Together with the technological advancements, the growth of how to reach and attract potential customers evolve as well. In the past, advertisers would heavily rely on television ads, print ads through magazines and newspapers, and large-sized print and electronic billboards. As you can observe, these advertising channels are where people usually spend their time – watching TV, reading, and while on the road. Today, people would spend more time using smart devices that make companies turn to digital advertising.
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The Basics of Digital Advertising
Digital advertising is a form of advertising that involves the process of promoting and selling goods and services through the use of online marketing strategies. This is an opportunity to reach out to the target market to know more about the brand and/or what it is offering. As our everyday lives are turning digital (online activities like the use of social media, online shopping, banking, etc.), whatever we do over the internet gives advertisers the information on how to convince us to make a purchasing decision.
Based on the market and consumer data provider Statista, the expected average time spent by online users worldwide will be around 155 minutes or more than 2.5 hours. The continuous development of smartphones and other internet-connected devices is expected to make an increase to the current average time. Some may consider this a very short time to catch the attention of an internet user, that’s why this form of advertising should not be lengthy. At the same time, it should catch the viewer’s attention while leaving a lasting and remarkable impression.
Digital advertising can also be classified depending on how traffic is created – organic or paid. Organic traffic is the most cost-efficient one, as it has minimal or no costs involved at all. This is done by using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to a post or by creating eye-catchy content. On the other hand, the paid traffic helps give the advertisers control over who to reach and how it will be rolled out. Having a paid traffic to a selected digital platform (such as social media or search engines) can also ensure organic traffic at the same time if implemented in the right way.
As digital advertising creates brand awareness and consumer engagement, it also helps you convert new buyers into loyal customers. However, the digital marketing scene is constantly shifting in different directions. It is also important to be aware of the new trends to cope up with what makes the customers tick.
The Five Key Elements of Digital Advertising
Digital advertising is not the same as the traditional advertising that we grew up with, but still retains some of the ideas of what an advertisement should be. Here are the five key elements that every digital advertisement should have.
The Offer
The offer refers to the promotions or what makes the product or service stands out among its competitors. It does not solely refer to what the company is offering, but what the company offers to make their products to be sold and/or their services to be availed. It can include the product or service offered, price, promotional period, and other relevant information that can help convince viewers. It could be something like “Pay only US$1 to get Product X, for a limited time only.”
The Ad’s Copy
The ad’s copy is simply the message that the ad would like to deliver. There should be a deep emotional connection for it to be considered a good copy. It must be clear, fascinating, and convincing without being too promotional. In the example above, add the line “Save money on your shopping today.” in the beginning and it will be the ad’s copy.
The Design (or the “Creative”)
The design refers to the visual elements of the ad. This is the graphic content such as images, videos, or a mix of both. It is necessary that the ad’s design supports the ad’s copy. In the same sample above, most would usually think of using a shopping cart with more items or a video of someone counting their money while in the cash register.
The Look and Feel (of the overall campaign)
The look and feel of the overall campaign are very important. It should have an overall look that reflects the company or the brand. If there are a lot of ads involved in one campaign, these ads should have a similarity that makes users immediately recognize that it is for this brand. Especially for those industries that have an endless number of competitors, the ad should convince the consumer to buy what the company offers than settling on a substitute item from another brand. In the same example earlier, the ad of Product X should not use the exact same color palette used on the ads of Product Y.
The Target
This makes digital advertising the best – it allows to target the right market that the company would like to reach. Remember that it should be specific and delivers the right message. Even the most convincing ad will not get results if given to the wrong audience. In the same example, marketing the same ad to the ultra rich will not produce the same result when given to budget conscious buyers.
The Types of Digital Advertising
These types can help companies decide on the kind of digital ad that would be more effective for them. The different formats may have a specific target audience, where a combination of these may increase brand awareness and effectiveness.
Display ads
This is a more complex type of digital advertising that is also known as visual advertising. More often, it will require a third-party platform to run the ads like Google Ads or banner website advertising.
Social Media ads
This type of digital advertising involves the use and implementation on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and those available in specific countries only such as China’s Weibo. In using this ad, the most important factor to consider is the audience’s online habits. Though a lot of people are on Facebook, it is not necessary to focus on the said platform and consider asking the target audience on what social media site they spend most of their time.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) ads
SEM refers to the paid search engine marketing. It makes the website appear on the top results when the user searches for a relevant keyword to the brand, company, product, or service. One of its PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising
Video ads
Simply put, video ads use video clips to create an advertisement. This is common to YouTube and TikTok, where ads that appear are mostly in video format.
Developing Your Digital Ad Strategy
Now that you have an idea of what digital advertising is, this is the time to create a strategy on how to get more traffic or be more noticed. Implementing an effective digital ad strategy can elevate marketing operations. Here are some tips on how you can create a digital ad strategy that delivers.
Know your target audience.
Start by knowing who your customers are, as the other aspects will follow. Creating a marketing campaign where it does not know who it would like to reach is like wasting the company’s resources. Consider your customer demographics, income, needs, age, job position, and likes.
Analyzing the customer journey.
Once you know who your target market is, identify the different aspects involved in the company’s customer journey. It will give an idea of what aspects of a customer experience can be highlighted to the ad, or know the pain points and deliver a message to the ad on how it is resolved. If there is no customer journey available, consider creating one.
Know what channel to use.
As mentioned, there are different types of digital advertising but not all of them can be used with your target market. Take into consideration who your target market really is in choosing a channel. For example, if your customers are mostly Gen Z, they are most likely to be on Social Media especially on TikTok. Business-minded and career-focused people would be on LinkedIn.
Developing the content.
Use points 1, 2, and 3 to develop the content that can bring results. Creativity is the key, but remember to stick to the brand’s identity and the message it would like to deliver.
Finalizing
Before rolling out to the selected platform, the company may ask for feedback before launching it to the public. It would also help if optimization is done to the ad to further improve message delivery to the target market.
Measuring Your Digital Ad Campaign For Success
There are also different ways on how to measure if the digital ad campaign has achieved success. Metrics would be different based on the channels used. For example, Facebook has the Facebook for Business section where it provides the different metrics on how the ad performed. The same way goes with Google Ads when using SEM (Search Engine Marketing) or PPC (Pay Per Click). The most important measurement is when the company’s set goals have achieved its set objective goal in the time it expected to. At the end of the day, you know that the digital ad has succeeded if the company’s profit increased, together with the brand awareness.