Put very simply, paid digital marketing is when a brand or business pays to advertise across digital marketing platforms (mainly social media and Google).
There are three main types of paid digital marketing: Search Marketing, Display Marketing and Social Media Marketing.
If you want to find out more information about each of these, as well as useful best practices, be sure to sign up for our next Business Survival Webinar: Paid Marketing Best Practice on 19th November, at 19:00 GMT.
Paid Search Marketing
The image above shows an example of paid search marketing. You will no doubt have come across these ads in your day-to-day use of Google. The result that is due to paid search marketing is indicated by the bold ‘Ad.’ at the beginning of the result. They can appear at the top and bottom of the search results, with up to 4 adverts appearing in either space at any given time.
These ads are made of copy only; a header and supporting copy text are displayed in all cases, and occasionally Google displays optional advert extensions that can add more detail and increase the presence of an advert
When should you use paid search?
Paid search is a useful tool to increase brand awareness and target new potential customers when they are at the beginning of their consumer journey. You can target specific keywords and, specify the audience you would like to target, as well as telling Google how much you would like to pay for clicks, and the budget you would like to use.
You can set up paid search campaigns through platforms like Google Ads, and Microsoft Advertising
Display Marketing
You will also have noticed display marketing when browsing web pages. Display ads are much more visual than search ads and use a lot less text. The Google display network does allow the delivery of text-only adverts, but results are much better when using still images, gifs or videos and will often have a very clear call to action (CTA) on them.
There are many different sizes of display ads, but this article from Google highlights the most common sizes you can expect to find them in.
When should you use display marketing?
Display ads can be used to increase brand awareness, especially if you have strong visuals, but they are also useful for re-targeting audiences who are already aware of your brand, as they can follow the user to other websites after they visited your site.
Similarly to search marketing, display marketing is run through Google, and, like paid search, can be managed through tools like Google Ads.
Paid Social Media Marketing
Paid social media ads can be in-feed posts, like the example above, or can be shown to the side of your home feed on Facebook for desktop. They are normally marked with ‘Sponsored’ and have added features, such as the ability to add a CTA in the image, as highlighted in the example above.
Paid social media ads make use of both appealing visuals and strong copy and follow many of the best practices for organic social media.
When should you use paid social media marketing?
Paid social media can be used to target potential customers who have similar interests to your current followers, or to boost the visibility of your current content as some social channels like Facebook restrict organic content reach.
The social channel you are creating your paid social media ads for will dictate the platform you use to create your campaign. For Facebook and Instagram you would use Facebook Ads Manager, LinkedIn would be LinkedIn Campaign Manager and Pinterest would be Pinterest Ads.
We hope you’ve found this overview useful. If you are interested in learning more about paid marketing be sure to attend our next Business Survival Webinar: Paid Marketing Best Practice on 19th November, at 19:00 GMT.
The post What Is Paid Digital Marketing and When Should I Use It? appeared first on PADI Pros.
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