Digital Advertising is the future of advertising. It is efficient, inexpensive, and a lot more scalable. If you want to promote your brand far and wide, you need to do it digitally. It’s a space that is constantly evolving, so here we tell you all you need to know about it.
As the age of the internet gripped the world, everything became a lot more digitised. This included businesses moving their services and advertising online. Traditional advertising used billboards and traditional media outlets to advertise products and services. These channels were minimal, but the audience they could reach also has begun to decrease. Although traditional advertising does have its benefits in attracting a certain demographic, Digital Advertising has taken over as the main channel due to the internet and globalisation.
One of the most important parts of marketing is adapting to changing circumstances and changing your strategy according to new data. That is why marketers have adapted to the internet and moved towards Digital Advertising.
Digital Advertising can help tell the brand’s story like nothing else. Unlike traditional advertising, which can be used across multiple platforms, Digital Advertising can be an excellent tool for one’s business and allows access to potential customers more often through multiple devices. As consumers spend more time online, this type of advertising grows in relevance by the day.
Introduction to Digital Advertising
Let’s examine the basics of what Digital Advertising is and what purpose it can serve your business.
What is Digital Advertising?
Digital Advertising is based on the internet and draws upon multiple media formats such as text, image, audio, and video. The internet also provides a range of channels to advertise your business, such as social media, emails, mobile apps, affiliate programs and websites. All these channels can host a variety of formats of advertisement.
Digital Advertising is based on the internet and draws upon multiple media formats such as text, image, audio, and video.
Today’s customers prefer convenience. They can access all and any information regarding their favourite brands right from the comfort of their homes. No one wants to walk around noting down billboard ads for exclusive deals. But the same consumer will happily click on your ad campaign when it conveniently shows up in their news feed on Facebook.
Digital advertisement allows brands to be in an ongoing conversation with their target audience. Traditional advertising usually tries to distract consumers long enough to engage them with their business. In comparison, digital advertisement is about seamless integration with the consumer’s content. This allows businesses to portray their brand identity more authentically and genuinely.
Digital Advertising is also backed by programmable data and code. User data and targeting tools can be utilised to tailor ads to specific types of consumers expertly. Data-driven search results back these targetted ads. When potential consumers search for a specific product, they are advertised precisely what they are looking for. These platforms have algorithms in place that show consumers ads based on what they like and dislike on their social media accounts. What web pages they visit, what conversations they have. This process then later can be even automated. This can save your business a lot of time and is also a cost-effective strategy in the long run.
Purpose of Digital Advertising
Digital ad campaigns are made to align with your business goals. Along with generating sales, Digital Advertising serves three key purposes: Inform, persuade and remind. For example, your ad campaign could have a link that takes customers directly to the product. Even if they do not purchase your product, they will get familiar with the brand. Furthermore, you can have a retargeting campaign to remind them of your product or any future sales you might have. This way, you can generate repeat buyers and have loyal customers for your brand.
Digital Advertising is based on specific business goals and marketing intent and can be moulded and adapted to specific types of consumers.
Traditional advertising depends on more of a spray and pray technique. In it, marketers would advertise to as many people as possible with the hope that some of their audience might show interest in their business. The advertising strategy does not use data-driven metrics. In contrast, Digital Advertising is based on specific business goals and marketing intent and can be moulded and adapted to specific types of consumers.
Types of Digital Advertising
As mentioned previously, there are many different types of Digital Advertising. The variety available to businesses is one of its most significant advantages. A business can choose the exact format of advertising that would suit its business model or product.
Below are some examples of different types of Digital Advertising.
Search Engine Ads
These advertisements appear in search engines like google when a consumer searches any key term relevant to your product or business. These advertisements are in text form and hence are called search engine marketing. Google owns 97.2% of the all search engine market share and handles 5.6 billion searches every day. Your brand can optimise its ads to reach audiences when they search any keyword regarding your product or service.
Social Media Ads
As suggested by the name, these ads appear on social media websites like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. These can be either text, images or videos. As social media revolves around consuming audiovisual content, ads on these websites need to be polished for visuals and quality. Social media websites have a vast user base and long engagement and offer one of the best types of Digital Advertising.
On-Stream and Out-Stream Video Ads
These advertisements are present on video streaming platforms like Youtube and Prime video. They can appear alongside videos in the form of images and text or even appear at the beginning of the video as a full production commercial. Any video ads you see while browsing on the internet come under the category of stream video ads.
Best Platforms for Digital Advertising
The key to getting the right Digital Advertising Platform depends on what kind of audience you want to reach and the message you want to send. Each website, app or blog has a different audience. Although some types of consumers may be found in all of these places, some platforms cater to specific audiences. For example, Linkedin is a social media platform for businesses and business professionals; hence it is an excellent place for business to business advertisements. While on the other hand, Instagram caters to a much more general population of consumers and is ideal for visually appealing advertisements.
Here are some of the top platforms that can help you reach a much wider audience.
Meta Network Ads
Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have become a powerhouse of user data and engagement. These social media platforms are based upon user data that the consumer themself provide. Meta has over 3.5 billion users each month, and 64 per cent of all Digital Advertising is done on their platforms. The data provided by users are used by advertisers to run targeted ad campaigns. This is why many organisations have chosen meta to be the place where they run advertisements.
Google AdWords
Google owns the majority of the market share when it comes to search engines. Google also owns one of the largest video streaming services, Youtube. Both these outlets reach an audience of billions of people from all over the world, which makes it an excellent place to start advertising your product.
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Linkedin has a niche audience, and the platform can be used to advertise products or services to a particular type of consumer, such as individuals looking for employment or organisations looking to hire new employees. Most Linkedin users are business owners or industry professionals. So any business looking to advertise to other businesses will find LinkedIn the perfect platform for digital advertisement.
Twitter Ads
Twitter is a primarily text-based social media platform where users communicate in short messages called tweets. Twitter uses hashtags to monitor trends and what is currently going “viral”. These trends are usually categorised by geographical locations. Twitter can be used to grow your brand identity and gain a following steadily. However, it is a slow process that may require some marketing strategising before it can be used as a steady platform for advertising.
Digital Advertising for the Win
Now that we have covered the question of “what is Digital Advertising?” and what purpose it serves, let us talk about the many advantages it can have for your business.
Flexible
Digital Advertising is extremely flexible across multiple channels and platforms. As a result, the campaign you run for one platform can easily be modified and be posted on another platform. This flexibility allows you to reach the maximum number of consumers across multiple channels. Consumers today prefer to use mobile devices almost exclusively, and this is particularly true for the Generation Z. Digital ads are optimised to be viewed on any device and are a great way of reaching consumers wherever they might be.
Measurable
One of the best qualities of Digital Advertising is that it comes along with many metrics. As a business owner, you will know exactly who clicked on your ad campaign. Not only how many users, but details like time spent on your website, whether they shared it and where. It will provide you with exact information on the strengths and weaknesses of your ad campaign and allow you to modify it accordingly. You may also be able to track the behaviours and preferences of your consumers and make profiles of them for further optimisation.
Shareability
The best thing about the internet is that one piece of news from the media can go viral at any moment. It can garner the attention of millions, nay billions of people worldwide. Any piece of content can resonate with consumers. If one individual relates to what your business puts out, they will share it. It sets into motion a domino effect where more and more people will engage with your content and share it. Your business can greatly benefit from this attention. In the past, many ad campaigns have gone viral this way. Whether it is a company co-opting a meme or making one themselves, these campaigns have proven very profitable. The exact formula for going viral is elusive, but it can be done with the correct production, research, and story.
The global market for Digital Advertising and Marketing is estimated at US$350 Billion in the year 2020 and is predicted to nearly double in the next 5 years.
The global market for Digital Advertising and Marketing is estimated at US$350 Billion in the year 2020 and is predicted to nearly double in the next 5 years. This astounding figure and the numerous benefits of Digital Advertising are why most businesses have begun to invest in online ad campaigns quite heavily.
If you think your business needs a digital ad campaign of its own and need some help from industry professionals with a long list of satisfied clients, we have got you covered at Apex Pro Media. We specialise in translating the essence of your business into an impactful digital campaign that delivers the desired results. Our goal is to help realise your goals!
Summary:
Digital Advertising is based on the internet and draws upon multiple media formats such as text, image, audio, and video.
Digital Advertising serves three key purposes: Inform, persuade and remind.
Digital Advertising is based on specific business goals and marketing intent and can be moulded and adapted to specific types of consumers.
There are many different types of Digital Advertising, from Search Engine Ads, Social Media Ads, to On-Stream and Out-Stream Video Ads.
Best platforms for Digital Advertising are Meta Network Ads, Google AdWords, Linkedin Marketing Solutions, and Twitter Ads.
The main advantages of Digital Advertising include flexibility, measurability, and shareability.