As the world becomes more reliant on technological devices, marketing has changed in many ways. Digital advertising refers to the promotion of products and services using the internet. The channels used differ from social media to websites, and each channel can promote products and services uniquely. Using digital advertising has become a must in the world today. If you’ve not set up proper digital marketing channels, you’re bound to be overtaken by your competition.
What is Digital Advertising?
Digital marketing strategies can be created to ensure that a brand is creating compelling and enticing ads. From helping to engage customers and create more awareness to developing different marketing funnels, digital advertising is a must for any business, no matter how small or large.
Digital ad platforms also allow a business to analyze better the results of their marketing efforts through data collection. More traditional advertising techniques simply relied on sales to determine whether or not advertisements were being seen. Today, digital advertising tools can help you to manage and estimate how effectively your marketing tactics are working. This allows for a brand to look at ways that advertisements can be improved to ensure that more customers see the advertisements being released.
What is The Difference Between Traditional and Digital Advertising?
Traditional advertising used marketing methods focused on getting the business’s name out to the public through newspaper advertisers and flyers. These methods are quite different from the digital marketing tactics that are used today. There are two main differences and advantages between these two forms of marketing.
- Digital Advertising is Flexible: Digital advertising is far more flexible than traditional advertising methods. Previously, once an advertisement had been released and sent to the newspaper or magazine where it’d appear, the marketer’s job was essentially over. With digital ad platforms, you can make changes as they’re required and as you get data back to determine whether or not the ad is working properly. This flexibility also ensures that advertisements can be quick. Traditional methods required the ads that marketers had developed to be sent to printers to await distribution. This could take days, if not weeks, for your advertisement to be released. This time frame wasn’t sustainable, and more modern forms of marketing offer much quicker turnaround.
- Digital Advertising is Precise: While more traditional methods had to develop advertisements that were broad and directed to all public members, digital advertising methods are a bit more precise in how they’re directed. With omnichannel digital marketing strategies and through the use of customer analysis, a business is able to create content that can be directed towards specific people easily. This also allows brands to change their approach between different groups of people, using the client’s unique needs to categorize and group certain individuals and market according to these needs.
The differences between traditional and digital advertising are large, and though the aim of each is the same, the procedures on how to get to the final goal are vastly different. Digital analysis has made marketing more diverse and allowed brands to better understand the people they’re marketing to. This makes it incredibly beneficial in today’s age of digitization and using an ad platform can be incredibly useful.
What is the Purpose of Digital Advertising? What Does It Do?
As the world has grown more used to online shopping, finding ways to promote the products and services you sell online has become a vital part of any business. Ad platforms allow a brand to design advertisements that are then streamed on online platforms to people worldwide. With unique tools, businesses can target certain groups of people with different advertisements. These tools segment individuals into specific groups according to data that has been collected. This data is then used to determine the best products and services for specific individuals, and these kinds of advertisements will then be shown.
So, what’s the purpose of this? Targeting customers has become extremely important for a business. To ensure that the advertisements they release are directed toward the right groups of people, marketing tactics need to be created with specific groups of people in mind. This doesn’t mean that you create certain advertisements only for certain individuals but rather target certain groups with certain products or information. The data used to determine the categorizing of individuals is often based on what a customer is interested in and has been thinking of buying in the past. Using this information, a business is able to create more targeted and relevant ads for different people on the ad platforms that they’re using.
Digital marketing is working to close the gap between a business and its customers. Being able to understand a target audience better allows a brand to comprehend the unique needs of their different customers and then ensure that they’re meeting these requirements. Ad platforms help a business to build relevant advertisements and distribute them to targeted audiences, further increasing its reach and profits.
How Should Digital Marketing Advertisements Be Made?
There’re many ways that digital marketing advertisements can be developed. There’re a few things that you’ll have to take into consideration throughout the process; here is a look at some of them.
- Who is your target audience: Understanding who your target audience is can help you develop different marketing ads on ad platforms. Your target audience is the people for whom your products or services are designed. When you start a business, you’re ultimately looking to fill a specific gap within the market by providing a certain service or product to consumers. Identifying which consumers would get the most out of what you sell will help to ensure that your ads are targeted and precisely identify the needs and questions of the audience.
- Choose the platforms that best match your target audience: Certain groups are known to be more inclined to use specific platforms. If you’re a brand that is trying to attract other businesses, you’ll more than likely be looking to use ad platforms like LinkedIn and Google. If you’re trying to attract the younger generation’s attention, you may find that using ad platforms like Tik Tok or Instagram will be more effective. Choosing ad platforms is vital for online advertising, so be sure to do market research into which one your target audience is more likely to be using.
Thinking about the above can help ensure that you’re designing ads that aren’t just good but also relevant to those you’re hoping to attract.
What are the Digital Advertising Types You Can Use?
There’re a variety of ad platforms that can be used in digital marketing. Thinking about your target audience can help ensure that your ads attract the right kinds of people to your website or eCommerce page. The following is a look into the different types of ad platforms and how to use them.
Google Ads
Google ad platforms are a great tool many businesses use to promote their products and services. As the search engine with the most market share in the world, placing an ad on Google is an easy way to attract customers. Google Ads is an ad platform that works on a pay-per-click system, whereby any click on an advertisement that goes back to your page will be charged a certain amount. This is great because it means that you only pay when a person is interested in the products or services you offer.
This search engine uses keywords based on the searches that people do to determine which products and services would be most beneficial for the user. These keywords let this ad platform know what the searcher is looking for. If you’ve optimized your page correctly and have provided relevant keywords, your offers will more than likely be displayed. Google ads are great to use if you’re after a simple and effective ad platform where you’re able to manage your ads, either online or offline easily. Google Ads also allows a brand to look at its advertisement’s effectiveness by providing analytical data. This data can be used to target your audience better.
Facebook Ads Manager (Facebook Ads-Instagram Ads)
Facebook ad platforms can help a business create and release advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Social media has become a crucial part of digital marketing as millions of people log into their social media accounts daily. While having an Instagram or Facebook account to post on is helpful in advertising, you want to ensure that you’re taking a bit more of a targeted approach. This ad platform can help businesses create and manage their ads easily and effectively. This allows for the distribution of the ads to be distributed in such a way that the most relevant audience sees them.
This ad platform allows you to define your own audience, helping you better target certain people with whom your products and services most relate. You can also set predetermined budgets for your campaigns, allowing the ad platform to understand your needs and requirements better. This budget can be determined by setting monthly limits or giving an amount for the entire campaign.
YouTube Ads
YouTube is another platform that has designed its marketing offers around paying when a user sees your advertisement. You’ll pay a predetermined amount to the platform each time your video is displayed. This is a great way to ensure that you’re only paying for when a user is seeing the videos that you’re posting. The amount that you pay will ultimately depend on the frequency and number of times that the video is seen. If you’re a business that is looking to get into graphic video marketing, YouTube is the place to be. YouTube ads are also targeted, using the history of the individual to determine which ads would be most relevant and likely to receive a click if shown.
Videos are a great form of advertisement because they ensure that the content is shown and listened to, even if the individual watching the ad isn’t completely concentrated on it. YouTube ads have created a great space for businesses to target their audience in unique ways. The versatility of this ad platform has ensured that a brand can decide which types of video marketing best work for them.
LinkedIn Ads
For business-to-business (B2B) sales, LinkedIn ads are extremely beneficial and can help you connect with businesses that may be interested in the products or services you offer. LinkedIn is a business platform that has grown in leaps and bounds over the last few years, becoming the best place for job-hunting businesses to promote themselves. One of the biggest advantages of using LinkedIn ads is that it allows you to target specific people in certain industries. More often than not, your B2B content is going to be looking to connect with people in relevant industries and specifically sized businesses. LinkedIn ads allow you to determine which criteria would suit you and who your target audience should be.
LinkedIn ads are also well-known to be one of the best tools for lead generation. The marketing funnel that can be constructed with this ad platform can stream potential clients and customers your way. This helps to increase brand recognition and shows you as a professional and trustworthy business. LinkedIn ads could be the ideal ad platform to get for any business, no matter how large or small.
Twitter Ads
Twitter ad platforms run on a system of a brand having to auction for specific actions. If a user completes the action that they’ve bid on, the business will have to pay for this result. Like other ad platforms, this means that you’re ultimately only paying when a user clicks on a link and is actually interested in the products and services you offer. This target-driven approach means that you only pay when a user completes an action. Millions of people use Twitter each and every day, meaning that you have the opportunity to gain customers from an extensive group of consumers. To ensure that the most relevant people are seeing your ads, Twitter ads have created a tool whereby you’re able to determine who your target audience should be. This helps to stream your advertisements to the most relevant people.
Snapchat Ads
For those businesses who are trying to attract the attention of the younger generations, using Snapchat ads could be incredibly effective. Snapchat ads is an all-in-one tool that allows you to create, post and analyze the adverts that you release. This means you’re well aware of whether or not your ad campaign is effective and is driving sales to your business. Many businesses have said that Snapchat brings in returns far higher than the costs to create and release the campaign. With the targeted metrics and expected results, many companies have taken to relying solely on Snapchat for their marketing.
TikTok Ads
TikTok is one of the most recent social media platforms to take off, and millions of people worldwide are on it every day. This social media platform provides a unique channel for businesses to market on, offering you the chance to release either videos or images and stream to specific groups of people. As TikTok has grown in popularity over the last few years, placing ads on this platform has become increasingly beneficial for businesses. No matter what industry you’re in, TikTok ads is an ad platform that has been designed to convert its users into your next customers.
Spotify Ads
As with YouTube, Spotify Ad Studio is an excellent opportunity for you to get your brand name out there using videos. When listening to Spotify, you’ll find that an ad will usually pop up and play for a few seconds before certain songs are played. These ads are targeted toward specific individuals and are based on previous interactions with brands. You may find that after visiting a site or purchasing something from a brand, your Spotify will show ads from this business. This targeted approach is incredibly beneficial and helps ensure that businesses attract the right people. If you‘re after an ad platform that is able to help get the name of your brand out there and increase visibility, Spotify Ad Studio is a great one to use.
Pinterest Ads
Pinterest Ads is another ad platform that bases the amount a business pays per month on the interactions that certain advertisements receive. Paying per click ensures that when creating and releasing Pinterest ads, you’re only paying for what you get. When someone is interested enough in your product or service to click on the link and head over to your website, you’ll pay. Though this only sometimes results in a sale, the interaction based on interest ensures that you aren’t paying for viewers to see your ads if they aren’t interested in the offer. A business will have to place a bid on specific target audiences and if your bid wins, your ad is the one that will be shown when these groups of people are using Pinterest. This is a surefire way to attract the right kinds of people to your business.
How SmartMessage Can Help You in the Digital World
The digital services offered by our team at SmartMessage can help ensure that you develop the best campaigns and strategies. We offer a full-service package whereby we can take control of your digital marketing, manage your calendar and deploy campaigns. This service also includes quarterly reviews, whereby we’ll review the progress that has been made using these strategies and refine them where needed. For a team that knows just how important online advertising is and can get you up and running on the best and most effective ad platforms, look no further than SmartMessage.
