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Do you know about these five digital ad options- hidden gems that can skyrocket your business sales? Sure, everyone knows that advertising is essential for business success. After all, how else will people hear about what you do, the products you sell, and the service you provide? The old adage that building a better mousetrap will beat a path to your door is hogwash, since, without advertising, no one knows you have a mousetrap and no one is convinced it’s better.
Despite the need for advertising, standard advertising options like TV, radio, and print, although still worthwhile, no longer perform as well as they did in the past, according to recent studies. Also, these platforms make it difficult to accurately track advertising performance. New digital ad options give you access to niche markets, put your products in front of potential buyers in less noisy competitor spaces, and allow more creative variety. So, shouldn’t you give them a try now.
Recent technological advances support the advertising imperative by offering more digital advertising options that deliver faster results at a lower cost. So here are some of the examples of advertising options you can’t afford to miss as a business owner.
5 hidden gems: digital ad options
Are you like most small businesses that pour your meager advertising dollars into questionable ad options? If so, you might be throwing money away instead of investing it in the growth of your business. Ask yourself these questions:
- How much business did you get from your last ad in a local paper?
- Did running coupons in the local mailer pay off by generating repeat customers?
- Was it worth the money to create an ad on the local radio station?
Likely, your answer to the above questions is either “I don’t know,” or you found a few new customers who never returned to your business. Plus, the costs associated with these media are enormous, as you can see in the image below.
If you find you’re not getting what you hoped for from your advertising budget, try one or more of these alternative digital ad options.
- Local inventory ads
- Audio ads
- Targeted niche newsletter sponsorships
- Connected TV
- Intent-driven Quora and Reddit ads
Local inventory ads and promoted Google Map pins
Have you ever considered local inventory ads or Google Map pins as alternative digital ad options? Maybe because you never knew they existed or how to use them effectively. Well, we’ve got you covered there.
Are you already using local advertising on Google or local SEO? Well, you’re halfway there. Just as local helps market your brick-and-mortar store rank in local searches and show up on Google Maps (see below), Google Local Inventory Ads or Promoted Pins on Google Maps help attract a local market to your location.
These digital ad options work by helping your business show up when nearby folks search for the specific products (goods and services) you sell. Not only that, but the ads show which products are currently in stock. Promoted pins are digital ad options that show your store on the map with a custom icon so browsers can easily navigate to your location.
Because this brings your business to the attention of folks currently in the market for the products you sell, these ads bring in ready buyers who already know what you have. Not only does this translate into sales, but it also means they have fewer questions that tie up time with your salespeople. A win/win for you, your staff, and your customer.
Audio ads
Another of our great digital ad options involves crafting audio ads that run on platforms like Spotify and Pandora or other places where users get access to increasingly popular podcasts. These digital ad options allow you to target users by placing your ads where your target market listens.
You can choose from thousands of channels and podcasts to reach even the smallest niche. For instance, my daughter runs a D&D podcast channel (Venture Forth) with weekly episodes on YouTube and Twitch. This podcast brings in gamers who love listening to (or watching on YouTube) this small band of skilled actors perform their roles as they play through the adventures. Best of all, the pricing makes these options attractive to businesses of all sizes.
These digital ad options work because voice is more intimate, more authentic. Listeners are drawn into the content, rather than doomscrolling through endless posts on most other social media platforms. Your message, natively embedded in the podcast or recorded as a standard radio commercial, features higher retention, emotional engagement, and better recall compared to other ad platforms [source].
Targeted niche newsletters
Email marketing consistently delivers the highest ROI of any type of digital marketing (and much higher than most traditional marketing tactics).
So, why not use one of these highly effective digital ad options? Well, creating and managing your own subscriber list is time-consuming. Buying or renting email lists is no longer legal in most countries. But you can place ads in newsletters curated by other businesses in your market niche. As long as you don’t offer competing goods, most newsletter owners are happy to host your ads.
These digital ad options work when you find an engaged community that matches your target market. Reach out to the owners of local community roundups, industry trade newsletters, or Substack publications that match your market with an offer to place your ad in an upcoming edition. These newsletter go into the mailboxes of folks who want to see the kinds of content you share.
Connected TV
Even local cable TV requires an outlay of funds that doesn’t fit the budget for most small businesses. One client was spending money on a package of ads on these cable channels, with a package that only cost about $10/ ad. Seems like a deal, right? When I looked at the package, it included many channels that didn’t match his target market and were a waste. For instance, he sold motorcycles and jet skis. The package was heavily skewed toward HGTV and others that didn’t match his market.
Alternative digital ad options include connected TV, where you can buy 15-to 30-second spots that go to households in selected ZIP codes or even retargeted to folks who previously visited your site. This surgical precision delivers high returns without the high cost of other TV advertising options.
Quora and Reddit ads
Another of our top digital ad options is advertising on Reddit and Quora. These advertising options feature peer-to-peer recommendations that drive purchase decisions, as you can see below.
By choosing the best Subreddits, question topics, and keyword threads, you target users who are ready to buy based on the recommendations of their peers. Plus, these show up in a Google search to further extend the reach of your advertising.
More common digital ad options still work
Mobile application advertising
The average mobile user has over 30 apps but only regularly uses a few, leading to a market for advertising within these applications. Businesses can utilize banner ads alongside apps or pop-up ads during app usage. Users often tolerate ads in free applications, knowing they help maintain access to their favorite content. Well-crafted ads can encourage users to click through to your app or website, promoting brand engagement.
Often, free applications have advertisements that people accept because they know the advertising ensures they retain access to the free games, entertainment, and applications they love. They could click through these ads to use your app or be directed to the website from it, especially if the ads are well-crafted and entice them to learn more about you and your brands. 
Pay per click advertising
When it comes to the pay-per-click advertising option, ads help bring new users into your marketing funnel and move them toward purchase especially with the new option of shopping ads. Shopping ads appear at the top of the search results, showing a visual image of your products and click-throughs take visitors directly to the product page for easy ordering.
New to pay-per-click advertising, consider Superior Google Ads automation solution to ensure that you get the best possible results from your campaigns. Their solution is an excellent way to ensure your business is being advertised throughout the day and night, appearing whenever someone searches for related keywords or even searches your competitors. Your ad shows up as part of their usual browsing.
Social media advertising
So many people use social media these days, over a billion and a half on Facebook alone. Hence, you would expect that advertising through the platforms would be an obvious choice and it is, especially for small and mid-sized businesses who don’t have the money for flashy TV ads.
The problem is, not every business owner realizes they can sponsor their own content and show up in the newsfeeds of many more people. A great tip is to consider things such as using the advertising tools within the platform to promote your posts or craft specific advertising content.
One of the strongest arguments in favor of social media advertising is that you can specify the audience, what each audience sees and how often they see it, and set your own budget for the campaign, even adjusting the ad spend on the fly. This way, you can really maximize the potential social media advertising has for your business. Social media ads can also be done differently when it comes to using other accounts, which brings us to our final suggestion.
Influencer marketing
Online influencers are people, individuals, and bloggers who have built up a large and engaged audience. Their numbers are vast and targeted and their engagement is high, which means that using influencers for your advertising could be a great way to promote your products and services.
Maybe you supply products or services to the influencer, requesting a review or mention. In other situations, you may pay a fee for the influencer’s time and effort; the Kardashians have built an empire on their engaged follower base, for instance. The influencer might work with you to develop a campaign image and content, based on what they think, and share it with their followers. It has quickly become a new and exciting way to promote a business, as followers find influencers and their opinions more believable than marketing messages from the brand itself.
Let’s hope these tips help you when it comes to advertising options for your business.
Conclusion
Well, we covered a number of digital ad options in this post. The trick to actually optimizing your campaign strategy is to find the right mix among these options. You might want to start small by allocating maybe 10% to 15% of your current ad spend among these digital ad options. Monitor performance carefully to determine which platforms are performing best.
Keep in mind it might take some time to learn how to effectively use new digital ad options, so don’t assume that a small improvement or stagnant growth means you should abandon this experiment. Over time, you’ll get better and you’ll find the right mix of digital ad options for your business and see your sales grow.
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Hausman and Associates, the publisher of MKT Maven, is a full-service marketing agency operating at the intersection of marketing and digital media. Check out our full range of services
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