Types of Online Advertising for Your Business
No matter the industry that you operate in, one thing remains constant – you will probably never have enough ways to generate targeted leads for your business.
And with the number of online users nearing 4 billion worldwide, there probably isn’t a better way to ensure consistent growth than by advertising online.
With the help of targeted online advertising campaigns, you can gain access to a global audience of prospective customers who are actively looking for solutions that you have to offer.
And instead of having to seek out their attention through outdated methods such as print media or billboards, you can get in front of your customers where they already like to hang out – social media, search engines, and their favorite websites.
But where to get started with marketing your business online? What are the main advantages of online advertising? And what types of online advertising are there?
Well, there are numerous ways how you can promote your business on the web, and in this article, we’ll explore what is online advertising and seven methods that have proven to be extremely effective.
Search Engines (PPC)
There have been over 700 billion searches performed on Google this year. That’s more than 6 billion every single day, and the number is on an upward trend and should continue to rise.
That offers an incredible opportunity for businesses who can get their message in front of the searches that are related to what they have to offer.
And with the help of PPC ads, you can start getting clicks to your site from those searches as soon as today. By bidding for a place among the relevant term, you can get your link to appear above the organic results and gain an instant traffic source for your offer.
But how to get your ads displayed instead of the competition’s?
Well, Google and other search engines use a bidding system in which businesses place bids on how much they’re willing to pay for appearing at the top of a specific search query, and those that bid the highest and have the most relevant ads, get the spot.
Since you’re paying for every single click to your site, you must make sure that the keywords you choose are relevant and that you have a solid offer in place that can ensure that the cost of online advertising doesn’t exceed your returns.
Social Networks
More people are on social media than ever before, which means that there has never been a better time to use social networks for your business advertising online.
However, creating a page on Facebook isn’t going to cut it.
In the current online advertising ecosystem, the reach from organic or free social media marketing efforts is now lower than ever before because the biggest social media networks have been shifting their focus to monetization in the past couple of years.
But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The feeds of social media users are already overcrowded with posts from their friends and pages that they follow, so breaking in and getting your posts read is a very difficult and time-consuming process.
However, with the help of paid social media advertising, you can take advantage of the incredible targeting possibilities and create ads that have the best chance of success.
You can customize your audience using countless parameters, choose from a wide range of goals, and have the advanced social media algorithms optimize your ads for best performance and biggest ROI.
Banners
Banners were one of the first types of online advertising ever used, and it produced spectacular results for the pioneers of the method.
However, its early success was also the main culprit behind the challenges that it faces today – banners have been used widely and brazenly for a long time, which has forced most internet users to learn to ignore them completely.
And with the fairly recent appearance of various ad blockers that eliminate banner ads from websites, the future of banners seems bleak.So, while you may still be able to achieve some success with banner ads (and many businesses still do), there are more productive online advertising methods for getting in front of your target audience without having to annoy them.
Blogs
Since the advent of the internet, sharing knowledge and experiences through content has been at the forefront of succeeding online.
People go online to search for answers to their questions and solutions to their problems, and content serves as the perfect way to showcase your expertise, provide valuable information, and grow a loyal following of an audience that is interested in what you have to offer.
And today, there are more opportunities than ever before to create engaging content that your target prospects will love – you can start a blog, create videos, or even record podcasts, and then use that content to promote your business, expand your reach, and establish your status as an authority in your field.
Email Marketing
Getting targeted leads to your website is a difficult challenge.
Therefore, you must make sure that once you attract a prospective customer, you don’t let him slip away and leave your site without creating an opportunity to interact with him again in the future.
That’s where email marketing can be one of the most effective types of online advertising.
Capturing your prospect’s email address allows you to engage him multiple times, giving you complete control over how you present information in sequential order.
By providing useful advice, helping to overcome obstacles, and introducing them to the most effective solutions, you can guide your audience towards the decision to purchase your products and can nurture leads that weren’t ready to buy when they reached your site initially.
Remarketing
Remarketing is one of the best online advertising strategies, but many businesses still leave a lot of potential earnings on the table by not implementing it to its full potential.
Basically, remarketing is the process of targeting prospective customers who have visited your website, saw your ads, or performed other actions that could give you insights about what they could potentially respond to.
The reason why remarketing can be so effective is the fact that it allows you to interact with the same prospective customers on multiple occasions, significantly increasing your chances of success.
If you can personalize your retargeting ads based on the actions of the prospect, the likelihood of him responding will be much higher, and you can get much more value from your marketing campaigns.
Native Advertising
As we already discussed throughout the article, today’s internet users are much savvier and more immune to pushy and intrusive advertising, so companies must find ways to engage customers on their own terms if they want to have any chance of breaking through.
And native advertising is the perfect way to do just that – it allows to match the promotional message to the environment that it is placed on, making it a natural extension rather than an interruption.
With the help of a well-chosen native ad, you can break through the traditional barriers that banner ads face and gain access to an audience that is eager to interact with your brand.If you want to learn more about how to set up your own native advertising campaign and make it produce the desired results for your business, schedule a call here, and we’ll be happy to find the best solution to suit your individual needs.