Beyond Search: 5 More Advertising Channels to Find Customers

You’ve reached a point where your search campaigns in AdWords, Bing, and Yahoo campaigns are completely crushing it. Obviously, you’re doing something right, so why not expand your efforts to find more customers? That’s definitely one place to start, but there are exponentially more channels worth pursuing.

The online advertising landscape is a vast playing field with a range of creative options for marketers. Like AdWords and search, many of these networks are user experience driven and designed to accomplish specific advertiser goals. The key is to determine –up front—what you want to accomplish. What kinds of ads would people react to seeing? What networks align well with the verticals, demographics, and user behavior patterns that you’re trying to reach?

If you’re thinking of expanding beyond the normal search engine ads that your and competition is leveraging, here are some new channels worth considering.

1. Contextual

Contextual ad units are integrated with content like articles, images, and videos. Users typically encounter these by means of a double-underlined link in a block of text or a small banner at the bottom of an image or video. With these opportunities, the key is to find publishers that cater to your target demographic and vertical. It’s an opportunity to introduce your business to customers who have a potential interest in what you have to offer—although they may not be searching specifically for the product that you sell.

Best Practices:

Usually, these types of ads are most ideal for companies that sell products or services that are applicable to a broader audience. This is because ads are typically matched by content rather than by search query. Through various ad network options, it’s possible to content-match ads across a range of publishers and geotarget viewers.

Example Networks to Get Started:

Kontera (for text), Infolinks (for text), YouTube (for video), GumGum (for images)

2. Display

You can think of display as magazine or newspaper ads transposed to an online environment. These can be both text and image based, and can show in a variety of website placements like in a header, sidebar, or within an article. Usually, marketers pay for these ads by click or impression and they appear in the form of a banner – although they can appear as text-only too.

Best Practices:

This option is most ideal for branding and the customer-introduction stage. Make sure that the fee structure that you select matches well with your budget and marketing goals – that is, you will want to weigh the pros and cons of paying per link, per impression, or a flat rate based on how much traffic the publishers of your choice are sending over.

Example Networks to Get Started:

Google Display Network, AOL’s Advertising.com, BuySellAds,

3. Email

Your gut reaction may be to associate email with spam—don’t jump to this conclusion. Email marketing is far from old school.  People love receiving newsletters and learning about products. There are ad networks that monetize content driven newsletters by serving CPC, CPA, and CPM ad units through existing newsletters or emails. These might appear on the bottom of or on the sidebar of a publisher’s newsletter.

Best Practices:

Always prioritize user experience as a top priority, and think about what your target audience will want to see.  Just think of this channel as another content opportunity. Your goal should not be to send an email advert. Rather, you’re supplementing content that consumers are already opting to receive with an introduction to your business. Also make sure to distinguish between B2B and B2C when experimenting with networks in this particular channel as email monetization networks tend to have niche audiences.

Example Networks to Get Started:

LaunchBit, AdMedia

4. Social Media

Social media advertising can be beneficial for both B2B and B2C companies. Through Facebook, it’s possible to hand-pick and segment your target demographic. The company’s new offers feature, for instance, is an invaluable way to gain viral reach and make introductions with prospective customers. LinkedIn provides an opportunity to get in front of business leaders in a range of industries. Many times with these platforms you can reach the exact decision maker who is choosing whether to use your product.

Best Practices:

As with other forms of advertising, be careful to distinguish between B2B and B2C audiences. LinkedIn is best for B2B and Facebook is typically best for B2C, however, it’s possible to target B2B via Facebook through specialized interest and geogtargeting. Make sure that you segment your audiences based on exactly who you want to reach, as this is one of the core strengths of social. If you operate a local business, social is a great way to generate reach in your target area.

Example Networks to Get Started:

Facebook, LinkedIn

5. Retargeting

Somebody comes to your site, browses, expresses interest, and leaves. If only you could catch them again to say hi and invite them back over. The goal of retargeting is to do exactly that. These ad networks buy space all over the Internet to reconnect with people who have viewed your offering. The goal is to keep the connection strong and to stay top of mind as they evaluate potential other competitors.  Ads can be text links or beautiful graphical banners – what’s key is that you develop your visual strategy to be memorable.

Best Practices:

Look at ad networks with whom you’re already spending, and see if they already offer a retargeting option. For instance, Google AdWords Remarketing provides a platform for retargeting across the Google Display Network.

Example Networks to Get Started:

ReTargeter, AdRoll, Google AdWords, Google Display Network

Final Thoughts

Don’t be afraid to try something new. All that you need is a small test budget to gauge your return on investment. If you like what you see, build out and scale. The risk to reward ratio is completely in your control, so don’t be afraid to get completely creative.