How to use Online Advertising effectively

I was asked a question and it was my answer that prompted me to write this article for the benefit of those who want to take advantage of online advertising or who have made mistakes, one way or the other.

Now let’s start by asking, “What is online advertising?”

In layman terms, online advertising is a means by which an individual or business places information, on the internet, about the things they do or services they offer in order for more exposure or to generate leads, which in turn translates to income.

Another question is, “What are the methods of online advertising?”

People can either use the free means of advertising or use the paid means.

Let us then differentiate the 2 and explain what both require.

Free Online advertising

This requires work and sacrifice which pays off on the long run and it is important to note that if you don’t do well in free online advertising, there is a high probability you will waste your money on paid ads.

Let me explain: Showcasing your services for free requires you using free means such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google Plus etc. by posting information about what you do and how it benefits people. In doing so, since it’s free, you will put all effort to win the approval of people based on your services because you know that it’s a handful of people you can reach. Therefore if you can do well in free ads, then, when you use paid ads you will most likely thrive.

Now, in using free ads you need to ensure the following:

Engage people

You can do this by offering information not readily available and will benefit people. The best way you can take advantage of this is by linking the information to the services you render. This will make people trust you because you are giving something they can use which will not cost them. While you offer more and more information, you can chip in your services and the benefits, and you will most likely be able to make them customers.

Direct them somewhere

Ensure they are directed where they can get more information about other things. Take for instance, this article I wrote; it is going to benefit people and there are other articles here that will benefit them as well. This will make them want to subscribe to the information you deliver so that they have first-hand information when you publish them.

Have a Blog or Website

Though some people may say this is not free but a blog is free, while a website is like opening an office online. If you really want to convert people to be customers, online, you need to prove to them that you have a good and stable presence in the online world and there is no other way than having a home in the online world, where people can visit from time to time to get updated on things you offer.

Attractive blog or website

When getting a blog or website, especially, when it’s purpose is for generating leads, you have to ensure it is attractive by putting yourself in the shoes of people and ask yourself,”if I am a customer will I patronise the services this blog or site offers?”. If you can be honest to yourself then you will ensure you put things together to make it attractive

Sharing content

You need to share the content from your blog or site, via social media, so that it pulls people that click on the link back to your site, rather than posting content on individual social media platforms, without any link. This will make you lose a lot of potential customers because they will not have where to go for more information and see other things they can be interested in, if they were directed to your blog or site.

Submission of articles

You can write good articles which does not advertise your services and submit them to websites that could publish them for free, like Nairaland, Connect Nigeria, WorldStage, Naibac etc. The advantage of this is that you get free publicity and depending on how good your article is, people will want to know more about you and possibly your services.

Social Media

Make sure you use as many social media platforms as possible, especially, for business purposes and if you cannot use all, engage people who can. The more you get out the more people see you.

Paid Online Advertising

This is the next stage of having online presence. Now you have established a presence and you can engage people using the free method, you can be rest assured, to an extent, that money spent to attract those who come across your services will not go to waste.

The question now is,”how effective can you use paid ads?”

First thing to consider about paid ads is that since you have the opportunity to reach a wide range of people, in their millions, you need to focus on those who will see what you offer as being relevant.

Hence, you need to do the following:

Target your audience

Though it is true that the more people see your ad the more customers you can get but this is not exactly the case with paid ads.

You need to ensure that those your ads reach are those who will most likely patronise you. In doing this you need to target the right people to the latter. E.g if you are into clothes for university ladies and your business is in Lagos, your ad has to be targeted thus: Nigeria, Lagos, Female and you select the age range. Therefore those who see your ads are most likely going to patronise you because they are already interested in what you offer.

If you do not do this you will be attracting all kinds of people who see your ad and are curious, by clicking to know more but when they get to the landing page, they leave because they are not interested in what you offer. You would have wasted your money on them and before you know it, your ads credit would have finished without getting any sales.

Be honest

There are people who exaggerate what people will benefit from their services via paid ads, and when people get to their landing page and see something contrary, they leave and never come back and possibly tell others not to come. So you need to be honest in the things you do and those interested will surely come.

The right paid ads

Some people think as long as you have money for ads you can place it anywhere but this is not true. E.g. if you offer services for professional people you shouldn’t place your ads on Twitter, rather your first choice should be Linkedin. Also if you are into clothes, your best bet is Facebook, which gives you the opportunity to display a number of pictures of your products. And if you want people to see your ads when they search through search engines then Google or Bing ad is for you.

Facebook

I decided to focus on Facebook because I know a number of people who have lost money due to accumulated ad charges.

This is because they do not put a limit to their budget and add an end date for the ad to stop. By doing this you do not spend more than what you have budgeted.

I hope this article will be of good use to you. I will like to draw the curtain here but it doesn’t stop our conversations, so please post your comments or questions below. Have a pleasant day.