In online advertising, traffic is the name of the game. The more visitors you get to your site, the more sales you can expect to make. Fostering organic traffic, however, is difficult when there are millions of other online businesses to compete with.
The quickest and most effective way to grow your business online is through digital advertising. A well-spent advertising budget will not only target your ideal customers, but it will result in higher rankings for your business in search engines which, down the road, can result in that organic traffic that you’ve always dreamed of.
In this post, we’ll explore 3 types of digital advertising that businesses should be using to drive sales and increase engagement with their brands.
1. Social Media Ads
With over 3 billion users daily, it is obvious why targeted social media ads should absolutely be a part of your brand’s advertising strategy. In fact, 52% of online brand discovery happens on social media feeds, so there may be no better place to spend your ad dollars than on these social platforms where more and more potential customers are spending their time.
There are plenty of social platforms to choose from, but the big ones to focus on are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. All three of these platforms have robust advertising options for businesses that allow you to segment your ads by various factors.
Just a few of the factors that you can personalize include:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Interests
- Profession
- Hobbies
- Buying behaviors
With their user-friendly software and robust analytics options, it is a no-brainer for every business to leverage the power of social media through advertisements.
2. Pay-Per-Click Ads
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is another highly effective way to drive traffic to your site. PPC uses the power of search engine metrics like Google Ads (formerly Adwords) to identify customers who are actively searching for businesses just like yours.
Think about the last time that you typed anything into Google. You probably noticed that the first 3-4 hits that came up on your results feed had a little “Ad” symbol next to them. These are examples of PPC ads that have been tailored to people, like you, searching for a service, product, or information.
PPC is unique in that your business only pays Google when someone clicks on your ad. This is helpful because you don’t need money upfront to purchase your ad space, your business only pays once your ad starts to gain traction with consumers. This is great because it means that your business can create multiple styles of advertisements and then track the success of each one without breaking the bank.
Using search engine metrics from sites like Google Ads can provide you with valuable data about the pain points and desires of your ideal clients. And, since customers are actively searching for businesses like yours, you are already engaging with a “warm” lead – someone who is looking to make a purchase.
3. Display Advertising
Display ads are the banner-style ads that you see at the top, side, or bottom of various websites you frequent while browsing or working online. While these ads aren’t always the most effective at driving traffic to your site, they are a great way to get your brand in front of prospective customers and make it a recognizable name that comes to mind quickly.
To purchase a display advertisement, you will need to go through an ad network such as Google or Facebook. Their highly sophisticated software allows you to, you guessed it, target ideal customers based on metrics such as interests, demographics, and behaviors.
While click-through rates aren’t always the highest for display ads, you are able to place visually-appealing ads for your business on millions of websites with the click of a button.
Digital advertising is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to growing your business. When done correctly, your ad strategy can accelerate your business’ growth with very little effort. The investment is well worth it if your ads are worded and designed strategically and effectively.
Deal Digital has designers and digital marketing experts that can help guide you through the exciting world of digital advertising. If you’d like help designing ads that will fare well on the platforms we mentioned in this post, get in touch to schedule a consultation.
