media ads may vary from text banners to eye-catching images and interesting videos.
As online shoppers become smarter than ever, conventional text-based advertising no longer remains the best way to entice them. Businesses need to embrace more innovative and creative ideas such as video ads. They are gaining popularity because of their capability of attracting prospective customers through visual storytelling. These ads are posted on various channels such as YouTube, Google, Facebook, Vimeo and more.
Like other forms of advertising, video ads are also churned out in different types, formats and content options. While you can create informative video content, the other options include how-to videos, product stories or simply creating content that connects with the audience. The best thing about this form of advertising is that it strengthens your brand while ensuring good attention from prospective buyers.
The concept of retargeting ads is very different from the other forms of advertising but this does not make it any less important for businesses. As implied by the name, these ads appear in front of the users whom you would want to retarget with your marketing strategies. Essentially, these are the users who have shown interest in your business previously, probably by visiting your website, subscribing to your mail list or liking your social page. You would want to reconnect with them as they have reasonably good chances of converting.
Leveraging these ads is a smart move for any business because they enable you to pursue genuine prospects. This means that there is much less effort required in introducing your brand and business to them. In fact, a retargeting ad is just like a reminder that brings the attention of the potential customer to the website or brand that they already know. This strategy is worth exploring because it offers endless possibilities for businesses.
One of the most effective ad strategies that businesses have been using for a long time is email marketing. This strategy involves sending emails to a mailer list of the audience that has been collected by the business over a period of time. Interestingly, you can send mass emails to the entire audience base or share personalized ones that are meant to appeal to individuals on the basis of their interests and preferences. The content of the emails should be concise yet interesting and should highlight the value proposition of your product and brand.
The key benefits of email marketing are cost-effectiveness, speed, and efficacy. Moreover, these mail ads boost customer loyalty and sales as they establish a direct connection with the targeted customers. Furthermore, they can be tracked to assess their performance and monitor the Return on Investment. A massive database of email addresses is the backbone of an effective email marketing strategy. You can build it up by asking the site visitors to sign up for your newsletter or subscribe to your blog.
Native ads refer to the ones that appear at the bottom of blog posts, Facebook posts or other social media posts. Basically, they are the content pieces that are seamlessly camouflaged and integrated into the platform where they appear. These entice the users to click them with recommendations such as “other people liked” and “other recommended readings”.
Like other forms of ads, native advertisements also come in diverse forms. These include search ads, desktop feeds, mobile feeds, promoted listings, and recommendation widgets. Since this is a subtle form of advertising, users are most likely to click on them on the spur of the moment as they check out blog posts or access social media.
Now that you know all about the different types of ads that businesses should invest in, it becomes easy to identify the ones that would work for you. The best approach would be to partner with an expert online marketing agency that is capable of formulating a result-oriented advertising strategy with the best combination of online ads for your business.