Even the best product or service does not sell on a mass scale without even a little marketing effort. In the past, brands invested mainly in advertisements in newspapers, radio, television or simply in urban space, thus reaching a large group of recipients, which, however, was not possible to define. However, the development of online marketing has brought about significant changes in the distribution of promotional budgets – the advertising campaign on the Internet has definitely moved to the first place in most cases. What are its types and which channels are worth betting on?
The answer will not be a big surprise – it depends. From what? First of all, the industry in which we operate, the promotional budget and the target group we want to reach. Of course, we also have to consider what exactly we want to achieve through advertising. We have a lot of possibilities to conduct campaigns on the Internet. Below, we briefly present the most popular of them.
Google Ads – not just advertising on the search network
One of the effective ways to promote your brand on the Internet is a Google Ads campaign. The giant from Mountain View offers users a system with which you can advertise not only in Google products, but also on many websites of its advertising partners. Examples of such formats as:
Text ads in the search network – this type of promotion is also known as sponsored links. They appear at the top or bottom of the search results page and are labeled “ad”. In addition to headings and descriptions, you can put various types of extensions in them, e.g. links to other subpages of your website, explanations, locations or information about promotions. As a result, the link to our website not only appears on the first page with results, but also occupies a large area, so it attracts the attention of the audience.
Advertising on the Google advertising network – this type of advertising campaign on the Internet has a graphic form and is displayed on the partner websites of the giant from Mountain View. It is a very broad network, ranging from small to huge portals, industry sites, blogs, local sites and many other sites on a variety of topics. Ads can take the form of banners appearing between paragraphs of articles or on the side of the page, in the background (behind the main content), full-screen or pop-ups. The advertising network can also provide dynamic ads, the elements of which are automatically selected depending on the user’s preferences (based on his previous behavior on the Internet).
YouTube Ads – Video campaigns may or may not be skipped and may appear before, after, or during your videos. Bumper Ads, i.e. six-second ads that are highly effective, especially on mobiles devices, are also very popular.
Product ads – they contain a photo of a specific product, its name and price and lead directly to the subpage where you can buy it. They appear on the search results page and in Google Shopping. To create this type of campaign, you must have an account in Google Merchant Center and implement the so-called Product feed, i.e. a file with data about the products we offer. The ad data is automatically drawn from the feed. This is an excellent format for online stores, as the user immediately has the key information when making purchasing decisions.
Why is it worth using Google Ads?
Google Ads is a system that gives advertisers a wide range of promotion opportunities that are not provided by traditional advertising on radio or television. The most frequently mentioned advantages of the system include:
Advanced targeting options – with our message we can reach a strictly defined group of recipients, which gives us the best chance for conversion. We can set a group, taking into account the interests of users, their place of residence, age, life situation (family, children, renovation, buying a house, etc.), reach people who have contacted our website or simply place advertisements on websites about specific topic. We can also freely set the ad schedule and territorial range or modify the rates depending on various parameters (e.g. device type).
Payment for the effect – in the case of campaigns in Google Ads, we do not have to pay for the mere display of the ad. The budget will be used only when we achieve the assumed goal, i.e. when someone clicks our ad or watches a promotional video (depending on the selected billing model).
Full control over the budget – at any time of the campaign, we can check how much we spent and increase or decrease the expenses.
Quickly visible results – an ad in Google Ads can be launched at any time without leaving home and it becomes visible almost immediately on the web (you have to wait for verification, but it usually doesn’t take long). Thanks to this, the effects can be seen much faster than, for example, in positioning.
Constant access to statistics – we can check which of our ads have the best results, identify keywords generating the most conversions, etc.
Raising brand awareness – our advertisement is displayed on the first page of search results or on the websites of Google partners, so even if the user goes to our website, he may remember the company name, logo or special offer.
Google Ads – who is this online advertising campaign for?
Google Ads advertising is a good way to promote almost all brands. It works well for both online stores and service businesses. However, you need to know that such campaigns, in order to bring profits, should be regularly optimized, and optimization is not a simple task for a layman. Therefore, when choosing this type of campaign, it is worth learning more about Google Ads or using the help of a specialist.
Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads – when is it worth it?
Facebook’s advertising system has a tremendous amount of information about social media users – especially when it comes to their interests and preferences. It is on FB or Instagram that we follow fanpages, talk about our hobbies, participate in discussions, inform about relationships and their ending, baby births, new animals, we even mark where and what we eat. That is why the Facebook advertising platform gives a good chance to reach those recipients we care about. In this system, we can advertise both the post itself (it will appear on the users’ board, even if they are not fans of our profile) and the entire fanpage, or direct traffic directly to the website. We currently have the following ad formats on Facebook:
– image – graphic advertisement in which we can present our products, logo, information about the offer, photos from the headquarters, etc.
– video – this format allows you to promote short movies or slide shows.
– carousel – this is a type of advertisement in which we can present a maximum of 10 images or videos – each with its own link. This allows, for example, to show several products covered by the promotion or new products on offer within one advertisement.
– instant material – a format designed for mobiles devices. If a user clicks on our ad, a full-screen environment appears in which you can show images, videos, products or place a form.
– collection – an advertisement that opens as an instant material, used to show many products. As part of the advertisement, recipients can conveniently browse products on mobiles devices and make purchases.
In the case of Instagram Ads, we can also use the graphic, video and carousel format, and additionally choose whether we want to display the ad in News or Insta Stories.
Advantages of advertising on Facebook and Instagram
An online advertising campaign conducted with the help of Facebook has similar advantages as in the case of Google Ads. It is a relatively cheap advertisement in which we pay for the effects, enabling precise selection of the target group and remarketing. This system also gives access to a large number of statistics and allows you to control expenses at every stage of the campaign.
What is particularly worth paying attention to when using the Facebook advertising platform is the option to select the target group Lookalike Audience. Thanks to it, we do not have to choose what features the users who will see the ad should have. The system will do it for us, selecting recipients as similar to our current customers as possible. So if we already have a certain group of recipients, it is a simple way to get more.
Who are the ads on Facebook and Instagram for?
Such an advertising campaign on the Internet is also very common and for good reason – it can give great results in many industries. However, it should not be forgotten that users enter these platforms mainly for entertainment. So it is a place where advertisements for cosmetics, clothes, cafes, hotels or an aquapark can be great, but not necessarily funeral services. The same applies to all industries that provide emergency services – such as roadside assistance, locksmith, plumber, electrician, etc. – there is little chance that users will be looking for them on social media. In these cases, a text ad on the Google Ads Search Network with a dial-in extension will perform much better.
Internet advertising campaign – LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn is the only platform with a lot of data on the education and career of Internet users. Thanks to this, it is an ideal place to establish B2B contacts, look for employees, partners and create a professional image of the company. We can choose from such formats as:
– advertising with a single photo – a format in which we can insert a photo and a description into it. It appears in the news,
– carousel advertising – allows you to place several images with assigned links,
– video advertisement – type of advertisement in which we present the video material on the news board,
– event advertisements – within this format, you can promote the event we organize, e.g. a webinar, in the news,
– text ads – contain a headline, description and image. They may appear in different places, for example at the top of the page or on the right side of the screen,
– sponsored messages – this type of ads appears directly in users’ inboxes – just like messages from their contacts,
– Follower ads – they encourage you to follow a given profile on LinkedIn. They are dynamic – this means that in addition to the logo and name of our company, they also include a photo and the name of the user to whom the advertisement is displayed,
– Spotlight ads – they direct you to our website or any other landing page. They are also dynamic and adapt to a specific recipient,
– job advertisements – another dynamic format, but thanks to it you can promote offers by reaching potential candidates.
Who is LinkedIn Ads for?
Ads on LinkedIn work well in very specific cases, when we want to target the message to people with specific professional experience, from a specific industry or in specific positions. Despite the fact that the platform is becoming more and more popular, there are still representatives of only some industries, in particular from the IT and marketing industries.
Or maybe website positioning?
Positioning of websites is probably the most commonly known method of promotion on the Internet. Despite the excellent recognition of the term itself, there are really few customers who know what it actually means. Positioning of pages are activities aimed at raising our website in organic results for a given phrase. It includes a number of activities – optimization of the website itself to be robot and user-friendly, as well as the issue of linking or delivering high-quality texts to it. However, the most important thing in positioning is the fact that it must be treated as an investment. While Google or Facebook Ads offer quick and repeatable results, positioning will start to bring results only after a few months. In the long term, it is the cheapest method of acquiring customers and building a reputation.
Other advertising channels on the Internet
Of course, this list does not include all the channels in which we can promote ourselves among network users. Online stores can also use, for example, Amazon Ads, with which you can increase the visibility of your offer on these platforms. There is also more and more talk about ads on TikTok or Pinterest, which are an alternative to more popular advertising channels. Is it worth taking advantage of these opportunities? This should be determined by the analysis of where our target group spends their time.
