Think digital: how to optimize your online promotions using ad tools and customer behavior patterns

“The more you spend on ads, the better it is for your business.”

Wrong.

The key to success is not the size of your advertising budget, but the way you use it. Optimizing online ads will help you achieve your business goals even if you don’t have a massive budget.

This article will focus on methods to increase the conversion rate, number of search queries and reduce the cost per click (or CPC) of your company’s digital advertising.

Different ways of optimizing promotions

You can reach potential clients through different types of media ad tools. Each of them has its pros and cons.

Start with setting your business goals correctly. Your goals will determine what tools to use.

If you want to market a new product, it is best to use dynamic banners, in-stream videos, and native advertising. The tools boost brand awareness and the number of search queries in the process.

If selling products online is your goal, you should use static, dynamic, or non-standard banners. This way, website traffic and conversions increase while the conversion cost decreases.

If offline sales are what you are looking for, using dynamic banners, as well as in-stream and in-page videos, is recommended. These media tools impact the desire to buy the product.

Types of media advertizing

Static and dynamic banners are the most cost-effective but their visibility can be limited by what is called “banner blindness” or by ad blocking extensions.

“In-stream” video advertising is played before, during, or after the main content; “in-page” videos are banner ads with videos embedded in them that can redirect users to the domain where these video ads are hosted.

Video ads are effective in bringing in thousands of views. Additionally, viewers tend to remember such content better. However, it can be irritating when a video pops up suddenly and you don’t have a “skip” button to switch off the ad.

Branding and native advertising help visually integrate sponsored material into the content of the publisher.

The biggest pro of branding and native advertising is that they’re non-imposing, yet effective in introducing the brand. But it’s expensive and leaves little room for creativity.

There is no need to use a lot of ad tools to target your audience. The important thing is to choose the right type and set it up accordingly.

The essential component of digital success: targeting

Targeting is one of the most effective tactics: great marketing campaigns do not need to reach everyone, only the people who benefit from what you offer.

There are thousands of ways to sort your business’ target audience, the “classic” ones being gender, age, and income.

“Classic” targeting can be enhanced with more specific characteristics like specific symptoms of a disease or owners of a specific car brand.

Let’s look at some examples of target optimization. —

Example 1

Your product: a snack.

Target audience: mothers who buy it for their children and occasionally, for themselves.

Initially, you could see three areas of targeting:

• gender — women,
• age — 25–45,
• children present.

While the first two targeting points are standard in their price, placing ads specifically for people with children could cost you from 50% to 100% more.

Target optimization would solve the problem of additional costs. Since 7 out of 10 women from the needed age group already have children, and since they also purchase the product for themselves, there is no need to pay more for a more specific targeting category.

Example 2

Let’s say you want to attract more visitors to your movie theatre chain by bringing in your competitor’s audience.

Let’s look at the statistics: 20% of all cinema customers generate 80% of revenue. Those are the people who go to the movies regularly (4–6 times/year) or very often (4–6 times/month). So, you should target only those active viewers that go to the cinema at least 4–6 times/year.

To target your advertising more precisely, you can use location targeting to identify users that usually go to your competitor.

By doing this, you can encourage potential customers to choose your cinema, for example, by offering a “2 for 1” ticket deal in a promotional message.

There are hundreds of other ways you can use targeting to make your advertising more effective.

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When you reach your target users as opposed to all users, it’s much more likely that your messaging will work for them and they’ll convert into regular customers.

Establishing clear goals and targeting your audience with fitting media advertizing are simple steps you can take to get your business to new heights. So what are you waiting for?