Online advertising is one of the best ways to attract new clients and boost sales. Read on to discover the best place to advertise online here.
With consumer confidence barely starting to peek its head up after March COVID shutdowns, every dollar you spend as a business owner counts. That frugality extends into how you choose to advertise.
Some business owners may opt to cut advertising spending out of their budgets all together during these tough times. In our opinion, we think a calculated, aggressive advertising approach is a better course of action as it will allow you to build market share in an economy where competitors may be shuttering.
But what is the best place to advertise online? Where will your marketing dollars stretch the furthest?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to that question so our team has compiled eight of our favorite ad platforms for you to consider.
1. A Personal Website
In a world of several advertising choices, a personal website still stands head and shoulders above the rest. Why? Because you have full control over your presence and promoting your products won’t cost you a cent over your standard operating expenses.
If your website doesn’t get enough traffic for you to think it’s justified as a foundational advertising tool, learn about SEO and leverage some of your findings. With a little bit of time, you’ll find that your site will start to deliver.
2. Yelp
Is your business a brick and mortar? If it is, you’ll want to have a presence on Yelp and put some advertising dollars into the platform.
When you advertise on Yelp, your business gets priority listings when people are searching for relevant services in your area. That premiere placement could land you hundreds of leads depending on demand for what you do.
Contrary to popular belief, spending money on Yelp doesn’t allow you to remove poor feedback.
3. Google
Google is the most widely used search engine on earth. Every day, billions of searches are conducted on the platform, many of which could be directed to your business if you take out ads on the platform.
Google’s paid results appear on top of organic results when people search for certain keywords. That means, rather than needing to earn the top spot on search engine results pages, you can put forth a small spend and rent that exposure.
4. YouTube
Not only does Google have the most used search engine in the world but it also has the most-watched video platform. YouTube users consume millions of hours of video daily and before just about every video they watch, they’ll sit through an ad.
If being the advertiser that pitches YouTube users before they get to their content sounds like exposure you’d enjoy, take out a media buy on the platform. Advertising on YouTube is affordable since you’ll only be charged if a viewer is engaged with your video.
5. Facebook
For those of you that are not fans of the Google advertising ecosystem, you’ll be glad to know that there are other players in town. Facebook has emerged as being the best place to advertise in several people’s books given the amount of data it has on its vast user base.
Facebook allows you to use everything they know about their consumers to hyper-target people based on their political beliefs, sexual orientation, and everything in-between. What’s even better is that Facebook ads offer flexible budgeting tools that help you drive conversions without burning too much cash.
6. Instagram
There’s no question that Facebook’s average demographic is aging. For businesses that are bent on attracting a younger audience, Instagram is the place to be.
Much like Facebook, Instagram offers flexible targeting options due to user analytics it has. Furthermore, Instagram is a deeply visual platform that works well if your products are of a visual nature (jewelry, clothing, etc.).
We’ve seen several companies migrate their Facebook marketing spends to Instagram as they’ve seen platform momentum shift so consider following in their footsteps!
7. Amazon
People don’t typically know that Amazon is an advertising platform. Truth be told, from giving out loans to managing logistics, Amazon does it all and consequently, offers ample advertising opportunities to sellers on its platform.
Like Yelp, Amazon will let you buy premium placement in its listings when users search for relevant products. Depending on demand, that placement could result in thousands of additional impressions.
Amazon, like most advertisers, won’t charge for impressions but will charge for clicks.
8. LinkedIn
We’ve saved what we think is the best place to advertise if you’re a B2B company for last. LinkedIn is a social network that carved out its niche as being the best place for professionals to connect. That angle has made it a popular place for CEO’s, office managers, and other decision-makers/buyers to congregate.
LinkedIn will allow you to target individuals based on their job title, education level, suspected income, and several other factors. You can even purchase the ability to direct message important people in an industry, even if you don’t know them, through the platform’s InMail feature.
Discover Which of Our Best Place to Advertise Picks Works for You and Stick With It
As we mentioned, there is no one-size-fits-all best place to advertise. Where your money will stretch the furthest will largely depend on what you’re selling and who you’re selling to.
We recommend experimenting with whichever of our suggested platforms seem to make the most sense to your business and sticking with whichever solution drives the highest return on investment. If you’d like more pragmatic advice on how to market your company, read the latest content we have available on our blog.