7Mar
Online ads are a solid marketing tactic in the modern age. The more the Internet evolves, the more advertising strategies we discover. This article will introduce 3 easy, effective and cost-efficient strategies to promote your business online.
As always, the best ad campaigns are launched only after a long period of research and planning. Campaigns, no matter how affordable, should never be undertaken lightly.
Facebook – the ultimate Social Media network in the Western world. Statistics show that over 1.8 billion people utilize Facebook every month. Most businesses and individuals in the Western world maintain a Facebook presence, but many of these businesses do not know how to maximize the platform for marketing purposes.
Not surprisingly, Facebook offers an array of tools to help businesses reach their specific audiences and push forward to success. Firstly, users may create ads for Facebook and/or Instagram for different prices based on reach and tailor these ads to their desired audience. Facebook offers insight into how to get started with ads here and here, continued learning and support here, and an exact guide to the entire process here. Secondly, Facebook offers a series of apps designed specifically for organizations. These include Atlas, which offers marketing measurements and statistics, keeping track of all of the activity involved in your ads and how they reach individuals. Next is Audience Network, which allows businesses that rely on advertising revenue to connect to a network of advertisers. Finally, Workplace is an alternate version of Facebook that is formatted as an intranet for businesses to communicate internally.
But Facebook’s strength lies not just in the ads capabilities; Facebook offers all of the normal tools to connect to your audience. Image, video and text posts, messages, comments, links, live video streaming and genuine interactions help build a loyal relationship with consumers and clients. Take your business reach to the next level by maintaining a consistent, audience-focused presence on Facebook and become your own ad.
*Heads up: Facebook owns Instagram and offers the same sort of ad services on that platform. Find out more about advertising on Instagram here.
Twitter – the platform desperately trying to make money. As with nearly all social media platforms, Twitter is free to use. But as opposed to Facebook, it is a lot more challenging to create revenue for the company. Even with over 300 million monthly active users, the company continues to list a net loss around $100 million every quarter. That being said, Twitter offers a range of ad options for businesses looking to increase their reach online.
Similar to affiliate marketing practices, Twitter ads offer pricing based on how users interact with your ads. For example, Twitter offers Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts and Promoted Trends. If a user chooses to retweet, reply and/or follow based on one of these things, the advertiser behind them would pay a fee. That means that if your ads fail to attract users or interest, you do not suffer a high loss for advertising costs.
Ads on Twitter are also extremely targeted. Twitter’s algorithm collects data about user profiles, searches, follows and other activity. Based on this information, your ads will only appear in front of users who fall within your determined audience.
You can find more information about Twitter ads here and here. Find out how to set-up different campaigns here.
Everybody who uses Google is affected by AdWords. AdWords is the mechanism behind the top results that may or may not have anything to do with your search, and have the word “Ad” next to them. These promotions rely on key words selected by the advertiser, which is why when you search your own company name sometimes a direct competitor pops up. Your competitor is using your name as a key word for her ads.
As opposed to Facebook and Twitter, ads on Google have the ability to reach a far wider audience. You can even restrict them based on region or the location of the device that is searching. Google assures potential advertisers that there are lots of options for narrowing the audience for ads. Google also has built-in tools for tracking campaigns, including in-depth responder information. Just like Twitter, Google offers pricing built on clicks and other interactions. If your campaign does not show success, you will pay less for it.
Find out more of the basics of AdWords here.
Aside from the ads that pop up in searches, AdWords offers connections to other types of ads – display ads, video ads (on YouTube), shopping ads and app ads.
Heads up: Since Google owns YouTube, ads on YouTube can be connected. For more information on directly advertising on YouTube, click here.
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