Demystifying the expansive world of digital advertising.
With a powerful return on investment (ROI) opportunity — up to 200%, in fact1 — digital advertising can play an essential role in your integrated marketing strategy. But, just where to begin? Between social media, streaming content, responsive search ads and retargeting content, it can feel overwhelming trying to navigate the digital marketing landscape.
If you’re wondering whether digital advertising is right for your business, you’re in luck. With insights from our resident digital marketing strategist, we have outlined the elements of a digital ad campaign — from clarifying goals to the pros and cons of the most popular platforms — to make it easier to understand.
Define campaign objectives.
The first step in creating a successful digital advertising strategy is defining your campaign objectives. Begin by asking yourself these two questions: What do you want to achieve with the ad campaign? And, how will this campaign fit into your overall marketing strategy? Digital ads are one piece of the marketing puzzle, and a successful strategy uses each piece to complement the others. The answer to these questions will help you determine your primary campaign objective, allowing you to build your strategy around the right objectives and conversions. The most common campaign objectives are brand awareness, website traffic, online engagement, leads and sales.
Understand your audience.
Who are you going to target with this campaign? Understanding your audience — from their online habits to the language they use — allows you to tailor your campaign to make the biggest impact. For example, are you targeting new audiences who are unfamiliar with your brand or established customers who are already familiar with your offerings? For new audiences, your content would likely need to provide an overview of your services and what sets your business apart, while you could hone in on more detailed content for users that are already in the know. You could also consider targeting audiences in a specific location — this is especially valuable for brick-and-mortar shops — or reach users who work in a specific industry, such as construction, commercial real estate or chemical engineering. Not only does defining your audience help with your content messaging, but it also helps you select the platform more likely to reach them. Understanding how the audience would interact with the brand organically helps you determine how best to reach them through a sponsored ad — ultimately, you want to meet them where they are.
Case in point: Google vs. LinkedIn ads.
To see how distinct audiences can shape an ad campaign, let’s take a closer look at two of our clients. First up: Food Town, a locally-owned grocery store wanted to reach repeat shoppers in the Houston area. Targeting an audience already familiar with the grocery store, and locations, we developed an integrated marketing strategy using digital display ads to drive in-store traffic, and sparking sales using local search Google ads.
Surveillance system provider SentriForce wanted to reach new prospective customers in the construction industry across multiple locations. To do so, we launched a comprehensive campaign on LinkedIn showcasing how their systems address theft on construction sites that targeted decision makers in the industry by job title.
Establish a timeline.
Next up, you’ll want to consider how long the campaign will run. Evergreen campaigns are ideal for brand awareness, maintaining visibility with users long-term. On the other hand, targeted drip campaigns or seasonal campaigns can be used to drive high-impact concentrated messaging around a more time-sensitive or relevant topic.
Case in point: Peak Season.
A dedicated ad campaign can help drive awareness leading up to and during your business’ peak season. For example, we launched a digital ad campaign for a commercial property tax company to boost brand awareness six months before tax season. This helped plant the seeds in potential clients’ minds over the months in advance, encouraging more conversions during tax season by strengthening name recall, brand awareness and authority.
Set the budget.
Once you have clear goals, a target audience and a timeline, you’ll want to determine just how much to spend on your ads. While the specific number will depend on your goals and overall marketing strategy, your marketing spend should ideally be between 7 – 10% of your net profit.2 You can use this number as a starting point and adjust your spend, as needed, as you continue to optimize your campaign overtime.
Select ad platforms.
Last, but absolutely not least, you’ll determine where to launch your campaign. Reflect on all of the previous steps, from the overarching goals to where your audience is online to the timeline and budget. These elements can help to inform the best platform to initiate an integrated digital ad strategy that best supports your business’ marketing initiatives.
Pros and cons of digital advertising platforms.
While digital ads can support all businesses, selecting the right ad platform is essential for crafting a successful campaign. Learn more about the most common examples of digital advertising platforms below — and what type of campaigns each one is best suited for.
Search engine ads.
With an average ROI of $2 for every $1 spent3, Google Ads are a powerful tool in your digital marketing kit. From dynamic graphics to location-specific ads, search engine ads on Google and Bing offer a wide range of options to choose from — each with specific benefits depending on your business’ services and campaign goals.
Search ads.
Search ads are a great place to begin a digital campaign because of the wealth of in-depth data they provide. These sponsored text ads appear on search results pages and typically lead users to a dedicated landing page. Search ads can provide you with invaluable information such as the specific user search terms, how the user is navigating online and engaging with your content, and where they are in the sales funnel when they engage. This insight allows you to refine and optimize your campaign in real time, adapting to the language and phrases your real target audience is using.
Responsive display ads.
Display ads are dynamic, relying on native and responsive tools to create ads tailored to the platform where they are served up to your audience. These ads pull from a bank of images and headlines, pairing them together to best fit the platform or page. While these are designed to best suit the format used by your audience, there is limited control over how the various elements are combined, so you need to provide a flexible bank of images and content that can easily be mixed and matched together.
Video ads.
Video ads provide you with a lot of valuable information about users’ search behavior, making them a good choice for using at the start of a brand awareness or educational campaign. As you learn more about various behaviors and how users are engaging with your content, you can further refine your strategy across various platforms. While eye-catching, video ads can also be more time-consuming to create and maintain.
Local ads.
Local ads target users in a specific geographic area, which typically translates to a smaller, more concentrated audience. With these ads, businesses can target specific actions such as placing online orders, calling a business or getting driving directions, as well as monitoring foot traffic. Local ads are often a strong fit for established brands or familiar industries such as restaurants and retail, and can be used to generate high ROI conversions.
Remarketing.
Ever felt like an ad is following you around the internet? That’s likely a remarketing ad. These ad types use data collected during a previous campaign to remarket messaging to users who have previously engaged with your content. Remarketing ads are a visual reminder, keeping your brand top of mind for users and encouraging them to take a desired action.
Social media ads.
With 74% of shoppers researching products on social media before making a purchase4, social media ads are a powerful tool for direct-to-consumer and business-to-consumer brands. While these ads offer flexibility and can be relatively cost effective, they have relatively limited insights and can be difficult to target businesses through Meta. Platforms like LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube offer a variety of native tools that can be used to drive engagement with specific audiences, depending on where your target audience spends time online.
Instagram.
Instagram, which is part of Meta’s ad suite, is a popular choice for business-to-consumer and direct-to-consumer businesses. As a visual-first platform, video, photography and graphic elements help with brand education and driving sales — especially through the use of direct product shop links. However, the demographic reach for Instagram is relatively limited, with most users being under 50 years of age.
Facebook.
On the other hand, Facebook — also part of Meta’s ad suite — has a broader demographic range that engages with ads in a variety of ways, including Messenger, Stories and the in-platform newsfeed. The ads are integrated into users’ experiences more organically, which can help build trust. However, Facebook controls the view and advertisers do not have access to specific data sets or audiences, which can make it difficult to refine audience segments.
LinkedIn.
LinkedIn’s native tools are designed for targeting audiences by industry or profession, which makes this a good platform for brand awareness and engagement campaigns. However, it’s important to be flexible with audience segments, taking advantage of the platform’s built-in automation tools to guide the ads to potential customers and brand advocates.
Pinterest.
As a primarily visual platform, Pinterest is ideal for aesthetically pleasing photos and videos — especially content that can be repurposed or “pinned” for inspiration such as recipes, home décor or DIY projects. Advertising on this platform is akin to casting a wide net. While it can be difficult to zero in on the exact target audience you have in mind, there is opportunity to reach a large number of potential customers who are interested in your brand’s industry or niche.
YouTube.
Advertising on YouTube can help you better understand your target audience’s online behaviors. The platform shares a good amount of data about users’ search behavior, which provides insight into how users find your business online. The platform can also help you reach a large audience — however, on the flip side, it can also lead to ad fatigue when repeatedly served up to the same users. It can also be challenging to ensure your ads appear on content that aligns specifically with your brand’s mission or values.
Digital marketing campaigns continue to evolve over time, and you have the opportunity to continue finetuning them as you learn more about your audience members. As part of an integrated multi-channel marketing strategy, digital ads play an important role in keeping your brand top of mind, improving authority and brand recognition, and driving digital conversions. Talk to our digital marketing experts about crafting a marketing campaign designed around your business’ goals.
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