Digital Advertising: It’s Time to Shift Your Perspective

Digital Advertising: It’s Time to Shift Your Perspective

Big Ideas

View More
September 18 2019
Big Ideas

I’ve worked with Google AdWords and Analytics for nearly 10 years of my career. I’ve seen a lot of change over the years and I’ve been asked numerous times why running Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns is important for a business. My response, up until recently, had always been “it helps provide short-term support to your long-term SEO efforts.” This answer, of course, is now grotesquely outdated.

As advertisers, we’ve since moved far away from simply using search ads and we’ve arrived at an entire ecosystem of advertising. Today, PPC managers are now responsible for running a wide-range of campaigns across a multitude of search and social channels including Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, Pinterest, SnapChat, etc. With so many advertising channels it can be scary to put all your proverbial chips into a potential blackhole.

Digital advertising in its early form used to follow the same mindset as other advertising methods of yesteryear; one-way conversation that “mass marketed” to as many eyeballs as possible. And it worked too. Driving as many people to your website as possible may have generated a few new leads, but you were talking to anyone and everyone as humanly (or financially) possible.

We’ve all been aware that “Content is King” but you can make the best written article, or funniest video, and nobody will see it if your distribution strategy is flat. Therefore, if “Content is King,” then this means that “Distribution is the Queen” (and for you chess players out there, the Queen is the most powerful piece in the game).

This is where you need to align your advertising and social strategies together and start to build trust with new visitors. I’ve seen many organizations spend money and then end up greatly disappointed with the results.  Nine times out of ten this stems from the lack of trust an advertiser has created with their new visitor.

When it comes to digital advertising, you need to know your audience better than anyone else because your messaging is going to differ vastly whether you’re talking to a CEO or a Marketing Coordinator. Here are a few questions to ask before advertising:

 

  1. Who am I talking to?
  2. Why am I talking to them?
  3. Where are they coming from?
  4. What do I want them to achieve?
  5. When is this relevant to them?

 

The point of PPC is that it’s all about distributing your message beyond the organic digital means and is intended to generate new leads for the sales team or new product sales that are aligned with like-minded customers.

Think about the last advertisement you knowingly and actively clicked on. What resonated with you?

 

  • Was it helpful in your role on the job? Did you need a new product?
  • How did you feel when you landed on their website? Did you find what you were looking for?
  • Did you convert on the first visit or did you go back again?
  • What were they asking you to do?

 

Pull answers from these questions and start looking hard at the ads you’re being served. Advertisements aren’t going away anytime soon, so making them relevant is the new society we live in. Therefore, thinking about these questions related to your audience is going to help you, as a marketer, convert better.

 

______________________________________________________________

Thanks for reading!
Enjoyed this article? Sign up for The Edge - our monthly Newsletter.
Say Hello On: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube

Sign up to get the latest content!


If you wish to receive information from Sherpa relevant to you and/or your organization going forward, please provide your first name, email address, and consent.

You may withdraw your consent at any time at the following address below or by clicking unsubscribe.

Sherpa Marketing Inc. Attn: Privacy Officer
500 - 211 Bannatyne Ave. Winnipeg, MB. R3B 3P2, Canada

1-888-447-7727       info@sherpamarketing.ca