Advertisements are something we see countless times every day whether it’s on TV, on billboards, or on our phones. Today, digital advertising is one of the most effective ways for businesses of all kinds to reach a wider audience, increase their visibility, and obtain more sales. This article will introduce you to paid media advertising and all the ways it can work for your business.
Paid media advertising is when businesses pay for advertisements that direct users to a specific message, usually to the company’s website. A lot of businesses will invest in this because they tend to produce results more quickly than organic digital marketing strategies. Paid media ads appear on search engine results pages, on websites, or on social media platforms. Their placement makes it easy for potential customers to see them and click on them. They increase the chances of the person making a purchase, signing up for an email list, etc.
Businesses look to paid media advertising for a variety of reasons. Some of them include:
While paid ads can come in several varieties, there are three that are the most common: display ads, search ads, ands social media ads.
These paid ads show up on websites in different forms such as banners, images, text, or videos. This is why they are often called banner ads. This type of ad shows up on a website for a specific period of time, leading the user to a website. Often, a display ad is embedded into another website in the form of an image or a gif. Display ads like pop-ups, wallpaper ads, and video ads are something you’ve probably seen on nearly every website you’ve ever visited. These are usually pretty affordable and work well to increase brand awareness and recognition. One downfall of display ads is that because they are so common, a lot of users tend to simply ignore them altogether.
Search ads appear on search engine results pages (SERPs). Most commonly, they are placed on Google and Bing, as they are the two leading search engines in the world. In fact, Google generates about 61% of US searches. Meanwhile, Bing produces another 27% of those searches. Search ads can be paid for in a few different ways. This includes pay-per-click (PPC) and cost-per-mille (CPM) ads. With PPC ads, the advertiser is charged every time a user clicks on it. With CPM ads, you are charged a certain amount every time your ad is shown to 1,000 users. There are pros and cons to both types of search ads, so you will need to decide which option is right for you.
Social media ads appear on social media platforms, typically integrating seamlessly with a user’s feed. Paid social media is probably the most popular type of paid ad. Just about every social media platform has paid advertising options now. However, the best-performing platforms for paid social ads are Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Snapchat. Each of these platforms gives you the option to create ads or boost your organic posts. Most platforms also offer sponsored ads. There are certain social media platforms that are a better match for B2B advertisements as opposed to B2C advertisements. For example, LinkedIn tends to work best for B2B brands looking to reach other professionals. TikTok and Snapchat work better for B2C companies.
No advertising method should be done blindly. The following metrics are effective ways to measure how well your paid ads are working for you:
To take your digital marketing efforts to the next level, you need paid advertising. But, it can understandably be overwhelming to get started. 98 Buck Social makes it much easier, as we take care of all of the setup and even come up with the ad creative for you. See how our paid advertising services can benefit your business by checking out our advertising packages here.