Paid advertising is a term heard almost daily in the digital marketing world; however, for many it still remains a mystery. In this article, we will be briefly be exploring the concept of paid ads along with 6 advertising types you can leverage in your next campaign.
But before digging any deeper let's begin by looking at the size and scope of paid ads.
From a study carried out by Recode, paid ads have been rapidly increasing in size, ultimately overtaking television ad spending, which up until that time was the reigning king.
We're not talking about a few million but over two hundred billion dollars in 2017 alone, that's almost double what it was three years ago.
Side note: Take a moment to think about the size of Facebook and Google. It is in part due to their ability to monetize ad spending.
So let's break down this concept and shed some light on the challenges and potential solutions for the mystery known as Paid Advertising.
Just like any business strategy, paid ads need to be supported by a clear objective and KPIs, but oftentimes this is not the case. Most often, the objective is being overlooked because so much more emphasis is given on the budget.
A company might have X amount of dollars that they need to spend during Y amount of time, so the outcome is just translated to action without a specific goal.
In addition to having a specific goal, you also need to have a clear understanding of who you are trying to connect with when spending these advertising dollars.
Let's say you're a hotel in the Bahamas and want to target people that want to go on vacation there. Your ads can't be too general and target people who simply want to 'go on vacation'. This will lead to the ads being ignored and your company just wasting money with few to no results.
The takeaway:
So, having understood the core concept of paid advertising, what are the 6 types we can leverage for our next campaign?
As you already know, these types of ads appear on third party websites, such as Google Display Network. These third party sites allow for demographic, geographic, contextual, and behavioral targeting, all of which help you target the audience that would be interested in your product or service.
At this point, it would seem like a "no-brainer" to invest in display advertising, but there is a downside... It’s easier to get struck by lightning, rather than to get someone to click on your ad. Needless to say, the ROI can be pretty low for display ads.
So why do people still use them? Because they are usually very affordable, especially when compared to some other ad types on the list.
Here are some options for display ads you might want to consider:
Remember, before picking the type of display ad you will be using, be sure to have a good understanding on how each one converts, and have a thought out approach on how you will be leveraging each type moving forward for optimal results.
These types of ads are what people are most familiar with. They are found on search engines such as Google or Bing, and are also known as PPC ads or pay-per-click ads, because that is essentially how they work; you pay a fee each time a visitor clicks on your ad.
This ad type is based on keywords, where you and your competitors bid for the use of the keyword through the search engines. The ROI potential for these ads is among the higher ones on the list, but that’s in terms of clicks (people will see the ad and they will click on them). In terms of actual profit, we can’t say for certain this is the most profitable method as there is a lot more that goes into SEM advertising than just proper ad placement on the page to determine their overall profitability.
There are two options you can choose from when performing SEM advertising:
Video ads have been increasing in popularity in recent years as they align well with the limited attention span of today’s internet surfers.
Such ads are most popular on YouTube, but can also appear on third party websites. Rates often vary from site to site (and there is also the cost of creating and running). In terms or ROI, these ads have great potential, but again strategic thinking is required to fully leverage their strength. While you don’t really need to have video creation expertise to run such ads, you do need a video, and you do need to know where to place and how to add conversion capabilities to said video.
There are three options to choose from for video advertising:
These are ads that can run on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and any other social platform that exists today. In terms of ROI potential, these ads are all over the place.
If you have a proper strategy and are targeting your audience properly, the ROI potential is very high. This however can be challenging for many, and without the proper approach we might just be wasting money while our message gets drowned in the sea of social posts.
In terms of being most prolific, Facebook and LinkedIn advertising are possibly the ones that perform the best, with Twitter and Instagram coming in right after.
These ads are extremely popular because they allow someone to place their ad in front of someone else's (targeted) audience. Theoretically, this should provide amplified awareness from an ideal audience to the ad.
In terms of ROI potential, again it varies in terms of strategy, target audience precision, and placement.
The three options for native advertising are:
This is a form of online advertising. that can help you keep your brand in front of bounced traffic after they. leave your website. The good thing here is that your ads are served only to those who have already visited your site, and are therefore more likely to be interested in what you have to offer. This is precisely why these ads have such good ROI potential. Finally, these ads have the ability to be used on a plethora of platforms including Google and Facebook.
And there you have it, a brief overview of the six most commonly used paid advertising forms for you to leverage. Before we go, we would like to share one last thing.
The infographic below was created by Invesp and it can work as a great all around checklist or quick summary on everything you need to know about a Paid Advertising Campaign.
Is there anything you think we missed? Are there any points you want us to elaborate on? Let us know!
As always, feel free to check out the links below for more digital marketing insight: