Seven Reasons to Advertise Online

With the dawn of social media platforms, standardized APIs and Google AdSense, advertising has advanced in sophistication. Here are 7 reasons why you should consider making online ads a part of your next marketing campaign.

1. You See Real Numbers

Years ago, print media in newspapers, magazines and phonebooks dominated advertising. Since these were managed externally, it was necessary to hire a marketing analytics company to produce reports costing valuable budget dollars.

Digital ads feature sophisticated tracking systems. You see real numbers in real time. You can generate free reports on how many people saw your ad and how many people clicked on it. You can even get reports on how well one ad is doing compared to another! Through these metrics, you can strategically target your audience.

2. You Only Pay If It Works

In print media, you pay a rate based on size, publication, word count and level of detail. If the ad was in a highly syndicated magazine, a single ad campaign may cost you thousands of dollars.

Digital Media ads can operate on a PPC (pay-per-click) basis. It means that you only pay for what was effective. If thousands of people see your ad but nobody clicks, then you don’t pay a cent. If it does work then you pay inexpensive rate until you decide to invest more heavily.

3. You Get Your Audience

Digital Ad services provided by Google or Facebook know what people are looking for based on the voluntary information users have given. Where advertising was once teaching the customer how to improve quality of life by product or service, digital ads now provide the ability to target potential customers based on their established interests.

If the user has the potential for interest, you can be sure the ad will be delivered to them, saving you valuable budget dollars. Pick what type of demographics you’d like to target based on location, age, or simply on interests. Whomever the target audience, online advertising can deliver content to those that want it the most without wasting valuable resources on cold leads.

4. You Follow-up on Leads

Suppose a potential customer visits your electronic store’s website and looks up TVs. Then they leave the website for whatever reason. How can you trace them down and capitalize on their interest? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could deliver your TV ads to them somewhere else?

Retargeting provides a new avenue for marketing. After visiting your website once and visiting a page tagged with ad services, retargeting ads “follow” a user around the Internet delivering unobtrusive retargeted ads. Retargeting keeps your foot in the door and grows warm leads into loyal customers.

5. You Shift the Scales

At one point, investing in advertising meant two years of commitment, a hefty budget and a lot of risk. Even today, maintaining an ad campaign requires constant contact with each media outlet. Neglecting printing costs, the coordination time alone translates to wasted budget dollars, skyrocketing printing costs beyond the initial price.

Online advertising doesn’t have that problem. Your advertising campaign can be controlled and replicated from your own online account. Do you want to make a large push before your event’s debut? Is your company winding down a seasonal service? You can grow or shrink your ad budget on demand to work with your marketing plan.

6. You Maintain Flexibility

Print media is permanent. It requires constant proofing, spell checking and editing that cost you money in consultants and writers. Unfortunately, mistakes still happen. And they will reflect poorly on your company, product or service.

With digital ads, you can change your message at any point: up to the last minute or even during a campaign. You can fix a mistake or improve an ad without interrupting service or waiting for the next publishing cycle.

7. You Meet Customers Where they Are

We live in an Internet dependent world. In Canada, the average user spends 41 hours per month online. With that comes the rise of online shopping, increased streaming video and unfortunately, thousands and thousands of cat pictures.

The point is, the Internet is ultimately where your consumers are. Most people don’t communicate by mail anymore; they send emails and connect on social media. People rarely look to the phonebook for a plumber or a restaurant; they Google it.