The world's first banner ad appeared in 1994 and transformed the way advertising was approached. At the time, AT&T paid $30,000 to have their online banner placed on HotWired for three months. $30,000 is a lot of money to pay for advertising now, but in 1994 it was a fortune.
While the initial banner ad wasn't targeted at anyone specific, and anyone who went to the HotWired site would see it, it was immensely successful. The banner had an astonishing click-through-rate of 44%compared to the current average of 0.06%. From these banner ads, digital advertisements grew.
As marketers and companies learned more about online marketing and consumer trends, the advertisements changed and started targeting specific audiences. These days companies need to invest in their marketing if they want to stand out from their competition.
So, keep reading to find out more about the six reasons you should have a budget to pay for advertising.
1. Higher Engagement Rates
The biggest benefit you'll see from paid ads is a higher engagement rate. If you don't pay for ads, they just float out in the void, hoping the right person will see them. But if you opt to spend some money on your ads, you can hand-pick your target audience.
You can finely tune your audience based on specific demographics to ensure the people who see your ads are the ones who are likely to engage with them.
Before you start paying for ads, you need to define your target audience. Failing to do so is a major pitfall of digital marketing. Casting a wider net can seem like a good idea, but the more specific you are, the better your results will be.
2. Paid Ads Are Easily Measured
When it comes to marketing and ads, you want to ensure the work you put in is worth it.
Paid ads can be created in minutes, and there are many tools to help you. For example, Google Responsive Ads can resize your ad to fit any available ad space. Google also applies machine learning to only show the best-performing ads.
Once your ad is created, you'll be able to track how much money you spent and what the outcome was. You can then decide if the specific ad added enough value for its cost and what needs to change for your next paid ad.
You also have the ability to monitor key metrics like:
Cost-per-click
Site traffic
Bounce rate
Conversions
Impressions
To successfully determine your cost per lead, you need to divide the total cost of the campaign by the number of leads that the campaign generated. This, paired with your key metrics, will give you a good overview of the success of your ads.
3. It’s Cost-Effective
Most people assume paying for online ads is expensive. Unlike an ad that is printed in a paper or magazine, there are few costs surrounding online ads. You can start incorporating paid ads in your online marketing campaign and increase your budget as you start to see results.
4. You Can Gain Credibility
Your credibility will get a boost from the name recognition paid ads offer. Since your target audience will be the ones seeing your ads, they'll start to recognize the name, which is the beginning of brand loyalty.
While these views might not turn into immediate leads, building credibility with your audience is never a bad thing. They might not buy something from you, but your name will stay in their mind until they need your product or service.
5. You Can Prioritise Retargeting and Retention
Once someone has clicked on or viewed your ad, visited your website, or engaged with your campaign, you can target them again. Retargeted ads will show these viewers your relevant ads to keep them engaged with your content. While viewing an ad once might slip your mind, you're more likely to remember it if it pops up again.
This ties in with building credibility. This technique focuses on keeping you in your audience's mind.
A lesser-known fact about retargeted ads is that you can target them on different platforms. So say they initially interacted with your website through a Google Ad, you can then retarget them using Facebook Ads.
6. You Can Use Multiple Channels
There are endless ways to broadcast your ads to your target audience. Banner ads, search ads, and pop-ups are all options when it comes to advertising.
Social media platforms also shouldn't be ignored. The majority of your target audience will use at least one form of social media, so ignoring these channels will be detrimental. When deciding which channels to target you can look at social media platforms like:
Facebook
Instagram
Snapchat
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
Reddit
TikTok
You just need to make sure you're not spreading yourself (and your budget!) too thin by targeting every single channel. While doing research on your target audience you'll start to get a feel of which platforms will appeal most to them, so focus on those.
Pay for Advertising to Succeed
Choosing to pay for advertising has a whole host of benefits. While you can get by without paid ads, opting to spend money in order to make money will pay off in the long run. So consider switching to paid ads to further your online marketing.
If you're looking for an all-inclusive digital ad management platform, contact Savant DSP today! At Savant DSP, we help digital advertisers reach their goals by offering a comprehensive platform solution to easily navigate, place and manage digital ad campaigns.