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Digital advertising is one of the most powerful ways to start, expand or scale a company online.

Period.

It can be used for any type of product or service, in any industry and in any size.

What is so magical about it? Why does it work so well?

Well, for starters, With digital advertising, you can scalably and predictably generate what every company needs:

Traffic to your site.

We all need traffic to generate leads, which we need to generate customers, which we need to generate sales.

Of course, you need a lot more than just traffic to be successful. You need a great deal, a desirable product or service, a well-designed website, etc. But Without traffic, none of these things will matter … because nobody will ever actually see them.

And this is where, dear friends, digital advertising comes into play.

But before we go into too much detail, let's start with the basics and make sure we're all on the same page.

What is digital advertising?

When we say "digital advertising" we are referring to Purchase of payment media, It's about spending money to get people's attention online, so hopefully you can turn them into a new customer.

It may seem like a new development, but the concept has been around for a long time. The only things that have changed are the media or channels we use.

Think of digital advertising as a water hose that sends traffic to your website. The great thing is that it is predictable and completely under your control.

Do you need more traffic? Simply switch the hose on or turn it on.

Do you have to stop the traffic for a while? Just turn the hose off.

There are many people who complain that digital advertising costs money. They prefer to get all of their traffic through “free” channels like SEO and organic social media.

However, there are three major problems with this “organic only” approach:

1. Especially, A lot of work is required to get organic traffic… So it's not really free, is it?
2. Second, your traffic depends on the Google / Facebook algorithm. This can change at any time and reduce your traffic if you're on the wrong side of an update
3. After all, you have no control over your traffic and less scalability than adding paid traffic

Point 1: There is no free lunch or free traffic. You pay for it either with time or money.

On point 2: Did you know that the average organic reach of a Facebook post in the third quarter of 2019 was only 5.5%? This means that for every 1,000 people who like your page, only 55 see your organic posts.

Companies like Facebook and Google make their money from advertising revenue. This means that they have a vested interest in shifting more of their engagement in paid traffic.

Point 3: If paid advertising is like a tube, organic traffic is like rain. Yes, it's "free" but unpredictable. You cannot control it and cannot rely on it. Because you may be in the middle of a drought at worst.

We are not saying that you shouldn't try to get organic traffic. We love organic traffic!

But for those who are serious about starting and expanding a real online business, more than organic data traffic is required. You have to master paid digital advertising.

And that starts with understanding the big picture.

How digital advertising fits into the customer value journey

Ryan Deiss, the fearless founder of DigitalMarketer, said:

"The role of marketing is to move prospects and customers seamlessly and subtly through every phase of the value journey."

We love this quote and use it a lot. We say it so often that if we had an office parrot, this sentence would be repeated over and over while cracker crumbs would be spread all over the floor.

Why is it so important to remember this concept?

Because it reminds us Even if it is digital advertising, we cannot forget the human element that is inherent in all marketing.

Yes, we may set up ads on digital platforms and edit them via technical settings.

But at the end of the day, The person who sees these ads is human. And none of this digital marketing stuff will work if you don't understand the person on the other side of the computer screen, what their problems are, what they want, and what process they go through to decide whether to buy or not.

We have planned this process for you and call it the Customer Value Journey (CVJ for short):

Digital advertising is so versatile that it can potentially be used in EVERY phase of the CVJ. However, it is most commonly used in the following five phases: Conscious, Activate, Subscribe, Convert and Upgrade.

Here are some examples of paid online advertising used in these phases of the CVJ:

Deliberately

At the very beginning of the CVJ, you place an ad for someone who has never heard of you. As soon as they see your ad, they have noticed you.

Here is an example. If you've never heard of thredUP, this Facebook ad would draw your attention (notice the bright pink bar that stands out in the newsfeed) and alert you to the following:

You wouldn't know much about the company at this point in time, but you would know they existed and you would know that they are "not a typical thrift store". That's all you need to get to Step 1 of the CVJ.

engage

In the next phase of the CVJ Your goal is to get people to interact with you – by reading a blog post, watching a video, commenting on a post, and so on.

Here's an example of how BookBub does this using a Facebook ad promoting a quiz that generates book recommendations:

Online tests are a great way to generate engagement because they are quick and easy to fill out, and provide you with fun or helpful information.

(In this case, anyone who reads a lot would be interested in new book recommendations based on their preferences.)

Subscribe to

Your next goal is to get the person to subscribe – to give you their contact information so you can keep track of them over time.

This is usually done by email. However, you can also use other follow-up methods like Facebook Messenger, SMS and even snail mail.

We have had tremendous success in generating subscribers by using paid online ads to promote our different ads lead magnets, The way this works is simple.

We create something valuable and give it away free of charge in exchange for participating in our newsletter.

Here's an example:

All you have to do is fill out a form to sign up for our email list and you will receive the Lead Magnet (in this case a 10-point blog post audit) for free.

Convert

Now it's time to make sales. This phase of the CVJ is about generating customers.

The mistake many companies make is jumping straight to Convert and skipping the previous three steps.

But If you follow the CVJ in the right order – by creating awareness, commitment and subscription before asking about the sale – you will find that people are more likely to buy from you.

Here is an example of a "Convert" ad from HelloFresh:

Notice how they try to maximize their number of sales by presenting an irresistible offer (10 free meals). Yes, a discount reduces profits, but also generates more customers.

And the more customers you have, the more profits you can make later when you reach the next level of the CVJ …

Rising up

Last but not least, Ascent is about getting your customers to do more and bigger purchases over time.

Placing paid online advertisements for your customer base can be extremely profitable because they already know and trust you. This means that they are more likely to buy higher-priced products.

Sea-Doo does an excellent job with this ad promoting an extended warranty:

How digital advertising fits to optimize customer benefit

We teach another system here at DigitalMarketer. This offers a 10,000 foot view of how the marketing process works (if done correctly).

We call it Customer Value Optimization.

It looks like this:

The Customer Value Optimization process provides you with a tested and reliable roadmap to build an unstoppable business in any niche, market or industry.

So where does digital advertising, paid AKA online media go?

At the top, as one of the traffic sources that people primarily send in this entire process:

The nice thing about the customer value optimization process is that you only have to pay for the data traffic at the beginning. As soon as a visitor has subscribed to your newsletter, you can continue to follow it free of charge.

The most important digital advertising platforms

OK, now you should have a pretty good idea of ​​what digital advertising is, why it is so important to your overall digital marketing strategy, and how it fits into the big picture.

Next, let's see some of the specific platforms available.

Keep in mind that the concept of paid advertising is nothing new. It is only the channels or media that have changed with the advent of the Internet.

You can actually imagine many of these platforms as a newer “digital equivalent” of an older advertising medium. For example:

• Google is like the yellow pages
• Facebook is like an advertising board
• Pandora is like radio
• YouTube is like television

Depending on your industry, different platforms can make more (or less) sense for your company.

Here is a brief overview of some of the largest digital advertising platforms online today:

Facebook & Instagram

Facebook has developed into one of the largest and most valuable digital advertising platforms on the Internet. We summarize it with Instagram, since both platforms belong to Facebook and use the same advertising platform (Ads Manager).

Facebook & Instagram are incredibly effective channels for paid ads. Much of the reason for this is that they have a lot of data about their users that the Facebook algorithm uses to optimize ad serving and get the best results.

Here are some basic facts …

Facebook statistics:

• 2.41 billion monthly active users
• Users by age group:
  • 18-24: 76%
  • 25-29: 84%
  • 30-49: 79%
  • 50-64: 68%
  • 65+: 46%
• Users spend 38 minutes a day on the platform
• 74% of users log in daily
• 94% of Facebook's advertising revenue comes from the mobile phone

Instagram Statistics:

• 1 billion monthly active users
• Users by age group:
  • 18-29: 67%
  • 30-49: 47%
  • 50-64: 23%
  • 65+: 8%
• Users spend 28 minutes a day on the platform
• 63% of users log in daily
• 73% of teenagers say Instagram is the best way for brands to communicate about new products or promotions

Another great thing about Facebook and Instagram ads is that they support a variety of formats, including:

Image Ads

video ads

Carousel Display

Instant Experience ad (mobile only)

Shop-enabled ads (Instagram only)

Facebook and Instagram often test and launch new ad types. This means that you have a variety of options to engage people on these platforms.

Google

Google Ads are divided into two different networks: the Google Search Network and the Google Display Network.

Google Search Ads are displayed on the SERPs (search engine results pages) when you search for certain keywords. For example, here are the ads that came up after a search for "Scratching Post":

What makes Google Search Ads special is that it allows you to show your ads to people who are actively looking for you (or a topic related to what you're doing).

Most ads on the Google Search Network are text-only ads, although Google has added support for newer ad types like Shopping Ads. (The image above shows both shopping ads above with text ads below.)

The Google Display Network (GDN) is different. On this platform, you can place your ads on more than 2 million participating websites. GDN has a long reach; according to ComScore GDN ads can reach up to 94% of US internet users and 90% of worldwide internet users.

And unlike the search network, GDN supports a variety of banner ads, rich media ads, and even video ads.

Here is an example of an advertising banner that keeps a solid promise and gives a clear call to action.

Youtube

YouTube is owned by Google and uses the same ad manager as Google Ads. However, we separate them here because they are so different platforms.

YouTube is the video site. But it's more than that: it's one of the largest search networks and one of the largest websites in the world. And For marketers looking to reach new customers, this is a gold mine of a digital advertising platform.

Here are some of the basic details …

YouTube statistics:

• 2 billion monthly registered users
• Users by age group:
  • 15-25: 81%
  • 26-35: 71%
  • 36-45: 67%
  • 46-55: 66%
  • 56+: 58%
• Users spend 11 minutes a day on the platform
• Over 70% of YouTube views come from cell phones
• 70% of what people see on YouTube is determined by the recommendation algorithm

Like any other paid online media platform, YouTube offers a variety of ad formats and options. For example:

TrueView in-stream ads are a form of video ad that plays in front of a viewer's selected video. The cool thing about TrueView ads is that you only pay when the viewer sees or interacts with your ad.

Video discovery ads are displayed on the YouTube homepage and the search results pages (the concept is similar to Google Search Ads).

Bumper ads are short (6 seconds) non-skippable video ads that play in front of a viewer's selected video.

Pre-roll ads are longer, non-skippable ads that play before a selected video.

Video is a tremendously powerful way to reach new customers online. If you use videos in your company, you probably want to be on YouTube.

Other digital advertising platforms

Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube are the largest online media platforms on the block, but they are by no means the only options.

Depending on your industry, these platforms may also fit your business well:

Amazon

Amazon has developed into an important digital advertising platform for e-commerce companies. A whopping 59% of consumers start searching for products here, making it a great place to buy traffic.

Amazon ads can appear in several places, including: B. in the search results:

Or in the "Sponsored Products" section:

Pinterest

Pinterest ads can be a great way to help users discover and buy your products. Ads are shown as "sponsored pins", e.g. B. These two ads from Target and Casper:

People often use Pinterest to find new products a valuable network for e-commerce companies. (Especially if you sell visual products that are suitable for a cool looking picture.)

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social network for professionals An important source of traffic for B2B companies and everyone who turns to professionals.

They offer different types of ad formats, including: B. sponsored content, text ads and sponsored InMail.

Here is an example with sponsored content (left) and text ads (right):

The most important part of deciding where to show your ads is knowing where your audience is most likely to be. When your ads are placed where your audience is most likely to see them, you get the best conversion opportunities and ROI.

display orientation

Choosing a digital advertising platform is only the first step. Once you've decided where you want your ads to appear, The next step is to decide who you want your ads to appear to.

We call this targeting.

Different networks have different targeting options. For example:

• On the Google Search Network, you’ll need to choose which keywords to show your ads on.
• You can target specific job titles on LinkedIn.
• And on Facebook you can place ads for people based on their interests.

On most ad platforms, you can also refine your targeting based on demographics, so you can focus on (or exclude) people based on age, gender, location, etc.

There are two other ad targeting concepts that you want to be familiar with. That is traffic temperature and retargeting.

transport temperature

When deciding who to target with your ads, you need to make a decision what traffic temperature to target,

If you contact people who are already familiar with your brand and are ready to buy, this is considered hot or very warm traffic.

However, people who have never heard of you are considered cold traffic.

Why is the concept of hot and cold traffic useful?

Because it helps you set the right expectations and make your campaigns more strategic.

Any campaign targeting Warm traffic can transform faster and be more profitable– but the audience size is limited.

A campaign that targets cold traffic, on the other hand, has the potential to reach a much wider audience. However, these campaigns also have a steeper climb. To be successful, cold traffic ads may need to use different creatives and / or messages.

(NOTE: A good way to warm up cold traffic is to familiarize yourself with your brand. Placing a cold traffic ad that leads to content on your website can help.)

Regardless of the traffic temperature you are targeting, there is digital advertising technology that is often very effective. This is called retargeting.

retargeting

retargeting Here you show your ads to someone who has already visited your website. (Or someone who has already looked at your content on a platform like YouTube or Facebook.)

Suppose you visit the CallRail call tracking service website:

When you visit the website, a cookie is added to your browser which CallRail can use to place advertisements on various online advertising platforms on the Internet. This explains why when you visit Facebook you may see a retargeting ad like the following:

The great thing about retargeting is that you are specifically targeting people who have already shown interest in your product or service. As a result, these ads tend to perform fairly well.

Create effective ads

Another essential part of any online advertising is Create the actual ads that people see.

As you learned in the "Top digital advertising platforms" section above, the ads on each platform look a little different. Some, like most Google Search ads, are all text. Others, such as Facebook ads, may contain images or videos.

Regardless of which platform you advertise on, your goal is simple: You want to get the user's attention, keep them from scrolling, and get them to click on your ad.

To that end, here are some general principles to help you make your ads more effective, since you don't have to be a professional designer to create online ads.

Ad design tips

One way to make sure your ads stand out is bybold colors and pictures, Like Waze here:

Or how drift does it here:

When choosing the colors for your ads, keep the following in mind:

• Choose complementary or contrasting colors. Remember – your goal is to stand out.
• Avid matte blue on Facebook; it will fit.
• If you don't have a color palette yet, try coolors.co. You get a combination of colors that look good together:

You may also want to use a unified design for your ads. This can help strengthen your brand image and leave a lasting impression.

See how Squarespace does this:

Here are some final tips on ad design.

Writing tips:

• Use only 1–2 fonts in an ad, never again
• Use only readable fonts
• Make sure you only use fonts for which you have a commercial license

Image Tips:

• Always use high quality images
• Decide whether you want to mainly use illustrations or photographs and stick to it
• NEVER use images from a Google image search. Make sure you have the correct copyrights to use them

Here are some tips for writing an effective copy for your ads.

How to write a good ad hook

Another important element of your ad is the copy you use (AKA the text). Good ads have a convincing “catch”, a unique perspective that appeals to your ideal potential customers and makes them learn more and take the next step.

How can you find a good catch for your ads?

One way is to use the before and after strategy to answer these questions:

• To have. What will your prospect have if you buy your product or service?
• Feeling. How will your prospect feel when buying your product or service?
• Average day. How will your potential customers' AVERAGE DAY improve when they buy your product or service?
• Status. How is your potential customer's STATUS increased after purchasing your product or service?
• Good versus evil. How will your product or service help your prospect to conquer EVIL and bring more GOOD to your world?

The answers to these questions give you 5 solid hooks that appeal to your target customers.

Many marketers never get past the first question. All they think about is what their product helps the prospect of HAVE without thinking about how they feel, improve their day, improve their status or make the world a better place.

However, if you dig deeper than the benefits of the interface, you can discover much more compelling ad hooks.

Chatbooks get it:

Do you see how this ad doesn't just talk about what you have (a printed photo book)? Instead, it speaks for how you will feel (closer to your family) after purchasing your product.

Chatbooks understands that their avatar (busy mothers) doesn't really want a printed photo book. Instead, they want a close, loving family who values ​​their time together. And when you speak with that wish, you get a much more compelling ad.

BONUS TIP: How to find the right hook for each of your customer avatars

Eventually you will reach the point where you have several different customer avatars and several different ad hooks. And one thing you may be unclear about is:

How do you know which hooks to use for which avatars?

Fortunately, we ran into the same problem – and developed a process to find out.

You do the following:

Step 1 is to ensure that you define your customer avatars. This is important to make it clear who you are targeting with your ads.

Once you've done that …

step 2 is to put your avatars and your hooks in the ad grid.

The ad grid is a process with which you can organize your hooks and avatars and systematize the creation of your traffic campaigns.

This is the process that has helped us to stop creating one-hit-wonder ads and get more consistent and predictable results from our campaigns.

The importance of your landing page

If your ad is complete, you’ll need to have your landing page ready before starting your campaign.

Your landing page is simply the website to which people are redirected after they click your ad.

Choose this page carefully. In most cases, it’s best to create a page that’s created specifically for your ad.

For example, here is an ad from Air Canada:

And here is the top of the landing page that was created specifically for this advertising campaign:

Notice how the landing page matches the colors, images, and messages of the ad.

We call this advertising fragrance.

In a nutshell, The idea behind the ad smell is that someone who clicks on your ad expects the same offer on the next page. So give them what to expect.

(Otherwise, they may think they're in the wrong place and go.)

Here's another example from Grasshopper. Do you see how the ad and landing page look similar? Anyone who clicks on this ad will immediately know that he is in the right place on the next page.

Another thing to keep in mind when creating and optimizing landing pages is that it's best to focus on a single call to action without being distracted by anything else on the page.

For example, take a look at our landing page for the Facebook ad template library:

Note that the entire page focuses on this one topic and every call to action on the page promotes this one guiding magnet.

Metrics that you can use to measure the success of your digital advertising

Once you start an online advertising campaign, your next question is likely to be:

Are my ads actually working?

The answer is not always as simple as we would like it to be.

Depending on the goals of your campaign, You can use a different combination of metrics to measure your success. Here are some of the most common metrics used to measure the success of digital advertising campaigns:and to find out where things don't work so you can improve them.

• Revenue. How much money did your ads generate?
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). Revenue divided by ad spend. For example, a ROAS of 3.4 means that you earned $ 3.40 for every dollar you spent on advertising.
• Sales. The number of sales generated.
• Cost per sale. The average cost of a new sale.
• Leads. The number of leads generated.
• Cost per lead (CPL). The average cost of generating a new lead.
• Clickthrough rate (CTR). The percentage of people who click on your ad.
• Cost per mille (CPM). This is the cost to reach 1,000 people. Je niedriger Ihr CPM ist, desto billiger ist es, ein breiteres Publikum zu erreichen.
• Kosten pro Klick (CPC). Dies ist der Betrag, den Sie jedes Mal bezahlen, wenn jemand auf Ihre Anzeige klickt.

(Beachten Sie, dass eine Anzeigenplattform Sie entweder anhand von Impressionen oder Klicks (CPM bzw. CPC) belastet, jedoch nicht anhand beider.)

Wenn Sie digitale Werbekampagnen verwalten möchten, sollten Sie sich mit diesen Begriffen vertraut machen. Weil du sie oft sehen wirst und Sie müssen sie interpretieren und verwenden, um die Leistung Ihrer Anzeigen im Laufe der Zeit zu verbessern.

Apropos Verbesserung der Leistung Ihrer Anzeigen…

Optimieren Sie Ihre digitalen Werbekampagnen

Wenn Sie Ihre erste Online-Anzeige schalten, können Sie davon ausgehen, dass die Verkäufe sofort eingehen.

Leider ist dies normalerweise NICHT der Fall.

Stattdessen können Ihre Ergebnisse von Anfang an von „anständig“ bis „schrecklich“ reichen.

Aber lassen Sie sich nicht entmutigen. Das erste Mal, als Sie Basketball spielten, Rollschuh liefen oder zu häkeln versuchten, waren Sie wahrscheinlich auch nicht sehr gut.

Digitale Werbung ist eine Fähigkeit wie jede andere.

Die gute Nachricht ist, dass Sie jedes Mal, wenn Sie eine Online-Werbekampagne starten, etwas Neues lernen. Auch wenn die Anzeigen nicht funktionieren, haben Sie zumindest wertvolle Einblicke in das erhalten, was nicht funktioniert.

Und jetzt können Sie diese Erkenntnisse nutzen, um sie zu verbessern. Dann versuchen Sie es erneut. Und wiederholen.

Dieser Vorgang wird als Optimierung bezeichnet. Grundsätzlich bedeutet dies nur, Änderungen an Ihren digitalen Werbekampagnen vorzunehmen, um Ihre Ergebnisse im Laufe der Zeit zu verbessern.

Einige der Dinge, die Sie ändern oder optimieren können, können sein:

• Neue Anzeigen
• Neue Targeting-Optionen
• Neue Zielseiten
• Ein neues Angebot
• Unterschiedliche Einstellungen in Ihrer Werbeplattform

Diese letzte Kugel kann sich auf alle möglichen Dinge beziehen, z. B. auf die Änderung Ihrer Gebotspreise oder Ihrer Optimierungsstrategien. Diese Art von Änderungen kann einen großen Einfluss auf die Leistung Ihrer Anzeigen haben. Stellen Sie also sicher, dass Sie verstehen, was Sie tun, wenn Sie eine Einstellung innerhalb einer digitalen Werbeplattform ändern.

Durch vorsichtig Testen und Optimieren aller Elemente in Ihren KampagnenMit der Zeit werden Sie lernen, was funktioniert – und was nicht – und mit dem Sie Ihre Ergebnisse im Laufe der Zeit immer weiter verbessern können.

Und wenn Ihre Kampagnen beginnen zu funktionieren und Sie feststellen, dass sich Ihre Investition rentiert, was können Sie tun, um noch MEHR von diesen guten Ergebnissen zu erzielen?

Das nennt man Skalierung, und das werden wir als nächstes behandeln.

Skalieren Sie Ihre digitalen Werbekampagnen

Skalieren ist das, was Sie tun, wenn Ihre Kampagnen funktionieren und Sie mehr von den gleichen Ergebnissen erzielen möchten.

Im Allgemeinen gibt es zwei Möglichkeiten, eine Kampagne zu skalieren: vertikal und horizontal.

Vertikale Skalierung Wenn Sie das Budget für Ihre Kampagnen erhöhen, um mehr Menschen zu erreichen.

Beispiel: Wenn Sie 50 US-Dollar pro Tag für Facebook ausgeben und gute Ergebnisse erzielen, können Sie Ihr Budget auf 100 US-Dollar pro Tag erhöhen, um noch mehr Ergebnisse zu erzielen.

Horizontale Skalierung Dies ist der Fall, wenn Sie eine Anzeige schalten, die für eine Zielgruppe funktioniert, und sie einer neuen Zielgruppe zeigen.

Beispiel: Wenn Sie sich an Personen richten, die Ernährung mögen, können Sie auch versuchen, Personen anzusprechen, die gesunde Ernährung, mediterrane Ernährung, Nahrungsergänzungsmittel, Bewegung usw. mögen.

Nicht jedes Publikum wird arbeiten. Einige sind möglicherweise zu weit von Ihrem Ziel-Avatar entfernt, um effektiv zu sein. Aber Sie werden es nie genau wissen, bis Sie es versuchen.

Und während Sie Ihre Kampagnen vergrößern, ist hier ein Wort an die Weisen: Behalten Sie Ihre Ergebnisse im Auge, um sicherzustellen, dass Sie sich in einem akzeptablen Bereich befinden.

Wenn Ihre CPL oder CPA zu hoch wird, können Sie die Skalierung jederzeit zurückstellen und dann zurückgehen und einige Optimierungen vornehmen.

Want to Learn Even More About Digital Advertising?

Then you’re in luck. Because here at DigitalMarketer, digital marketing is kinda… you know… what we do.

Here are some more awesome blog posts to help you master the ways of digital advertising so you can guide your business to new heights online:

When Should You Start Your Paid Traffic Campaign?

Crafting a Digital Advertising Strategy

(New Formula) WCA + YC = Cheap, High-Converting Traffic from Facebook

Facebook News Feed Changes: What You Need to Know

(DOWNLOAD) Score Your Paid Traffic with the 5-Point Paid Ad Audit

Breaking Down How Politicians Used Ads In 2019

13 Great Instagram Video Ad Examples

47 Facebook Ad Examples That You Can Swipe for Your Business

Retargeting Ads in 500 Words or Less (Plus 3 Bonus Retargeting Tips)

What is a Tracking Pixel—Explained in 800 Words or Less
The YouTube Ads Grid: A 3-Step System to Build YouTube Ads Campaigns that Generate More Leads & Sales

Chatbots Explained in 800 Words or Less

How to Design Facebook Ad Images Like a Pro (…When You’re Really an Amateur)

The 7-Step Facebook Ad Plan… Lessons Pulled from the DigitalMarketer Vault

5 Types of Ads EVERY Marketer Should be Using on Facebook