Why Your Customer Acquisition Strategy Should Include Paid Digital Advertising
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2024 9:08 am
The way we acquire customers has changed. The rules, customers and tools are no longer the same.
Ten years ago, the print media industry was struggling but holding its own. Television and radio were not threatened by major technological disruptions, online competition or changes in consumer behaviour.
Today, it’s a completely different reality. While traditional marketing tactics are still effective, paid digital advertising, such as social media and pay-per-click campaigns, should be integrated into your communications plan.
Organic social media is not attracting new customers like it used to
In 2012, Facebook's IPO marked the beginning of the end of the golden age of organic advertising on social media.
In 2018, the average reach of an organic post on Facebook in Canada was about 9%, according to information shared at the SocialEast 2018 conference. That means that out of 100 followers, only 9 will see your posts. In other words, organic advertising simply doesn’t work as well as it used to.
This is what will also happen to Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, probably in the near future.
X (formerly Twitter) is still struggling to manage the volume of information and the speed at which it needs to be processed, which is impacting the engagement of businesses and brands (think Oreo and Wendy's as prime examples).
As for LinkedIn, it can be frustrating to use if you don't have a strategy for growing your network wisely without flooding your contacts with messages.
I’m not saying to stop posting organic content on social media, far from it. Continue to use all of these platforms to communicate with your customers and current followers. However, it’s time to consider paid social media advertising as a key part of your customer acquisition strategy.
What should I do to develop a paid media plan?
Before developing a paid media plan, you and your team should answer the following questions:
Who are our target customers?
How are their purchasing decisions made?
On which channels and platforms can we capture their attention?
What budget should we allocate to these channels?
What messages will appeal to our target customers?
Once you have answered these questions, you can develop a communication plan that will help you grow your list of potential customers across different platforms.
Facebook: A social platform, but a great business tool
Facebook's advertising platform is particularly robust, and it can do much more than just promote a $25 post every now and then.
This is probably the most targeted tool you can use to find and attract your target customers. It takes some time to learn how to build your audience based on their geographic, demographic, and interests, but once you know how, you can find your customers in their own neighborhood.
This applies to both business-to-business (B2B) and retail (B2C) e-commerce. Facebook is a “social” platform, but it’s also a great “business” tool.
To be successful, you will need to know how to run campaigns to get the word out about your business and convert leads into sales. You will need to know what the Facebook pixel is. You will also need to know the cost per impression and cost per click of these campaigns. However, trust me: it pays to know this platform well.
Instagram ads are also integrated into the platform, so for businesses looking to target their customers, it's practically a two-for-one deal.
LinkedIn: An excellent tool for targeting decision-makers
LinkedIn's advertising platform has improved greatly in recent years. It's a great tool for targeting decision-makers.
Whether you use traditional ads, sponsored messages (like on X and Instagram), or InMail to deliver your messages to your targeted prospects, paid marketing on LinkedIn gives you access to data that allows you to measure the performance of your ads.
Search Engine Marketing: Effective, but Increasingly Complex and Costly
Google Ads (formerly AdWords) have been the go-to paid digital targeting tool for at least the last 15 years. As an intent-targeting platform, Google Ads was unmatched.
The great thing about search engine marketing is that you dentist database can reach people who are looking for you, and your products or services. If I want to buy or lease a new vehicle, I will start by searching for information on the latest models from every manufacturing company on Google or Bing.
The problem is that Google's platform has become very competitive and, frankly, quite complicated for the uninitiated to use. It takes some very advanced knowledge to be able to build, manage and optimize campaigns that deliver a great return on investment (or avoid wasting money).
The tool is simply not as easy to use as it used to be, and the costs associated with it may be higher than you think.
The same model applies to ads on Bing, although that platform is less established and you can still find some "bargains" there in terms of your overall budget (though the audience is smaller).
If you plan on investing in Google ads, take the time to hone your data skills and always link to your Google Analytics. You need to understand keyword management, negative keywords, and ad groups to create effective campaigns.
YouTube: a lasting craze
Everyone watches videos on YouTube, from the very young to the very old. You have the opportunity to position your business with targeted pre-video ads – the ones that play before your favorite cat video.
The problem is that many marketers approach YouTube advertising the same way they approach TV advertising. A pre-video ad should be short (less than 15 seconds) and should grab the viewer’s attention. Or, if it’s longer, it should have an equally compelling story that piques the viewer’s curiosity.
YouTube advertising requires some planning, but with the right approach, you can attract an engaged audience. We all know the story of Dollar Shave Club. If you haven’t seen this ad, do a search on YouTube.
Programmatic Digital Advertising Networks
Advertising networks place digital ads all over the Internet. Networks like AdRoll and DoubleClick place your ads on websites where your target customers can browse or in mass media as a more generic message that aims to get the word out about your business.
The cost and scale of these networks are not suitable for all businesses. If you decide to use them, know that success often comes down to understanding your goals and analyzing the results.
Google also has a display network that connects to the full range of Google data tools to help you check the effectiveness of your ads.
Remarketing, Affiliate Marketing and Influencers
You looked at shoes on a website once and they have been following you around the internet ever since? You are the target of remarketing. It is a very powerful tool that becomes accessible when you start using advertising platforms like Facebook and Google.
Affiliate marketing is a technique that involves offering commissions to third parties in exchange for referral traffic to your website. Consider a nutritional supplement company that contacts fitness bloggers for referrals. When they refer a customer, the bloggers earn a commission. This is a great model for many industries, but it should be considered in light of budget and brand equity.
Influencer marketing is a more overt product placement. It is a relationship that a brand has with a person who has a large following on a social media platform. Instagram influencers are popular these days and many brands partner with them. Sponsored videos on YouTube are another type of influencer marketing. Again, carefully consider the costs associated with promoting your brand with the help of an influencer and evaluate whether their audience is a good fit for your brand.
Also, choose your influencers wisely. Who are these people? What do they believe in? Are they real influencers or are they pretending to be? People who call themselves influencers probably aren’t, so be vigilant.
No need to be a specialist, but...
You don't need to use all of these digital marketing techniques to promote your business - let alone master them all.
That said, I often stress the importance of a business owner becoming a modern marketer. This way, he or she can learn how his or her customers behave and see where his or her limited marketing budget is being spent.
In addition to demystifying a process that can be extremely nebulous, it makes you an informed consumer when working with your marketing partners and staff. It’s hard to evaluate your efforts (or the work of others) when things are going well, and it’s even harder if you don’t understand the basic concepts or know how to interpret the data generated.
Your images and messages must be original to stand out from the crowd.
When we talk about tools, platforms, and data, we should never lose sight of the fact that images and messages need to be original to stand out. You can target the right audience, use the right platform, and allocate the right budget, but if you don’t have the right message, you’re probably wasting your money.
Every business owner knows how valuable promising prospects are and how they can help their business grow. Developing the message your customers want to hear is a good investment. The offers you make and the content you produce must be relevant.
Ask yourself: Is our message distinctly different, entertaining or interesting?
If the answer is no, then you definitely need to evaluate the benefits you get from advertising your message. You don’t need to be bold, but you do need to generate engagement. This is especially true in this day and age, when we all have the attention span of a goldfish.
What offer are you making to these customers? Is it compelling enough for them to do what you want them to do? Often, the question comes down to “what’s in it for me?”
What is your paid media plan for 2019?
Do you have a paid media plan for 2019? Do you review and evaluate it often? Do you understand your customers’ buying journey in the context of that plan? At BDC, we strive to be very methodical when working with our clients. We hope to inspire you to do the same.
We would love to learn more about your experiences and we are happy to answer any questions you may have about digital marketing .
Ten years ago, the print media industry was struggling but holding its own. Television and radio were not threatened by major technological disruptions, online competition or changes in consumer behaviour.
Today, it’s a completely different reality. While traditional marketing tactics are still effective, paid digital advertising, such as social media and pay-per-click campaigns, should be integrated into your communications plan.
Organic social media is not attracting new customers like it used to
In 2012, Facebook's IPO marked the beginning of the end of the golden age of organic advertising on social media.
In 2018, the average reach of an organic post on Facebook in Canada was about 9%, according to information shared at the SocialEast 2018 conference. That means that out of 100 followers, only 9 will see your posts. In other words, organic advertising simply doesn’t work as well as it used to.
This is what will also happen to Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, probably in the near future.
X (formerly Twitter) is still struggling to manage the volume of information and the speed at which it needs to be processed, which is impacting the engagement of businesses and brands (think Oreo and Wendy's as prime examples).
As for LinkedIn, it can be frustrating to use if you don't have a strategy for growing your network wisely without flooding your contacts with messages.
I’m not saying to stop posting organic content on social media, far from it. Continue to use all of these platforms to communicate with your customers and current followers. However, it’s time to consider paid social media advertising as a key part of your customer acquisition strategy.
What should I do to develop a paid media plan?
Before developing a paid media plan, you and your team should answer the following questions:
Who are our target customers?
How are their purchasing decisions made?
On which channels and platforms can we capture their attention?
What budget should we allocate to these channels?
What messages will appeal to our target customers?
Once you have answered these questions, you can develop a communication plan that will help you grow your list of potential customers across different platforms.
Facebook: A social platform, but a great business tool
Facebook's advertising platform is particularly robust, and it can do much more than just promote a $25 post every now and then.
This is probably the most targeted tool you can use to find and attract your target customers. It takes some time to learn how to build your audience based on their geographic, demographic, and interests, but once you know how, you can find your customers in their own neighborhood.
This applies to both business-to-business (B2B) and retail (B2C) e-commerce. Facebook is a “social” platform, but it’s also a great “business” tool.
To be successful, you will need to know how to run campaigns to get the word out about your business and convert leads into sales. You will need to know what the Facebook pixel is. You will also need to know the cost per impression and cost per click of these campaigns. However, trust me: it pays to know this platform well.
Instagram ads are also integrated into the platform, so for businesses looking to target their customers, it's practically a two-for-one deal.
LinkedIn: An excellent tool for targeting decision-makers
LinkedIn's advertising platform has improved greatly in recent years. It's a great tool for targeting decision-makers.
Whether you use traditional ads, sponsored messages (like on X and Instagram), or InMail to deliver your messages to your targeted prospects, paid marketing on LinkedIn gives you access to data that allows you to measure the performance of your ads.
Search Engine Marketing: Effective, but Increasingly Complex and Costly
Google Ads (formerly AdWords) have been the go-to paid digital targeting tool for at least the last 15 years. As an intent-targeting platform, Google Ads was unmatched.
The great thing about search engine marketing is that you dentist database can reach people who are looking for you, and your products or services. If I want to buy or lease a new vehicle, I will start by searching for information on the latest models from every manufacturing company on Google or Bing.
The problem is that Google's platform has become very competitive and, frankly, quite complicated for the uninitiated to use. It takes some very advanced knowledge to be able to build, manage and optimize campaigns that deliver a great return on investment (or avoid wasting money).
The tool is simply not as easy to use as it used to be, and the costs associated with it may be higher than you think.
The same model applies to ads on Bing, although that platform is less established and you can still find some "bargains" there in terms of your overall budget (though the audience is smaller).
If you plan on investing in Google ads, take the time to hone your data skills and always link to your Google Analytics. You need to understand keyword management, negative keywords, and ad groups to create effective campaigns.
YouTube: a lasting craze
Everyone watches videos on YouTube, from the very young to the very old. You have the opportunity to position your business with targeted pre-video ads – the ones that play before your favorite cat video.
The problem is that many marketers approach YouTube advertising the same way they approach TV advertising. A pre-video ad should be short (less than 15 seconds) and should grab the viewer’s attention. Or, if it’s longer, it should have an equally compelling story that piques the viewer’s curiosity.
YouTube advertising requires some planning, but with the right approach, you can attract an engaged audience. We all know the story of Dollar Shave Club. If you haven’t seen this ad, do a search on YouTube.
Programmatic Digital Advertising Networks
Advertising networks place digital ads all over the Internet. Networks like AdRoll and DoubleClick place your ads on websites where your target customers can browse or in mass media as a more generic message that aims to get the word out about your business.
The cost and scale of these networks are not suitable for all businesses. If you decide to use them, know that success often comes down to understanding your goals and analyzing the results.
Google also has a display network that connects to the full range of Google data tools to help you check the effectiveness of your ads.
Remarketing, Affiliate Marketing and Influencers
You looked at shoes on a website once and they have been following you around the internet ever since? You are the target of remarketing. It is a very powerful tool that becomes accessible when you start using advertising platforms like Facebook and Google.
Affiliate marketing is a technique that involves offering commissions to third parties in exchange for referral traffic to your website. Consider a nutritional supplement company that contacts fitness bloggers for referrals. When they refer a customer, the bloggers earn a commission. This is a great model for many industries, but it should be considered in light of budget and brand equity.
Influencer marketing is a more overt product placement. It is a relationship that a brand has with a person who has a large following on a social media platform. Instagram influencers are popular these days and many brands partner with them. Sponsored videos on YouTube are another type of influencer marketing. Again, carefully consider the costs associated with promoting your brand with the help of an influencer and evaluate whether their audience is a good fit for your brand.
Also, choose your influencers wisely. Who are these people? What do they believe in? Are they real influencers or are they pretending to be? People who call themselves influencers probably aren’t, so be vigilant.
No need to be a specialist, but...
You don't need to use all of these digital marketing techniques to promote your business - let alone master them all.
That said, I often stress the importance of a business owner becoming a modern marketer. This way, he or she can learn how his or her customers behave and see where his or her limited marketing budget is being spent.
In addition to demystifying a process that can be extremely nebulous, it makes you an informed consumer when working with your marketing partners and staff. It’s hard to evaluate your efforts (or the work of others) when things are going well, and it’s even harder if you don’t understand the basic concepts or know how to interpret the data generated.
Your images and messages must be original to stand out from the crowd.
When we talk about tools, platforms, and data, we should never lose sight of the fact that images and messages need to be original to stand out. You can target the right audience, use the right platform, and allocate the right budget, but if you don’t have the right message, you’re probably wasting your money.
Every business owner knows how valuable promising prospects are and how they can help their business grow. Developing the message your customers want to hear is a good investment. The offers you make and the content you produce must be relevant.
Ask yourself: Is our message distinctly different, entertaining or interesting?
If the answer is no, then you definitely need to evaluate the benefits you get from advertising your message. You don’t need to be bold, but you do need to generate engagement. This is especially true in this day and age, when we all have the attention span of a goldfish.
What offer are you making to these customers? Is it compelling enough for them to do what you want them to do? Often, the question comes down to “what’s in it for me?”
What is your paid media plan for 2019?
Do you have a paid media plan for 2019? Do you review and evaluate it often? Do you understand your customers’ buying journey in the context of that plan? At BDC, we strive to be very methodical when working with our clients. We hope to inspire you to do the same.
We would love to learn more about your experiences and we are happy to answer any questions you may have about digital marketing .