Our team of digital advertising experts know everything there is to know when it comes to digital advertising strategy.

They are qualified, certified and skilled at delivering highly effective digital advertising strategies across both search engines and social media, and can deploy every media opportunity offered by all the different platforms. They are ably supported by our team of marketing consultants, project managers and creative directors to make sure that the planning, strategy and creative is spot on too.

The great thing about a digital advertising campaign is that it delivers instant results. It is an ideal tactic to turn marketing activity on and off whenever you need to fill your sales pipeline with fresh leads. We always like to create campaign landing pages to test different offers and to capture email data, so that we can continue to communicate with site visitors after their first visit – this can double conversion levels if you do it right.

SEARCH ENGINE ADVERTISING

Search engine advertising is by far the largest form of digital advertising. Google accounts for 89% of all UK search engine traffic, so this is the obvious option to focus most of your efforts on. Bing is the next biggest player with about 9% of UK search volume – but, because it is the default search engine for Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer, it makes sense to run your Google campaigns on Bing once you have got them up and running. If set up correctly, this is a very simple thing to do.

SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING

Social media advertising has witnessed sustained and substantial growth over the last few years – Facebook is the largest platform by a mile, so that’s still the key player to consider, even if everyone says that it has had its day, simply because it is still a numbers game, especially for Gen X. Instagram is growing massively in popularity too, so you would not want to forget this option either, especially if your target demographic is rich in Millennials. There are also a large number of ways in which you can advertise on Twitter and LinkedIn. YouTube is also a huge social player, firstly, because it is owned by Google and, secondly, because mainstream video content is likely to increase substantially over the next few years – in fact, it is the most popular social media channel for Gen Z. Our digital marketing team will advise you on which social platforms are likely to deliver the best possible results for your organisation – even if you are reaching out to Baby Boomers..!

WHO ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS?

What’s also important is to understand who your customers are. We need to establish this in advance to make sure we are advertising your products and services on the right platforms and with the right messages. To do this, we need to understand both the demographics and psychographics of your audience. This will enable us to create personas and segments to ensure your digital advertising activities are targeted effectively. It’s all about standing in their shoes and understanding their problems…

STUNNING CREATIVE CONCEPTS AND HARD-HITTING CAMPAIGN MESSAGES

Many forms of digital advertising media involve a creative element, which could be either a static or animated image, or a video clip that is either filmed or animated. In simple terms, campaign themes consist of images and words. That’s the basis of any successful advertising campaign – a compelling visual style and an engaging message, supported by compelling body copy and a clear call to action. Our creative team are always on hand to create stunning creative concepts and hard-hitting campaign messages to make your digital marketing activities work as hard as possible.

GOOGLE ADS

Google Ads (aka Google AdWords) is one of the best known forms of digital advertising. Like most digital advertising media, it is accessible to almost anyone and it’s easy to set up a campaign in a few minutes with relative ease. The need for third party support from a digital marketing agency like Abacus primarily comes about if you have a larger budget or require a more sophisticated approach. Pay per click (PPC) advertising involves setting up campaigns which require a headline title and a supporting message. These display on Google when someone types in a keyword you wish to be found for – and you pay if they click on your ad. The cost depends upon competitiveness and volume. Part of the skill is to find keywords that are less competitive, but which still drive quality traffic. The basic aim is to minimise cost-per-click (CPC) and maximise conversion.

DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE

Most digital advertising drives traffic to your website. However, it can also make sense to set up campaign landing pages to support your digital advertising activities, with a focused message and a promotional offer to encourage an urgent response. It’s also a great opportunity to test different messages, visuals and offers – as well as to build a database. For instance, you might offer some added value if someone gives you their email address. You can them use this data to send out emails on an ongoing basis. Done correctly, this can massively improve conversion levels.

REMARKETING

Of course, not everyone completes a call to action when they visit your website for the first time. In fact, they are highly likely not to do so – according to research, 96% of site visitors don’t complete a call to action on their first visit. That’s why remarketing is such a great follow-up tool. It works by capturing the IP address when someone visits your website. If you set things up correctly, you can serve up adverts on third party websites within the Google remarketing network to people who have previously visited your website. Once again, you only pay if they click on the ad. Also, the cost of a click is significantly less than the cost of a click on Google Ads, and you can continue to serve up ads for up to a year after their last visit, if you wish to do so.

SIMILAR AUDIENCE ADS

Similar audience ads are another great idea from Google. These take a look at your remarketing lists and analyse the details of people who have visited your website as a result of your Google Ads campaigns. Using powerful algorithms, they’re able to find additional audiences with similar characteristics to those who have visited your website. You can then serve up ads to these suspect customers too – once again, you only pay if they click on your ad.

DISPLAY, SEARCH AND VIDEO

In essence, Google Ads falls into three primary campaign types – display, search and video (YouTube). They can all be optimised for mobile devices too. There are many ways to improve the performance of these campaigns and there is best practice procedure to follow to make sure you are complying with the latest data privacy legislation. Don’t worry, we know all about this, and will make sure your digital advertising activities are always legal when it comes to GDPR compliance.

SETTING THINGS UP

We will set up your social media and search engine accounts in your name and manage them on your behalf on an ongoing basis if you wish us to do so. We will educate you as to how we do things along the way and – over time – we will provide you with all the skills you need to deliver some or all of the tasks internally. This works well for some clients, whilst others always prefer to outsource all their digital advertising, or to work in close partnership with their internal marketing and digital marketing teams.