“Anybody Can Do It”
Well… anybody can do it, but not everyone can do it effectively.
Before getting started, it’s important to get a clear picture of who you’re targeting, why they need your service or product, how they are finding it now, and how they like being spoken to.
It’s also important to gain at least a basic understanding of how different advertising platforms function, how they are utilized, and how you should interpret your results.
Creating ads is about much more than slapping a headline on a photo and linking back to your site. It takes careful consideration and planning.
“The More Money I Spend On My Campaign, The Higher My Ads Will Appear”
Throwing more money at a low-quality ad may get you nowhere fast.
There are many factors that contribute to how any given platform will rank your ad. Google, for instance, takes many things into account outside of your ad budget. Their algorithm scores your ad based on things like overall ad quality, keyword relevance, and landing page quality to name a few.
Advertising platforms don’t just show the most expensive ad to their users. They want to show the most relevant ads that provide the best experience.
“The Channel I Use Doesn’t Matter As Long As I Reach The Most People”
The channel you use absolutely does matter!
Every business and every campaign is unique. Before deploying ads you should analyze your goal, your business type, your budget, what point your target audience is in the buyer’s journey, and you’ll need to consider which platform(s) and ad style(s) would best capture them as a lead or customer.
For instance, social media is often the best choice for awareness level ads, because it presents you with the opportunity to casually present them with an idea or solution while they’re doing something else. They aren’t actively seeking out your help right now, but you CAN target an audience that has shown interest in things related to your product or service.
When they are actively seeking out a solution or provider, Google Ads will be a more applicable tool. Here, you’ll have the opportunity to be right there as users perform searches for terms related to your solution (search ads) AND as they looked at related information on other sites (display and video ads).
“What Worked For Me In Traditional Advertising Will Work In Digital Advertising”
Different tools require different approaches. While traditional advertising typically takes place in disconnected experiences, like watching TV, listening to the radio, or reading the newspaper, digital advertising is very much connected. By “connected”, we mean a few things:
- You’ll be talking to the user online, where they’ll be doing a large portion of their information interaction and buying process.
- You can control the action. You can choose to link to a specific page on your website, where you (should) have more of the intentional journey laid out.
- You can easily see performance data, giving you the possibility (or responsibility) to experiment and optimize.
