Considering that over half of the global population, and about 90 percent of people in North America, have access to the internet, it is clear why digital advertising has become such an important factor in modern marketing. This form of advertising is also highly effective, as brands make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend in Google Ads.
If you are new to the world of digital advertising, here is what you need to know:
Digital advertising refers to brand promotion through various digital channels and mediums. It can include search engine optimization, PPC advertising, emails, and social media marketing, all of which help organizations target customers based on where they live online.
What are the different types of digital advertising?
Digital advertising takes place just about everywhere customers can go online. Brands have learned how to attract the attention of potential customers based on their online behavior, leading to a variety of digital strategies. Some of the most important to familiarize yourself with include the following:
Display advertising
Display advertising places your ads on websites that your target audience likely visits. You can target customers based on factors such as their demographics or online behavior.
Retargeting
Once customers visit your site, you can also combine various paid advertising strategies with retargeting, which lets you reach out specifically to customers who visited you but didn’t make a purchase.
Video advertising
Video continues to grow, and 83 percent of marketers believe it is becoming more important. This form of advertising involves creating video ads that play before or during a video that a user selected.
Geotargeting
Geotargeting involves creating ads designed specifically for people in certain geographic areas.
Social media advertising
Social media advertising can help you target people based on demographics or behavior and then display ads to them on their favorite social platforms.
Native advertising
Native advertising is the creation of ads designed to look like regular content that appear on websites frequented by customers.
Keyword targeting
Keyword targeting involves creating ads that appear on sites with keywords related to your business.
How do I allocate my digital marketing budget?
You do not want to spread your budget too thin by trying to run campaigns on every possible channel. You may end up not having enough investment in any one channel to accomplish your goals.
Instead, you’ll want to follow these steps:
- Determine what you want to accomplish with your campaign
- Research where your target audience lives and understand the marketing landscape in your industry to find the channels that will help your goals best
- Look at your past campaigns to see strengths and pitfalls
- Look at your budget and begin to allocate the funds based on needed investment and the importance of that channel in your success
- Continue to measure campaign performance so that with each campaign you become more and more efficient.
How do I track my digital advertising to determine ROI?
As you begin to use digital advertising, you want to carefully track your ROI to ensure that you use your funds wisely and achieve the best possible results. The first step in doing this will be determining your KPIs.
KPI refers to your Key Performance Indicators which are data points you want to collect based on your form of advertising and what you want to accomplish. For example, if you want to drive your top-of-funnel visitors, then tracing your website clicks and traffic will be an important KPI.
To track your ROI, you want to look at factors such as:
- The rate of returning visitors versus new visitors
- The bounce rate and mid-funnel conversion rates
- The number of emails opened and click-throughs
- Website traffic
- Store traffic
You can take the success of your campaigns compared to the cost of the campaign to determine your ROI.
Internet marketing has become an increasingly critical part of successful promotions as people turn to the internet for all aspects of the buyer’s journey.
To drive even higher success, keeping your brand at the forefront of customers’ minds even when offline, such as through radio, can help you turn your digital advertising efforts into leads, growth, and success.
