Updated: June 13, 2022
Paid media is the basis of nearly any company’s marketing plan, with paid campaigns and ad types taking on a different shape depending largely on the individual business. It is a multi-pronged marketing strategy that offers a wide range of options for reaching potential and existing customers, as well as achieving successful conversion. Paid campaigns are an essential component of a company’s brand identity and overall revenue growth, providing a focused, highly intentional approach towards business success.
As a business owner, understanding the realm of options available is critical in developing a smart, effective marketing plan that works for your company.
What is Paid Media?
In simplest terms, paid media is advertising and marketing efforts that require a paid advertisement placement. Paid media can take a wide variety of forms, including sponsored ads, search engine placement, display ads, branded content, and more. Often, paid media is the type of marketing that most people think of when they imagine traditional advertising. However, in today’s digitally-driven culture, paid media has become a highly complex world with a number of options for marketing success.
Why is Paid Media Important?
Paid campaigns are extremely valuable; providing the opportunity to produce measurable success for a variety of business goals. Because each business’ paid media approach can be highly customized, paid campaigns offer a chance to design a plan that closely fits individualized goals and needs.
Different campaigns types are useful for different business goals, so selecting the right combination of ad options is important. Choosing the best-fit platform and campaign type can set your company up for marketing success, contributing to a higher rate of customer conversions, strengthened brand identity, and overall revenue growth.
Types of Paid Campaigns & Ads
One of the major strengths of digital marketing is that it offers a large number of platforms and ad types to choose from, making it possible to work towards your business goals in a highly focused, effective manner. Understanding the different types of paid campaigns and ad types will be extremely useful in choosing the ones that best fit your business needs, as well as ensure that you use each type to its highest potential.
Here is a handy guide to several types of paid campaigns and ads that you can incorporate into your digital marketing strategy:
One of the most widely-used social media platforms, Facebook offers several options for paid media and advertising. The site uses a campaign’s objective to serve it to the best-qualified users to fit the specific parameters, so having a clear vision of your target audience can ensure that your media reaches the right people. Factors like user age, gender, interests, and demographics are important to consider when creating a successful Facebook campaign, and Facebook recommends using carefully-constructed customer lists for effective targeting. Additionally, shaping your content to be highly engaging and attention-grabbing will help your media stand out on users’ busy newsfeeds.
Choosing your ad type should be a decision based on the business goal you are hoping to achieve, whether that is customer engagement, brand identity, increase in traffic, or lead generation.
Single Image Ads
These ads are ideal for driving website traffic, building brand awareness, lead generation, and successful website conversions. An effective single image ad generally has less than 20 percent text and is comprised of an engaging, lifestyle-focused image.
Carousel Ads & Slideshow Ads
These ads also use an image-based approach, taking a slightly more interactive angle. Like single image ads, these two ad types should include minimal text and an interesting image to successfully engage with the viewer. They are good options for establishing brand awareness, driving website traffic and conversions, and generating leads.
Video Ads
These ads can be a powerful tool to grab users’ attention quickly, using engaging images, sound, and concise text. This type of paid media can successfully communicate valuable information about your business and build a brand identity, as well as fuel website conversions and traffic.
Collection Ads
These ads are an excellent way to engage with customers that fit your target market, providing interesting content and an effective point of connection. Used correctly, collection ads can contribute to brand awareness, website traffic, conversions, and valuable lead generation.
Google is another must-have in your digital marketing plan, providing several options for a multi-faceted approach to reaching your target audience. Although Google’s various platforms can be highly saturated, using engaging content and creating highly targeted customer lists can help your campaigns connect with the right users. Creativity, customer incentives, and Google bidding algorithms (strategies such as Target CPA and ROAs) are all important to consider when developing your Google paid media strategy.
Relevance is particularly critical for Google-based advertising, and ads should be highly relevant to the targeted user, providing a valuable, high-quality experience. Much like Facebook campaigns, Google paid ads should be chosen carefully to achieve specific business goals.
Google Search
Search ads are among the most well-known options for paid placement through Google, useful for driving relevant traffic to a business’ website for both consideration and conversions. The sponsored placement can be found either above or below the organic search results, effectively reaching users who fit the target profiles. Though Google Search can be highly competitive, using the right combination of keywords and geographic area can contribute to marketing success.
Google Display
Display ads will appear on mobile applications, Google display sites, and Gmail, and can build both brand awareness and website traffic. Typically, display ads should be just one element of a multi-pronged digital marketing strategy, part of a “full funnel” strategy for optimal results.
YouTube Video Ads
Video ads are ideal for engaging with customers and building brand identity and are a good option for funneling users towards other targeted forms of marketing. Pricing can vary widely depending on the video placement, so focusing on more general topics and audiences is often recommended.
Google Shopping
Shopping ads are useful for connecting with customers searching for products and services related to your company but does require a high level of maintenance and upkeep to be successful.
Google Remarketing
Remarketing, aka retargeting, reaches past website visitors to drive consideration and brand awareness but is often only marginally effective unless carefully designed using incentive exclusive to motivate conversions.
Learn More About Paid Campaigns and Ad Types from a V Digital Services Expert
When it comes to paid campaigns and ad types, your options are nearly limitless. Creating a tailored marketing plan that fits your business goals and needs can be challenging, especially with so many options to choose from. For many business owners, partnering with an expert marketing team is the most effective way to unlock their company’s ideal marketing strategy.
At V Digital Services, our team has the expertise and resources to help you create and implement a smart marketing strategy for your business. Together, we can design a tailored combination of paid campaigns and ad types to propel your company above and beyond your business goals. To learn more about how a targeted marketing strategy can give your business a cutting-edge advantage, contact V Digital Services today.