Online Advertising: What Are the Most Effective Options?

2 min read

There are plenty of ways you can advertise your business online. You’ll want to be sure you’re getting good results in exchange for the time and/or money spent though.

Search engine marketing ranks as one of the best methods you can use. You can generate organic traffic by optimising your website to receive the highest possible level of traffic over time. However, faster results can be obtained via paid search results. Google is the daddy of search engines. They offer Google Ads (formerly AdWords) whereby you pay for placement according to the keywords you want to gain traffic for. While this does work, it is vital not to overspend. Different keywords and phrases cost different amounts. The best results are often obtained by targeting cheaper phrases that receive fewer searches and yet are more specific to the products or services you are selling.

Most people would not think of web design as an important element in online advertising, yet it plays a crucial role. If someone lands on your site, they’d better be impressed by what they see, else they will leave and go elsewhere. As such, your website is an advert for your business. It should fulfil that role in a powerful way.

Blogging is another powerful option at your fingertips. It dovetails nicely with the two options mentioned above as well. Adding a blog to your website provides another way to draw in traffic. Publishing regular posts based around long-tail keywords to draw in traffic is a powerful way to attract traffic for less-competitive phrases. Let your competition fight it out for the major keywords and focus on the smaller ones – you might be surprised at how effective it can be. Indeed, content marketing (covering many forms of content aside from blogging) is commonly used to help businesses reach more customers and works well over time.

Another common and effective form of marketing nowadays is social media marketing. The most famous social media sites – Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter – can all work well. The ones you could use will depend on the nature of your business and what kind of audience you want to reach. As with all other methods of online advertising, appropriate and accurate targeting will affect the results you achieve. Get this bit right and your task will be made far easier. Creating a plan to follow is another excellent way of staying on track to achieve the desired results.