Online advertising is a form of marketing and advertising that uses the Internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to consumers.
Online advertising (Online marketing, Internet advertising, Digital advertising or Web advertising) is a data-driven targeted advertising strategy to reach consumers at all stages of the sales funnel and move them from one stage of the purchase funnel to the next.
From awareness to shopping – you can use online advertising channels like Google Ads and Facebook Ads to drive revenue.
Online advertising also contains a huge amount of data. For example, you can track the performance of your campaigns in real time.
In addition, you can learn about the demographics, interests and habits of people who view and interact with your ad.
In comparison, traditional advertising provides a minimum of data. You can’t immediately gauge the effectiveness of your campaign. For example, a billboard can provide your team with near-zero data.
This is why digital advertising can, in certain cases, be a smart alternative to traditional advertising.
To online merchants:
Financials / Accounting:
The main goals of online advertising:
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Increasing brand awareness
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Improving sales of goods or services
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Getting qualified leads
(contacts of potential client that ready to complete the sales cycle)
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Motivating repeat purchases
By using digital advertising, you provide your company with a measurable and cost-effective strategy that leads to the results you want.
The main advantages of online advertising:
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Online advertising reaches your target audience
You are reaching out to people who are truly interested in your business.
By using targeting parameters such as location, interests, and behavior, you can assume that your ad will target the people most important to your business. You reach out to people when they want to be “embraced.” -
Online advertising delivers measurable results
Online digital advertising is easy to track and control.
Digital advertising platforms like Google Ads track your campaigns. Just log into your account and view your details. You can export this data to reporting tools like Google Data Studio for viewing. Digital ad campaign data not only helps your team show the results of your strategy, but also helps them identify opportunities for improvement. For example, if your ad is performing poorly, you can brainstorm a new copy of the banner, images, etc. to improve its effectiveness. -
Online advertising supports any advertising budget
You can use digital advertising no matter the size of your business.
You decide how much to spend (and how much to pay) on advertising. For example, a company cannot bid a higher bid to get a better ad placement. You also need to deliver relevant ads to potential customers and a great user experience. This bidding model allows all companies to achieve excellent ad placement results without bids being prohibitively high. -
Online advertising offers a variety of strategies
You can run ads on Google, Facebook or YouTube.
You can choose between text, image and video ads.
Plus, you can customize your ads with advanced targeting options, including remarketing.
All these features provide flexibility and versatility for online advertising. -
Online advertising gives instant results
When your company moves to digital display advertising, you can expect immediate results.
Once you launch your paid campaigns, you can receive clicks, orders, phone calls, and more.
You can also track and link each of these actions to your campaigns. With this tracking, your company can easily see the impact of digital advertising on your business and its bottom line.
In comparison, online marketing can take longer to see results. For example, if you are using a strategy like search engine optimization (SEO), it can take several months before you see an increase in traffic, new leads, or product purchases.
This is why many companies will use SEO strategies in conjunction with online advertising strategies.
The most common targeting options:
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Keywords
you can reach people looking for keywords and phrases related to your business.
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Interests
You can serve interest-targeted ads on ad platforms such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
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Demography
serving ads based on their demographic information, such as age, location, or parental status.
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Remarketing
targeting users who have visited your site earlier.
5 main digital advertising metrics / metrics:
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Coverage
describes how many people saw your ad.
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Impressions
it is the number of times your ad is shown
This digital ad metric includes multiple views from the same person.
For example, if someone saw your ad twice, those two views would count as two impressions. -
Clicks
is the number of clicks on your ad.
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Click-Through Rate (CTR)
it is the percentage of people who clicked on your ad, compared to the percentage of people who saw your ad.
Generally, a higher “click through rate (CTR)” indicates more effective and relevant ads. -
Conversions
this is the number of goals achieved by your ad.
Conversions can range from receiving a quote request to subscribing to an email newsletter.
Digital ad bidding models:
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Cost per Click (CPC)
This is the average amount your company pays per click on your ad.
With a CPC model, your business pays every time someone clicks on your ad.
You pay to visit your site, not to see your ads.
Clicking on a banner brings users to your site (or other custom landing page), which may prompt them to make a purchase or contact you.
This model is cost effective for small and medium businesses. -
Cost per thousand impressions (Cost-Per-Mille, CPM)
This is the amount your company pays for 1000 views or impressions of your ad.
With a CPM model, your business pays when your ad gets 1,000 impressions or views.
This model is usually suitable for advertising well-known products / services or increasing the awareness of already well-known brands. -
Cost per Lead (CPL)
This is the average cost of acquiring a new customer, for example, getting contacts from a site visitor.
With the cost per lead model, you pay every time your ad attracts new customers (new customer contacts).
This bidding option might work for a B2B business.
In this model, it is important to develop advertising targeted at “quality users” who are ready to “complete the sales cycle”. -
Cost Per Action (CPA)
This is the average cost for a prospect to complete an action that is important to you, such as subscribing to an email newsletter, downloading a brochure, watching a video, signing up for a personal account, ordering a service, or purchasing a specific product.
Businesses often use this social media bidding option, but they can also use it on other channels, such as Google search.
Checklist for Running a Digital Advertising Campaign
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Formulate your goals
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Build your advertising strategy
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Set your budget
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Select ad platforms
(e.g. Google Ads and Facebook Ads)
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Prepare advertisements
(text, multimedia or video
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Implement post-launch ad optimization