Which Digital Advertisements Are Best for Your Business?

Digital advertising can sometimes become very overwhelming. Apart from the ‘age-old’ traditional vs digital debate, there’s also the question of which platforms to advertise on.

1. What Is Digital Advertising?

Digital advertising or internet advertising refers to promoting your brand through the different platforms available online. Many believe that spending money on digital ads has no place today and it’s only content that drives organic traffic.

Yet nothing could be further from the truth. The fact of the matter is that digital advertising is used very effectively by the best content marketers. People use ads to get a lot of traction very quickly when their website launches. They even use ads to help make their best content more discoverable and expand their customer base.

However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to internet advertising. Different platforms have different ROIs depending on what your marketing goals are and who your audience is.

2. Which Type of Internet Advertising Is Best Suited For Your Business?

Here are some of the most common types of digital advertising. We will talk about which medium is best suited for which kind of business.

Facebook Advertising

With 2.23 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the go-to platform for B2C brands that have a mass appeal.

The pros

• Facebook has the most massive reach of any social
  media platform.
• Ads are very
  easy to set up and edit, especially with the mobile ad manager. It becomes easy
  to optimize and improve your performance as you go along.

The cons

• Way too many brands on Facebook can make it hard
  for your brand to cut through the clutter. Increased competition may also
  result in a lot of ad dollars being spent without seeing results.
• Certain audiences, especially younger ones, may not
  be as active on Facebook. If this is your target audience, Facebook may not be
  the ideal medium.

Who it’s suited for

B2C marketers who are willing to invest the time, effort, and money to get their Facebook campaigns right.

Instagram Advertising

Instagram not only has a whopping 1 billion + active users, but it also has a very young audience. Instagram advertising has exploded over the past few years and with good reason.

The pros

• 41% of Instagram users are 24 years or younger.
  This makes it a great platform for brands catering to this audience.
• Instagram is a very visual platform. This makes it
  great for brand categories like food and travel which lend themselves to visual
  marketing.
• Instagram advertising isn’t just about photos.
  Instagram’s ad formats include videos, stories, and carousel.

The cons

• Most of Instagram’s audience is between 18 to 29
  years old. It may not be the best platform if your target audience is older.
• Since Instagram is so visual, creative elements
  need to be constantly tweaked to maintain freshness of content.

Who it’s suited for

Great for microbrands that are looking to breakthrough. Also a great platform for visual brands that cater to younger audiences.

Twitter Advertising

Twitter may have relatively fewer users (330 million) but it is a great place to have your brand voice heard.

The pros

• Twitter is a great platform to build a loyal
  customer base with quirky content and real-time engagement.

The cons

• Twitter advertising is only about putting what
  you’d normally tweet about in a place where more people can see it. It’s not
  about directly selling your products through Twitter.

Who it’s suited for

Twitter advertising is for brands who already have a great voice and story on Twitter. The advertising will help you get that added traction to take your Twitter game to the next level.

LinkedIn Advertising

Although LinkedIn has relatively fewer users (467 Million), it caters to a specific audience of business professionals.

The pros

• 61 million Linkedin users are senior
  level influencers and 40 million are decision makers.
• LinkedIn is largely free
  from the personal chatter and clutter that is present in other social media
  channels. This makes it easier to get a message through to your audience.
• Linkedin has a variety of
  different advertising options. From sponsored Inmails and display ads to
  Adwords-style Linkedin text ads.

The cons

• The Cost per click is comparatively higher than on other platforms like Facebook and Adwords.

Who it’s suited for

Linkedin is the go-to advertising platform for B2B brands. It gives you easy access to business professionals and decision makers. It is also useful for B2C brands that are used by Linkedin users, for example, Starbucks coffee.

Interstitial Ads

These are promotional pages that pop up on a user’s screen before they go the content they want to view.

The pros

• They pop up right in front of the user guaranteeing
  immediate visibility.
• They capture attention quickly on mobile platforms,
  specially media-rich ads and videos.

The cons

• They make for irritating user experience and many viewers ignore them on principle.

Who it’s suited for

Marketers who are creating mobile-first ads.

3. Digital Advertising Trends  

Here are some of the top trends in digital advertising that are set to transform the space in the coming months.

• The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is a
  game-changing document. It has been fully enforced since May 2018 and will
  significantly impact the personalization of ads in the European Union.
• Video ads continue to have the highest CTR of all
  digital ad formats. 64% of marketers believe video will play a dominant role in their
  advertising strategy.
• Native advertising refers to when a brand pays a
  third party website to feature content. Native advertising has seen major
  growth in the last 5 years and will continue to be an important marketing
  trend. That’s because consumers view native ads more than 50% over regular banner ads.
• Finding the right micro influencers who fit your
  brand is a great way to find new customers. Influencer marketing has been growing
  of late and will prove to be one of the more significant trends of 2019.

Digital advertising is a great way to cut through a lot of online noise and reach new customers. It may not be sustainable in the long run but it’s a great way to get your brand voice out there. It’s important, of course, to be mindful of what your brand strategy is and which online platform it fits into.

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