First things first: Why do entrepreneurs need to advertise in the new digital space? The answer is simple and straightforward: the world and trends are changing and in the case of online networks, email marketing, video and digital strategies, advertising in a digital space is the new normal.
We’ ve covered the why, now let’ s move on to four top advertising tools( Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, Linkedin Ads and SEO strategies) entrepreneurs have at their disposal.
Google Adwords
Adwords offers pay-per-click advertising and site-targeted advertising for different types of ads. What does this mean for your business? It means you can create ads and choose keywords, which are words or phrases related to your business. When people search on Google using one of your keywords, your ad may appear next to or above the search results. As a result, when someone clicks on your ad, they land on your website where they can learn more about your business or make a purchase.
Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads are paid messages coming from businesses, which can include social context about friends. People who like your page spend an average of two times more as your customers than people who aren’ t connected to you on Facebook. What does this mean for your business? It means you can choose the page you want to promote and you can reach people who aren’ t connected to your just page yet. You can also promote a specific post, which gives you greater reach and increases your chance of placement in people’ s news feed and your post going viral. Also, this information will be optimized and as a result, your ad displays to the people most likely to buy and help you reach your goal.
LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn Ads are an advertising solution that allows you to place text ads on prominent pages across LinkedIn allowing you to specify which LinkedIn members view your ads by selecting a target audience. What does this mean for your business? It means you can you can target ads by job title, job function, industry, geography, age, gender, company size, company name, or LinkedIn Group. As a result, advertising on LinkedIn is much more targeted and you don’ t have to worry about competitors or consumers clicking your ads.
Finally, SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it’ s the process of getting traffic from free listings on search engines. All major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing have such results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. What does this mean for your business? SEO is an Internet strategy and the key to success is to produce keywords( as done with your Ads) typed into the search engines that are preferred by your targeted audience.
How do they compare?
Google Adwords are the best for relevancy and timeliness because people are actively searching for a particular product on Google and as a result, they are more likely to buy right away. On the other hand, Facebook Ads are relatively cheaper but their click through rate( CTR) is lower because people aren’ t actively searching for a particular product on Facebook. By contrast, Linkedin Ads provide a customized approach for targeting a specific group of people, which allows you to craft a message and start a dialogue with a potential customer. On the other hand, SEO is free and organic.
Which one is best for your business?
All four types of advertising are best for your business because they target different areas. While Adwords is best for relevance, Facebook includes social context, LinkedIn offers a customized approach and SEO is natural, but utilizing all four advertising tools in a diverse and strategic marketing plan will increase revenue and will ultimately lead to your digital space working for you.
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