A Simple Guide To Online Advertising for Startups

As a startup, online advertising is one of the most powerful weapons in your arsenal. You can use them to conduct laser sharp ad campaigns that tap into your key demographic. Online adverts can quickly improve your brand recognition and web presence.

They can also lead to direct sales and, in many cases, provide an instant return on investment (ROI). However, it’s not always a simple process, especially for the beginner. In this post, we’ll show you the basics and help you get started.

Paid search

If you run a quick search on Google, you’ll notice that the top three results have a small, yellow ‘ad’ sign. These results have been paid for by their respective sellers. You can tap into this lucrative market by placing your own adverts. You can literally buy your way to the top of Google. In order for this to be effective, you’ll need to define and hone your keywords. Use Google’s keyword planner to target the most popular search terms in your sector. Then use Google Adwords to set up your next campaign.

Social Adverts

Facebook and Twitter now both offer promotional campaigning and adverts. We’ve found that Facebook’s advert system is particularly useful. It gives you the ability to target your audience with fantastic precision. You can choose your audience right down to their likes and dislikes. You can serve adverts only to those in certain cities or countries, and you can target by demographic information. Again, take the time to research your ideal customers, and then go after them! With Facebook ads, you can set a budgetary limit and monitor your campaigns in real time.

Retargeting

Retargeting is a brilliant feature that has never been possible with traditional advertising. It is the ability to serve adverts to those who have already shown interest in your product. For example, your website uses cookies to track who visits your site. You can use those cookies to serve adverts to people who’ve shown a liking. It will remind them who you are and strengthen your brand identity.

YouTube

YouTube remains an untapped resource for modern marketers and startups. We still speak to startups that fail to take advantage of the social media platform. Using pre-roll video adverts has proven incredibly powerful. They are not particularly intrusive, and they can be set up on your Google Adwords account. It’s a great way to use visual media to capture people’s attention.

Display adverts

Display ads are those you see on almost every website on the internet. They are banner adverts or ‘skyscrapers’ that prop up most content-based websites. You can use an external company to set these up on relevant websites for you. You can even use PPC management to monitor all your adverts at once. Display adverts usually charge in two ways. The first is ‘pay-per-click’, where you only pay when a customer clicks on your advert. The second is ‘cost-per-mille’; this is the cost per thousand impressions of your advert. Experiment and see which works best for you.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our quick guide to online advertising. Start with a small budget and start experimenting!

photo source