Our world is going virtual. Gone are the days when we depended on central stations to showcase our products and services. Today, with platforms like Google and Facebook, you don't need to have a lot on your budget to reach your targeted audience. However, this comes with a problem. Many business owners still feel that running ads online is a waste of time. And for others who believe in digital marketing, they don't even know the right method to use.

In this article, we'll be showing you the best strategy to use for your business. You will walk away today knowing what ad type will be most effective for you and why that is.

Display advertising vs Search advertising

A lot of things come into play when advertising online. There are many ad formats you can choose from, and you can also reach your audience in different ways. However, the major ways you could do this is through search and display advertising. However, they operate in different ways.

What's the difference between search and display advertising?

When it's done correctly, these two formats can raise your engagement, reach, and conversions. But before you use both, it's best if you know how they work. Let's look at their strengths on how they can work together to your advantage.

Search Advertising

For a competitive niche, It would take time to rank on the search engine result page. Maybe you have a reputable business or an optimized website. You must be patient. However, adding search advertising would improve your results.
This form of advertising is commonly known as PPC (pay per click). It's one of the best ways to reach your target audience. Examples of these include search engines like google.

How it works

For instance, let's say you own a bakery and you sell chocolate cakes. You take personal orders, and you also make cakes for events. Now, when someone's looking for chocolate cakes and types in "chocolate cakes" (your keyword), it will set off your ad to appear on the sponsored section.
If you have carefully structured your ad, that person will click on your ad, visit your site and probably make a purchase.

Benefits of using search advertising ads

• It gives you an edge over your competitors.
• You'll be able to upscale your marketing strategy.
• You'll be able to target the audience based on their interest, intents and location.
• You can easily split-test your ads to know what would work and what wouldn't.
• You'll be able to make data-driven decisions.

Who should use a search ads campaign?

• People who have a small Ad budget
  

  Sometimes, a client's advert options may be limited. In those situations, it's best if you use search ads. With this ad, you can be sure of direct conversions. Once you're able to understand search ads, you can use display ads for more visibility.

• Poor organic traffic
  

  While organic traffic is one of the best ways to grow your business, it takes a while to set up, and can be very slow. You need a faster approach.

• You sell products/services that are in urgent demand
  

  As your product and services are always in need at specific times, you should use search advertising.

• You want to generate quality leads
  

  With search ads, anyone who clicks on your ad has the intention of buying. If you have a good ad, you can turn those targeted leads into your customers.

• Your business or website is unestablished
  

  Start ups are hard. If you recently launched your site or business, search ads are a great way to get it rolling.

Display Advertising

For search advertising, search engines like google are the best platforms to work with. Display advertising doesn't work with search engines. For display ads, your ads are not limited to one place. Your adverts would be displayed on different websites that your targeted customers are browsing.

How it works

Display ads can appear in different formats:

• Text - this may include a headline, short lines of text and a working URL for your call to action.
• Banner - this involves lots of graphics and rich content. Animations and custom layouts can also be used.
• Video - within 30-60 seconds, video ads help you to relate with your customers engagingly.

Benefits of display advertising

• They are visually appealing.
• Display ads make your ad more visible
• Brand awareness
• Retargeting options
• You can easily track and monitor your campaign progress.

Who should use display ad campaigns?

• People looking for brand awareness
  

  If you want people to familiarize themselves with your brand, use display ads. You win by creating demands for your products and services.

• Not in a hurry to sell
  

  If you're selling emergency services (like plumbing), you won't achieve much in display ads. Rather than capitalizing on an urgent need, Display ads help in cultivating the needs of your customers.

• People who have visually appealing items
  

  Display ads are still the best way to showcase products that need graphical presentation.

• People looking for more advertising options
  

  With display ads, you can fill up the keyword gap In search ads. In that way, you'll be able to cover more grounds in marketing.

How to setup your online campaigns

How to set up a search advertising campaign on Google

1. Login to your google ads account.
2. Click on the '+' button on the campaign dashboard.
3. Select the type of campaign that suits your goals. For this case, we'll be using the "search" campaign.
4. Select your campaign goals ( this may be a phone call or a purchase).
5. Enter a campaign name.
6. Select your network:

   With this feature, you can choose where you want your ad to appear. Select your location. If you have more than one area in mind, you can click on "advanced features' to add more.

7. Set up your budget.
8. Set up your delivery method:

   For this, you can use the standard or the accelerated delivery option. For beginners, you should use the standard delivery option. Standard delivery will help you to maximize your ad budget.

9. Set up your bidding strategy:

   Choose if you wish to pay per click, conversion or conversion value.

10. Launch your campaign.

Tips

• Many tools would help you in finding the right keywords (or phrases) used by your audience. You can use the google ads keyword planner or keyword discovery (paid tool).
• With a well-structured PPC campaign, you can be assured of making sales. To ensure that you maximize this campaign, you can use an email campaign.

How to set up a display advertising campaign on Google

1. Login to your google ads account.
2. Click on the "new campaign" button.
3. Under campaign settings, go to the "network, devices and extensions section". Don't use the google search box. Click on the 'let me choose other networks'. Uncheck the search network and the partners box option. Tock only the display network box.
4. If you want your ads to be placed on partner pages, you can choose these pages on the display network.
5. Set up your campaign budget and also your prefered bidding option.
6. Save and continue.

5 Core benefits of online advertising

1. You can reach out to a global audience

   With online advertising, distance is not a barrier. With Google ad manager or Facebook ads manager, you can select locations where your ads can be seen. It can be within your community or anywhere in the world.
   You don't need to travel to make your product known. You have the internet. Millions of prospects will see your ads and may convert to paying clients in the long run.

2. It's cost-effective

   It's one of the major advantages of using online ads. Compared to traditional advertising, google ads cost and Facebook ads cost are preferable. You don't need to spend much to get the results you need.
   You also don't need any intermediaries. Once you get enough reach, you'll start seeing more conversions.

3. You can streamline your audience

   Digital marketing will help you to reach the right audience within the shortest time. For example, let's say you're looking for a marketing agency. You'll always find google search ads that relate to this.
   Facebook display ads will help you meet your clients even when they're interacting with friends.

4. You can keep your customers engaged

   Social media is one of the best ways to keep your customers engaged. If you want to do this, you could try facebook dynamic ads. Facebook ad policy favours this concept.
   You can use the 'interest', 'occupation' and 'behaviour' of your targeted audience to increase your engagement.

5. Access to data

   In the 21st century, data is everything. With data, you'll know the best way to attract your audience. Unfortunately, you'll be violating social rules if you harvest data without permission.
   Using advertising platforms (Such as Google), you can set up ads based on the previous performance of your adverts. You will be able to get an 'ad' report after the whole campaign.

Conclusion

It's important you know the right marketing strategy to use for your business. This article has shown you the best ways to use search and display ads effectively. Understanding how to use them will take your business to the next level. I hope I've been able to help you on your journey. Cheers!