Popular Digital Ad Marketing Platforms

At FirstPage Marketing, our philosophy for advertising platforms is similar to our philosophy for friendship: having a quality few is better than having too many. With friendships, it’s hard to measure the results of this theory, but with digital ad marketing platforms, we’ve seen the results time and time again. This doesn’t mean that you should put your entire digital marketing budget’s eggs in one basket, but it does mean that you should try to pick the very best platforms for your industry and offering and devote your efforts to those platforms.

There are loads of digital advertising platforms out there, so it can be difficult to choose the right one. Knowing your options and doing your research into how each platform functions and what demographics use them can help ensure that you are equipped to get started in the right direction.

Common Digital Advertising Platforms

There are a few different ways that digital advertising platforms can work. One of the most common systems for digital advertising is pay-per-click, also known as PPC, cost-per-click, or CPC. As the name suggests, in a PPC campaign the advertiser pays each time somebody clicks on the ad. While this is the most common type of digital advertising system, other methods include:

• Pay per impression – advertisers pay for each set of eyes that view the ad
• Pay per conversion – these ads integrate with a website or other form of sales funnel and track when a conversion (such as sale or contact form submission) is completed

Some of the most popular digital advertising and marketing platforms include:

Google Search Ads

As the largest and most widely used search engine in the world, Google’s advertising system is easily the most popular and most widely applicable platform available. With Google’s search ads, an advertiser can set up their website to show up for searches that include particular keywords and phrases. This means that companies are able to show up for searches relevant to their offering within a few days of launching their ads, rather than having to wait months or years for SEO to take effect. Search ads are wonderful for companies because they appear in front of a target audience right at the moment that the audience is looking to get a need met.

What are Google smart display campaigns?

Facebook/Instagram Ads

If you are looking for an advertising system that works well for raising brand awareness and reaching people before they even realize that they want your services, Facebook and Instagram are great options. Using these ads, you can target users based on specific demographic details and audience settings. Using the Facebook Pixel, you can track general details about visitors to your website, and then show ads to those users as they go back to Facebook or Instagram or use details about visitors to target similar users. There are many variations of these ads and they can include videos or images, making them great for making a visual impact.

Find out more ways social media can enhance your marketing presence.

Bing Ads

Another type of search advertising that functions similarly to Google Search ads is Bing Ads. As a less used search engine, these ads do not provide the same potential as Google Ads, but they are still worth considering for many marketing plans. As Meta owns both Facebook and Instagram, both social media platforms can be accessed through the same advertising system.

Learn how to optimize your website for Bing.

Google Display and Remarketing Ads

Part of the Google Advertising Network includes visual ads that can be set up to appear on a variety of highly visited websites across the Internet. Display ads are basically the roadside billboards of the web: they include a graphic advertisement that can appear on a variety of websites to offer brand awareness. A slightly more targeted version of these ads are called Remarketing Ads, which only show to people who have already visited the website being advertised. Both types of ads are excellent for nearly any marketing plan, as they require no ongoing maintenance and typically cost mere pennies per click.

Learn all about how search engines work.

Other Social Media Ads

There are a wide variety of social media platforms out there, and they all have different purposes and user demographics. Although Facebook and Instagram ads have the best ROI in nearly every industry, it is worth considering other platforms, such as YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Does paid social media earn a better return on your investment?

If you need help strategizing for what advertising platforms will work best for you, the team at FirstPage Marketing would love to help out. Give us a call and we can get started!

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