Online advertising has grown immensely in the last decade, from only being seen as small banners on top of Gmail to now getting video ads played at various intervals on platforms such as YouTube and Instagram.
You can tell that the online advertising segment of marketing for any business is here to stay solely due to the market’s demand. Whether SaaS company or e-commerce, every business wants to attract their target audience before the competition𑁋and ads make this possible!
Some companies only manage online advertising for other big companies, and that’s their primary offering (very much like Dashr). This wasn’t a common practice 10 years ago, and that tells us a lot about the shift in the ways companies market themselves now.
In this article, we want to open the gates of knowledge for everyone to understand how online advertising works and how they can set it up for their small or large business.
For Advertising Online, You Must Start Here.
Before you begin, an important thing to understand is that all organic content online is based on an algorithm that pushes it to the audience depending on their search query. However, paid online advertising does not follow an algorithm per se. If you have paid more than your competitors to show above them, you will be visible regardless of any changes to the algorithm.
But it’s not so simple! You need to consider several things to create an impactful online advertising strategy to immerge on top.
- Select A Target Audience
When you decide to pull the trigger and reach out to more people using paid advertising, the first step is to identify your audience and develop an audience persona. Think about the people who would be searching for your business on the internet. Some good questions to ask before making a decision are:
- Who is the audience?
- What demographics do they fall in (income, gender, profession, interests, etc.)?
- What challenges do they have that your business can solve?
- To solve these problems, what would they be possibly typing online to look for a solution?
Once you have the answer to these questions, you will be able to define the audience persona that is perfect for your ads.
This is an extremely essential step because your return on investment for running online paid ads will directly depend on them. Showing ads to people who do not resonate or require your services will result in loss of money and time. And as a business, this can be a huge loss.
- Select Your Ad Network
While you are finalising your audience persona, it will become evident that there is a solid way of connecting with them. This method would be the best for that niche audience, as they have a higher footfall in that network.
For example- if your audience persona is people from the corporate sector, a good place to run ads would be LinkedIn. These people may also be available on other social networks, however, they may not actively resonate with your service on them.
This will also solidify your mode of advertising on the network, whether the ads would be more impactful in the form of text or an interactive video. Some of the common ad formats that you can consider are:
- PPC Search Ads
- Video Ads
- Display Ads
- Social Media Advertising
Google Ads is one such platform that allows you to run all the above-mentioned types of ads under one dashboard. This definitely makes it easier to manage and monitor ads, in case your business require all the formats mentioned.
- Choose Keywords And Define Parameters
Keywords are the most essential part of any online advertising campaign. They are the words through which your target audience will be able to find you in a sea of competitors.
What you type in the search bar of Google is basically a keyword that someone has used in their campaign to reach you once you press enter.
If you have an advertising budget, pay-per-click (PPC) ads are a great way to get your company in front of potential customers. Online advertising operates on the premise that advertisers bid for space at the top of search engine–generated results pages based on keywords they choose.
Consider these factors before deciding if that keyword is good for your business:
- Keyword bid range
- Keyword competition
- Average monthly/quarterly searches
- The intent of the keyword
Tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush help you determine the keywords that are good for your business. Along with this, Google Trends is also a good place to see the average searches in your targeted areas.
- Tracking Set Up
To ensure you are meeting your desired business goals, it is important to monitor the effectiveness of all aspects and strategies concerning online advertising.
One of the most robust and free tools out there for this purpose is Google Analytics; it offers a host of features which make monitoring easy, including clicks on advertisements, conversions (sales), views or pageviews within various demographic groups such as gender-specific viewers or people who have visited specific sites before.
With its performance metrics that measure ROI figures like CPA/CPC rates and cost per conversion rate, businesses can be assured they’re getting an accurate understanding of their program’s success while marketing themselves effectively through web ads.
The data that you gather through tracking will give you the right direction to alter your ad campaigns in the future. This is an essential step of any advertising campaign, and therefore, needs to be set up at the beginning.
- Evaluate The Results
Understanding the data after your ad campaign has run for a certain amount of time is not very complicated. All you need is to understand the numbers well and see what can be changed in the existing campaigns to improve the results.
With regular monitoring, you can improve the results over time and understand your mistakes to rectify them in the long run.
While it’s tempting to check results daily, it is usually wise to let your analytics accumulate accurate trends and information over a more extended period. Therefore, monthly checks are sufficient for picking up broad shifts, while weekly checking can be useful for time-sensitive ads.
Just remember not to get sucked into the automation because no matter how good the automation algorithm is, nothing beats the human touch.
Bottom Line: Online Advertising Is A Necessity In Today’s Business World
Online advertising is a powerful and effective way to reach your target audience quickly, but it also requires ongoing diligence. With careful planning, comprehensive research, and continual performance monitoring online advertising can become an integral part of your marketing strategy for long-term success in the digital age.
As it becomes one of the most valuable tools available for today’s business owners, it is a great method to grow the customer base or increase sales through targeted campaigns with measurable results. However, as any advertiser will tell you𑁋not every campaign goes according to plan. Whether there was a budgeting error or unforeseen circumstances beyond anyone’s control occur, poor execution can have seriously negative consequences on ROI (return on investment).
Do You Want To Run Successful Online Advertising Campaigns?
Dashr has been an integral part of many businesses’ success due to online ads. With our talented ad specialists, your business will show great results and visibly grow over time.
We offer a free 2-week trial* for all businesses so that you only commit when you see growth. To sign up for a free trial click here, or drop us an email at hello@dashrmarketing.com
To take a look at some of our client work, click here.