Partner Article

What’s the best way to advertise my business online?

Years ago, small business advertising was a relatively simple task. Placing an ad in either the local newspaper or the Yellow Pages, often for a borderline-extortionate cost, was really the only option available. Advertising, although expensive was simple and when it was done well, it worked.

These days however, there are many opportunities for small businesses to reach their customers online, and in a much more targeted way (ultimately advertising is only worth the money if it drives people to buy your company’s products or services). But with so many options out there it can be difficult to decide the best fit for you. So here’s a quick run-through of the most popular online advertising platforms:

Google Adwords

According to statistics published at the end of 2013, Google attracts around 67% of all worldwide searches, so if you want to get your business in front of potential new customers Adwords is certainly a great place to start.

When a Google user searches for a particular phrase, your website’s ad (including a clickable link) will display above the results generated. You can choose which searches your ad is displayed against, so pick the ones that relate to your business the most so that you increase the likelihood of people clicking through to your site and finding something relevant.

Setup can take just a few minutes: simply create an account, write your ad, link to the relevant pages on your website and pick the search terms you want to appear against.

The cost of each ad is based on the popularity of these search terms – popularity both in the number of times Google users search for them each month and also in the number of other companies also taking ads out against them.

Adwords has two pricing models: with CPM (cost per mille – Latin for 1000) you are charged for every 1000 times your ad is displayed; with PPC (pay-per-click) you are charged a fixed amount every time a person actually clicks on your ad.

CPM costs less than PPC but an ad view doesn’t necessarily equate to someone actually visiting your site.

Choosing popular search terms will get the most traffic to your site in the shortest amount of time but the flipside of this is that with so much competition, they’re heavily contested and priced at higher rates. You can, however, set a maximum budget with each ad campaign that you commission, so you shouldn’t get any nasty surprises the next time you check your bank balance.

One way to make a more effective campaign (and maybe even save some cash too) is to localise your ads. Search terms including a location will likely have less competition and cost less to advertise against. People searching for a local product or service are also more likely to find what they’re looking for when they click on your site and make a purchase.

Google Plus

Although considered by some to be the ‘less popular’ social network, a recent survey of UK small business owners in fact found that 33.7% had a Google Plus account, second only to Facebook (44.2%).

In 2013, Google launched Places for Business which allows companies to create their own mini-profile to be displayed whenever it’s returned as a search result. Signing up to Google Plus and creating a Places for Business entry means customers can find information like your opening times, contact details, location and products quickly and easily, increasing your chances of making a sale.

Google’s ultimate aim is to provide its users with relevant information and locality is a big part of this, so setting up a Places for Business profile is likely to be rewarded with a higher rank in search results and increased traffic to your site.

Facebook

Facebook’s billion-plus active users around the world spend on average over six hours per month on the site. This makes it another great platform for online advertising. Small business owners can set up their own business page for free and then spend money on paid ads to promote their website.

Facebook ads can be highly targeted as they use the personal information from people’s profiles, such as location, age, marital status, as well as their likes and interests, to determine if your ad would appeal to them.

So, for example, if you lived in Cambridgeshire and have recently changed your Facebook status to ‘engaged’ you would be the perfect targets for a wedding cake company in Cambridge.

Facebook’s ad builder can be somewhat restrictive and ads that breach its terms and conditions (from content that’s judged to be inappropriate to phrases such as “as seen in the Sunday Times,” that try to piggyback on other brands) will be withdrawn. Another thing to take into account is that images can only be one size and displayed in a certain place.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn seeks to connect like-minded professionals and is a great resource for generating leads and sales, especially for business-to-business companies. LinkedIn ads can target an extremely niche and relevant audience, basing who they’re displayed to on their industry, job function, seniority, location and more.

You can also identify people with a potential interest in your business through LinkedIn groups. Advertising to these with relevant content can drive large amounts of traffic to your site quickly and relatively cheaply.

Instagram

With Instagram you take photos with your mobile phone and apply photography filters to give them a more professional or unique look. These are then shared by users on other social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Instagram was recently purchased by Facebook and as such it’s introduced business accounts and seamless sharing. The company recently launched Instagram ads, and, although it’s going through a trial period at the moment and it may take time for users to fully accept, it’s definitely a space worth watching for the future.

Christian Nellemann is CEO and Founder of XLN Telecom, a specialist provider of broadband telephone, internet, energy and card payment systems specifically tailored for small businesses.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Christian Nellemann .