Types of digital advertising – which is right for your business?
Dipping your toes into digital advertising can be daunting, as there are so many options, platforms and types of ads to choose from. To help you understand your choices, here are the most common types of digital advertising and their benefits.
Display ads
Perhaps the oldest form of digital advertising, display ads appear on third-party sites and come in many different formats, including:
- Banner ads – Probably the most common form of display ads, banner ads usually appear at the top, or on the side of, website pages
- Expandable banners - Ads that automatically expand to partially take over a screen when a user is browsing a webpage
- Rich media – Ads which include interactive elements, such as forms, games, videos and other clickable elements
- Interstitial – A pop-up which takes over a user’s screen, forcing a user to either click on it or close it before they can access the webpage they requested
Display ads are a popular choice due to their affordability. You can either contact the sites you want to appear on directly, or use tools such as the Google Display Network, which allow you to target users by demographic, location, behaviour and more, so your ads will only be shown to relevant audiences.
Social media
With almost three billion users, social media channels can be a cost effective way to advertise your products and services. There are lots of different platforms to choose from, so it’s best to focus on the ones your customers use and the ones your brand has the biggest presence on.
Some of the most popular social media platforms to advertise on include:
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Instagram
- LinkedIn
- Pinterest
- Reddit
Each platform has its pros and cons, so it’s important to do your research before deciding where to invest your money. LinkedIn ads, for example, are great for B2B businesses, but are typically expensive.
The biggest upside of advertising on social media is the wealth of user data available, allowing you to target specific audiences. On Facebook, you can even target people based on important events in their life, such as their wedding day or their first house purchase.
Paid search
Advertising to appear in the search engine results pages (SERPs) is called paid search. It’s a great way to get your product and services to the top of the search results, ahead of your competitors, without having to worry about your SEO. Most paid search ads use a pay-per-click (PPC) model, so the two terms are often used interchangeably.
Paid search ads can appear at the top or bottom of the SERPs and come in two distinct forms:
- Text ads – Designed to blend in with the organic (non-paid) search results with a small ‘ad’ logo next to them
- Product Listing Ads – Also known as Google Shopping Ads, these appear at the top of the SERPs when users are searching for a product
Paid search ads are targeted by location and keywords; the keywords you want to target should be based on what you expect your audience to type into a search engine when they’re looking for your product. If you sell gardening products, for example, you may want to appear in searches for the keywords ‘gardening tools’ or ‘potted plants’.
This type of digital advertising can be an extremely effective way to get more traffic, and conversions, on your website, but it’s also complicated, so you’ll probably need a PPC expert or agency to help you manage and run your paid search campaigns.
Native advertising
While most ads are made to stand out, the exact opposite is true for native ads. Sponsored blogs, videos and articles all fall under the umbrella of native advertising – branded content that’s created to blend in with the rest of the content on whatever third-party site it’s hosted on.
Native advertising is popular because it’s unobtrusive and therefore may be more likely to engage your target audience. It’s great for brand awareness, but because it’s not designed to explicitly advertise your products and services, it’s unlikely to immediately convert readers into customers.
Video advertising
Videos ads typically appear at the start, end or even middle of videos hosted across a variety of channels, most notably YouTube. If you have the resources to create video ads, this is an excellent, and very cost-effective way of getting your products and services in front of a lot of potential customers.
The downside? In most cases the ads can be skipped, meaning you only have a few seconds to make a real impact. Check out this HubSpot article for some great examples.
Remarketing
Sometimes referred to as ‘retargeting’, remarketing is when you show ads to people who have either:
- Visited your website
- Visited a competitor’s website
Remarketing is about as targeted as you can get, as you’re showing relevant ads to people you know are interested in the services and products you have to offer. You could even show them an ad which features some of the products they were browsing on your site, so they have a constant reminder of what they were considering buying.
You can set up remarketing ads on your favourite social media platforms, or through Google Ads if you want them to appear on third-party sites instead.
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