TV, radio, and newspaper…. OH MY!
Hmm hello it’s 2016, we’re not always stuck on TV, radio, and newspaper. I mean, let’s get ahead in the game! I’m not saying you should forget it, as traditional advertising can also be effective. I’m just opening another roam of possibilities out there…in the digital world.
Let’s talk about the different ways you can advertise digitally. But before we get started, we must know the most common digital terms that correlate with the different digital strategies we’re going to discuss.
Paid media – advertising that is paid.
Earned media – advertising that is not paid (free media).
Impressions – people who view the ads.
PPC (Pay Per Click) – where a business pays for a certain amount of clicks to a certain website.
CRO “Conversion Rate Optimization” – how many people view and browse the ad to a certain point where they actually purchase from the brand.
Let’s start with the basics!
Social Media
Ah, my all time favorite! Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and more. You can utilize this in so many ways: by creating a business page, by posting several contents that are worth sharing so that others are able to view the post, or by paying for facebook advertisements to targeted locations depending on the amount of impressions.
Additionally, Snapchat has revolutionized how brands can advertise. In this outlet, users are able to view media subscriptions, and would view ads in each individual subscriptions. Only difference between Facebook and Snapchat are the brands that are participating. Facebook targets more small to medium sized local businesses, whereas Snapchat requires the participation of massive, popular brands. Check out my previous post about advertising on Snapchat to learn more about it! Advertising on Snapchat
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO signifies the process of increasing the number of visitors to a particular brand or website by making sure the website itself appears to be the first that pops up on the search engine. It is pretty effective as most people search anything on Google or whatever their preferred search engines are. Google adwords is one of the systems that businesses can use. It’s one of their advertising services for businesses to specify certain keywords on the search bar in order to expose to users and immediately click it. Every clicks will determine how much they pay for the ad (pay per click).
Email Marketing
You’ve probably received emails sent from random companies asking for your business. If you’re not interested, definitely click unsubscribe right away. I remember seeing an ad pop up in my email regarding working while traveling. I found it intriguing, so I clicked the website to see what it’s all about. If the mission and vision of the company interest you or they have cool designs and effective call-to-action, then we are more prone to click the website and experience what they’re really all about.
Retargeting
I’m sure you’ve had this happened a lot when you visit certain websites. For example, when you visit website A then go to website B, you will see website A’s banner ad on website B. Generally, the ad of website A will follow you to other websites you visit. This allows users to be reminded of the brand/website, thus create more brand awareness!
There are different types of retargeting which include site retargeting, geographic retargeting, dynamic creative retargeting, video pre-roll retargeting, and more. However, site retargeting is one of the most basic and simple forms of retargeting.
Banner ads
The types of banners are pencil banners, cornel peels, interstitial banners, and more. I used to sell digital advertising to small to medium sized businesses. Banner ads are about the cheapest forms of digital advertising.
- Pencil: a long and narrow banner on top of a page
- Corner peels: a “teaser” image, and when clicked, the peel will pull back to reveal the actual ad.
- Interstitial: when on a website, a banner suddenly pops up in your face (best description I can think of)
These are some of the basic banner ads that websites use. To this day, there are certainly more types of banner ads.
Video Advertising (Pre – Roll, Mid – Roll, & Post – Roll)
You see this on Youtube, Hulu, local TV station websites, channel affiliated websites, etc. I have been really liking the Bachelor/Bachelorette series (don’t ask). At times, I always miss the episodes every Monday. I would go to abc.com/shows just to watch it, and yes there are video ads before, during, and even after the show ends. If it wasn’t obvious, pre – roll ad is a video ad you see before seeing the content, mid – roll is commercials playing in the middle of it, and post – roll ad should appear at the end of each content.
The question of which one is more effective may vary. Some find it annoying to watch the pre – roll because they either don’t expect it at all or think it’s too long. Mid – roll, however, viewers have seen during pre – roll so some unfortunately would leave the content to go get food or to go to the bathroom. However, during mid – roll ads, some companies’ unique idea for consumers to interact or pay attention to the content is by adding an interactive commercial option. This. is. GENIUS. The option will ask if users would rather participate in a 30 second interactive commercial or watch the whole commercials for about two minutes. I will always choose interactive because they are shorter and we only get to see one ad playing which we are “interacting” to.
That’s it, guys. Digital advertising, as you can see, is massive! Advertising has been completely revolutionized ever since the invention of the internet. Of course, as years go by, more innovations for digital advertising will happen! We will have to brace ourselves for it. I hope this helps with improving your knowledge about digital advertising!
MarketBliss 