I am sure you clicked to read this guide because you are unsure of the best ad types for small businesses. If my guess is right, then continue reading as this article is written to solve your puzzle.
Now, before we dive in deeper, let me give you a quick one.
The best advertising your small business can get is giving your customers cause to start recommending your products out of their free will ( instead of paid endorsements which often come across as fake hence yielding poor results) to other potential buyers as not only is this free for your small brand but the new customers trust the endorsements from people they know and trust more than they do a paid ad from your company.
One great way of increasing the level of social proof for your brand is to use existing customers and transactions to improve your bottom line and to do that, you have to continue meeting customers with the exact solutions for their pain points at the exact time they need the answers.
That and more great ad types for small businesses are suggested in this article, read on to uncover other great ways to increase store visits.
But before we open you to that page, I need to first inform you that all these ad types are done via online platforms and what the benefits of digital advertising are.
What are the Benefits of Digital Advertising?
The core benefit of digital marketing is that a targeted audience can be reached measurably and cost-effectively.
Other digital advertising benefits include:
#1. Global Reach: An online presence allows you to find new markets and trade globally for only a meager investment.
#2. Lower Cost: A properly planned and well-targeted digital advertising campaign can reach the right customers at a much lower cost than traditional advertising methods.
#3. Trackable, Measurable Results: Measuring your online advertising with web analytics and other online metric tools makes it easier to establish how successful your campaign has been.
You can obtain detailed insights into how customers use your site or respond to your ads.
#4. Personalization: If your customer database is linked to your site, then whenever someone visits the website, you can greet them with customized offers.
The more they purchase from you, the more you can improve your customer profile and sell effectively to them.
#5. Openness: By leveraging social media and managing it carefully, you can build customer loyalty and create an impression of being easy to engage with.
#6. Social Currency: Digital advertising allows you to create engaging campaigns using content marketing tactics.
This content (images, articles, videos) can earn social currency, being passed from user to user, thereby becoming viral.
#7. Improved Conversion Rates: If you have an online presence, then your customers are only ever a few clicks away from purchasing from your online store.
Done with that, let’s ride on into some great cost-effective ad types you should be using.
Great Ad Types of Small Businesses
#1. Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is a popular choice for small businesses because the cost is relatively affordable and you can be greatly selective with the audience you target.
For instance, if you own a retail store, you can use ad targeting options to shrink the audience scope so that only people of a certain demographic living within a specific mile radius of your store are served your social media ads.
There are a lot of social media platforms you can choose from for advertising, these include:
#1. Facebook Ads: Facebook is an efficient advertising choice for most small businesses, because of the boundless adoption of the platform and the relatively affordable cost of their ads.
Almost 70% of American adults use Facebook, and among those who use it, close to 75% log in to the platform at least once per day.
There are various ad units to choose from on Facebook, including video ads, customer offers, lead generation, carousel images, page likes, event responses, and more.
#2. Instagram: Instagram ads are a powerful option for small businesses with an extremely visual brand that appeals to younger audiences since 60% of Instagram’s one-billion users are below the age of 30.
Instagram includes several of the same targeting parameters offered by Facebook and their ad units include video ads, image ads, carousel ads, and Stories ads. You can also include clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons to pull traffic to your website.
#3. LinkedIn: LinkedIn advertising appears to be a bit more expensive compared to other social platforms, however, it’s a great alternative for small businesses with a business-to-business (B2B) sales model, because you can target professionals in specific industries and with specific job titles through LinkedIn ads.
There are over 560 active professional users on LinkedIn.
#4. TikTok Ads: In the digital age, short-form, and creative videos are taking over the social media advertising landscape.
Consumers are increasingly seeking fun, engaging, and authentic content that is relatable and offers value.
Today’s users desire trustworthy engagements online from real people with real experiences, so it’s crucial to build a platform that is transparent and responsive to evolving trends and holds consumer interests.
Once you are acclimated to the platform and understand popular trends and messaging that resonates with your audience, you can begin making videos that support your small business’s branding in a fun, creative, and modern light.
#2. Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a type of online ad where advertisers pay a fee each time a user clicks on one of their ads, usually via a search engine.
Advertisers bid on ad placements on the search engine, meaning they set a maximum price they are willing to pay for a user to click on their ads.
If eventually a person sees their ad but doesn’t click on it, they aren’t charged anything.
The most popular platforms for PPC advertising are Google Ads and Bing Ads. PPC ad is a form of search engine marketing (SEM).
It can be a powerful option for small businesses with limited budgets and according to WordStream, businesses earn $2 in revenue on average for every $1 they invest in Google Ads.
The Benefits of Running PPC Ads Include:
#1. Cost-effective: Since you only pay when a user actually clicks on your product, it can be a good value for money. With this advertising model, you get to choose to spend as much or as little as you like.
#2. Targeted: you can choose your target audience according to demographics like language, location, and device.
#3. Measurable: PPC campaigns can be set up to carefully measure ad performance. You can dictate exactly how much your return on investment (ROI) is.
#4. Customizable: as you run your ad campaigns, you can make many small changes to improve based on what works best for you.
#5. Training resources: there are many (usually free) online courses and training materials to enable you to develop your skills.
#6. Fast: you get to see the impact of your PPC efforts almost immediately. Organic search engine optimization (SEO) strategies can take months to make a difference.
#3. Mobile Advertising
Mobile advertising is a type of online advertising where ads are served only on mobile devices, including tablets and smartphones.
Mobile advertising could be done in the following ways:
#1. video
#2. Gamified ads
#3. in-app ads
#4. Native ads
#5. classic banner ads
Having a mobile ad strategy can pay off for your small business. 84% of adult customers under the age of 30 are most likely to conduct their online marketing using a mobile device.
Benefits of Mobile Advertising?
#1. Easy access: Right now, more than 4.5 billion people own and use mobile phones. They spend most of their time scrolling through mobile apps or social media platforms.
Statistically, people spend more time on their phones than on computers. Also, up to 80% of website traffic is brought by mobiles.
These are some of the reasons marketers decided that they put their focus on consumers using smartphones.
The accessibility of phones ensures that your campaigns show immediately and are easily accessed by your target audience.
#2. Personalization: Thanks to mobiles, we can always know where the person is. That’s the reason marketers are using location-based marketing.
The increased connectivity of mobile phones has made receiving information and its transmission easier.
We can now gather vast amounts of data about individual preferences, only thanks to their mobile devices.
All this enables advertisers to be more specific with ad personalization. Targeted marketing can be adjusted specifically to one person, based on their preferences, previous location, and purchase history.
#3. Immediate Engagement: Mobile ads are not only precise but also can reach customers and prospects at a very defining moment.
If needed, advertisers can create an ad that encourages immediate engagement.
#4. Cost-effectiveness: The most important mobile advertising benefit from the advertiser`s perspective is the cost. This is so mostly because of their targeting. You only reach customers that are ready and need to see a specific ad.
#4. Google Maps PPC Ads
There is little or no doubt at all that at some point in your life you have used Google Maps to help you find an address. Google Maps is now used by over 1 billion users every single month.
From helping users find addresses, view ariel photography, explore streets, and keep them up to speed with traffic information, it’s easy to see why this simple maps app has gained so much popularity.
With a lot of people using Google Maps to help them find directions, addresses, and landmarks, it was only a matter of time before Google Ad types for maps were launched.
And today, practically any business owner can tap into the power of Google maps marketing for their business in just a few easy steps.
If you are a location-based business such as a retail store or restaurant that relies on foot traffic to generate sales, then local search ads can remarkably increase your potential customers overnight.
Benefits of Google Maps PPC Ads
#1. Google Maps Helps People Locate Your Business
One of Google Maps’ largest benefits is it allows people to quickly find your business. The local search capabilities enable Google Maps to pin and list businesses that correspond to the user’s search.
The user can easily view and weigh their options before deciding to contact or visit the business.
Google Maps function as both a search engine to find the business users are searching for, and then as a map to give direction to users.
#2. Google Maps Enable People to Quickly Contact Your Business
When users see your Google Maps listing, the platform offers a comprehensive index of your business which includes your brand’s phone number.
And since most Google Maps searches are conducted by phone, they can call your company with just one tap.
Since users leverage Google Maps to make a decision (for example, where to find donuts or locate a nearby medicine store), the platform offers users the ability to easily contact the company, ask questions, and then decide whether to visit or not.
It makes it easy for potential buyers to take the next step and for businesses to directly connect with potential buyers.
#3. Google Maps Inspires People to Visit Your Location or Website
Besides providing a business phone number, Google Maps also spotlight other contact or visiting information.
For brick-and-mortar stores, such as restaurants, users can quickly explore your company’s profile and find directions, all from a single central location.
No need to toggle between apps or website pages. It’s a simple scroll and taps between a lead and a customer.
For companies that sell services or products that require more research or are a huge purchase, the Google Maps listing links directly to your site.
Users can research and learn more about the brand in an easy-to-access manner.
#4. Google Maps Provides Customer Credibility Through Reviews
Nothing builds brand trust more than social proof from others, and the most successful way to do this is via online reviews, which Google Maps displays in the profile listing.
Google Maps’ business credibility come via:
#1. Star ratings
#2. Written reviews
#3. Submitted images
Encouraging consumers to leave reviews on Google enable other potential customers to gain trust in your brand and prompt conversions.
#5. Google Shopping Ads
Google Shopping ads are visual ads that show up when a user searches for a product on Google.
This advertising format is uniquely engaging. It displays additional information relevant to online shoppers, like product titles, prices, images, special offers, reviews, seller names, local availability, and more.
Google Shopping Ads are effective for driving traffic that converts.
They do require some effort to get started, but after Google automates most of the work involved in creating and displaying these ads to the right people.
Benefits of Google Shopping Ads
#1. Excellent Brand visibility
With Google Shopping Ads, you can feature your unique products in the spotlight for more users to see.
Whether you are starting a brand or have already made a name, appearing on the top of a search engine’s results page will help pull potential buyers to purchase your products.
With great product visibility, the chances of funneling new consumers to buy your products are very high.
Keep in mind that these buyers are already shopping for products similar to yours. So, they don’t need to be familiar with your product if your ads match their searches with relevant, high-quality photos and compelling product descriptions, and perhaps reviews.
#2. Get a wider reach
Google Shopping Ads also appear on YouTube, the Shopping tab, the Images tab, and other Google Search partner sites.
Because of this, getting Google Shopping Ads will enable you and your products to reach more people.
Your reach will not stop there because Google is continuously expanding its Shopping Ads platforms.
This means your shopping ads can be shown on almost every related search compared to premium ads, where they will only display a single product per page.
You can grow your reach with more products on a single page, more platforms, and more shoppers looking to buy certain products.
#3. Quality leads
Quality traffic outweighs by far a larger quantity of traffic. As we have discussed already, your ads will be shown to potential customers searching for a particular product or something related to the products they are searching for. This improves the chance of a sale.
Seeing your products at the right place and at the right time can inspire customers to click on your product and research it.
For instance, a potential customer is searching for furniture for their home office. They will search for it on Google or watch a YouTube video, all in search of ideas, and guess what they will see next? They will see the office chairs or office tables you are selling.
Most buyers research before they buy and this is the perfect opportunity to introduce your product and brand to them using these ads.
Conclusion
Meet your business goals by leveraging these effective ad types for small businesses suggested in this guide
Promoting your business is important because it drives business growth. Advertising works to step up your small business marketing efforts and enables you to reach the targeted audience with positive, relevant messaging that converts potential leads into paying customers.
