You probably already know that digital advertising can be a powerful tool when reaching highly targeted audiences in real time, but did you know that digital advertising is also one of the most cost-effective ways to test your marketing message?
With digital advertising you can test different messages while your campaign is running, often generating new business in the process, without needing to risk your whole budget up front or spend money on costly market research before hitting the market.
In this article, we take a look at how digital advertising can help make all of your marketing activity more effective.
Split testing takes the guess work out of getting your message right
Traditionally, advertising campaigns have been developed and executed and their success is only analysed once the campaign finishes. The result? It was great if it was successful; too late to fix if it missed the mark.
Yet, with digital advertising you can split test: that is, deliver several versions of the same ad with minor differences, such as a different headline or different picture, and test to see which ad works best. And this can be done while the campaign is running.
Digital advertising also offers the opportunity to split test programmatically, which sees the successful ads served more frequently while the weaker messages automatically drop off.
This is a great time saver because you can tweak and improve messaging on the go, rather than waiting until a campaign cycle ends before making adjustments.
Once you know the most effective message and the right audience to target, you can roll this out to your traditional advertising campaigns.
Digital marketing is cheaper than traditional ad campaigns
You don’t have to be an expert number cruncher to get that marketing online is much cheaper than traditional advertising approaches.
The cost of newspaper and magazine advertisements can run into the thousands and TV and radio can often blow a company’s entire marketing budget.
Digital marketing, on the other hand, can cost as much or as little as your budget allows.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t be running traditional marketing campaigns.
In fact, the most effective marketing campaigns employ a broad mix of activities, but don’t risk your entire marketing budget until you’re confident your investment in these mediums will be effective.
Social media and digital advertising is currently under-priced
Speaking at a digital business conference in Melbourne last year, entrepreneur and internet-famous marketer Gary Vaynerchuk explained how social media advertising, is currently “grossly underpriced” – and savvy businesses are taking full advantage of it.
Vaynerchuk said we are now living through a time of underpriced attention, with social media, but too many businesses and brands are wasting time and not taking full advantage of it.
If marketing is all about getting the biggest bang for the smallest buck, digital is the way to go.
Digital advertising reaches people when it matters
Digital advertising is faster because marketers can target a specific audience instantly and capture them at every stage of the buying cycle.
Has something that relates to your industry been in the news? A well-placed post on the topic can make your business appear relevant and establish you as experts in the field. Has a celebrity posted a picture of your product or used a similar service? Ride the wave of publicity by responding and tagging their post.
The greatest thing about digital marketing is that it delivers real-time results.
Instantly, you can see the number of visitors that have been driven to your site; what messages have delivered the best results; conversion rates; what were the peak times for results; and much more information.
The value of digital marketing further increases when learnings from these campaigns are applied to traditional advertising channels or future digital campaigns.