Where You Should
Have Ads Online
Find the online advertising plan that's right for your business
Introduction
These days, we’re surrounded by advertising messages. Everywhere we look,
something is sponsored by a brand trying to get their name out there. So how are
you supposed to get your business noticed?
For local businesses especially, it may seem an impossible task when you start to
examine all the possible places to advertise your business online. Luckily, we’re here
to guide you through this crowded (and often confusing) space.
No matter your marketing budget or how you decide to spend it, it's a smart move to
put some of that budget towards online advertising. That’s because, if done properly,
online ads are targeted toward the ideal audience for your business, and that
audience is (hopefully!) ready to purchase. With that goal in mind, let’s come up with
the online advertising plan that’s right for your business.
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A look back
Moving from print to digital
Advertising is so ingrained into our everyday existence that most of us don’t take a
second to step back and think about where it all began — or how far it’s come.
Take a look back at the humble beginnings of advertising and the path it's taken since
then to better understand where we're headed — and where there's still room for
you to take advantage.
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A Brief History of Advertising
1647
First newspaper ad
1835
The first billboard appears in New York
to advertise a circus
1922
Radio ads begin
1886
First official Yellow Pages directory
launches in Chicago
1941
First TV commercial
1994
First banner ads
All of these forms of advertising had one thing in common;
they were all seeking to place ads in front of consumers
where those consumers spent time. What’s changed has
been consumer behavior — driven by technology and the
rise of new forms of media. It started with print, then radio
and TV, and now it’s the internet in its many forms.
1995
Pop-ups start...popping up
1997
First mobile ad is launched
2006
Video and viral marketing
(YouTube and Twitter) take off
2000
Google introduces AdWords
2007
Facebook unveils Facebook Ads
2013
Sponsored posts start appearing
on Instagram
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Overview
Now that we've taken a look at where advertising has been, let's take a closer look at
where we are today.
First, let's address some of the basics. “Digital advertising” is purchasing ad
space for your business somewhere on the internet. That could mean Google
ads, social media, or space on other websites. Unlike traditional advertising though,
digital advertising is highly targeted, measurable, and affordable.
Several channels are available for advertisers to place ads and each channel supports
different types of digital media and placement options for catching the eyes of
potential customers. In short, businesses have a lot to consider when it comes to
where they want to advertise their business.
To try and simplify it a bit, we'll be focusing on the "big three," Search,
Social, and Display Advertising:
Search Advertising: The ads that appear when customers
are Searching for a product or service, usually on Google,
Bing, or Yahoo.
Social Advertising: The ads that appear when customers
are Socializing on their favorite networks, like Facebook
and Instagram.
Display Advertising: The ads that appear when customers
are Surfing on their most-visited websites.
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Search Advertising
Overview
Whether you realize it or not, you’re familiar with search ads. With the presence of
Google, Bing, and Yahoo everywhere, it’s little wonder that search ads have become
the most common form of paid advertising. In simple terms, search ads allow
advertisers to bid on keywords relevant to their product or service. Then
every time a user searches for that keyword, the search engine analyzes the different
bids from each advertiser and determines which ads “win” and can be shown at the
top of search engine results.
Advertising this way is especially smart and effective because it places your ad in front
of an audience when they're actively searching for a product, service, or information.
When a search ad is delivered, the viewer is already hyper-focused on the topic of the
search and there's a much higher likelihood that you’ll be able to convert these leads
into actual sales. These types of ads are also very simple and straightforward in their
design — usually just a set amount of text — making them easier to integrate into
your marketing strategy.
Paid search ads aren’t the only way for your business to appear as a search result.
Search result pages have spaces for both paid and organic results. Paid results are
the ones where ads appear (based on the auction mentioned above). Organic results
are the ones the search engine places based on how relevant it thinks they are to the
search. Optimizing your website to show up earlier in those organic results is called
“Search Engine Optimization” or “SEO.” However, getting to the top of results pages
with SEO alone can take a while, so to speed up that process, many businesses
smartly focus part of their digital strategy towards paid search ads.
Hibu | Where You Should Have Ads Online
Advantages
Extremely Targeted
There are a variety of ad-targeting tools available that allow for very granular
targeting, such as targeting by location, device, language, time of day, and even
previous web visits. Perhaps most importantly, you can target based on the specific
products or services you most want to promote — i.e. the ones most profitable for
your business, or where demand is lagging. You can also select negative keywords if
you have specific terms you think shouldn’t trigger your ad.
Setting up the right targeting, including keywords and negative keywords, can be
tricky — but it’s well worth the time investment. This combination of targeting
features available with search advertising makes it possible for you to reach a very
selective audience to match your business objectives.
Qualified Leads
A search advertising campaign, done effectively, boosts traffic to your website and
drives higher conversions. This is because the customers are coming to your site just
as they’re seeking out the specific product or service you provide. Search ad
campaigns generally drive higher conversion rates (the rate at which people take
action on your site by calling, emailing, or messaging you) than other types of ads
because of the qualified leads they generate.
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Hibu | Where You Should Have Ads Online
By many measures, the most popular paid search platform used today is Google Ads,
followed by Bing Ads, which also serves a significant portion of ads on Yahoo. Do a
search on any of those search engines, and you can see individual search ads appear
on the top of the results page. You may notice that some of these ads take up more
space and have more information displayed. These additional fields are called
“Extensions”, and there are quite a few of them (like Location Extensions, Sitelink
Extensions, Call Extensions, and Structured Snippets). Using these can yield better
click-through rates and results from your ad. You’ll want to set up all of the
Extensions that are relevant to your business.
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Types of Search Ads
Hibu | Where You Should Have Ads Online
A great search ad has compelling copy and an engaging headline. And with the recent
move away from Expanded Text Ads on Google, in favor of Responsive Search Ads,
advertisers’ ads also qualify for more auctions and see an average of 20% more
conversions at a similar cost per conversion, per Google internal data.
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Here are five rules to follow in writing search ads:
Use clear, easy to understand language
Don’t be afraid to use intense language to create a sense of urgency
Focus on keywords and the intent behind them
Have a compelling offer and call-to-action (CTA)
Don’t go overboard with abbreviations and shortened phrases
1.
2.
3.
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5.
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Social Advertising
Overview
Advertising works best when you can be everywhere your buyers are. And with
so many people on some form of social media, choosing to add social advertising to
your marketing plan can be an effective way to put your business in front of a
massive audience.
Social ads are the fastest growing segment of paid advertising, thanks largely to the
growing popularity of different social media platforms among internet users. Many
social media sites, such as Facebook, X, and Instagram, are programmed to be able to
target specific audiences based on a large range of targeting criteria
including, location, age group, gender, hobbies, and interests.
With such advanced targeting capabilities, if you have the right expertise you can
fine-tune your targeting to reach a very specific, very high-quality audience — getting
your message to your intended audience quickly and effectively.
Advantages
Reach
Advertising on social media means being able to get your ads in front of a lot of
people. Simply put, social media is where most of your ideal customers are spending
their time so you need to be there too. Being able to get your message out to so
many people also has the added benefit of giving you a lot more opportunities to
convert those leads into customers.
Hibu | Where You Should Have Ads Online
Targeting Capabilities
Audience targeting allows businesses to get the message out about their business to
the users who are most likely to be interested in their service or product. Since they
started allowing ads, the social media networks have incorporated more and more
audience attributes into their targeting options. For example, you can target based
on location, demographics (age, gender, etc.), and interests. The possibilities are
nearly endless.
Because social advertising allows for intricate and advanced ad targeting,
businesses are often tempted to go overboard in their targeting strategy.
This can be overly complex, time consuming, and can easily create missed
opportunities. Fortunately, the social ad networks generally have good internal
algorithms for matching ads with the most relevant users, so you can often rely on
their built-in optimizations.
Powerful Pixels
In a nutshell, social pixels are pieces of code that can be placed on your website.
They collect data about what visitors to your website do, and that data helps you
track conversions, optimize ads, build targeted audiences for future ads, and
remarket to people who have already taken some kind of action on your website.
These pixels are how, for example, you often see an ad on Facebook for a website
you recently visited.
Pixel data helps ensure your ads are seen by the people who are most likely to take
your desired action, allowing you to reduce your ad costs, improve your ad
effectiveness and conversion rate, and get a better ROI.
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You can choose from many social media platforms to advertise on, but if your main
goal is working on the biggest network with the most robust targeting options, then
Facebook (and their sister company, Instagram) should be high on your list. With
more ways to advertise than ever, you'll be sure to find an ad type that not only
resonates with your audience but also drives results:
Story AdImage Ad Video Ad
Spotlight on Facebook
Hibu | Where You Should Have Ads Online
The key to advertising success on Facebook is to strike a balance between offering
content that is valuable to your business, like offers or product/service
announcements, and offering content that your audience would want to share across
the network, like blog posts orother pieces of content you produce.
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Facebook Advertising Power Tips:
Focus on building ad creative that’s both personal and compelling.
When in doubt, talk about your unique selling proposition — what
makes your business different and why people should choose you.
Don’t overthink your targeting. As much as possible, utilize
Facebook’s built-in targeting algorithms for the biggest impact.
Don’t count on just your ads to drive business growth. Keep doing
the things you need to do to keep current customers engaged and
satisfied too — post about interesting things, respond to consumer
feedback, and try to get consumers to post positive reviews
or recommendations.
Always test your ads and content on each platform and be
prepared to make changes over time to get the best results.
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2.
3.
4.
5.
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Display Advertising
Overview
Display advertising comes in a variety of different forms, but at its core, it revolves
around the same principle — graphic or video ads appearing on the top, on the side,
and in the middle of web content on almost every website.
Plus, display ads can have enormous reach, since nearly every online consumer is
visiting the websites and apps that are reachable by the big ad networks. With the
right budget and targeting, you can get your name and message out very broadly in
your local market.
A few years ago, much of this huge audience was out of reach of local businesses,
because websites for the biggest brands like The New York Times and CNN couldn’t
afford to sell to lots of smaller-budget local business advertisers...but times have
changed with the advent of what’s called “programmatic” ad buying. With
programmatic display, big websites put their ad space into an auction, and
computers determine what ads to show and when (much like the search ad auction).
Now, smaller advertisers can opt to work with an agency that can offer
programmatic buying for them, and they can reach consumers on large,
premium sites and apps.
Display advertising is an excellent way to build brand awareness and get clicks,
conversions, and sales from users who might not have an immediate interest in your
business, but have found your display ad to be relevant to the solution they've been
looking for. In a sense, display advertising creates demand — a perfect complement
to search advertising, which responds to existing demand. In fact, what often
happens is that a consumer sees a display ad, and then does a Google or Bing search
for the business to find out more.
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Advantages
Brand Awareness
Display ads are great for driving brand awareness. For example, if a customer is on a
website for vegetarian recipes, a display ad that may show up would be an
advertisement for a health food store. The customer may not have been aware of this
store before seeing the ad, but now the ad is driving awareness.
One advantage of programmatic display is that this kind of targeting is automated —
the computers running the campaign can find, test and focus on different consumer
audiences across different sites. That ad for the health food store may show up not
just on the recipe site, but also to visitors on other sites who have previously shown
interest in cooking or healthy eating.
Retargeting
Let’s say a user has visited your website but hasn’t converted. Display ads give you
the opportunity to pull those users back in with retargeting. Your display ad reminds
the user about your brand — improving the chance of them converting. This requires
putting a pixel on your site (see the Social section), so that your display ad network
can detect when a consumer visits your site.
High Volume
Display ads may promote your brand to the right people, but they also have high
visibility. When you use display ads, they’re also being shown to customers who may
not have thought to look for your products or services (even if they’re not part of
your demographic).
Even if you’re not targeting an audience, they’ll still see your business in front of them.
Remember advertising isn’t just about who wants to do business with you today...it’s
also about staying top of mind for consumers who might need you tomorrow, next
week, or next month.
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Hibu | Where You Should Have Ads Online
An array of online display ad types exist — everything from hyperlinked still images to
interactive “mini websites.” A lot of advertisers mix and match the types of ads they
use...ultimately, it all comes down to your goals.
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Types of Display Ads
Hibu | Where You Should Have Ads Online
Static
Static display ads, which have been around for more than a decade, offer no
movement or user interaction. They are simple images hyperlinked to an
advertiser’s site. They can contain a combination of still images and text.
Animated
Animated ads inject movement in .GIF format. Depending on the design, the
entire ad can be animated, or just a part of the ad, while the other part remains
static — it’s up to you. Publishers usually limit the file size of an animated ad
and the number of times the animation can loop on their sites.
Video ads
Video ads play a short video for the user. The video can be programmed to play
automatically when a web page opens, or it can be user-activated. Their
functionality varies greatly. Some allow users to rewind, fast-forward and adjust
the volume; others offer no controls. One thing almost all these ads do is link to
an advertiser’s site.
Interactive
Interactive display ads offer the user some functionality while bringing them to
the advertiser’s site. The ad’s design and coding determine what types of
interactivity it's capable of. Some accept information from users, such as email
addresses or ZIP Codes while others allow users to call the business directly or
look them up on a map.
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Some of the most common variations
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Why you need all three
Advertising works best when you can reach the right person, at the right
time, with the right message. It doesn’t matter who you are marketing to —
businesses or consumers — today's buyers are looking to interact with your brand
across multiple channels and devices, and whenever you aren't there, that's a
missed opportunity.
All of that being said, you probably still have the same question. "Which type of
advertising is right for my business?" Luckily for you, the answer is simple — you should
be doing all of them.
The businesses that see the most success today aren't handicapping themselves by
using only one type of advertising. They're utilizing a unique mix of all of them! That
way they can reach their ideal audience whether they're searching for a service or
product on Google or Bing, surfing their favorite websites, or spending time
socializing with people on social networks.
When someone searches for your product or service, they might see and even click
on your search ad, but they may not make the decision to buy right away. So, you still
need a way to reach them when they aren't searching.
Display advertising will allow you to retarget that person while they're browsing on a
different website, successfully keeping your business top of mind. You’ll also be
building awareness amongst consumers who may need you in the future.
With social ads, when they’re scrolling through Facebook during some down time,
your ads can show up for them again, serving up the perfect offer that gets them to
finally buy.
Better results working together
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Why work harder when you could market smarter? At Hibu, our goal is to help you achieve
your goals, by building you a complete digital marketing solution — a custom, integrated
digital marketing campaign that works to maximize your results and deliver what you want.
Tell us what you want to achieve – more visibility, more visitors, more leads…or all three —
and we’ll build you a smart, easy digital marketing solution designed to deliver the results
you want.
About Hibu
Hibu is a leading provider of custom, innovative digital marketing solutions for local
businesses across the US – providing clients with a custom integrated digital marketing
solution designed to attract and retain customers.
Hibu offers comprehensive DIFM (Do-It-For-Me) solutions powered by Hibu’s advanced
proprietary Digital Marketing Platform. Plus, Hibu utilizes decades of digital marketing
campaign data and a one-on-one service model to maximize marketing ROI (Return on
Investment) for clients across a wide range of industries.
Hibu’s integrated solutions include custom website development, listings and reputation
management, retention marketing, automated email and text marketing, search engine
optimization (SEO), search, social, and display advertising. Hibu is a Meta Business Partner,
Google Partner, and Microso Advertising Select Channel Partner.
Visit Hibu.com to learn more or talk to us today at 855-409-6569
to take the first step towards smarter digital marketing.
