Best ways to advertise online 2017

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Best ways to advertise online 2017

Are you someone in business looking to make yourself more visible by advertising online? or

Are you someone who has been advertising online and get mediocre results and wanting to see a real return on the money your are investing?

Well in this post, I will share with you some top ways you should invest in online advertising that would be most effective as we move into 2017

Facebook

There are several ways to advertise on facebook, through normal social media posts, sharing content within groups and using the paid Facebook advertising platform.

Facebook advertising can be a gold mine for you as a small business owner. The excellent targeting of audience for your ads can easily compete with the best keyword marketing campaigns when it comes to relevance and reaching those most likely to actually act on your ad.

These ads work similar to the traditional Pay Per Click and you can add an image or video. It's great that you only pay for a click yet getting tons of exposure to a targeted audience for free.

Key tips to maximize effectiveness on this platform:

a)Target followers of similar brands

b)Use video or relevant eye catching images

c)Consider creating a custom audience by uploading the emails from your customer database/ free opt-in

d)And include sharable content that can lead to customers sharing your ad for free and extending the mileage you get out of the ad.

Youtube

Youtube is still an under utilized platform which could be to your advantage as the reality is YouTube ads convert very cost-effectively.  You should definitely consider youtube be it you have an e-commerce site or looking to attract more leads to your business. 

YouTube offers you a range of video advertising options. Your top choices for conversions should be TrueView In-Search and In-Display Video ads.

When done right, TrueView In-Search and In-Display videos can offer a competitive CPA and high return on ad spend.

Key tips to maximize effectiveness on this platform:

a)Pick the right video- leave the 30 second videos for Youtube InStream ads. Longer videos ranging from 2-20 mins long work best for TrueView In-Search and In-Display Video ads.

b)Keep an eye on YouTube Insight stats to track the drop off times to ensure you have maximum attention when it matters most and that the length of your video is optimized.

b) Use Your Channel Page to Share your brand

Your channel page is a critical space to provide more information about your brand, share links to your key landing pages or social media sites, and post related videos. Step up and share what makes you special and unique yet do in a way that it's interesting and compelling.

The number one tip to improve conversion rates is to make the banner on your channel page into a Clickable Channel Banner. Did you know this was possible and how effective this can be? Something so simple and effective is huge, below is the info you need to create that banner to meet Youtube specifications.

Here is a great example by Rosetta Stone with branding / calls to action and social media shares:

c) Leverage Annotations 
Annotations are a great way to add commentary / highlight information at any point in the video. It's flexible both in design and choice as to when and where they appear and disappear.

Here are two great ways to use annotations to optimize conversions.

1)Include a call to action with a link to your site at key points during the video.  You may need to work with your Google rep to set this up depending on what you are trying to do. 

2)Show a path to other relevant videos during the last seconds of your video. This can keep people engaged and learn more about you and what you offer. You can do this by simply making your video a few seconds longer with just a white background and then layer on the annotations with a compelling design via YouTube. These also very easy to quickly edit and switch out to other videos as time passes.

3)Engage with your viewers and build Trust
Build trust is important to optimize conversions. YouTube’s community thrives on comments and input from viewers, so respond to them in a timely manner to enhance your authority and the trustworthiness of your brand. 

Google Ads

Google is the behemoth of online advertising as they own the lions share of the search engine market. Their advertising platform is the biggest platform for Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing.

Adwords lets you create text, image or video based advertisements targeting potential customers who search for specific keywords (bids on keywords are by auction) and terms in the Google search box or through demographic and behavioural targeting via their Display Network.  You can also get very specific in when your ad displays, making your marketing dollars very efficient.  There is Google Adwords Express which helps make it easier for beginners to set up their first campaign as setting up campaigns can be a bit complicated.

They have two types options:

Search ads: usually 2-3 ads above or to the right of the organic results 

Display Network: These are ad placements across their network and thousands of 3rd party websites. Google Display Network has the biggest reach out of any online advertising platform.

Key tips to maximize effectiveness on this platform:

a) For the search ads, you want to think of "long tail keywords". This is very popular ad strategy plus the organic search results so you really want to effectively target your ideal client by using long tail keywords. A great software with excellent training & support, that I have personally used that can help you is  LongTailPro. You can get a 7 day trial for $1.

b)For the display Network ads, you really want to think of relevancy and audience of the sites that you choose to advertise on.

Twitter

Twitter is now much more affordable for small businesses to advertise with, however good ROI can be hit and miss. This can make it a potential gold mine for you if you get a hit. This is because the majority of twitters users are young, educated and wealthy. In other words, the ideal customers for most kinds of digital offerings. Some interesting features that have come out are Twitter Cards as well experiments with e-commerce, where users can buy items without having to leave Twitter.

Ad.ly Twitter Ads -  This platform has varying levels of influencers on Twitter who are all neatly categorized into vertical groups by niche subject and you can put together a program to sponsor tweets (with full disclosure, by the way) from anyone from the influential subject matter expert to the random celebrity. When considering this, think carefully if you would like your brand associated with that individual and if your ideal customer would receive this well.

Key tips to maximize effectiveness on this platform:

a) Use relevant hashtags to make your post more found organically

b) Use video, sound clips or GIFS along with your text to catch attention.

Instagram **New

As organic reach continues to dwindle on large networks like Facebook and Twitter with the tremendous growth in the number of businesses using social media advertising, Instagram where it's still relatively new may be a good alternative to have better reach.

Some of the benefits with Instagram is that Instagram Ads have a completely native feel. Aside from a few small details, your ads look exactly like a regular post. Also, Instagram has a very engaged audience. Research from Forrester showed that Instagram photos generated 58 times higher user engagement per follower than Facebook posts, and 120 times higher engagement rates than Tweets.

This platform is owned by and tied to Facebook so to run ads on Instagram, you will need a Facebook page. You would then create Instagram ads the same way you create Facebook ads except insuring you've selected Instagram in the Ad Preview section.

Key tips to maximize effectiveness on this platform:

1. Avoid Making It Look Like an Ad

People hate to sold too so take a subtle approach. Often, the most effective Instagram's ads don't look like advertisements at all.

2.Find Popular Hashtags and use them in your posts. When people search for the hashtags or see them trending, they’ll likely stumble across you and be able to find your brand. This is effective, but the problem is your posts are surrounded by thousands of other people using the same hashtag so you will need to stand out.

3. Follow up your ad with related organic posts.

Bridge the gap by having a series of organic posts related to your ad campaign on your Instagram page. 

LinkedIN **New

If your customers are primarily other business owners or professionals then you really should consider investing in LinkedIn Ads. A major benefit of these ads is that they can be highly targeted ads however one downside is the Cost Per Click (CPC) is higher than most other platforms.

Advertising on this platform is still relatively new and for the most part untapped so it could be the perfect time for you to jump in and reap the benefit.

Regardless of the platform you use to invest your advertising and marketing dollars for maximum ROI, here are some key things that you should always do

1) Test EVERYTHING
Split testing is one of THE MOST IMPORTANT aspects of advertising. Changing your video, image or call to action can COMPLETELY alter your results. Avoid at all cost, limiting yourself to one ad creative, make variations to find the sweat spot that allows for maximum conversions and even the SLIGHTEST change makes a difference.

2) Remarket and or Retarget

There are several services and companies (including Google) who offer remarketing and retargeting across all the platforms mentioned. This is EXTREMELY effective from a cost and performance perspective when launching a new product or offering an existing product that is relevant to a particular visitor. 

3) Get Your Followers/Customers Involved
There is a reason that User-generated content (UGC) has become a popular tactic for social media marketers. A study from Ipsos MediaCT found UGC is 35% more memorable and 50% more trusted than other types of media and information. That should be enough impetus for you to get your fans engaged by starting contests related to your cover page. A popular one is to ask fans to send in pictures with themselves using your product.

The fans love it and it also creates curiosity that encourages other people to take a closer look at your product. You can get great mileage out of such a campaign by encouraging repeat entries and or by announcing the winner at the end of X date on Y social media platform. This encourages people to check back and share if they won (so likely best to have multiple winners). It's really an ingenious use of free marketing space to engage fans and promote new products at the same time.

4) Partner and collaborate with liked minded individuals and influencers

Why go solo when you can partner up and multiple the visibility, reach and effectiveness of both partners involved? You may also wish to consider building relationships with influencers who can "shout you out" on occasion. 

5) Be Relatable

People are tired of seeing Facebook pages, websites or social media profiles that are limited in their information and are simply promotions. To really be successful in your marketing and advertising, your potential customer must feel like they can relate to you and that you care about what they care about.

You may wish to consider doing a challenge to do nothing but communicate and relate for 30 days without plugging your businesses even once. It may seem counterproductive, but spend your advertising dollars on these posts that are relationship focused rather than on posts that are sales focused and I guarantee, if you're genuine, you'll see much better engagement and feel great about your new relationships as a bonus!

Finally marketing and advertising is only the front end of the process, In order to really see the impact to your bottom line, you must have just as strong a back end that will convert those engaged followers into happy customers. 

To three key elements to your strong back end are:

1)Your Branded and well developed website

2)Your Drip campaign and related Funnel (emails, conversations and or physical mail outs)

3) Your Marketing Strategy

To speak briefly on these three; 

First your website must be really lead with your story and showcase your brand before you get into the products or services you offer. There must be several pages and specific disclosures to make the website google ad friendly and thereby Youtube and Facebook ad friendly. Carefully research and compile your website to meet these guidelines otherwise ad campaigns can get shout down and you may also have limited ability to use the paid platforms.

Second, when a customer makes an initial purchase on contact with you. You must have a well defined "drip campaign and list of offers" that shows what value you offer to them and thus also maximizes your sales revenue per customer.  Often with online marketing, the first opt in transaction is at no financial cost to the customer and as you can see per the graph above, it can take several exposures and interactions before you derive any sales revenue.

Finally, your marketing strategy. To use any of these tools effective you have to have a really clear picture of who your ideal customer is and what are the top benefits they will derive from your product or service. Your marketing strategy should include clarity on what makes you different and solid time spent investigating the buying habits and general preferences (eg: where does your ideal customer hangout online and offline, work, go on vacation) of your ideal customer. Having this clarity will allow you to choose the right platform to reach your future customers and it will guide you to have the right content on your website and subsequent drip campaigns.

I welcome your feedback and comments.

I hope that you received values and stragies that you can implement in this overview of the best ways to advertise online 2017.