An effective online advertising campaign incorporates all of your online efforts into a cohesive strategy designed to get maximum results. You use similar concepts to any other marketing or advertising campaign. The main difference is the platforms you are using to get your message across. An effective online advertising campaign addresses four main points:
- The products or services you are offering
- Your website
- Content and appearance of your ad
- Your target audience
Outline Your Goals, Expectations, and Resources
An effective online advertising campaign starts with a basic written plan. This plan is an outline of your advertising strategies spanning the various online outlets you intend to use to reach your target audience(s).
- Goals – What do you want to achieve with your online advertising campaign? This includes your overall expectations and your short-term goals for each online platform.
- Market Definition – What is your target audience? While you may say “everybody,” realistically there are specific demographics and geographic locations you want to reach.
- Online Advertising Mediums – Where are you going to advertise online? Get specific with what sites or social platforms you intend to use.
- Sales Cycle – When do you want to reach your target audience with your message and for how long? This depends on your goals. Seasonal campaigns, for instance, have a very specific window. Increasing brand awareness, on the other hand, is a continuous goal.
- Budget – How much you can allocate for your online advertising campaigns? This includes a specific breakdown of what you are willing or able to spend on each online platform.
Sales and Marketing Goals
Before diving into an online marketing campaign, you should clearly define your sales and marketing goals. This includes your expected immediate results and long-term results. Your sales and marketing goals can be broken down further:
Sales Goals
- Immediate results to start building revenue and generating conversations
- Long-term results related to sales cycles
- Building productive relationships with your target audience
- Recurring revenue from new and returning customers plus referrals
Marketing Goals
- Branding
- Streamlined email list building
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Market awareness
Putting It all Together
An effective online advertising campaign doesn’t have to volumes of details facts and figures. In fact, you can put together an effective campaign in a concise 2-3 page report. You want to make sure that everybody responsible for executing your online advertising campaign is clearly on the same page. Go ahead and start sending out those emails and placing ads on carefully selected websites, social platforms, and blogs.
Measuring Results
Keep track of your click through rate (CTR) and understand what it really means. Just because people are clicking on your online ads doesn’t mean that they are actually making a purchase or using your services. Even a poorly developed ad can generate a significant amount of curiosity clicks rather than productive conversions. Tools like Google Analytics can help you see where your online traffic is coming from and how many conversions you are getting.
Take a look at where you are getting the desired results and where you are falling short. No effective online marketing campaign is set in stone. All the research in the world can’t accurately predict the way that consumers are going to react to your online advertising efforts. Stay focused and make adjustments as necessary.
