Understand when best to use online advertising. Advertising, whether online or offline, has a number of objectives:
Building Brand Awareness:
Making people aware of a brand or product is an important long-term goal for any marketer. Once customers know about the brand, the marketer has taken the first step toward gaining the customer’s trust and patronage. The better known a brand is, the more business it can do. And the ultimate goal is to do more business and sell more of the product. Online, creative advertising or banner advertising is largely visual, making it an ideal channel for promoting brand collateral.
Creating Consumer Demand
Consumers can’t want what they don’t know Advertising needs to convince consumers about what they should want and why they should want it. Modern online advertising provides a great way to communicate the USPs (unique selling points) of a product, thereby helping stimulate demand.
Satisfying Consumer Demand:
Once the consumer is aware of and desires a product, they need to find out how to satisfy that desire. If brand building has been effective, they will know that a particular brand exists. At this point, it is important for the marketer to show the consumer how their particular brand or product will best meet that need.
Driving Response and Sales:
All forms of online marketing need to drive traffic and sales in the long term. However, the immediacy of online advertising also drives traffic and sales in the short and medium terms. Unlike traditional media advertising, online advertising can turn the potential customer into an actual customer right there and then. What’s more, it is possible to measure accurately how effectively the online advertising campaign does this.
The Key Differentiator:
Online advertising is able to drive instant sales and Unlike offline advertising mediums, the consumer can go from advertisement to merchant in one easy click. Because of the connected nature of the Internet, online activities are highly trackable and measurable, which makes it possible to target advertisements and to accurately track and gauge the effectiveness of the advertising. Each display advertisement can be tracked for success.
Introducing a New Product to the Market:
Online advertising is an important strategy when a new product or brand is launched, however, this should often be after the launch of an online public relations campaign which includes press releases, blogs, news sites and other tactics to gain wide media coverage. Advertising before the launch of an online PR is not advisable because it loses its newsworthiness and media outlets are unlikely to accept it. Some online channels to use to announce your new product are display ads on networks like the Google Display Network (GDN), Search advertising, organic search, email marketing and others.
Explain how a Product Works:
Advertising can help to explain the uses of a product and in what setting it is to be used. It’s often easier with video advertising which can include animation, motion, text, graphics and many other elements. It is also effective at showing the product in use and even talking heads are great for explaining how it works.
Reduce Buyer Fear:
Video advertising is also helpful here after a purchase to reduce fear that the customer has bought the wrong product and to explain how they can use it. Buyer remorse is a major problem especially for high-ticket items that require a high financial outlay, so it’s important to allay their fears and convince them that they have made the right purchase.
Build Company Image:
Many online channels are effective at building a company’s image but social media is one of the best and using advertising tools on sites like Facebook you can reach out to new, existing and non-existent customers. This is about raising brand awareness and reinforcing the company’s image at all touchpoints with the target market. Social media is helpful because the company can interact with followers and build a relationship outside of its own portals.
Build Brand Preference:
There are many brands in the online space that are vying for customers’ attention and it’s important to highlight brand attributes and values and create a competitive advantage for your brand. Using advertising vehicles like PPC advertising, display advertising, social media paid advertising and others, your brand can promote its unique online value proposition and increase click through rate, conversions and brand recall.
Inform Market of an Offer:
If you have a sales promotion and want to inform the market through online advertising, you can use text and display ads on search and display So you can include a money-off offer, a coupon or voucher, category discount and many others and these are effective at boosting CTRs for ads and also conversions.
Encourage Switching to Your Brand:
Comparative advertising is common online especially on PPC platforms like Google Adwords. So, you can bid on competitor brand names and then display ads that highlight your unique offers and how your products have a competitive advantage. Of course many competitors will be doing the same so it’s important that you bid on your own brand names too.
Maintain Top Of Mind Awareness:
Remarketing is an online advertising vehicle that works well for a wide range of brands and companies that want to raise brand awareness, increase sales or leads, increase brand recall and be top of mind. Google Adwords, Analytics and Facebook provide remarketing features and resources to target people that are aware of your brand and then bring them back to your website and purchase from your business.
Remind Buyer of the Product or Brand:
This marketing objective is similar to top of mind awareness and using remarketing and pay per click advertising; it is possible to effectively remind target customers of your products or brands. The benefit is that it is affordable and you only pay for clicks to your website, unlike traditional advertising vehicles were you pay even if there is no customer interaction or response.