Digital advertising tips for great results

Digital advertising has levelled the playing field of marketing in business. This aspect of marketing involves the promotional display of products, services and other valuable offers via the internet.

Since 2016, traditional advertising budget share of several businesses has  accommodated more online advertising as traditional media struggles to maintain its relevance.

Due to the huge potential reach of online advertisement, both small size businesses and multinational corporations have placed immense focus on online advertising.This post focuses on three sections; tips  for strategy, media planning and content creation.

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1. Strategy tips  for online marketing.

Although your overall marketing strategy captures some of the strategy rules of marketing online, these particular tips are worthy of emphasis. If neglected, you risk undermining your ad campaign before it starts.

Know your goal(s): Be clear on what you want to achieve with your ads. Most advertising goals vary from campaign to campaign and are usually aimed at either of these three things; to inform, to persuade or for mind-share.

To Inform:  To increase brand or product awareness.

To Persuade: Ultimately turning leads generation to profitable sales or committing prospects to take an action.

For visibility: Keeping your  brand in the mind of your consumer.

Additionally, narrow down to specifics like the number of desired sales, sign up, leads, impressions and be realistic about each goal by considering your marketing budget.

Know your value proposition: This stems from understanding what makes your product valuable and why people would want to buy it after seeing your ads online. Recognise what makes your product and service stand out, as it will be needed to implement the content creation rules of online advertising later on.

Know your prospects: Be clear about the people you want your advert to reach. This helps you design your ad and craft your message to suit only those who need and can afford what you are offering.

Being aware of your target audience will help your media planning and content creation work out as planned. Not knowing the exact audience to aim your marketing communications at will undermine your ad campaign.

Do your research and be specific about their demographic and psychographics.

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2. Media planning tips for online advertising.

There are quite a number of online advertising mediums. Use these tips to figure your way around maximising them.

Choose the right channel: There are several effective digital marketing channels you can leverage for your adverts online but not all might be right for your brand.

Choosing the right medium must be informed by where your prospects are.. You want your ads to be seen by those who it is for not just anybody.

If you are not getting the expected results from your online  ads, , this is one of the first things to troubleshoot.

Understand the channel: Each of these internet advertising mediums have dynamics  that need to be understood, so you can play by the rules and their algorithm.

Facebook Ads for instance has its own peculiarities which differs from that of google ads specifications. These peculiarities can be  in the form of word count, visual dimensions, content size and length.

To avoid a square peg in a round hole situation, take time out to understand each online advertising platform and what their best practices are, to ensure a successful marketing campaign.

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3. Content creation tips  for online advertising.

Having sorted  your strategy and media planning, it's time to create content that resonates with your prospects.

Grab attention: Never take getting your prospect's attention for granted. If you don't get their attention, your whole advertising goes down the drain including the ad budget.

Your advertisement has to be seen and you achieve this with great headlines. Your headline should be catchy and draw curiosity so much that prospects can't help but take a look at your ads.

Retain  attention: Now that you have their attention, don't play with it. Keep them interested and make them desire what you are promoting.

Tell a story about the benefits of your products or service. I.e how it solves their problem and brings pleasure. Well told stories create emotional connection between a brand and its customers. It’s advised to keep your ads short, simple and easy to understand.

Ask for action: This is where you deliver the conversion blow. Use a call to action. In the case of awareness and visibility  ads, use your brand  catch phrase or brand name.

If you want them to buy, ask them to buy now. If you want them to learn more, ask them to learn more. If you want them to click, ask them to click right away. How you request for action should be punchy and succinct.

Additionally, make it easy for them to take action. If the action you are asking for isn't convenient, prospects won't do it.

Now, some say “rules are meant to be broken”. Not these. The success of your marketing campaign depends on it.

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As a bonus tip, test your advertisement on a small scale to observe its performance. Most online advertising platforms give their users insights and analytics that allow for tracking and ad management. If the small scale a/b testing works, then go big. If it performs below expectation, then thoroughly troubleshoot the process with these tips.

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