Not too long ago the options available for a small business to affordably market themselves were extremely limited. You could invest in print (newspaper and magazine ads), outdoor (billboards, bus wraps etc.) direct mail, radio, television and that’s pretty much it. While these were and still are very effective forms of marketing, they require a large budget to actually work. Also, the targeting options for these traditional media forms are pretty limited. That means a good portion of your budget is wasted on people that aren’t in your target market and may not find your message relevant at all.
Furthermore, these media types are difficult to track and measure results to see if you are getting a return on your advertising investment. Well, it’s an incredibly different world for small businesses today. With the affordable, efficient marketing options available online, savvy smaller businesses can see real results on a limited budget. The opportunity to grow and actually compete with larger players in your industry is there for the taking!
Online Ad Networks
There are many places that you can advertise online including native ad and display networks, but today we’re going to focus on the best two places to start; search and social media.
Search
In the early 2000s when Google AdWords was just starting to gain momentum, not many businesses were using it yet. This meant the ones who were reaped the benefits of dirt cheap ad costs. Large corporations scratched their heads as they watched small entrepreneurs and startups make millions on the platform and evolve into true competitors.
Search ads are much more expensive today because, well, they work and large companies are now investing big dollars into them. While the days of $.05 clicks are long gone, search engines are still a great place for small businesses to advertise.
The basic concept of search engine marketing is to buy keywords that people are searching for so that your ad shows up in the search results. The beauty of this is that you hit people with ads at the very moment they are searching for the products or services you offer.
This level of relevance in marketing is really unrivaled by anything available in traditional media.
Google is obviously the top choice in this space but Bing Ads are also a viable option to look into.
Social Media
Running paid advertising on social media networks is still a relatively new, untapped frontier. Social media ads, especially Facebook and Instagram, are incredibly underpriced right now for how powerful and effective they are. They present a similar opportunity for small businesses as Google AdWords did in the early 2000s.
Right now any business can place an ad for their ideal target customer to see as they scroll through their newsfeed pretty inexpensively.
At a time where 77% of Americans have a social media profile and the average smartphone user checks their Facebook 14 times per day, social media ads are probably the best possible place to market your business right now.
Targeting
One of the premier benefits of online advertising is the ability to laser target exactly who you want to.
The precision targeting capabilities of both search, and especially social media ads are really something to behold. Having the options to directly target customers based on location, age, gender, occupation, income, beliefs, interests and buying patterns is something advertisers never could’ve dreamed of offline.
By simply knowing who your customers are and what they’re into, you can be dramatically more accurate and efficient with your marketing efforts.
Taking it a step further, you have the ability to retarget existing customers, as well as people that have shown interest in what you’re offering but haven’t purchased yet. You can even tell these networks to find new people that are similar to your customers and are more likely to buy. The targeting possibilities are truly limitless.
Tracking
The other premier benefit of online advertising is the ability to track your success and results in granular detail. Tracking tools called tags and pixels have made it possible to track each and every step of your campaign and digital sales process. You can see exactly who clicked your ads and what they did afterwards.
This allows you to break down your advertising dollars to see exactly how much each click, lead and sale is costing you to ensure that you get a return on you marketing investment.
Important Tracking Metrics
- CPM – Cost Per Mille (Thousand) is one of the most common statistics used in advertising to price ads and gauge results. This number refers to how much it costs for 1,000 impressions, or views of your ad. Most social media networks charge for ads on a CPM basis, meaning how much you pay is based on how many people see your ads. The lower this number is the better it is for you.
- CPC – Cost Per Click simply refers to how much it costs you to get one person to click on your ad and go to the landing page of your choice. Search networks charge for ads on a CPC basis, meaning you only pay if someone clicks on your ad. Social media networks also offer CPC pricing for certain types of campaigns. This is also a number that you want to be as low as possible.
- CTR – Click-Through Rate refers to the ratio of clicks to impressions. This is one of the best metrics for monitoring the success of your ads. Out of all the people that saw your ad, it is the percentage of people that actually clicked it. You want this number to be as high as possible.
Optimization
Now that you know where to advertise online and understand the basics of targeting and tracking, we’re going to let you in on the secret of digital advertising. The number one thing that separates successful campaigns from failed ones:
Testing.
If you want to see results online, you have to get used to trying, failing and trying again. If you’re expecting to throw up a couple ads and watch your business explode, you will end up painfully disappointed. There’s only one way to find out what will work for your business. You need to test different audiences, bidding tactics, images, videos, and ad text. Advertise like a scientist. Test one variable at a time until you have an effective, fully optimized campaign.
If you’re thinking that you don’t have the time to mess around with ads all day and truly figure this stuff out, don’t worry! We’re here to help. In fact, it’s what we do best. We’ll setup, optimize and manage a strategic campaign for you so you can be sure you’re getting the best results for your budget. Get a hold of us here to discuss our advertising packages.
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