In a recent post, I asked readers of SmartInsights to give their views on Internet advertising. Although some who completed the survey were in favour of online advertising and use it regularly, the majority have either not used it or or tried it once and not used it again since it's less effective than other techniques.
This follow-up post is to show that there are an increasing number of options to use Internet advertising. These have the option that you can reach your audience outside of the search engines. This has the clear advantages that:
Many of these options are now available via Google Adwords through new features introduced in 2010 which opens up display advertising to small business owners. We also have the options within social media at the end of the post. Here are the ten options:
The traditional approach where you or a media-buying company approaches site owners direct. For this approach or the ones below, you can use either Google searches or ad planning tools like the Doubleclick Ad planner to identify sites with the right audience. You may be able to negotiate a better deal at a CPM level or a pay per performance (CPC or CPA/CPL) deal. It is possible to advertise run-of-site (sitewide) or in particular sections or channels.
You can use the Google Display Network within the same interface and account that you use to manage Google Adwords you can target ads on a range of sites to target visitors, but only on pages relevant to your keywords.
In this case, you use a similar approach, but are more refined in how you target individual sites for advertising using placement targeting.
In this case, you only display relevant ads when someone has already clicked on one of your paid search ads. Your ads are then seen on third-party sites in the display network. This form of remarketing (or behavioural targeting) was launched in 2010 and has proved extremely effective since conversion is much easier to achieve.
Did you know that YouTube is now the second largest search engine in many countries? This gives a fantastic opportunity to reach an audience with a specific interest depending on what they"€™re viewing. View info on YouTube advertising.
Promoted Video Ads are another YouTube advertising option is promoted video ads within YouTube available by Adwords.
With much remainder inventory, even large sites will sell-off some inventory, giving you the option to buy at a lower risk cost-per-click basis. See Ad Networks guide.
Similar to remarketing within Google, you serve ads on an ad network to visitors who have previously visited your site. They may not have converted, so the reminder encourages them to buy for the first time, or again. Sometimes remarketing options are quite sophisticated with the option to display similar product categories.
Both Facebook and Linked-In offer good cost per click options for delivering targeted ads within their communities.
So that's the ten options, please share your experiences with these or other options that aren't included here.
By Dave Chaffey
Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. 'Dr Dave' is known for his strategic, but practical, data-driven advice. He has trained and consulted with many business of all sizes in most sectors. These include large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses. Dave is editor of the templates, guides and courses in our digital marketing resource library used by our Business members to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here. Dave is also keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary. Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question.
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