Paying for an advert to go in the local newspaper and radio doesn’t seem to produce the same results like it used to, does it? You can’t tell who’s read/heard it and if they take your call to action and phone you, you have no way of measuring where and how they heard about you.
Technology has moved on and so has our advertising techniques. Many of our clients come to us asking if advertising is worth it and our response is simply; yes, as long as you measure it. The difference is that the evolution of technology now allows us to measure our advertising, enabling us as businesses to know what money is best spent where.
Advertising is most definitely still worth it. It’s simply a case of changing our approach to it. The difference between traditional methods (TV, radio, print) and modern methods is the reach and ability to target and measure. Online, you can reach your specific target audience by advertising where you know they spend their time on the internet, then measure how successful your adverts are and which websites give you the best response. It goes without saying that traditional advertising is unable to provide you with this elitist form of measurable targeting.
In 1995 there were only 50 million people online. The year 2000 saw a large increase rise to 420 million, and 2014 leaped to 2.9 billion with an extra 2 billion online with smartphones. These statistics are incredible and reinforce the necessity to move your advertising online. It’s been estimated that by 2020, there will be an equal spread of 4.1 billion active people both online and with smartphones. Your advert could have more eyes on it than the amount of people who populate a large town.
How do I advertise online?
Social Media
Online advertising is less expensive, with access to a wider geographic and demographic reach. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter provide advertising services which are a brilliant way of helping you boost your online presence and attracting new prospects through your social platforms. They all offer their own form of targeting, Linkedin for example allow you to target the types of professionals that will see and have the option to click on it. Some other the ways that you can target your ad on Linkedin is by job title, industry, job function, location, and LinkedIn group.
Display Advertising
There is a huge selection of variations of display advertising including banners, pop-up, floating, and expanding ads. These ads tend to use pictures, logos, videos, animation, and other types of graphics to draw a consumer in.
You can pay for website advertising with a price based on the number of times the ad is displayed. So the more viewers see your ad (or at least the page on which your ad is shown) the more you pay. This simple form of payment might suit you if the aim of your internet advertising is to build brand exposure. It’s often referred to as CPM – cost per thousand (with M being the roman numeral for 1,000).
If you advertise online with the aim of increasing website traffic, then pay per click advertising (PPC) is ideal. You only pay for the viewers who actually click on the ad and come to your site.
Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is a popular online advertising solution. Brands promote their businesses on the search engine results pages.
The results on the search page are either paid for by companies or organic. The results that are paid come from platforms that have users pay to be included on their website. Ads show up on the platform based off of keywords, topics, and certain demographic information. The paid or sponsored advertisements are the ones that you see both above and along the right hand side of the search results.
What are cookies?
Most cookies that websites use are harmless. They are little text files that are given ID tags and they’re used to track your online movements. So for example, you visit Marks & Spencer’s website and they will have had a little pop up or notice somewhere notifying you of their use of cookies. Most of us take no notice and continue with what we’re doing. Then, when we leave the website, their adverts follow us. M&S adverts will pop up where adverts allow them to, recommending you other products similar to those you were looking at. Cookies are what allow them to do this.
