If you want to be noticed in the digital marketing place, you need to know the best online advertising for small business and also include it to be part of your marketing strategy. Irrespective of your budget or how you plan to apportion it, allotting some of your marketing budgets online is a smart move.
According to research, people who come to your website through a paid ad are 50% more likely to purchase your product or service than those who came from an organic link. That’s because ads are targeted towards the right audience for your business, and that audience may likely buy your product.
Now, let’s find out the online advertising platforms that are right for your small business.
Table of Contents
1. Facebook
Facebook is arguably the largest and the most used social platform in the world with about two billion users every month. Though the platform is promoted as a means of keeping up with family and friends, people also use it to follow and interact with businesses on the site.
It can be difficult to get organic traffic on Facebook due to the fact that it changes its algorithms regularly. That’s when Paid advertising comes in. Paying for placement on Facebook lets you get in front of more people, and in front of the specific ones you want.
Paid advertisements comes in different forms. For example, promoted posts looks just like regular posts from your Facebook page, but are more likely to show up in someone’s feed. Display ads can also be placed into the feed-in forms of videos, photos, or slideshows.
Facebook permits a very high degree of market segmentation and targeting but can be difficult to sail through if you don’t have strong technical skills. This feature can let you save a huge amount of money by avoiding unnecessary clicks.
It is a good platform to advertise your product or service. You’ll have the chance to get more people to your business site thus getting more traffic.
2. YAIOA ( Your All in One Account)
This platform enables you to buy ad space (by subscribing) from website owners or bloggers related to your business niche. After subscribing, your banner will be placed on the website or blog you subscribed to and run for the time frame it was subscribed for.
It is very easy and affordable to subscribe to get ad spots on this platform. You just have to register as a CLIENT and fund your wallet. You can fund your account through PayStack, PayPal, or Bank Deposit.
After adding funds to your account, go to subscription (on your dashboard) and search for “buy ad space”, enter the location you want the ads to be targeted, set the budget then click on the search button.
A list of website owners (vendors) selling ad space within your location and budget will pop up, choose the vendor whose site is most suitable for your business and subscribe to his plan.
The vendor you subscribe to his plan will be notified about your subscription and will contact you for the ad banner which will be displayed on his website and runs for the duration it was subscribed for.
Buying ad space has never been this easy and straightforward. It is also safe because the money you pay to subscribe will be on escrow and the vendor can only cash it after the time you subscribed for has elapsed.
3. Google Ads
Google Ads formerly known as Google AdWords is no doubt the largest advertising platform online. It is the #number choice for many established companies and startups. Advertising via Google Ads can be extremely complex but once you understand how it works it can be a good place to advertise.
This platform serves ads in search results on thousands of website pages. They help you target your ads based on demographics, geography, and other criteria.
The ads campaign for Google ads can be very expensive and if you are not careful, you can pay for many useless clicks in hours
In order to manage your expenses, set daily budgets and target carefully and always visit your campaigns. Google Ads can be a great online advertising option when you learn how to harness its power.
4. Instagram
Instagram is also another great online platform to advertise your business. Over 500 million people use Instagram on a daily basis. It’s a highly visually appealing platform. If your product images and videos are appealing and eye-catchy, it can be an ideal place to get interaction.
Instagram lets you include your business address and phone number to all posts thus making it easier for prospects to reach you.
You can easily access this platform full features in their mobile app. This can be disadvantageous to you if you prefer to manage your business from a desktop environment.
However, if you are a mobile literate, making use of this platform will feel intuitive because smartphones today have high-quality cameras and even editing equipment that you can use to create a full professional ad campaign directly from your phone.
You can also look for micro-influencers in your niche on Instagram to help promote your product. Micro-influencers are people with smaller followings on Instagram but are still influential in certain areas.
They will post about your business in exchange for a free product or a price much lower than that of celebrity influencers.
If you are targeting a younger audience, investing some amount of money on Instagram won’t be a bad idea.
5. Bing
Google Ads is not the only one that does search marketing. Bing also has a lot to offer. There are about five million searches performed on Microsoft’s Bing monthly. Bing’s main goal is to make search advertising very easy for all their clients.
Bing has an import tool that lets you bring in your campaigns from Google Ads. This can save your time especially if you have dedicated lots of time researching the perfect targeting on ads.
Bing also has a wide range of teaching tools to aid people to get acquainted with their network. Their Ads Accredited professional certification program lets you gain an in-depth understanding of the platform. You can even watch webcasts from their educational library on the topics you are interested in.
Bing can also offer access to customers that most of your competitors are forgetting. If you place ads on a site that your audience uses but your competitors don’t it gives you an opportunity to get attention.
Advertising on Bing is much cheaper than Google Ads and can be a good place for small business owners with a smaller budget to advertise. But Google Ads is no doubt bigger than Bing that’s why it’s advisable to experiment with campaigns to know how much you are spending per customer acquisition. It’s the only way to know if you can advertise on Google, Bing or both.
6. LinkedIn
If you have a business-to-business (B2B) company, LinkedIn is the best choice for you. LinkedIn has affluent, high-level professionals, and well-educated people. This platform most popular advertisement options are:
- Videos or sponsored posts that show with user-generated content with user feeds
- Text ads with a small image that shows on the right-hand side of any page within the platform
- Sponsored in- mail that sends personalized emails to a user’s inbox.
You can target LinkedIn ads based on the size of the company, title of the individual, the industry they work in, and their location. Ads run with a present daily maximum budget on a cost per click, cost per thousand impressions or cost per video views basis.
7. Twitter
Twitter also has highly educated and affluent users just like LinkedIn. If your target audience includes degree holders who earn more than $75,000 yearly, Twitter is a good place to advertise.
There are different types of Twitter ads but the simplest is the Promoted Tweet. Promoted Tweets are just like your business regular tweets with a difference (they can be seen by people who don’t follow your brand yet). Promoted Tweets can be retweeted, liked, and replied to.
Promoted Accounts place your entire account in front of potential users to gain new followers. Most Twitter users are open to this type of ad because it helps them find new products and services.
Promoted Trends place the trending topics you want your viewers’ trending feed on the left side of the home screen thus help to increase engagement.
Twitter only charges for ads when you’ve achieved your conversion goal. If your aim is to increase your followers, for instance, you will only pay when you receive a new follower.
Twitter also has a keyword auction but the cost per click can be really low because of the lack of competition.
8. Snapchat
Snapchat can also be a good place to advertise online. They added paid advertising in 2014, and since then different brands have used it for their online advertising campaign.
This platform offers three types of advertising:
- Geofilters – An excellent tool for brand recognition. Geofilters put a transparent filter over the users’ snap.
- Snap Ad Videos – Snap Ad videos were the first video ads to be released in a native vertical format that capitalizes on the app’s mobile-first area.
- Sponsored Lenses – These are interactive filters that the platform users can add to a video or photo. These lenses are activated via gestures like tapping the screen or raising your eyebrows.
Some Snapchat ads are self-serve, while others need the participation of a Snapchat representative. Many advertisers may find that the reach they need is cost-prohibitive. If the Snapchat audience is ideal for you, you could see that it is a great online advertising platform.
Summary: Best Online Advertising for Small Business
There you have it, the best online advertising for small business. Where you decide to advertise online depends on your goals and budget for your campaign (s).
Google Ads is larger and can help you get your business out there in no time but it is complex and quite expensive for small businesses with a low budget.
Bing is affordable and can still help you get to a larger audience but it depends on the location you are targeting.
Facebook is ideal if you’ve narrowed your main audience to a small select group. You will still spend some amount of money but if you’ve set your parameters correctly, you could get an excellent ROI.
LinkedIn is great for B2B businesses, Instagram if you’re targeting a younger audience, and Twitter is great if you are looking for a well-educated and well-to-do customer.
Subscribing to a subscription via YAIOA is the easiest and straightforward method of placing your ad on other people’s websites in your niche to get traffic as well as make sales.
The choice is yours but go for an online advertising platform within your budget range.
