I spent a few days visiting New York recently and wandered through Time Square. It’s a world-famous space that is teeming with advertising signs and billboards to promote the latest products. Rumour has it, some prominent advertising spots can cost from $5,000 a day (£3,800).
Advertising on a mass scale like this might be out of our budget range but what can we learn about paid advertising that will help our business to flourish? This toolkit could help you with your plans
Here are some key points to consider to advertise your business:
- Control and Targeting: Paid advertising allows you to decide who sees your message, ensuring it reaches the right audience at the right time and place. This targeted approach can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
- Guaranteed Visibility: By paying for advertising, you can ensure that your content is seen, whether it’s on digital platforms, billboards, or other media. This guarantees “eyeballs and footfall,” meaning more people will see your message.
- Audience Insights: Paid adverts provide valuable data about your audience. You can learn who is engaging with your content and gather insights that can inform future campaigns.
- Enhanced Functionality: Investing in advertising often gives you access to advanced tools and options within apps and software, allowing for more sophisticated and effective campaigns that perform with success.
- Measurable Results: Spending on advertising enables you to track and measure the success of your campaigns. You can ask for detailed data on clicks, impressions, reach, and more, helping you understand the impact of your efforts.
Explore the top tips to plan your advertising and find out what makes a powerful advert.
Examples of Platforms for Paid Advertising:
- Digital Platforms: Consider advertising on platforms like Spotify, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Google, and TikTok. Each platform has its own set of rules and best practices, so it’s worth exploring these to maximize your success.
- Instagram: For selling products, look into Instagram’s advertising rules and guidelines. This platform is particularly effective for visual and lifestyle products.
Paid advertising can be a powerful tool for reaching your target audience effectively when it comes to marketing plans.
A quick word about how much you should spend.
Consider two things: your objective and your budget.
- Firstly, what do you want to achieve with your marketing? Are you trying to measure the number of visits to your website? Do you want to measure the number of people that contact you (via a phone call or submitting a form).
- Secondly, look at your business numbers to decide how much budget you can comfortably allocate to spend on marketing for short and long term planning. For example: you might want to spend £500 over two months on paid advertising to increase the number of enquiries for your business.
Once you set your objective, you can measure the return on investment and if your advertising plan has been successful.
Want to know more?
Louise is a media, marketing and communications specialist with over 20 years experience working in TV, Radio, print and online media for BBC and Commercial brands, businesses, and services.
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