The 7 Key Things You Need for a Successful Digital Advertising Campaign

Setting up a digital marketing campaign might seem scary if you've never done it before. Even if you've never implemented one before, it will be shockingly similar to a traditional marketing campaign with a few key differences. Not sure where to begin? We've rounded up seven of the most essential things to consider before diving into digital advertising. 

A Goal

Before you even begin to think about all the other details, it's very important to figure out what your goal(s) is and what you're looking to accomplish. Figuring out what you wish to achieve first allows you to design your campaign around that specific end goal, which allows all the pieces of the puzzle to come together much easier. Here are some ideas:
  •  Branding
  •  Gain followers on social media
  • Promote your business
  • Get website conversions
  •  Increase sales
  • Receive video views
While you can essentially make any goal you want depending on your marketing strategy, these are the most common and best practices for digital marketing.
 

A Platform

Once you figure out what you want to be the focus of your campaign, determine what platforms you want to advertise on next. Lucky for you, the Internet has a plethora of options to choose from. You could go the more traditional route and advertise on local online newspapers or news outlets. These work the same as advertising in an actual newspaper but instead of seeing it in print, you see it online. Another great option is display ads by Google, which have many benefits, including a massive audience, measurable results and effective tracking. And lastly, social media advertising has grown over the last several years and spending is expected to exceed $35 billion in 2017 - it's a big deal. With so many to choose from (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube and Pinterest), it's easier than you might think to reach your audience. The key is to discover which platform your audience is most active on and most likely to engage. For example, the younger generations tend to be more active on Instagram and Snapchat so if they are your targeted demographic start there. Older professionals are more active on Facebook, LinkedIn and even Twitter. If you're looking for the platform with the largest breadth, Facebook is probably your best bet.  If you're feeling ambitious, try advertising on several platforms at once, making sure to tweak each ad to that social media. Overall, you should have no problem finding a platform to advertise on.

A Place to Direct Clicks

The great thing about advertising on the Internet is that ads are not stagnant. They have the ability to be interactive - whether that's sending someone to your website or having them fill out a form, they have the ability to exceed just being a simple advertisement. This, in turn, allows your end goal to be accomplished much easier than in traditional advertising. Have an idea of where you want to send viewers - your homepage, contact page or a specific landing page -  and make sure wherever you're sending viewers to is working properly before your campaign begins. 

An Eye-Catching Image or Video

This is the fun part, where you and your marketing team can get creative! With viewers seeing so many ads all day, it's critical to be eye-catching without being distracting. It's important to draw them in - make them stop scrolling, read through the ad and hopefully click. Pick coordinating colors and images because as it turns out there is a science behind both for marketing and branding. This article published on Help Scout helps to determine what colors to use for advertisements. Also, keep images and videos consistent with the messaging of your ad. It's okay to use your own images, but make sure they are of high quality. 

Intriguing Content 

Another thing that can not lack is your content. You do not have a lot of room in ads and with platforms counting characters, your message will be cut off. Therefore, it's important to be precise, informative and deliberate. Don't ramble on. Be short and sweet but also make sure your audience is getting the necessary information. The content should be enticing and intriguing without being overly spammy. Your content and your image or video need to be cohesive - use both as a trigger point to make users click. 

A Way to Track your Efforts

There's no point to putting time, effort and money into a digital marketing campaign if you can't track it, right? Right! Therefore, you need to ensure you're tracking your efforts so you have data to create a report (more on that later). Firstly, figure out what exactly you want to track (search engine ranking, increased website traffic, more followers on social media, etc.) and look out for these KPIs, or key performance indicators. Make sure your trackers are good to go at the beginning of the campaign, like Google Analytics, Moz and Hootsuite, to name a few. It's always disheartening when you realize halfway through a campaign that your trackers haven't been doing their job, so try to avoid that as much as possible by double and  triple checking things are set up properly.  

A time frame and a report

Lastly, set up a time frame for this campaign to run and, most importantly, don't forget to report on the successes and failures of the campaign. As marketers, it can be hard to admit advertising efforts have failed or to even look at the results but it's necessary in order to see what works and what did not, which will only help improve campaigns in the future. If your campaign was a huge success, figure out what several of the key components were and make sure to repeat for your next campaign. If your campaign suffered, take a good look at your ad as a whole and try to determine what went wrong. Avoid those mistakes next time and more than likely you will see much different results the next time you advertise online. 
 
Before diving into a digital advertising, it's very important to figure out the all the parts of your campaign. While running ads may seem like inserting an image, drafting up some copy and switching it on, if you want it to be successful, there is a lot more that goes into. It's crucial to think of digital marketing the same way as traditional marketing- both require time, effort and quality. If this is something you really want to do but are not sure where or how to begin, contact 360 PSG. We have the experience to help you run a successful digital advertising campaign!
 

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