The past few years have seen an amazing upswing in the use of digital advertising. Whereas before advertising had to take place through expensive media like print and television — which was often broadcast to a large number of people in the hopes that sheer volume would bring in business — advertising in the digital age can be quick, sleek, targeted, and easy on your company’s bottom line. As we begin a new year, let’s take a look at some of the newest and hottest trends in digital advertising.
Programmatic Advertising:
Programmatic advertising (also known as programmatic buying) is a general term for the use of automated software that assists in the buying of digital ad space. Whenever someone clicks on a website that has adspace, the advertisements shown on that space are not necessarily the same for each user. Instead, most digital ads are determined by an automated bidding process, where potential advertisers who might want to you an ad are able to bid for that ad space as the page loads. This is done quickly, with no harm done to the load time of the page in question. Determining which advertisers might want to bid for the consumers attention is done through the use of complex algorithms and the consumer’s digital history.
Retargeting
Even though this is a term not everyone is familiar with, it’s a concept that is already well-known. Anyone who has ever gone on to a website in the last year or two has been subjected to retargeting, even if they didn’t know the term. What is it? Retargeting is the use of ads that are targeted to a specific user based on their web history, cookies and other mined data. If you’ve ever searched for a product, only to find that you are now being shown advertisements about that specific product, then you have been targeted through this process.
This sort of digital marketing is useful because it specifically targets people who have shown an interest in your product or service. This means that your advertising budget is being spent much more effectively, and effort and money are not being wasted on those who might not have an interest in what’s being advertised. It also means you can create advertisements for smaller-volume products or services that wouldn’t normally warrant an ad campaign on their own.
Geofencing
As the name implies, geofencing is a geographic-based advertising strategy that uses real-time GPS information to send ads to a user, usually through a mobile device. As the user enters a particular predetermined geographic location, software is triggered which sends location-based ads to a device. These ads could be run through an app (so the app displays a notification whenever the user is within a specific area), through Google My Business and its integration with other applications such as Google Maps or through a third-party advertiser of some sort.
Depending on why the consumer is going through the area, this can be a great way to focus on people’s habit of impulse-shopping. If, for example, someone is driving through an area, and they are starting to get hungry, a well-timed notification or reminder about a favorite local eatery can be just the thing to get him or her to pull over for a bite.
Google PPC
Google PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is an easy and cheap way to get your brand in front of potential consumers. What this entails is a partnership with Google, where they put your ad on screen, and you only pay when someone actually clicks the ad and goes through to your webpage.
To set this up, you first have to sign up through Google Adwords. Then, whenever a consumer searches for a product or service that Google matches with your company, your ad will show up on the top of the search list as a featured advertisement. If someone clicks, you get the business and Google charges a small fee. If no one clicks, you pay nothing. This is a great way to advertise on a budget because it’s free to set up, and you only pay when the ad actually works.
Social Media
Social media — Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others — have become huge players in the digital advertisement business in the past few years. With these platforms it is possible to have several different types of ads, which can increase your potential reach. First, Facebook makes use of retargeting to help display personally relevant ads that can be seen by particular people based on their own history. Second, “promoted” posts operate on a pay-to-play model, where you can pay for a post to be promoted and seen by many others. These promoted ads can potentially be seen by thousands of people, and the best part is they show up in their newsfeed many, many times. So, if an ad is missed by someone the first time around, there’s every chance it will be seen the next time.
These digital marketing trends are the latest, and they certainly won’t be the last. If you would like to know more about digital marketing, please contact us today.
