You can spend thousands of hours and pounds on digital marketing and still fail miserably – companies of all shapes and sizes regularly deliver disastrous campaigns, and there’s only one thing to blame:
They failed to understand what exactly they had to do to get the results.
Just like a business, marketing is about solving problems.
Perhaps it’s that not enough people land on your website, or the conversion rate is poor.
Maybe the problem is that you want the masses to discover a specific product, or you want to promote a piece of content.
No matter what it is, it’s essentially a problem you want to be solved – and one you’ll solve using the right digital advertising strategy.
And when you don’t start with the “problem-solver” mentality, you won’t be able to get what you need to elevate your business to the next level.
What is digital advertising?
Digital advertising and digital marketing are analogous, rather than synonyms.
Digital marketing is more about developing a brand identity and overall online experience for you and the customer, whereas digital advertising is a more direct approach that focuses on developing notoriety and brand awareness.
Therefore, if you click on an ad, you are looking at the product of digital advertising.
However, once you land on the website and enjoy a seamless user experience, that is the craft of a brilliant digital marketer.
Digital advertising and marketing share several similarities, and the most prominent one is the use of performance-driven strategies to deliver impressive results.
Identifying your problem
Sometimes, identifying the problem holding you back is a bit difficult, especially because the problem you are facing may be the product of another problem.
For example, let’s say your social media marketing is not delivering numbers.
You may be inclined to think that it’s because you don’t have enough followers or you are not posting enough content – but, what caused those problems to begin with?
It could be that the content you are producing is not specific enough and does not resonate with your audience. Or even worse, you have been penalised by the algorithm and you don’t know why.
Getting an expert opinion is a very good way to identify the exact problem you are facing – and as we keep stressing, getting the right problem is the key to getting the right solution.
Choose the right type of digital advertising based on your needs
Now that you identified the problem, here are some of the solutions you may want to consider to achieve the results you want out of your online advertising.
Problem 1: I struggle with visibility!
So many people struggle with visibility, there’s no shame in admitting that you are not getting the number of visitors you should be getting right now.
Fortunately, you can choose an online advertising strategy based on how you want to solve this issue, as well as your current financial situation.
For example, you may be inclined towards short-term results. This means that you want customers to discover your website by the end of the week, or even today if you could.
You may even be short on cash, or you aren’t sure digital marketing is right for you yet.
This is where we would suggest Pay Per Click strategies to help you get visitors as fast as possible.
If you focus on a performance-driven strategy, PPC is the key to expand your revenue, which opens up a lot more strategies and high-budget choices such as long-term strategies.
Search Engine Optimisation is the long-term alternative to PPC to solve your visibility issues. Perhaps, you want long-lasting results because you expect your business to be around for a long time and you, therefore, want the best for the future.
Therefore, you should choose SEO as your digital advertising plan, or even a combination of SEO and different types of PPC campaigns to make your online image shine.
Further reading: PPC Hacks to run a successful Google Ads campaign
Problem 2: People don’t buy my products!
Why people don’t buy your products despite discovering you may be difficult to understand since anything may be the cause of this.
Maybe your product needs some tweaking, or simply enough, the right message.
If it’s an image issue you are facing, you will benefit from a PR campaign or an Online Reputation Management strategy if you notice bad reviews incessantly knocking at your door.
Alternatively, suppose people do land on your website but don’t buy anything. In that case, you may be struggling with User Experience optimisation, which either a UX or a CRO service will solve for you.
Problem 3: I struggle with just about everything!
People don’t buy anything. They don’t visit your website. You may be non-existent for all that matters.
Then you need a global media campaign. This is the most comprehensive service you’ll find from a performance-driven digital marketing agency such as topflight.
With a combination of channels, this service is the digital advertising equivalent to being led by the hand towards a successful business.
A global media campaign is a combination of SEO, paid ads, PR, global targeting and even more – a mixture of high-performing services to quite literally give you results and have you do nothing to obtain said results.
This is our most unique service, only given to those who have a story to tell and only need a good medium to tell it.
Problem 4: I am not reaching enough people!
Reaching enough people is the mission of every online advertiser.
So yes, you are in luck, because good advertisers are all around you, ready to help you overcome this obstacle.
However, as we keep stressing over and over again, you need to understand why exactly you aren’t reaching enough people.
Sometimes, you may even be targeting too many people.
Yes, although it sounds counterproductive, targeting too many people means you will be able to reach less, because what you are producing isn’t specific enough for an audience, meaning that you won’t get shared around as much as you would if you focused on hitting ultra-specific niches.
Or, it could be an issue related to your efficiency and performance – you may be overspending on your ads, which is something a performance-driven marketing agency will be able to solve for you.
We regularly overcome this by minimising cost and obsessing over high Return On Investment (ROI) at every step of the way.
Finally, if you rely heavily on social media, consider revisiting the quality of your content.
High-quality content will help you reach more people than ad spends will ever will, thanks to viral content.
What else do you need to do?
Sometimes, understanding the problem isn’t enough – or you simply want more assurance that what you are paying for is right for you.
Fortunately, there are different ways to understand the right digital advertising plan for your business beyond solving existing problems.
Research your buyers
Entire plans change according to the target audience you are delivering to.
For example, you may have discovered that social media marketing is a highly effective strategy, but now that you need to understand the platform, you should create a buyer persona.
If you are targeting younger demographics, forget about spending tons of money on Facebook Ads, TikTok or Snapchat will help you out a ton.
Your website layout may even change according to the target audience – for example, using larger and simpler fonts is normally better when your target audience is older people.
Focus on the metrics
Your plan should focus on a single metric for it to be a performance-driven advertising campaign. For example, you should focus exclusively on increasing traffic – but in the meanwhile, you should also keep aware of what other metrics change as a result of this campaign.
This opens for interesting opportunities, such as viral content marketing strategies or even new pathways you may discover accidentally.
To give you an example, we focused on increasing traffic as a result of a content campaign this year, but after noticing user engagement was increasing thanks to an improved layout, we managed to boost two important metrics in one go!
Recommended read: Understanding the metrics of a successful social media campaign
Consider a multi-channel approach
Nearly every time, a professional marketing agency will suggest you incorporate multiple channels into your advertising plan to get more out of your budget.
Multi-channel marketing is proven to be the most effective way to drive increased brand engagement levels as well as reach a much wider audience.
Another important benefit of multi-channel marketing is the wider variety of content you’ll be producing to cover all of your channels.
Do make sure your budget is ready for this, however, as you don’t want your marketing to sap away from other areas of the business.
Conclusion
Choosing the right digital advertising plan for your business is all about understanding how to better solve an issue.
After you do that, consider giving us a call.
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