Before the internet became a thing, businesses only had a few options to promote their products or services without spending a lot. They mostly relied on traditional media to attract the public’s attention to their brands. This included printing out flyers, getting featured on TV or radio, cold calling, and more. However, they now have a wide range of cost-effective opportunities on the web, and that’s why brands want to know how to advertise online.
After all, the internet is popular worldwide. According to Statista, there are more than 4 billion internet users today. It’s impossible to reach this many people if your marketing strategy comes down to using billboards or newspaper ads. You should consider going digital now more than ever before because consumers are increasingly focused on the online world.
The digital advertising industry is always changing and expanding. Nowadays, ads can be targeted, relevant, and helpful in ways they couldn’t be in the past. So, disregarding online advertising is a mistake your brand can’t afford to make. In 2019, internet advertising revenues in the United States amounted to $124.6 billion. This lucrative market is expected to grow in the future.
New platforms, targeting options, and ad types are appearing all the time. And in this article we’ll tell you how to advertise online and which opportunities you should take!
Let’s start!
How to Advertise Online
You may feel overwhelmed when you start to examine all your options for advertising online, but we’ll go over the most popular methods and let you decide which one suits your business most.
Online advertising is quite effective and can help you achieve your marketing goals. In fact, people who visit your website via paid advertisement are 50% more likely to buy something from you than organic visitors.
The reason for this? Ads can be targeted, helping marketers reach the ideal audience for their business. Those consumers are ready to purchase something from you and they just need encouragement to follow through. Ads give them a nudge they require to move down the sales funnel. So, learning how to advertise online is a must if you want to have a successful campaign!
Organic and Paid Marketing Work Together
It’s true, they do! Although we’ll admit that it’s easy to think that organic marketing, including blogs and case studies, and paid marketing, including display ads and native advertising, are separate entities. After all, they are usually managed by different departments.
Social media marketers focus on engaging their followers, building communities, and presenting a personal side of the business. Bloggers, on the other hand, are entirely committed to content and getting their posts seen. Meanwhile, an advertiser’s world is filled with metrics like cost-per-thousand impressions and conversion rates. Still, organic and paid marketing aren’t separate from one another.
There are many marketers who can confirm that digital advertising can improve your organic efforts. That’s why it’s important to know how to advertise online. Here’s what you can expect from online advertising:
- An increase in brand awareness because your content will be seen by both existing and potential customers.
- A better understanding of your customers as you will rely on the analytics engine of your selected ads platform.
- Better content because you will know what resonates with your target audience and what doesn’t.
Now that we are on the same page, let’s see which types of online advertising you can use when you’re marketing your business.
Types of Online Advertising
As we previously said, the digital advertising industry is undergoing constant changes. It’s keeping us all on our toes as we try to adjust to new tactics and trends. But marketers aren’t giving up on using this method to promote their business online. And it’s time you jump on the bandwagon and reap all the benefits of digital advertising!
We’ll guide you through how to advertise online and which techniques are at your disposal. Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Social Media Advertising
- Paid Search Advertising
- Display Advertising
- Native Advertising
Without further ado, prepare to see what the internet offers and how you can attract more customers to your business!
Social Media Advertising
Most internet users can’t imagine their day without social media platforms. These networks provide a much needed distraction and are able to engage and entertain in a matter of minutes. So it’s not surprising that more than 3 billion people use social media today. According to Statista, the most popular platforms have the following number of active users:
Whether it’s to post photos or videos, chat with friends and family, connect with people across the world, or for networking and business purposes, consumers love social media. Luckily, marketers are aware of this fact. That’s why social media advertising budgets amounted to $31 billion in 2016. These networks can propel your business to stardom if you use them correctly.
Therefore, no guide to how to advertise online would be complete without social media. In fact, small businesses can benefit a lot from social media advertising. Here are some of the advantages:
- A chance to reach a very specific target audience by using features that allow you to display ads to selected customers.
- An opportunity to use a wide range of ad formats to promote your brand.
- An ability to invest in the specific advertising efforts that can drive leads and increase sales.
As a business owner or a publisher, you should stress the importance of social media to your team!
Paid Search Advertising
Did you know that Google processes more than 3.5 billion searches every day? People visiting search engines are looking for something specific, perhaps a business that can help them solve a particular problem. They mostly click on the first search result they believe is relevant and helpful to them. So, if you’re wondering how to advertise online, look no further than search engines.
Now, your brand is already appearing in organic results, but it won’t hurt you one bit to pay to advertise there as well. Your competition is probably advertising on your branded terms and they may be the first thing your customers see on search engines. Namely, ads appear above the organic results in the search engine results pages.
Therefore, paid search advertising allows you to capture the attention of your consumers in a more targeted way than organic search does. It also enables you to predict the wants and needs of your potential customers and deliver ads that are highly contextual. After some time, you can even improve your ads and reach more people.
If you ask experienced marketers how to advertise online, most of them will mention display advertising as well. Let’s see what that entails.
Display Advertising
In the digital marketing world, display advertising, also known as banner advertising, enables you to promote your products or services through visuals, including images, videos, text, animations, and logos. These ads are placed on publisher websites, social media, or other digital mediums.
Display advertising encourages users to click-through in order to access a landing page. After that, visitors are supposed to take some action. For instance, they can make a purchase, subscribe to your newsletter, or complete any other goal you’ve created.
Furthermore, display advertising technology has advanced and improved so much that ad networks now rely on data and machine learning to provide you with more effective targeting strategies and deliver more relevant ads to consumers.
Ad networks like Google Display Network and Facebook Audience Network are quite popular in the digital world. The former can help you reach more people with targeted display ads while they are visiting their favorite websites or simply using mobile apps. The latter enables you to serve ads to customers who are using websites and apps other than Facebook, thus extending your reach beyond this social media network.
Most display ads are charged on a cost-per-click basis. This means that you get charged every time a customer clicks on your ad.
We’ll conclude our guide to how to advertise online with one of the most popular methods — native advertising.
Native Advertising
The beauty of native advertising is that it doesn’t disrupt the user experience. Namely, native ads match the overall look and visual context of the social media platform or website they appear on. To put it simply, they adjust to the editorial standards of the selected site. Perhaps this is the reason why they generate a 8.8 times higher click-through rate than display ads.
Popular publishers like The New York Times and BuzzFeed produce content that attracts a lot of visitors. But they also make money by helping other businesses distribute branded content to this loyal customer base. You pay these websites to publish posts or videos that advertise your brand. As a result, you reach a wider audience than you would with standard display advertising.
When you decide to work with publishers offering native advertising services, you can expect to leverage their editorial expertise and audience reach to convey your message to a bigger viewership. Of course, publishers support different ad formats, so you can use photos, videos, or other visuals to promote your business.
Native advertising is the future of marketing! And you shouldn’t let this future pass you by.
Advertise Online and Expect Success
We hope our guide to how to advertise online has given you some ideas! The next step is to decide which advertising type works best for your brand and start working on your campaign. Set your goals and prepare for success!
