Four do’s and a don’t for digital advertising
Digital advertising. You’ve seen it everywhere you go online. All those text ads, banner ads, ads that look like content, or ads that run before videos play. You’ve thought about how it might fit into your marketing media mix. But so far, you’ve had more questions than answers. The sheer number of channels and formats can be pretty intimidating. We can help. For starters, here are some basic best practices you should consider when you’re ready to put your toes into the waters of digital advertising.
- Don’t go it alone. Historically, we prefer not to appear self-serving with the content we provide in Villing Views. Pardon us for making an exception today. The fact is digital advertising is complex, the learning curve is steep and there’s something to be said for knowing one’s limitations. Digital advertising isn’t inherently expensive, but without the proper knowledge, it can be. There are marketplaces to manage, campaigns to optimize, minimum buys to meet, multiple User Interfaces (UIs) to learn, and strategies to understand; but the list doesn’t stop there. Handling all that in-house is a tall order, even with an expert or two on staff. You may find it less expensive and a better use of your resources to seek a knowledgeable digital advertising partner.
- Do your planning early. Once you’ve selected a partner, be sure to make them a part of your campaign as early as possible. Waiting until the last minute is a recipe for disaster in digital advertising. The earlier you have all your ducks in a row, the better your chances are for campaign success. A sound digital advertising program involves more than implementation and optimization. You need a solid strategy and a clear understanding of objectives. Apart from the upside of strategy building, there is also the incredible benefit of early tracking placement to begin building audience segments before the campaign starts. High-performing strategies like retargeting need clearly identified audience segments to deliver results.
- Do use retargeting. Now that your tracking is in place and your audience is building, you can put them to use. Refine your audience segments, identifying the customers that have visited your site, visited a certain page, filled out a form, or any number of other actions. Once you’ve found them, get your campaign in front of them on other sites across the web. That’s called retargeting. Retargeted leads convert at a much higher rate than untargeted leads. Retargeting keeps your business top-of-mind to customers and helps remind them to come back when they are ready to do business. Nearly every campaign can benefit from a retargeting strategy.
- Do plan to change ads every three to six months. Avoid ad fatigue by changing your creative elements on a regular basis. Ad fatigue occurs when customers have seen the same ad time and again - and when this happens, the ad loses effectiveness. Combat fatigue by changing things up with a new message, new imagery, or a new call to action. You can even mix animated and static ads for more impact - just remember to keep it fresh.
- Do use a landing page. When a customer clicks on your ad, they should go to a landing page that delivers on the promise made on that ad. For instance, if your ad’s call to action is “Sign Up Now,” the landing page should let them sign up immediately - not take another step, not click again, but sign up, right then and there. That’s called message match; it feels more comfortable for the user and builds trust. A landing page will help your customer focus on the task at hand. Use of landing pages vastly improves tracking by funneling visitors to a single location, and refines your audience by including or excluding visitors based on actions they take. If you take nothing else from this article, at least use a dedicated landing page for each and every campaign.
This blog post is a joint production of Villing & Company and our digital advertising partner, Adtegrity.
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