Internet advertising – what is it all about?

The Internet is now basically a separate world that functions alongside the real world. Due to its vastness and diversity, it is more and more difficult to exist in it in a completely natural way. That is why Internet advertising is so important, as it allows many companies to mark their presence and gain customers. There are many ways to promote online, and it’s not an easy nut to crack – especially for newbies. Also, specialists in this area must constantly learn, because virtual space is changing very dynamically – what only yesterday was very effective, today can be counterproductive.

There are many advertising channels and methods used on the Internet. The most popular are:
– SEO,
– Google Ads campaigns: sponsored links, product campaigns,
– campaigns in social media (e.g. Facebook, Instagram),
– YouTube video campaigns,
– banner campaigns on Google Display Network,
– re marketing,
– e-mail campaigns,
– influencer marketing,
– publication of sponsored content,
– word of mouth marketing.

Of course, this is not all! New promotion channels are also constantly being created – incl. thanks to new websites or applications being created.

Basics of Internet advertising – settlement models

Internet advertising costs should be considered based on the applicable billing models. There are also a few of these. Most often they are imposed by a specific system and service. When buying an advertisement, the client should assess (or consult it with specialists) which billing model will be the most profitable for him. The most popular forms are:
– CPC – cost per click (or PPC – pay per click) including payment for each click on the advertisement (banner, link, etc.);
– CPM (cost per mile) – settlement for every 1000 ad impressions (regardless of conversion), used most often in the case of image campaigns;
– CPV (cost per view) for payment for each display of an advertisement, used primarily on YouTube and similar websites; payment is valid only when the user watches at least 30 sec. Ads (or all, if shorter);
– CPL (cost per lead) – settlement for each user registration or obtaining contact;
– CPA (cost per action) – settlement for specific actions performed by the user on the website, eg “liking” a post;
– CPS (cost per sale) – settlement based on the number of sales transactions finalized through advertising; characterized by high commissions.

As you can see, there are many different ways to calculate ad bids. For this reason, the price lists of various promotional channels differ significantly, and comparing the profitability of specific campaigns can be difficult, especially for a layman.

What else does the cost of advertising on the Internet depend on?

The method of settlement or the place and time of publication is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the cost of online advertising. It is worth remembering that in most cases campaign prices are set individually. Much depends on the selected channels, but also on the target group or area of operation and, of course, the cost of acquiring a customer that a given company can afford. One nail american company might say you can get customers for $ 0.2 and another for $ 1, and in both cases it can be a successful and profitable campaign.

Of course, the necessary advertising expenses will also depend on whether you decide to act alone or choose experts. The second option is of course more expensive, but it is worth remembering that it usually translates into much larger and faster noticeable profits – acting “blindly”, without the necessary knowledge and experience, it is very difficult to allocate the advertising budget to allow for the achievement of the intended goals and getting the max out of a given channel.

Internet advertising – start with positioning

Online advertising often means only paid links, banners and videos, but its real foundation is positioning. It is through SEO activities (search engine optimization – content optimization for search engines) that the brand image is built, and at the same time the traffic on the website is increased, gaining new customers. Search engine optimization requires months or even years of consistency and implementation of carefully designed strategies. This is one of the reasons why it is often overlooked or regarded as the least effective form of advertising. In fact, quite the opposite is true – it is SEO that produces the most distinct and, above all, lasting results. However, you have to wait for the effects. Of course, keep in mind that SEO is not justified in all cases – if you operate in a competitive industry and you do not have the budget enough, you may just waste money – which is why it is so important to consult specialists who will assess which channel has the greatest make sense in terms of budget and industry.

You can carry out SEO activities on your own – there is no shortage of literature or courses on this subject. It is worth knowing, however, that the best results are achieved by professionally prepared and implemented plans. How much does it cost to work with an SEO agency? From several hundred dollars a month to even several or tens of thousands of dollars. As a rule, however, most companies’ SEO budgets are between $ 2,000 and $ 10,000.

Google Ads, the most popular form of advertising on the Internet

When talking about online advertising, many people mean Google Ads campaigns (formerly Google AdWords). This is the most obvious and at the same time quite complex form of promotion, which when properly applied can also be extremely effective. The most common is the so-called sponsored links – these are CPC text ads visible above the search results of specific terms (keywords) or in the lower parts of the page.

Prices for advertising in Google Ads are based on auctions. This means that individual companies that want to advertise on the same keyword determine how much they are willing to pay for a click on a sponsored link (maximum CPC bid). On this basis, the positions of links in the search results are determined. The cost of advertising is therefore inextricably linked to competition in a given industry and the advertising budgets of individual companies conducting similar activities. Google provides an approximate rate for placing a link at the top of the page, as well as the competitiveness of a given phrase. Specific? It happens that the CPC will be a few cents. Sometimes it is several dozen dollars. It all depends on the area where you want to promote yourself.

Diversifying the cost of your Ads ads is one of the reasons why running a profitable campaign is not easy. It is best to trust professionals in this matter who will distribute your budget in a way that allows you to obtain optimal results.

How much does online advertising cost – Google product campaigns

Google Ads also offers Product Listing Ads – PLA for online stores. In this case, a specific product and its price appear above the search results instead of a separate link to the page. The costs per click are then noticeably lower – on average they range from tens of cents to several dollars – although their amount also depends on the promoted products and competitiveness in this area. It is also worth remembering that product advertising is quite narrow, so promoting the entire assortment can cost you quite a lot. Therefore, it is recommended to start with individual categories in this regard.

Image advertising on Google Display Network

Google Display Network is a tool that allows you to reach new recipients with your message. Campaigns conducted within this network allow you to place banners, films or multimedia content on websites that meet the criteria specified by the ordering party. In this case, the cost per click is usually a few or several dozen cents. This type of advertising is considered less effective, but it works well, for example, in image and reach campaigns.

Remarketing – Another type of image ad

Remarketing is a more effective and at the same time more popular form of display advertising. It consists in displaying advertising content (usually banners) to people who have previously visited your website or, for example, have visited your store but have not made purchases. Such promotion allows you to remind potential customers about the offer that has already aroused their interest and often allows you to protect yourself from losing them to the competition. Remarketing campaigns are also billed based on clicks. CPC is on average a few dozen cents. Importantly, these types of ads are divided into two types:

– static – the same banner for all recipients,
– dynamic – banner content based on products or categories viewed by a given user.

As part of remarketing activities, you can also reach people with ads who, for example, watched videos from your YouTube channel or visited your website, and then searched for further information on Google. The type of activities carried out can therefore be adapted to very specific needs, which affects the profitability of this solution, as long as it is, of course, wisely implemented.

Ads on social media

Another popular channel for advertising is Facebook. The largest social network in the world offers many paid promotional solutions. The most common choice is promoting posts. Thanks to this, specific content can reach a much wider audience. The promotion of posts generates much greater reach and makes more people reach your Facebook profile, and often also your website. The cost of such ads can be calculated based on the number of impressions (on average a few dollars per 1000) or clicks on a link (on average from 1 to several dollars, not counting very competitive industries).

Facebook also allows you to set targeted ads for gaining new “fans” of a specific profile. In this case, you have to pay from several tens of cents to several dollars for each new liking of the page. Costs vary, among others depending on the target group established.

Similar advertising mechanisms are also offered by Instagram, which belongs to the Facebook empire, but the promotion is slightly cheaper there.

YouTube Ads

YouTube is a very popular advertising channel recently. The huge number of users who use the website every day is certainly noteworthy. This is the best place to post your video content – but remember that it doesn’t have to be long or complicated. Advertisers have the option of using a variety of video ad formats. The most popular are the so-called TrueView In Stream ads displayed before, after or during video playback. These are longer format clips that can be skipped by the user after 5 seconds. Payment is in CPV format, and only applies to impressions of at least 30 seconds of ad (or all of the ad, if longer). The cost in this case is on average a few cents per view.

The so-called Bumper Ads – short, several seconds long ads that cannot be missed. They are billed in the CPM format. Typically, the cost of 1,000 impressions ranges from a few to several dollars. However, there are many more possibilities for advertising on YouTube!

Advertising on the Internet – is it worth it?

As you can easily guess, the best results are achieved by Internet advertising carried out through multiple channels simultaneously with a well-thought-out positioning strategy. Activities can be carried out both on a small scale, which is most often used by local companies, and very widely. Their cost depends largely on the range, but also on the competitiveness in a given industry or target group. So how much does online advertising cost? It depends, of course. A small company can run effective operations for as little as several hundred dollars a month, while large stores or corporations often have advertising budgets of tens of thousands of dollars. Is it worth it? Without a doubt! However, remember that if you want to advertise effectively, it is worth trusting professionals.

Advertising on the Internet has many names

Banal statement? Perhaps. Nevertheless, many people equate online promotion primarily with paid banners and sponsored links. It is impossible to hide: they are a very important part of on-line communication. Measurable, effective, with fair settlements. Nevertheless, the possibilities offered by the Internet are much, much more.

Think for a second: how do you use the internet? On the one hand, you are looking for information in it (including those helpful in shopping). On the other hand, you contact your friends and acquaintances and share information about yourself with them on social media. On the next one: you draw a handful of entertainment. On-line games, streaming services, YouTube … can be exchanged like this endlessly. Behind the enormous possibilities offered by the internet, there is also a very wide range of marketing tools that you can use. One thing is certain: they all have the same ultimate goal – to motivate and encourage the consumer to make a purchase decision.

That is why, when writing about advertising, we will take into account both direct promotion strategies and those that fit into the so-called inbound marketing.

Internet advertising – what are the most important types of advertising?

Before we move on to the rules of selecting advertising tools or creating a campaign, let’s answer one more important question: what forms of promotion can you use? There are many of them. Get to know the key ones.

PPC / PPV advertising

Pay-per-click and pay-per-view are the two most popular systems for the settlement of classic online advertisements. These are those that are direct promotional messages and are displayed to users in a typical context. So it is mainly about:
– advertising banners – appearing mainly on websites, e.g. information or industry portals,
– Google Ads text ads – displayed to Google users over the so-called with organic results.

It is worth knowing that a very modern and effective form of PPC or PPV advertising is contextual advertising, especially displayed as part of remarketing. What is going on? That the content appearing in the form of advertisements is related to the interests and activity of each recipient.

Today it is possible – all thanks to cookies, which you are asked to accept after entering each page. Special algorithms process them when any ad site that works with this ad system is accessed. As a result, the user is shown banners referring to the content of previously visited pages.

For example, if you have recently browsed the Wi-Fi router offer, banners of this type will appear more often, which may eventually push you to make a purchase.

It is worth knowing that Google Ads / AdWords ads are billed in the system per click or per pageview – which means that you pay only for certain effects.

The advantages of PPC advertising are:
– easy accessibility,
– relatively low cost,
– simplicity of preparation,
– the possibility of detailed monitoring of the results.

Ads on social media

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn – these are social networking sites that are used by millions or even BILLIONS of users around the world every day. For many people, they are a source of information, contact with loved ones, but also with brands they value and like.

It is worth knowing that in social media you can conduct advertising activity in many ways – not only by creating a company profile. Yes, it is the primary source of communication. Nevertheless, such a fanpage will largely play a PR role, and therefore it will be:

– built brand awareness,
– encouraged interaction / leaving a lead,
– it allows your current and potential customers to stay up to date with your offer.

Yes, strictly advertising content can also appear on it – for example, encouraging people to take advantage of a specific promotion or presenting new products. However, in order for them to reach a sufficiently large number of users, they must be properly promoted. This is the purpose of advertising systems on social networks.

For example, on Facebook you can use e.g. with:
– paid post promotion – so that it is displayed also to people who did not like your page, and at the same time meet the criteria of your target group created according to strict assumptions.
– banner ads – both in the main part of the website and in a dozen or so other, secondary locations

Ads can direct both to your fan page and directly to the website, e.g. to specific products.

The advantages of advertising in social media are:
– the ability to reach a very wide audience,
– the possibility of taking full control over the budget (you control the limits),
– possibility of precise profiling of target groups of messages,
– the ability to adjust the specificity of the advertisement to the purpose of the promotional campaign.

Content marketing

Is content marketing also a form of advertising? Yes, although the promotional message is more subtle and less direct than in the above-described promotion methods. Tools that also function as advertising are mainly internal and external articles, as well as guides, trendbooks or – recently popular podcasts.

If at this moment you think of advertising articles from years ago – those that constituted a “laurel” for the company – you know that modern content marketing has nothing to do with them. Brand information is skillfully woven into expert text that has practical value for the user. Thanks to this, the text is a fairly effective form of direct promotion, and at the same time supports SEO activities.

Video advertising

Contrary to appearances, television or cinema is not the only place where they can be displayed. For their publication, you can use:

– Internet portals that provide such technical possibilities – many of them, especially informational ones, publish their own video materials, so there is an opportunity to place their own advertising message in them,
– YouTube service – ads are displayed here both before the actual recording starts and during it.

The video advertising system was also proposed by Facebook. Importantly, these commercials differ in formula from standard videos prepared for television. On the one hand, short formats of a few seconds are desirable. On the other hand, especially on YouTube, you can afford longer content. If they catch the user’s attention, it can last for several minutes.

Email Marketing

This is another form of communication that belongs more to the inbound format than outbound. Although it may seem ineffective, in fact … it works very well, and at different stages of the customer’s journey towards finalizing the transaction. For that to be the case:

– gain a group of customers interested in the newsletter (and thus obtain valuable leads),
– prepare interesting content, prompting you to take specific, desired actions.

A properly created e-mail message may encourage, for example, to read the content on a company blog, but also directly to purchase, if it informs about a short-term sale or the introduction of a new collection of products.

Of course, this is not the end of promotional tools that can be used on the Internet. There are many more.

Does internet advertising have to take all of the above forms?

Simply put: no. Above, we have presented the most important forms of presenting advertising messages on the web. However, you as an advertiser don’t have to use all of them. On the contrary: it is worth choosing those that suit the specifics of your business. So what?

Think: Will an e-shop that sells pet food need more contextual advertising on LinkedIn, or a promotion on Facebook or through sponsored links? And what will be useful for a company that implements firmware? She can make more profits by reaching for ads on LinkedIn or by using content marketing on industry websites.

So we go back to the basic rule: advertise where your target group is.

How to choose advertising channels on the Internet?

Before you start thinking about having an online ad published, you have a long way to go. You should and even have to go through it if you don’t want to risk financial losses. Although online promotion is relatively cheaper than that on television or on outdoor media, it still carries considerable costs if you operate in a competitive industry. And if so, you need to be well prepared for it. How?

A. Define the purpose for which you want to promote
The ultimate one is obvious: maximizing your sales. However, for the conversion to take place, the consumer has to go through many steps along the way. What do you care most about right now? On building brand awareness? Arousing consumer curiosity? Achieving a quick sales effect, or maybe long-term results?
Each of the answers to the above questions is good. Each of them also entails the necessity to take other actions.

B. Define your target audience
In a word: answer the question to whom you are targeting your products and services. It is not just about a few-sentence definition. Comprehensive personas are prepared in modern marketing. It is about:

– specifying representatives of all target groups of people interested in your products – for example, the aforementioned food may be bought by both a student – owner of a domestic cat, and a wealthy businessman who looks after purebred dogs,
– precise definition of their features – both their character and needs as well as the problems they struggle with,
– giving them a “face”.

The more accurate the visualization, the easier it is to translate theoretical assumptions into specific promotional messages.

C. Determine the budget for the campaign
Yes, it cannot be done 100% precisely, but you need to know in advance how much money you can spend on advertising on the Internet. This will allow you to diversify your resources and control your budget.

Advertising on the Internet: on its own or with the support of a digital agency?

In theory, you can plan and implement online advertising yourself – various tools are available at your fingertips. However, in practice, the correct configuration of a campaign – so that it brings the desired results – requires in-depth knowledge and broad skills. It is not a formula at all, but … a hard reality. The point is to spend your money as efficiently as possible. In the era of growing competition, it is more and more difficult not to simply burn through the budget for ineffective activities. The care of an agency or a freelancer will save you time and, paradoxically, your budget – many times it turns out that optimization brings much greater savings than the commission for service.

Therefore, if you want to know how to use the potential of online advertising in order to achieve maximum business goals, contact the experts.