Online advertising has always been a challenge for most marketers. Banner ads, email marketing and SMS are tools of the past and now it is all about Google, Facebook and Amazon advertising. One thing for sure, advertising has changed tremendously and if you are not on this wave, you are definitely falling out of the competition.
Advertising – Do it good and do it well
One thing for sure, it is not about banner advertising anymore. Online advertising is about being creative and to hit your customers where it matters. To send the right message and send it right. So, what does it really means when it comes to online advertising?
Why online advertising?
There should be no let off in this. With about 4 billion around the world on the internet, the numbers continue to jump. Every person who is online uses at least 2 devices at any time. Internet usage has grown exponentially it is impossible to grasp its movement. The thing about this is; it is not showing any signs of stopping.
Flexibility in marketing
Marketers today are just too spoilt for choice when it comes to advertising online. You can now reach your target market with many platforms and methods. Depending on which method you use, it will determine your budget and adex.
Remember this: When you advertise online, you have the potential to reach up to half of the world’s population
Common online advertising methods
There are limitless possibilities when it comes to online advertising. But in order to find out what your options are, let’s look at the most common ones.
- Paid Advertising – Search engines will have their own set of paid advertising systems. You need to know what is PPC (Pay-Per-Click) where you bid for keywords so that ads (related ones) can be displayed on search results.
- Sponsored Ads – As the name implies, you will see sponsored ads while those below them are results that were organically produced through SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
- Social media advertising – Social media like Facebook charge some form of advertising and they are able to help your ads reach your intended target market. The thing is, they know how valuable their content is because they are all user-generated. Think about Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
- Sponsored Content – Did you know that sponsored content has been practiced by advertisers for close to a hundred years. Those days, brands would sponsor television programs, radio shows and such. These days, they continue to do so but on blogs or articles postings by news or other portals.
- Banner ads – Following the same PPC business model, banner ads (sometimes called display ads) are those that entice the users to click through via some exciting or attractive message
