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Advertising used to be easy… buy some TV, radio and newspaper ads, create a few generic mass-targeted pieces of creative, and hope for the best. With little measurement possible, the cost was simply justified, and no ROI was required.
Enter Facebook, Google Display Network, Google Search, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and countless other digital advertising networks, and it’s a whole other ball game. While it can seem overwhelming and a bit intimidating, with a few guiding principles, you will be able to more effectively choose your media mix, and make your paid media work for you. More importantly, with a myriad of digital channels to choose from, you will actually know how and why your marketing is working!
 

Make your paid media work for you, start with thinking about:

Goals: What do you want your digital marketing achievements to be?

Frame this in terms of business goals and how they impact the bottom line. Are you trying to acquire new customers, grow existing customer revenue, reduce churn? Identifying your goals allows you to identify measurable KPIs, which helps determine which channels to leverage.

Your Budget: How to allocate a budget for digital marketing 

While traditional marketing channels come with a higher price tag, digital tactics can fit all budgets. Digital algorithms require activity to optimize themselves, so you want to have enough spend per tactic to allow the platform to learn and drive optimal results. If you’re working with a minimal spend, stick to one or two channels. For smaller budgets, it’s also best to focus on one segment and a smaller geographic area. Since paid and organic tactics work together, you will gain more organic traction by focusing your spending on a few areas rather than going broad.

Your Target Segments: There are benefits to targeting a specific market 

Who is your ideal customer? You may have multiple customer segments, so start by identifying who they are, why your product or service matters to them, and how it can help them. It can be helpful to create customer profiles to bring your segments to life. As part of this, identify their demographic and psychographic characteristics, along with how and where they spend their time. This informs which media channels will be most effective to reach your target segments, along with the type of creative and messaging that will resonate with them. Lastly, it’s helpful to quantify the opportunity each segment presents, so you can focus on the low-hanging fruit and big wins first.

Next, it’s time to think about your marketing tactics strategy

 

Speaking of tactics, if you’re unsure which ones are best suited for your business, check out our FREE Menu of Marketing Tactics.

 

It gives the low down on Email, Social, Search, and Display tactics at your fingertips and gives tips on when to use each.

Each marketing channel has its pros and cons, from a budget, targeting and measurement standpoint. Additionally, you should leverage different tactics at various stages of the customer journey. If your goal is awareness, you may want to utilize YouTube and Social more heavily. Whereas if your goal is driving a lead form conversion or eCommerce sale, Search / Pay-per-Click will likely be more effective and cost-efficient.

 
 
It’s important to keep in mind that while you can use specific channels for various stages of the customer journey, all marketing channels should play together. This means keeping the messaging and creative consistent across tactics.
 
This also means measuring impact across tactics. Take advantage of the platform analytics tools, and consistently measure performance and optimize your tactics. By adopting a data-driven test-and-learn approach to your media mix, you will see the strongest results and get the best ROI on your marketing dollars.