No matter the size of your business’s piggy bank, budgeting for digital media to promote your brand has never been more important. Today, both B2B and B2C brands are recognizing that their prospects are living and searching on the web. How do you reach them? Take your pick: text ads, banner ads, video ads and e-mail marketing are all effective ways to driving traffic to targeted landing pages and webinars. But they all cost money.
Here are few helpful tips on how to get a better return on your investment when buying digital media:
#1: Carve out an adequate digital media budget
Digital media buying is not inexpensive. But there are ways for even a brand with a modest budget ($500 or so a month) to play in the digital space. The important thing is to set a reasonable budget and stick with it. As you begin to see a return on your investment, ratchet your spending up. Walk before you run.
#2: Do your research
The more you do your homework, the better your digital marketing will perform. Find out where your competitors are, what keywords they are using and where they place their digital ads. Utilize competitive intelligence tools like Google Adwords or What Runs Where. These are excellent tools to pick up your competitors trail before it cools.
#3: Choose a traffic source tool
There are a number of traffic sources out there: Real-time Bidding (RTB), Buy Sell Ads or full-service ad agencies like Agency Creative. With RTB you essentially bid on ad placement, the space going to the highest bidder. Ad networks like Buy Sell Ads, have pre-existing relationships with a variety of online publishers and serve as an online middleman. Our company Agency Creative looks at digital media from a holistic perspective and serves in an advisory role. Plus, we monitor the results and may make adjustments along the way to optimize ROI. These are the basic ways to go.
#4: Read all contracts carefully
Don’t skip over the fine print. Know the terms and conditions before you pull the trigger. There are a lot of good deals and bad deals out there. Understand how a digital media source handles creative swapping, down time and implementation error. Do your due diligence. It will be time well spent.
#5: Test your ads
A/B test your messaging and landing pages to see what performs better. It is usually best to start out with a 300 x 250 banners since this ad unit typically yields the highest number of click throughs. Once you’ve discovered which message performs the best, focus on that message and experiment with other sizes.
No matter the size of your budget, utilizing digital media can help you get your message out. Follow these 5 simple tips and grow your brand and your digital budget. If all of this feels a bit daunting, then call in the big guns. Our digital buying expertise is at your disposal. Give us a toll-free call at 866.642.7559 and ask to talk to Mike.
We are a Dallas Advertising Agency with expertise in integrated marketing.
