How To Get More Clicks with Online Advertising
- Published: January 25, 2014, By Stephanie Millman
Some businesses are not getting strong results with online advertising because either their message is not a good fit for the audience visiting the webpage OR the design and content of the ad is not connecting with the reader. A solid advertising strategy considers both the environment of the ads placed as well as what is being displaying in each of those ads. For example, you wouldn’t want to advertise your process machine products on a machine builder association website, but a well-designed ad presenting a newly launched machine in a trade publication (such as the one you are reading) would be an excellent message in a well-matched environment.
I need to back up on this topic of online advertising before getting into the details on how to get better results. You see, most businesses should be using online ads as part of their marketing strategy, but I have seen a very big disconnect in what their expectations are and the effort they put into getting the anticipated results. First, most online ads should be viewed more like display ads. They should be used to generate interest and grow brand awareness, not create an immediate sales lead to place an order. Readers to most online content are there to find news and trends in their industry, not necessarily to find products to buy at that moment.
In moving forward, I recommend that you first align your expectations with your executive staff after you have done the research with your online advertising vendors. In doing your research, garner audience information and extract data about other advertisers expectations and results. Will your expectation be to get eyeballs on your message (branding) or to get clicks on the ad (direct marketing)? Next, think through the entire advertising campaign with the end-in-mind (expected outcome). I recommend having more than one ad for your campaign to cycle through different pages and test what connects with the reader. Your ads should be creative enough to draw attention to your message without annoying the reader. You also need to reflect your campaign in other messages to customers. I suggest having similar design elements and messages on your website, at trade shows, inserted into invoices and on the footers of your emails.
If your expectation is to measure online advertising based on clicks, then you will need to engage the reader enough to interact with your ad by providing an enticing offer in exchange for their click/effort. Most online users want low-risk interactions, so stick to simple conversions like signing up for your newsletter, sampling a trial service of yours, watching an educational video or offering their email to be first on the list for a new product launch.
It takes time to not only develop a strategy for online advertising but also to execute the design, offer, and message in a way that connects with the readers. There will be two additional posts about this topic. The next one will be on how to develop the design (online ad creative) and the third will be about creating the content (online ad copy). But first take the time upfront to define your realistic expectations by doing the research and collaborating with the website company to set goals and establish a thorough campaign that will properly represent your brand and connect with your prospects.
