Using digital advertising is more important than ever

Effective efforts for your business

Perhaps you’ve heard the news: Digital advertising in the United States is officially bigger than traditional advertising businesses such as television, radio, and newspapers. For the first time ever, digital ad business made up more than 50 percent of the market. If your company has not yet considered digital advertising or you are not putting much of your budget into it, this should be your wake-up call. Digital advertising helps grow business regardless of size and should be considered as part of your overall strategy.

Beyond banners

When people hear “digital advertising” or “online advertising,” they often think about banner or display ads. These have been around for more than 20 years and are still in use. But there are now 198 million active ad block users around the world and Adobe found that one-third of Internet users find display ads completely intolerable.

In simple terms, today’s online users have developed banner blindness. That’s why it’s important to keep up with effective methods that will get your message across to a more sophisticated online audience. They include:

• Google’s AdSense
• Facebook and YouTube ads
• Sponsored Tweets
• Email advertising
• Mobile advertising
• Search Engine Marketing & Optimization (SEM)& (SEO)
• Pay Per Click (PPC)
• Pop Up ads and interstitials
• Pre-video ads
• Native ads

Deeper dive into digital advertising

Depending on your brand and business goals, the use of one or more digital advertising methods may be more effective than others to get you ROI. Let’s explore some of them.

Facebook ads: Even if you aren’t using digital advertising, you’re likely aware of Facebook ads because 93 percent of social media advertisers use Facebook advertising regularly. And why not? The average Facebook user clicks on eight advertisements per month. Users who see your ads will find them in a social context and those with compelling photos have more successful campaigns. Facebook advertising can be great for B2C marketers because the platform has so many users. It’s a bit trickier for B2B marketers because content can be extremely targeted. For those first entering digital advertising, Facebook makes it easy to edit and launch ads.

YouTube ads: More and more people prefer watching videos. The mobile advertisements on YouTube receive viewer attention 83 percent of the time. With 95 percent of Americans using a cellphone of some kind, experts predict this will help digital video ad dominate the marketplace. Brands that don’t want to get left behind should explore advertising on YouTube.

Email advertising: Email is not a thing of the past, it’s extremely effective for advertising and more than 75 percent of email revenue is generated by triggered campaigns. The ROI is fantastic: $44 for every $1 spent. In the U.S., more than 85 percent of adults send or read email and 78 percent of teenagers use email. Thus, it doesn’t matter what your brand’s target audience, email is still a great way to reach them.

PPC ads: Because advertisers only pay when a user clicks on the ad, this can be great for businesses with smaller advertising budgets. Get your information out there and, even if your ad was actually seen by 500 people, if only 5 click the ad, your cost is only calculated for those 5. Keep in mind, while social media and email ads can use great visuals to grab audience attention, PPC ads are usually all text. For brands that have a message that wouldn’t come across well visually, this can be a great advertising method. Simplify what the message and present a call to action.

Native advertising: Because native ads look like content instead of a display ad, the consumer may not even realize they’ve seen an ad at all. In the same way blogging helps strengthen a brand, a good native ad can present an experience the buyer will enjoy. Companies wanting to be more subtle with their advertising approach might consider this method.

Whatever digital advertising you employ, remember this important detail: analytics are essential. You will never truly understand your ROI unless you monitor campaigns closely and course-correct if necessary.

Expert digital assistance

As you might imagine, with a name like T.E. Digital, we understand digital advertising and the way it can benefit all kinds of businesses.  Give us a call and chat with our team. Let’s work together to understand your target audience and set some goals for your brand. It’s then possible to see what methods will work best for you to move toward greater success.