3 Types of Paid Advertising You Should Be Running

What is Paid Advertising and Why Should You be Doing it?

Getting your products or services in front of the right people isn’t easy. Today’s digital landscape is crowded, chaotic, and competitive. Standing apart from the crowd and finding your ideal audience can be challenging. But there’s a way to do it, and it’s called “paid advertising.”

Paid advertising works. It helps you reach the right people at the right time and with the right message.
Of course, advertising isn’t anything new. It’s been around for ages. One of the earliest examples of advertising, a phallic symbol carved into a curb stone to promote a nearby brothel, was unearthed in Pompeii and dated back to at least 70 CE.

In the more recent past, when “traditional” media reigned supreme, paid advertising involved running advertisements on television and radio, putting up outdoor billboard ads, and placing paid ads in newspapers, magazines, and even in The Yellow Pages.

But that was then, this is now, and most of today’s paid advertising campaigns involve digital advertising on various social media platforms, search engines, and websites.

So, although the medium has changed, the goal of a paid advertising strategy hasn’t. It remains focused on reaching the right audience, increasing visibility for your product, and generating sales.

Here are three types of paid advertising every business should run to maximize visibility and grow its customer base.

1. Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

Paid search advertising is an online marketing method whereby advertisers pay a fee each time someone clicks on their ad. The most common PPC ad format appears on search results pages of search engines like Google or Bing. Advertisers can place their brand, product, or service front and center in the form of paid search ads targeting a specific keyword or behavior.

Search Ads Are Effective

One of the most impressive aspects of paid search advertising (and, in fact, all of the paid advertising strategies we’ll be discussing) is its capacity to hone in on specific audiences according to their interests, geographical location, and other critical factors.

To illustrate, you may establish paid advertising initiatives designed to reach individuals who have performed recent searches on specific keywords or have visited particular websites. This guarantees that the correct people view your search ads at the appropriate moment, resulting in maximum impact.

Another benefit of PPC advertising is that it’s relatively inexpensive compared to other forms of online advertising. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad, so you don’t have to worry about wasting money on impressions or views that don’t result in conversions.

Additionally, paid search ads can be easily tracked and monitored using tools like Google Ads and Google Analytics so you can monitor your ad spend budget and measure the success of your ad campaigns in real-time.

Finally, search ads are a great way to test different messages and creative ideas before investing in more expensive advertising platforms such as TV or radio. By running multiple campaigns with different messaging and targeting options, you can quickly determine which ones are most successful and then use those insights to inform your future marketing efforts.

2. Social Media Advertising

Paid social advertising is a form of digital marketing that uses social media platforms to reach an audience. It is a cost-effective way to target specific audiences with tailored messages, increasing the chances of successful conversions.

Social advertising is about creating image and video ads on various social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, TikTok, and more.

Reach Your Target Audience on Popular Platforms

Social media advertising is an essential tool for business owners, big or small, who want to gain more content views, stand out from the crowd, and drive more sales. By tailoring social ads to target people based on various factors such as demographics, location, interests, age, education, income, and politics, you can cost-effectively reach millions of users worldwide, increasing your chances of success.

Here are some of our favorite social ad platforms:

Facebook Ads

Facebook remains the largest social media platform in the world. About 1.55 billion people access Facebook every month, 1.39 billion of whom do so via their mobile devices. Moreover, over 1 billion people use the platform daily, of which 894 million do so on mobile devices – a significant increase of 27% year over year!

As such, it’s pretty much the go-to platform when it comes to running social media ads. Facebook’s popularity across various demographics, means there’s a very good chance your target audience is engaging with the platform, too.

Aside from allowing Facebook users to connect and share content online, the platform also allows merchants to advertise their products and services online.

Facebook advertising agencies use the Meta Business Suite to manage events, ad campaigns and analytics.

Instagram Ads

Known for its glossy photos and videos, Instagram is an ideal platform for brands with visually appealing products easily incorporated into visual media. Instagram also has a massive user base, with the second-highest engagement rate among social media platforms and one of the youngest audiences.

If your business and target market fit both characteristics, Instagram ads could be your best option. Instagram ad agencies utilize the Meta Business Suite to manage all Instagram ad campaigns.

LinkedIn Ads

There are about 66.8 million monthly active LinkedIn users in the U.S. alone, and an estimated 900 million members worldwide. The platform isn’t only used by individuals, but also has over 58 million businesses among its account holders. There is a vast user base of professionals that can be effectively targeted via Linkedin advertising. If your company’s marketing strategy is focused on B2B, LinkedIn is a great place to advertise products or services to industry experts and experienced professionals.

3. Display Advertising

This type of paid ad utilizes visual ad types such as a landing page, banner ads, and image and video ads to promote a product or service. Display ads reach a broad audience and are typically seen on websites, social media platforms, and other digital outlets such as the Google Display Network, a group of more than 200 million sites and mobile apps.

A display advertising campaign can be targeted to a specific audience, allowing advertisers to reach potential customers more effectively. Plus, it’s cost-effective and far less expensive than television, print, or radio ads. So, it is ideal for a business with a small budget.

Like the other forms of paid advertising we’ve highlighted, display ads can be tracked and monitored to measure campaign success. And because the ads are digital, campaign assets can be swapped out quickly in case adjustments must be made to ensure they reach their desired audience.

Utilizing programmatic advertising, agencies can place media buys through demand side platforms to target audiences via their addresses, their behaviors, through geofences & retargeting tactics. The beauty of this approach, is you can target these same people with video, connected TV, streaming audio and display images, and measure and report accurately.

The Bottom Line

At the end of the day, if you’re going to expend time and money to create and run an ad campaign, you want to increase sales and see measurable results.

Running paid ads is an excellent choice to reach your target market and drive more sales. With PPC, social media, and display advertising, you can test different strategies to see what works best for your business. To achieve the best results with your company’s digital marketing efforts, speak with one of the paid advertising and digital marketing professionals at Social Firm today.