There are numerous different services that offer online advertising. These can be very effective way to showcase the business’ product to potential customers. The product can be anything from innovative footwear to videogames. In this blog I will explain why online advertisement is effective, what online advertising services there are currently available and my personal opinion on which advertisement service is the best.
Overview
Online advertisements are much more effective than advertising on billboards and magazines. This is because these ads can be targeted to a specific demographic chosen by the business. Online ads can either by links that will redirect to a specific website when the user clicks on it or a image of the product. There are several online advertisements services, each which has their own advantages and disadvantages.
Google Adwords
Google Adwords is the most popular digital advertisement solution that works on Google’s search engine. The ads can be triggered to be shown to users who search for specific keywords and/or are based in certain regions of a country. When someone clicks on the business’ ad, it will redirect them to a website they specify. Google Adwords will allow businesses to target the ads specifically for their target market.
Advantages:
- Create text and image based advertisements
- Target people that only search for specific keywords and are based in certain regions
- Signing up is free and businesses only get charged when people click on their ads
- Flexible budgeting which allows businesses to adjust their budget at any time without extra charge
- There is no contract so businesses can cancel their account or campaign at any time
Disadvantages:
- Can be complicated to learn the system and understand the bidding and ranking process
Bing Ads
Bing Ads is similar to Google Adwords except that it places ads on Microsoft’s own search engine, Bing, and Yahoo! search engines. Bing and Yahoo! combined have a much smaller audience than Google, but because of that the bidding can be less expensive and save business’ more money.
Advantages:
- Potentially cheaper than Google Adwords
- Currently offering free £50 coupon if business is a new advertiser
- Pay only when someone clicks on their ads
- Covers both Bing and Yahoo! which has over 25% of the search engine market share (comScore)
Disadvantages:
- Not as popular as Google Adwords so the ads will be reaching a smaller audience
- Cannot create image ads
Facebook Advertisement
Facebook Advertising is different compared to Google Adwords and Bing Ads. Instead of redirecting users to a specific website, the ad will redirect users to the business’ or its product’s Facebook Page. The ads are only displayed on Facebook so it will reach a smaller audience compared to Google Adwords and Bing Ads.
There is also no guarantee that a customer will like the Facebook page after clicking on ads. Even if a customer does like their page, it is not guaranteed that they will engage with any content that that the business may post.
With Facebook Ads there is a bigger chance that the target market will see our ads. This is because Facebook allows to create ads that are only shown to people who meet a business’ very specific conditions.
Advantages:
- Pay only when someone clicks on their ads
- More options to target ads (by age, location, sex, workplaces, etc.)
- The ads will usually achieve high impressions (number of views)
Disadvantages:
- Facebook could be the least effective solution
- People who like a page might never engage with its content
- Advertisements are mainly for Likes or Offers
- The ads will most likely have a low click-through rates so at the end of the campaign a business could have potentially paid $2+ per click on their ad
LinkedIn Advertisement
LinkedIn Advertisement allows businesses to create ads that are targeted at specific professionals. The ads are targeted by using specific keywords on a user’s profile. LinkedIn ads can be redirected to external websites, something which a business cannot do with both Facebook and Twitter advertisements. However, LinkedIn is expensive whilst not being so great. Ads on LinkedIn get high number of impressions but the average click-through rate is below 0.02%. This is much lower than other online advertising services.
Advantages:
- Target very specific professionals and businesses
- High impressions with targeted market
Disadvantages:
- Higher cost per click compared to all other advertising platforms
- Minimum daily spend
- Low click-through rate
Twitter Advertisement
Twitter Advertisement has been promoted for ease of use for small businesses. Twitter Advertisement works by creating promoted tweets or accounts. These tweets or accounts can either be followed or retweeted which ensures engagement with the audience. Business cannot redirect users to a specific website unless they place a link on an advertised tweet. However, due to the high number of automated bots on Twitter there is no guarantee that accounts that click on ads are actual people.
Currently, there is no data showing a link between increased sales/services offered by a business with paid/advertised tweets.
Advantages:
- Only pay when someone follows the business’ account, retweets, favorites, replies or clicks on their promoted tweets
- Set a budget so that businesses do not overspend
- Has one of the highest click-through rates out of all advertisement services
- Allows to create advertisements for people who are based in a specific region
Disadvantages:
- Can’t directly link to specific website
- Bots can potentially disrupt the campaign and cost businesses lots of money
My Recommendation
After using some of these services, my personal recommendation is to go with Google Adwords. This is because the number of people an advertisement can reach on Google Adwords compared to other services. As a second choice, I would recommend to use Bing Ads. A business can place advertisements on all major search engines if they choose to go with both Google Adwords and Bing Ads.
The only time I would recommend social media advertisement services is when the business certain that their target market uses social media. Google Adwords and Bing Ads are more effective as there is a near 100% certainty that all target markets use search engines. All online advertisement services will require constant monitoring so that the business can see what keywords are giving them the best conversion rates and what keywords, if any, to exclude.