Are you looking for ways to skyrocket brand awareness and reach in a short period? Do you want to attract qualified website visitors and convert them into customers?
Or perhaps you’d like to connect with potential customers who’ve already visited your website once?
If your answer to any of the above questions is a sonorous “yes”, it’s high time you start using paid online advertising techniques.
Why Paid Marketing?
Amplifying organic reach and building brand authority is every digital marketer’s/entrepreneur’s dream.
However, if you’ve just launched your business, it’ll take a while before you achieve any significant rise in organic reach, conversions, and revenue.
The good news is that you can use various paid advertising channels to quickly reach your potential customers.
Unlike traditional advertising, you don’t have to spend a fortune to leverage paid digital marketing techniques.
It’s now time for us to take a look at the best paid online advertising techniques.
1. Search Engine Marketing
Image via Google
When you think of paid online advertising, search engine marketing (SEM) is likely the first technique that’ll come to your mind.
Popularly known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, it’s an excellent technique for attracting qualified website visitors.
Popular search engines such as Google and Bing constantly strive to enhance their advertising platforms.
For instance, Google Ads now lets you leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning while selecting keywords and placing bids.
Most marketers agree that automation will play an even more crucial role in SEM in the future.
Considering the growing use of smart speakers and virtual assistants, you should also target voice search queries in your PPC campaigns.
2. Social Media Advertising
Image via Business LinkedIn
Whether you’re selling handmade jewelry or business development tools, your potential customers already use one or more social media platforms.
Social advertising lets you quickly reach these users and convert them into leads or even, paying customers.
While Facebook ads continue to rule the roost in 2020, other social media platforms including Twitter and LinkedIn offer useful advertising platforms.
One of the top priorities for most marketers in 2021 will be to experiment with different content formats including IGTV, stories, videos, etc.
Additionally, new platforms like TikTok and Twitch have become attractive places for advertising and you should consider them for 2021.
It’s also crucial to stay abreast of and leverage advanced advertising features provided by various platforms. These include automated bids, placement, targeting suggestions, etc. as well as A/B tests.
3. Retargeting
Image via WordStream
Technically, retargeting is a subset of the aforementioned paid advertising methods. Simply put, it’s the technique of targeting specific consumers based on their previous interactions with your brand.
For instance, you can reach out to website visitors who checked out a particular product but didn’t buy it right away. Both Google Ads and Facebook ads let you create cost-effective retargeting ads.
4. YouTube Advertising
Image via Tubefilter.com
Unless you’re living under a rock, you likely already know the importance of videos in digital marketing. It isn’t surprising that 51% of marketers leverage YouTube ads and most of them intend to increase their ad spend in the future.
It isn’t surprising that YouTube accounts for 27.1% of digital video ad spending. With most marketers focusing on social ads and SEM, YouTube ads have given a competitive advantage in 2020.
However, for 2021, a great way of going about YouTube ads would be through influencer marketing. Instead of directly leveraging video ads, you can partner with influencers on the platform.
Video ads are extremely engaging and let you quickly grab your audience’s attention. Apart from using these ads to boost brand awareness and authority, you can increase website traffic and generate qualified leads.
Moreover, online videos will account for 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2022. If you haven’t integrated YouTube advertising into your digital marketing strategy, it’s high time you do so.
5. Paid Content Discovery
Image via Upgrade 100
Content marketing continues to be one of the most important techniques for growing every business.
However, the plethora of mediocre content floating around on the internet is making it difficult to grab eyeballs.
This is becoming all the more crucial as more content creators rise to popularity. An effective way of cutting through the noise is to use content discovery platforms such as Taboola and Outbrain.
These platforms let you advertise your content on popular publishers and media websites. Your ads typically appear in the sidebar or at the bottom of these websites in the “related articles” section.
However, make sure you only promote your highest-converting blog posts for the best results.
6. Display Advertising
Image via TravHelper
Display advertising used to be effective in skyrocketing brand awareness and website traffic without blowing your marketing budget.
However, its popularity among marketers is diminishing due to the growing use of ad blockers.
Nevertheless, if you intend to use this technique, it’s recommended that you design high-converting landing pages and judiciously select your target keywords.
While in 2020, most ads have started becoming more visual oriented, in 2021, you should try to incorporate videos into the mix. That can improve your chances of getting clicks even further.
7. Amazon Ads
Image via Amazon
Amazon has been dominating the retail e-commerce market for many years. However, 2020 has seen a renewed surge in its popularity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Therefore, if you want to reach your potential customers at the right time and drive more conversions, Amazon ads are the right choice.
Simply put, you pay Amazon to showcase your products in relevant search results or individual product pages.
Final Thoughts
Irrespective of your brand and niche, if you’re selling tangible products, you should leverage online paid advertising strategies. Make sure you select the right target audience and promote your brand on as many channels as possible.
With the soaring popularity of Amazon, it makes sense to leverage this platform to promote your products in 2021 too.