Online advertising is instrumental in connecting with your target audience and pushing them along the path to converting; from when they first learn of your idea to the point that they decide that your product or service is what they want and become a customer.
There are a number of key types of online advertising that we can now utilize to gain conversions, but it is very important to not become complacent in what is possible as digital marketing and online advertising is constantly evolving to become more enriched for the consumer and more effective for the advertiser.
Display Advertising:
Display advertising is the most ‘traditional’ form of online advertising and the type that is most likely to be used to build awareness of your idea amongst the target market that you have identified.
These ads can come in the form of static images, GIFS, auto-play videos or floating banners which can be set up to appear on websites that your target audience tend to visit.
Social Media Ads:
Advertising across social media channels can be done both organically or paid. Both of these play an important role. Check out some of our ‘social’ blogs for more information around this.
Organic advertising sees companies take advantage of social networking sites and online search engines to provide information about their products naturally, without paying for it. It is recognized as more beneficial in the long term, as quality content grows online over time.
Paid advertising on social media platforms can come in the form of image ads, videos or boosted posts. However, as aforementioned with display advertising, social is continuously evolving at perhaps an even greater pace, so keeping up to date with social advertising developments and what form your advertising could take will be essential in remaining competitive.
Native Advertising:
Possibly the fastest growing form of digital advertising, Native Advertising has become increasingly popular due to it’s smooth integration of seemingly genuine (but paid for) online articles that are strategically placed on websites that feature genuine related content. If you have ever been on a website and noticed ‘From the Web’ articles or articles that have a ‘Sponsored’ or ‘Ad’ label nearby, then these have been Native Advertisements, paid for by a digital marketer.
Native Advertisements can be highly effective when executed well. Good ones are of value, attention grabbing and of relevance to their placement.
Search Engine Marketing:
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a dependable advertising technique used to leverage businesses onto the front pages of search engines whenever a user searches keywords that relate to the product or service that the business is offering.
This is a technique that should be employed once you have established a following, as it is then that it’s more likely users will be searching for a product or service that you’re offering.
Video:
Do you use video content to promote your business, products or services? Because you should. You want as many people to see this video content as possible. Those that view it and are interested in what you have to offer are likely to want to know even more about what you have to offer at the end of the day. With this in mind, you should place it in front of the eyes of everyone else in your target market whilst you are at it.
This can be done through placing it as an advertisement which will feature before videos they’ve actively searched to watch, as a suggested video they should watch or on a 3rd party website before a featured video for example. This is a great way to get noticed but it is vital that your video captures their attention in a matter of seconds as most viewers don’t hang around to watch advertisements in full.
Guerrilla marketing Campaigns:
Everyone has seen those incredible Guerrilla Marketing campaigns that make your eyebrows raise! They leave you puzzled, trying to figure out which brand is responsible for the ingenious, attention grabbing exercise.
Guerrilla marketing is a great way to get maximum results from minimum expenditure, if you can get it just right! The key to it is that it has to be a completely unique idea that will generate word of mouth traction online and offline, forcing the campaign to go viral. So, if you think that you’ve got the creative knack to make a viral Guerrilla marketing campaign, GO FOR IT!
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