It’s true: Google has certainly got the lion’s share of the search engine market – some 91% of it worldwide. But does that mean it is now and always will be the best place to advertise your business? Spoiler alert: yes, probably! But let us tell you why…
This blog is going to explore some of the best ways to advertise online, looking at search engine advertising on Google and Bing as well as paid promotions on social media.
Nowadays, having a presence on social media is pretty much a MUST. But it is paid promotions that take your online presence one step further; they can be hugely beneficial in helping your business reach the right people. The trick here is to first establish the best platform to do that on. For example, if your industry is highly visual – such as food or interior design – then Instagram is probably the way to go. Take some time to research around the industry you are in and analyse your competitors’ social media profiles to help you decide the best route to pursue.
Advertising on social media is brilliant for building brand awareness. Because you can target such niche markets, particularly on Facebook and Instagram, you have a good chance of relevant people seeing and engaging with your business as a result. Let’s use Instagram as an example; with a paid promotion, you can narrow down the target audience by age, location, interests and more. Then, once your advert is running, the Instagram users who fit the specified profile will be shown your advert.
Undeniably, there is great benefit from giving your social media profiles a little monetary boost. However, as I’ll go on to explain, what you can’t quite do with Facebook, Instagram or Twitter – that you can with search engine advertising – is be there when people are searching for you.
The real beauty of pay per click advertising, through a search engine such as Bing or Google, is that you can be the answer that people are looking for. When properly set-up, a PPC campaign can drive highly relevant traffic to your site that is more likely to convert to a sale than advertising on social media. The other main benefit of this is the flexibility it offers; you have a lot of freedom to tailor your adverts so that they maximise your opportunity to answer peoples’ queries and entice them to your website.
It doesn’t have quite the same esteem as the famed Google but it’s a popular search engine nonetheless. And in recent years, Bing has seriously upped its advertising game, making it a pretty strong contender for search engine marketing. As it is owned by Microsoft, which has two other search engines (Yahoo and AOL), whenever you run an advert on Bing, it will actually be displayed across all three platforms, thereby maximising your reach.
Yes, Google does own the majority of the search engine market – there’s really no competition on that front – but that is precisely why you could find yourself paying a lower CPC (cost per click) with Bing. Fewer people to compete with means you have a greater chance of your advert being seen.
We’ve all heard of it and virtually all of us with access to the internet have used it – many of us doing so on a daily basis. So, while Bing has its advantages, as a general rule, if you don’t know something, you google it. And that is precisely why you need to make use of AdWords.
With billions of searches carried out per day, it simply doesn’t make sense to miss out on the action. That kind of traffic and search volume means that no other search engine can offer the potential reach that Google can. Yes, you do run the risk of expensive bids or even being outbid for space, however, with a properly set-up campaign, you can navigate around this.
In the words of Google, “there’s more than one way to display”. An AdWords campaign comes in many different shapes and sizes. You decide how you want your advert to look and where you want it to be shown – in the Google search results, in Gmail, as a banner or in an App. This gives you the control and flexibility to tailor the campaign so that it best suits your target demographic.
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Whatever route you go down, advertising your business isn’t always easy. If you’ve got a question about social media or search engine marketing, feel free to get in touch with us today!
FSM.