There are many ways to advertise your business online and paid advertising is the quickest way to drive targeted traffic to your website and social media platforms. 

The 2 most common types of advertising are:

Search Advertising

This is where you run ads on search engines like Google and take advantage of buyers intent to get your offer in front of your target audience. The most popular are Google Ads with Bings Ads a distant 2nd but growing all the time.

On Google you can run various types of ads.

• Search Ads
• Shopping Ads
• Display Ads
• Video Ads
• Smart Campaigns
  

This short video explains the different types of ads and how you can use them in your business.

The reason why using search marketing is so effective is because you are going after people that are showing intent and are closer to the bottom of the sales funnel and are ready to buy. It works by targeting specific keywords that people use to search for your product or service.

Paid Social 

This is where you advertise on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin based on interests, behaviours and demographics. Paid Social allows you to get your products or services in front of people that might not have known about your business (cold audience).

Whereas search engine advertising is intent based, people are looking for your product or the solution to the problem that your product solves. Paid social is more disruptive, getting your ads in front of people when they are scrolling through social media. 

On Facebook there are many ad formats:

• Image Ads
• Carousel Ads
• Dynamis Ads
• Catalogue Sales Ads
• Video Ads
• And more

Depending on the business, using a combination of both Paid Search and Paid Social will get the best results.

This video will show you a strategy that implements both: 3 Step Digital Marketing Process