The Golden Age of Advertising…is Now!
A guide to efficient, effective online advertising
In the olden days (you know, 15+ years ago…), the best way to advertise was to place messaging somewhere near where audience consumes their entertainment – commercials in between TV shows, ads alongside magazine and newspaper articles, billboards in high traffic thoroughfares, and so on. Well my friends – the days of “adjacent” advertising are artifacts of an inefficient past. Digital advertising allows your message to nest neatly within your prospects’ very life – alongside their friends social posts, inside their email inbox, and most importantly, within search results on pages like Google and Yelp.
How do you make your ads stand out and sell? Read on for tips from folks who have spent millions on behalf of people like you.
Here are the pillars of effective online advertising:
1. TARGET.
The more specifically you can define your audience, the more effective your advertising will be. Instead of targeting “all readers of the Los Angeles Times,” Facebook advertising allows you to only reach specific users of your choosing based on thousands of criteria that you select. Say you sell fish tanks, would you rather waste money communicating to the million-or-so readers of the Times, or just fish enthusiasts over the age of 30 within 10 miles of your store? Did we mention Facebook ads are a fraction of the cost of typical print ads? For as little as $5/day you can see immediate results.
2. TEST.
Which image or headline has greatest appeal? Does video outperform still photography? Which offer motivates the greatest number of leads or sales? You don’t have to guess, digital advertising results reveal all in essentially real time. Test multiple ideas, compare results, and continue to use the most effective variations.
3. REFINE.
The biggest myth about advertising is that you can simply set it and forget it. This couldn’t be further from the truth — advertising platforms have extensive reporting that should be reviewed regularly. Adding negative keywords, tweaking keyword positioning and offers, and/or swapping out landing pages can have major impact on your ads.
FOLLOW-UP.
If your ads are generating leads, what is the process for getting in touch and staying in touch with those prospects? If your products are sold through an e-commerce site, what “come back” offer are you sending once a new supporter enters your sphere of influence? How are remarketing ads helping you move one-time donors to life-long evangelists? A wise advertiser will consider all of these sales opportunities and plan accordingly.