Some businesses are hesitant when it comes to paying for online advertising. While most of them invest heavily into traditional offline advertising methods – such as TV commercials, Yellow Pages, newspapers, etc. – they’re still leery about investing some of those marketing dollars into the online space.
This is a huge mistake because the fact is that online advertising is much more cost-effective than most traditional methods. Furthermore, most of your target audience is spending a great deal of time online; meaning you will get more a return on your investment.
When it comes to getting more visitors to your website, of course you should include your web address on ALL of your marketing ads; however, no ad will send more visitors to your website than an “online” ad because users have the capability to click on it immediately and be directed to your site.
Another great feature of online advertising is that you can closely target specific prospects who want and need your products and services. With offline advertising methods, you’re simply paying a fortune to put your message out to the masses and hoping someone bites.
There are a number of different platforms online that you can use for paid advertising. However, two of the most common platforms in the paid advertising space are Google AdWords and Facebook Ads.
- Google AdWords: Utilizing this advertising network will enable you to place ads on the Google search engine, as well as sites that are a part of the Google Content Network (millions of websites around the globe).
With Google AdWords, you can target the EXACT keywords that you want your ads to show up for. This means the people who are seeing your ad are actively searching for information related to your product or service.
These ads are setup on a “pay-per-click” format, meaning you only pay when someone actually clicks your ads. If it gets clicked then it is likely that the person is interested in what you have to offer.
- Facebook Advertising: Facebook also has a paid advertising platform to help you target Facebook users. While it works somewhat similar to Google AdWords, you’re able to create ads that are even more targeted.
For instance, you can choose to display your ads to specific demographics, such as specific age groups, genders, and even to people who have indicated an interest in your type of product or service.
Once these people view your Facebook page, they will be exposed to your website address on your page and will possibly click it to get even more information about your business.
These are just a couple of the many different paid advertising methods available online. Regardless of which ones you use, they can be extremely effective in getting more targeted traffic to your website.