Lions and tigers and online advertising? Oh my! Even though it may be scary at first, you don’t need the Wizard to enhance your marketing strategy by adding paid online tactics into your mix. In the same general category as traditional or “push” advertising, the advantages of online ads are quick publishing of information, ability to change the message upon demand and no matter your business’ size, you have a track-able way to reach your niche audiences.
Types of online ads include floating, wallpaper, pop-up, video, map ad, and mobile, all with or without animation. See what I mean about scary? Let’s sort through some of the choices:
The variety of online paid “pull” tactics include:
- Email ads target your database of names Allows direct marketing to current or prospective customers through permission-based emails (this is not spam). Send specially designed offers to sub-groups. These can even be personalized.
- Search engine marketing (pay per click) ads reach those who are actively looking Incorporate SEO (search engine optimization) techniques using keyword analysis and optimized landing pages to draw visitors. Your ad appears on a page when someone is looking for information about your product or service. Available to any budget, we suggest buying only keywords that are not getting you on the first page organically.
- Social media sponsored ads and stories reach those you select Choose geography, gender, age, special interest, etc. to filter and find the right person. Your advertisement will show up on that individual’s social page. You set a monthly budget.
- Targeted display ads reach market segments with highly relevant messages Box-sized or banner-sized, these ads are displayed on relevant websites. Media fees are paid to website publishers when the negotiated amount of traffic is garnered.
- Demographic targeting lets you select, age, gender, income, using data compiled from registration information.
- Behavior targeting, compiled from someone’s recent internet activities, lets you select based on interests.
- Contextual targeting reaches viewers through keywords. The process interprets and classifies the main subject of the page, then populates it with targeted advertising spots. By closely linking content to ads, it’s assumed that the viewer will be more likely to show interest (i.e., through engagement) in your advertised product or service.
- Job title targeting lets you reach people based on profession.
- Retargeting lets you re-engage a potential customer who has already visited your website.
- AND more – they are everywhere! Online ads are available by industry categories, on premium news networks, mobile, YouTube, pre-roll video, and streaming audio websites.
- Affiliate marketing places ads on privately owned websites like blogs This model rewards affiliates for each visitor or customer brought to the website by the affiliate’s own website and marketing efforts. For example, when a visitor clicks from the associate’s website to Amazon and purchases a book, the affiliate receives a commission.
Leverage Landing Pages
For the best possible results, create optimized website landing pages specific to each keyword or audience or offer. These pages should be well-designed and laced with engagement opportunities. Landing pages are mandatory in a solid paid search campaign.
Remember that paid online marketing needs to accomplish the same four things as inbound marketing:
- Attract visitors to the company website
- Encourage those visitors to become leads
- Nurture leads into becoming customers
- Engage customers to keep them happy
If you need help in sorting through what to do first, contact Julie for a free consultation on how we can create an action plan.
PS
In the United States the Federal Trade Commission has been involved in the oversight of behavioral targeting for some time. In 2011 the FTC proposed a “Do Not Track” mechanism to allow Internet users to opt-out of behavioral targeting (See bottom of this page.)