The biggest names in digital marketing today is, of course, Google and Facebook. Recent studies have shown that almost half of the marketing budgets have been allocated to these names. That does not come as any surprise considering that Google and Facebook are the biggest in terms of users and popularity.
Is there anyone else?
It is hard to imagine any other names taking the place of those 2 tech giants but Amazon is now coming in close in third. At this point, there really aren’t any plans to displace them but one has to be realistic that not every brand can afford to finance advertising on those platforms.
The online marketing strategies are mostly the same no matter how big or small your business is. Collectively, it simply means they are advertising in networks owned by giants like Instagram and YouTube (by Facebook and Google respectively).
Trend is worrying
Although it is always effective to advertise on Google, Facebook and Amazon even, marketers are starting to worry about the power that it could potentially lead to. If the trend continues, these platforms could well start to dictate the advertising options and that would be hard to control.
Other platforms have already been made available in recent years but marketers are now looking to use them instead of being heavily reliant on the ‘big 5’. No doubt it would be extremely hard to challenge and disrupt this industry but there are other options. We list the 5 that you can consider.
Back to the old Tech-giant
The search engine market is very much dominated by Google but that does not mean you forget everyone else. Remember Microsoft? Microsoft’s Bing Ads is somewhat similar to Google’s although they might not be as popular.
Basically, you can manage your PPC ads that appear under Microsoft’s networks like its Yahoo, MSN and Bing platforms. This is an alternative to Google and it surely pales in comparison but according to Microsoft, they do have about 5 billion searches every month. Since it is not as heavily used as Google, they are less competitive and hence, cheaper.
LinkedIn Advertising
As an alternative to advertising on Facebook, you must consider LinkedIn. It has been found that LinkedIn users are closest to the demographics of Facebook. They are usually from the same generation of people. You can create native ads and promote your ads on the newsfeed and this is what Facebook is good at.
Furthermore, you can generate your own traffic reports and customize your target audience. If you are in the B2B areas, LinkedIn could well be your best option as it has been found that about 80% of B2B leads come from this network. Since LinkedIn is known for being more professional as compared to Facebook or Instagram, this is one place to build your brand.
Tik-Tok Advertising
This is probably one of the fastest-growing social networks in recent years. One thing for sure, you must be 100% certain that your target audience is the younger group possibly from 14 years old.
Since Tik-Tok came around, the video-sharing and viewing platform has garnered more than 200 million accounts and about 90% of them are teenagers and young adults. Your ads will do your brand a lot of good there.
Twitter, Pinterest, and Reddit Ads
- With Twitter, you can spend some money on promoting tweets and this works very much like Facebook. You can choose your objectives of the ad that will give you data on app installs, video views and such. What makes Twitter good is that advertising here is more affordable and economical as compared to Facebook.
- Meanwhile, on Reddit, you can make use of subreddits. This is where you encourage the users to make contributions to the discussion threads. And better still, Reddit has reported that they now have more than 330 million active users each month and they are in the Gen-Z and millennial age brackets.
- With Pinterest Ads, you get to promote using a more photo-friendly platform. Some might say it is the closest to Instagram but it differs greatly as Pinterest tends to be more interest-based. If you are in a business that relies on aesthetics like travel and home décor, then Pinterest could get your job done.
What about Snapchat?
If you are familiar with Instagram Stories, then Snapchat could be something you can use as an alternative. Some have claimed that Instagram Stories was somewhat inspired by Snapchat. Whether that is true or not is irrelevant because Snapchat has grown faster than most of the other social networks and is one of the most popular apps among the younger group of millennials and Gen-Z people and it is cheaper too.
