Are you curious how most of your friends in the Facebook list have flourishing online businesses? The key to this is knowing the best digital advertising platforms that suit your business.
The idea of both traditional and online advertising is the same — to personalize their marketing strategies for the target customers and pursue them for consistent conversion & sales. But only digital advertising gives sales from the first day.
Digital Advertising
Don’t cudgel your brains thinking what digital advertising is! With the advent of the internet, businesses have gone online. So, what do you do? Do you stop advertising to save money? No. You place online ads for drawing attention of potential buyers. This is digital advertising!
Digital advertising is a huge success because of digital advertising platforms. These ad platforms have made digital advertising a reality in serving hyper-relevant ads to the target audience at an appropriate time.
There are different channels where you can place online ads. All these channels are digital advertising platforms.
TRPs of mainstream media are falling because there’s no two-way communication. But digital advertising has several two-way communication channels where you and your customers can interact.
Social media advertising and paid ads are the two most important channels where you can reach your target audience and cater personalized online content for conversion and ROIs.
The question is how to blend the above advertising options to accomplish our digital marketing goals. We’ll cover these platforms in detail now.
Web Advertising Platforms
Web advertising platforms are divided in two parts. Social media ad platforms and search engine ad platforms.
9 Advertising platforms list
Facebook advertising
Instagram advertising
Twitter advertising
LinkedIn advertising
Pinterest advertising
Snapchat advertising
Tiktok advertising
Google ads
Bing ads
Social media platforms
81% of Americans have at least one social media profile. And more than 50% of them have two or more. This conveys that your potential buyers are wandering on social media advertising platforms and these ad platforms are necessary for targeting these buyers.
You need social media advertisements for quick ROIs:
Reason #1 Most channels like content marketing on websites and apps, take time. Because you need to invest a fair amount in earning backlinks.
Reason #2 Other channels for example influencer marketing can get you sales, but not regularly. In fact, the buzz around your product or service fades with time. Re-posting doesn’t reap the same results either.
Reason #3 Channels like AdWords are great at producing consistent results, but they take expertise, learning, and patience to deal with it. It can get very time consuming when you want to launch your online marketing campaigns at the word go.
With social media advertising by your side, you can start grabbing sales immediately. Now the question is— which social media advertising platforms should you choose?
Pick the ones that are lingering for a long time! Work on these seven most important social media advertising platforms to launch your marketing strategy in 2021 and give your brand a much-needed social-visibility:
Digital advertising platforms #1: Facebook Advertising
Facebook has more than 2.45 billion active users who show up every month. You can use Facebook data at any stage of your business. Whether you’re into product conception or launching a product, you’ve access to plenty of information on Facebook to flourish.
But how do you filter the 2.2 billion Facebook audience? Well, ad platforms, for example Facebook does magic by catering marketing campaigns to the segmented audience.
Facebook’s lookalike audience feature breaks your audience into different segments such as demography, technography, geography, etc. You can then concentrate your ads on these people and get them rolling to your website.
Additionally, how do you make sure that your ads are reaching the segmented audience?’ You could do this by marketing your business page with Facebook Advertising.
When do you want Facebook the most:
You want Facbook advertising platforms when you’re looking to access the list of email addresses at low cost and make the most targeted niche, ad platforms like Facebook are effective.
When you should avoid Facebook:
When you don’t have enough social media advertising budget, second, when your business violates Facebook’s ad guidelines (tobacco), ad platforms like Facebook are not the best fit.
To learn more on Facebook advertising nuances, read all the crucial tips to consider while running facebook ads. You’d also want to avoid Facebook ad mistakes when you’re running a digital advertising campaign.
Digital advertising platforms #2: Instagram Advertising
Instagram, the photo-sharing platform, gave a potential threat to Facebook, as people kept migrating their attention to it and thus was bought by Facebook.
Instagram touched 1 billion active user-base in 2018, of which 500 million actively engage every day. Because the platform is visually appealing and engages more attention than multi-content strategic advertising platforms like Facebook.
According to research its engagement rate is 58% higher than Facebook and 2000% higher than Twitter. It means that for one like that you get on a Facebook post, you get 58 likes on Twitter and 2000 on Instagram.
Instagram, like Facebook, allows you to segment your niche audience and analyze your online marketing campaigns with reports. However, Instagram has several features that also let you enjoy organic benefits subject to payment.
You have to spend on paid Facebook campaigns to reach a larger audience group, but ad platforms like Instagram allows you to market your brand organically, with engaging content and features, thus making it more popular than Facebook posts. Therefore, Instagram digital marketing has a huge potential in boosting your business.
When do you want Instagram the most:
You want instagram advertising platform when you want to work on brand awareness, Instagram’s organic promotions are the best platform to advertise.
When to avoid Instagram advertising:
Avoid this advertising platform if you’re not up to using customer images of real people.
Digital advertising platforms #3: Twitter Advertising
People associate Twitter with wit, short, and crispy copies. A hub of ‘breaking news.’ But the old social media giant has opened a huge advertising door with multimedia posting. It has about 336 million active users in a month.
Should you want to engage potential customers and work on direct feedback, Twitter is the place. Its advertising model is quite different from Facebook. Unlike Facebook, you still have a great chance of reaching a vast majority of the audience with organic publishing.
By using trending hashtags like Instagram and leveraging your bet on organic sharing features like retweet— you can reach your desired audience. Pretty much like Instagram, your marketing strategies have enough power to reach a niche group through influencers.
Brands need not necessarily pay to voice your brand to a relevant audience, making Twitter paid to advertise even more viable and useful. Although Twitter hasn’t been utilized to the fullest for advertising campaigns, you can set up interesting numbers with promoted accounts, promoted tweets, and promoted trends.
For example, if someone is tweeting about a specific problem and you happen to know how to resolve it, you simply have to go to the hashtags and make new customers at ease.
When do you want Twitter the most:
If you’re willing to spend 100$ on Twitter promote mode, this ad platform will automatically display your copies and tweets to the most relevant audience. Good for organic visibility too!
When to avoid Twitter advertising:
Don’t spend your time on Twitter if you don’t have target products or lead magnets. Avoid advertising platforms like this if you can’t think of a concise marketing strategy.
Digital advertising platforms #4: LinkedIn Advertising
Of all the social media advertising platforms, LinkedIn is a powerful digital ad platform for B2B models. If you happen to have one, LinkedIn is where you want to invest your time. It has close to 300 million monthly active users.
Most of the customers view LinkedIn as a social media marketing platform for business. Hence, you can expect people to be more serious about the information they post.
You can get vital resources like email addresses, hobbies, interests, jobs, etc. to build your other marketing strategy like content and email marketing. Another plus of LinkedIn social profiles is that you’ve data for gap analysis. The platform offers great ways to look at how your competitors are marketing and interacting with the customers.
One of the studies reveals that over 3/4th of LinkedIn professionals make over $50,000 a year! That opens up an opportunity if you’re looking to get quality leads in your industry.
Although LinkedIn advertising is not as advanced as Facebook, the platform surely gives high ROIs. You can set up a LinkedIn advertising campaign with sponsored content, InMails, and Text Ads.
When do you want LinkedIn the most:
LinkedIn advertising is beneficial for businesses that revolve around high-end B2B products & services.
When to avoid LinkedIn advertising:
Avoid digital advertising platforms like Linkedin if you’re not interested in solving professional problems.
Digital advertising platforms #5: Pinterest Advertising
Creativity and Pinterest walk hand-in-hand. With an active monthly user-base of 291 million, if your business falls in the creative line— you need this digital ad platform.
For example Instagram is a photo-sharing media but is strongly regarded for eCommerce sales. Its users rely on highly-customized visuals of the industry, and users specifically trod to purchase unique and out-of-the-league products.
This ad platform allows paid advertising through promoted pins. You can target any demography or location to reach your targeted buyers. You can also find customers who may show interest in your business.
Though its advertising might look Juvenile against Facebook or Instagram advertising platforms, it effectively allows you to run specific campaigns with budget-constraints. One of the studies revealed that 87% of its users purchase customized products from the platform.
You can exploit these numbers to pin customized boards and run your campaign effectively. Its cost per click model puts it in the same ballpark as other advertising platforms.
When do you want Pinterest the most:
Use this advertising platform to grab eyeballs and attract millennial-women who are interested in your product.
When to avoid Pinterest advertising:
If you can’t blend creativity and solve problems simultaneously, then try other visual advertising platforms like Instagram.
Digital advertising platforms #6: Snapchat Advertising
The newest of the lot, Snapchat, has emerged as an advertising force in the industry. With over 350 million monthly active users, it’s a viable ad platform with hyper-active user-base.
If your product or service targets the younger generation, Snapchat advertisement is the goto digital advertising platform. More than half the user-base age is between 18 to 24 years. And 75% of the users are below 34. The platform allows your business to publish advertisements for a day in a segmented group.
Like Instagram, the platform posts have to include either photo or video, hence making the platform a great fit for visual consumption.
But the biggest deal-breaker is its pricing. Snapchat advertising is quite expensive, which includes snap ads. Snap ads are small, interactive mobile video ads that can consume up to 1000 to 3000$ a month.
With augmented reality, a key feature of Snapchat, it also allows you to run your ads through sponsored lenses. But these lenses cost between $4,50,000 to $7,00,000. And the same goes for the Snapchat discover feature.
As the social network runs more than 10 million videos a day, are you interested in buying ad space on this platform?
When do you want Snapchat the most:
Snapchat Ad Manager is as strong as Facebook ad manager— the platform offers plenty of features to create, edit, and cater ad campaigns. Go for it when your product or service is in alignment with the demography of the user-base.
When to avoid Snapchat advertising:
If you don’t have money to hire a professional Snapchat advertising agency, then there are two possibilities: you either avoid it or run your social ads by yourself.
Digital advertising platforms #7: TikTok Advertising
TikTok is the fastest growing social network on this planet. In less than two years, it has more than 1.2 billion users globally. The app is a quick way of creating and posting 15 seconds videos.
Its usability and ease-of-content creation have attracted a not-so-technical audience too! Anyone can become a content creator within a snap of a finger. Thus, TikTok is a ballpark of advertising for businesses.
Though the ad platform is relatively in its infant phase with its advertising model, it uses similar features as those of Snapchat’s sponsored lenses. Tiktok calls it a branded effect. You can use the feature to target a specific niche audience and let them interact with your brand in a fun way.
Another obvious way to market your campaign is through influencers. Influencers have religious imprints on people. You must have seen them making live stream videos and interacting with their niche audience. There’s one stat that you need to know about TikTok. It comprises 60% of gen Z— the generation born after 1996. This is why if you plan to market yourself on TikTok or any social media, we would recommend going live stream. You’d want to read why going live stream is one of the good ways to advertise not only your brand but credibility.
Gen Z has a high propensity to be expressive and has high digital nativism. Your business can use their awareness and diversity to target young gen and get the most out of your campaign.
When do you want TikTok the most:
Tiktok marketing hasn’t been established yet, but you’d want it when you need high engagement rates and viral content. That’s good for brand awareness and customer acquisition.
When to avoid TikTok advertising:
TikTok’s users are relatively young. They may not want to spend on your products or services because they might not be the ultimate decision-makers. Avoid it if you’re looking to get high sales.
Paid Web Advertising Platforms (Search ads)
Google search engine processes more than 3.5 billion searches every day! That means it answers 2.3 million queries every second. Since people use search engines to solve the slightest of their queries, you can use their Google ads as an opportunity to market your brand.
You might ask why paid ads, when SEO services exist. Well, organic search is brilliant, but it’s slow. It becomes impossible to spread the words of marketing campaigns as when you want. And if you have a small business, it’s vital that you reach your targeted audience rather than spend your resources on the non-relevant ones.
Here’s why your business needs paid ads for search engines:
Reason #1: Paid advertising reaches the most relevant buyers wherever they are. Pay-per-click advertisements on search networks help you market your brand on the first two links that get the most clicks.
Reason #2: Search engines have a lot of customer data. You can use these data to project your brand to the relevant prospect. This makes your targeted campaign very effective. So, you get to target your ads very effectively.
Reason #3: You have the backup of powerful analytics and monitoring tools. Search engine networks let you make evidence-based decisions.
Unlike social media, search engines are consistent and they don’t seem to go out of the business. Again, in 2021, Google and Bing continue to dominate the search engine marketing network. Now, let’s check Paid and Google ads:
- Google search ads
- Bing search ads
Paid digital advertising platforms #1: Google search ads
Most of the google search results have Google ads. Paid Google ads streamlines your targeting options by driving extremely relevant traffic to your website, especially when visitors look for a specific service or product.
The Google search engine promotes paid ads above organic searches in the search results page. It is a way of sponsoring your content on Google. You can also use Google AdSense and Display Network to attract potential buyers to your store.
Google Display Network has third-party websites that have partnered with Google and have agreed to promote Google ads. Or another way of advertising your content is to use Google AdSense, where you’ll have selected areas on the website.
You must be thinking about how it works. Well, sponsored content works on an auction procedure that revolves around quality keywords. You need to pick relevant keywords and promote your campaign around it. The ad network will check your quality score and competitor ad rank to have you approved in a day.
Google will check these factors to approve you if your
- google ad is relevant to the search query
- landing page is relevant to the ad
- google keyword is relevant to your targeted group
- overall historical account performance is good
When do you want Paid Google search ads the most:
You want paid google ads when you want to fine-tune the customers and need clicks from the users looking to convert.
When to avoid paid google advertising:
Google search ads can get expensive if you’re not monitoring your performance and improvising your strategy. Avoid google search ads if you don’t have hands-on data analysis.
Paid digital advertising platforms ads #2: Microsoft advertisement (Bing ads)
Bing controls 36% of the US desktop search market. Not as big as Google, but you can’t keep Bing out of the market. In fact, you can get a good target audience.
Like Google ads, Bing ads are auction-centric that operate around keywords. If you’ve planned to run your ads on Bing, you have to create bids around these special keywords.
On successfully winning the bid, you can present your marketing campaign for the particular keyword when a user searches. Akin to Google’s Pay Per Click model, you need to pay per click when a user clicks on your link and gets into your website. Even though users may click by mistake, you mustn’t push aside unwanted clicks just because you’ve to pay for them. And that comes with a strong marketing copy!
When do you want Paid Bing ads the most:
You want Paid Bing ads when you wish to attend the unaddressed searchers out of Google and Baidu. Technically, you’re never paying for your ads to appear. You pay only when a visitor clicks. So, Bing can get you useful conversions in a relatively smaller user-base.
When to avoid paid Bing Ads:
If you have a limited budget and have to choose among Google, Microsoft and Bing ads then avoid paid Bing ads.
Bonus footnote: Even chat messengers like WhatsApp and Facebook have gotten into the advertising. You’d want to exploit their digital games appropriately. Check out more digital marketing trends to make sure you don’t miss on any advertising platform that has gone berserk.
Final Thoughts On Digital Advertising Platforms
Although it’s a good idea to market your brand across effective multi-channels, not all advertising platforms will get you the expected results. If the budget permits, pre-researching the most relevant channel will give the best out of your marketing campaign.
You can run digital advertising campaigns in three ways:
- Run your marketing strategy manually.
- Run your marketing campaign using automated-software.
- Consult & hire experts in online advertising.
If you’re good with the first two steps, good luck launching your campaigns. If you aren’t— contact Huptech Web for executing informed marketing strategies.
You might also be interested in reading
- Heatmap— the analysis tool to check if your advertising efforts are getting you clicks
- Level up your marketing game— because advertising and marketing together get you sales
- Digital marketing KPIs— measure your advertising campaigns
For more interesting blogs, keep following us on Huptechweb.
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Very informative blog though……loved it…..!!!!!
excellent article. I really like that you were so thorough with each explanation of each platform and more effectively when your profile doesn’t meet the needs of that platform’s audience. Spot on.