Blog
Marc Forbes
Now with paid online advertising the first companies you think of would be Google and Facebook/Instagram.
Where you start is really going to depend on where you are with your business. I'll go through the pros and cons of both of these services, as well as add some other advertising solutions you might be able to use.
Google advertising is a type of online marketing that is based on the Google Ads platform. This platform allows people to market their product or service by placing ads on Google's search engine results pages, YouTube videos, and the display network.
Google Ads to be honest had really been for bigger companies that can spend the time and money tweaking their ad artwork and copy. Recently they have made it easier for the smaller businesses to get into the action with Google Ads Smart Creatives. “Google’s machine learning selects and builds the best combination of creative assets for each customer.” This makes it a bit easier to manage Adwords for small businesses, as a lot of the testing and optimisation is done for you.
Targeted: Google has detailed data about what their users are searching for which can be used to target specific groups of people with appropriate advertisements.
Flexible campaigns: Ads can be easily added or removed from a campaign at any time without having to wait for approval from a third party.
Targeted advertising: Google's ad targeting methods allow advertisers to reach people who they think will convert into customers.
Smart creatives: Google Ads Smart Creatives has made it a lot smoother to run campaigns.
Takes time to be optimized: Needs a fair bit of work to hit that sweet spot where you're getting the value.
Can be expensive: Depending on your industry the pricing can be a bit high.
Facebook advertising can be broken down into two types: Facebook’s Marketplace Ads and sponsored posts. Marketplace ads are ads that appear in the News Feed as well as on other mobile apps, like Instagram. Sponsored posts are ads that marketers create from scratch, which can only appear on Facebook’s desktop site and in its mobile app.
Both these types of advertisements have several advantages and disadvantages that you need to consider before deciding which is best for you or your business.
Facebook advertising is a pretty cost-effective way of reaching a large number of people interested in your product or service.
Really targeted: It allows you to target people based on their interests, demographics, and behavioural traits.
Reach out to a large audience quickly: Facebook Advertising is the best way to get your message out there to a lot of people quickly.
Can be pretty cost effective: It’s inexpensive because it doesn’t cost much to set up an ad and you can reach a wide audience.
Not as Targeted: Facebook Advertising may not be as targeted as Google Ads.
To start, well it's pretty simple, just find and reach out to someone with a following online. They don't have to be huge, if you're small, you can try a few smaller influencers in your local area.
Before you start with an influencer, write down what you want to get out of the interaction and try and measure what you are getting from them. It should be a mutually beneficial relationship. This is mostly going to be more sales on your end, and money on their end.
Don't forget to make an agreement with the influencer and have a set plan on what you want out of it. If they are going to take and post a few photos with a shout out.
It’s common practise to offer a deal you can track with a promotion code for each influencer to offer their followers, this is a good way to track how much business you're generating vs the money you're spending.
