Small businesses often have small budgets. That means every dollar spent needs to make a dent and return on investment. Here are 10 tips on digital media buying for your small business!
Your digital media buying is no exception. But crafting a killer digital marketing strategy can be costly if you don’t know the basics.
Even though the best strategy often involves working with a professional marketing agency, you still need to understand what your media buying budget covers.
Read this guide for ten tips on essential information to media buying for your small business.
1. Goalsetting and Strategy
When you set up your digital marketing strategy, what techniques do you use? You might be setting your business up for failure if your goals are too large or small. When you are goal setting for digital media buying, you need to think ahead.
Your media buying strategy should factor in extended campaigns. Your goals should match. If you need help setting goals, there are a few factors to consider.
Think about guaranteed versus unguaranteed inventory. Factor in your ROI and other key performance indicators. These will help you set reasonable goals.
Also, consider who and what facilitates your bidding and media buys. Is the process automated with programmatic advertising? Consult a marketing agency to learn more about this process.
2. Key Performance Indicators
Setting your key performance indicators (KPIs) is critical to the digital media buying strategy. How you measure performance depends on the goals set for your marketing campaign(s).
You might be trying to boost conversion rates, ROI, click-through rates, and other impressions. These goals work better with specific media buys. Ultimately, you should consider two factors for your KPIs.
When setting KPIs, consider the number of leads captured and generated. This is the best way to measure campaign efficacy and return on investment.
Also, consider the cost per each lead. You’ll learn just how sufficient your media buying budget is if individual ad purchases return more or less, based on price.
3. What’s Your Budget?
Speaking of returns on investment, you need to set a media buying budget. This budget is primarily determined by the goals you set. These goals work with your KPIs to set your budget.
If you set SMART goals, you likely have realistic campaign lengths. Extended campaigns help you test and adjust different ideas for advertisements. Using market research, you can pivot to the most cost-effective ad purchases.
Working with a professional marketing agency can help stretch your budget. They can support you with industry expertise. They can also help align your goals and KPIs with an adequate budget.
4. Choosing a Platform
Part of effective digital media buying means picking the right platform(s). One of the biggest media buying mistakes is spreading purchased ads too thinly. When your ad usage is unfocused, you’re flushing money away.
Small businesses should pick the best platform based on a few elements. Consider your industry and ad type. Your goals and campaign determine the platform.
Certain ad types are more successful on specific platforms. If your campaign includes display ads like video, YouTube advertising may be the platform you use.
Target demographics also determine your platform, too. If you focus on younger audiences, specific social media platforms are more effective. To choose a platform, you need to know your target audience.
5. Who’s Your Target Audience?
Your digital media buying largely centers around your target audience. There are several ways to target your audience for media buying. Demographics are essential for platform choice and ad effectiveness.
Whether it’s age, gender, or region, you need consumer data. Demographics affect buyer behavior in unexpected ways. You have to understand this behavior for effectively using social media and more.
You can determine your target audience preferences in several ways—tools like heatmaps how the regional behaviors of different demographics. A/B testing is even better for determining ad impact.
When working with a marketing agency, make sure they understand your target audience. Be sure to ask about ways of gathering data on your target market. You can potentially create new campaigns based on niches you discover.
6. Technical Details
Understanding audience impact is all about technical details. Data generated from consumer behavior helps your digital media buying. If you don’t understand the technical information, turn to a marketing agency for support.
Certain features like tracking pixels involve coding on your website. When you work with marketing professionals, features like this are included. Different platforms account for different pixel tracking, too.
Using technical details like this in your website design helps you track and measure essential data. If you want to see how certain KPIs are doing, these technical details make it possible.
Technical details are often overlooked because they are overwhelming. Don’t underestimate the impact of attention to detail with tracked pixels. Professional marketers know how impactful information can be.
7. Mobile and Desktop Traffic
Once you have some information on your digital media buying campaign, it’s action time. Using historical data trends can help you choose more effective ads for the future. For example, which platforms do better for your purchased media?
Using social media impacts traffic performance. Preferred content type (i.e., audio or display ads) determines effectiveness. Some ad types perform better on specific platforms.
You might be getting more mobile traffic is your industry works better on social media platforms. This means your digital marketing strategy needs to focus on ads formatted for these platforms.
With mobile traffic on the rise, even when advertising services online outside of social media, it requires mobile-friendliness. If your ads aren’t optimized for mobile platforms, you might lose out on traffic.
Desktop traffic is still relevant. Your digital marketing strategy shouldn’t exclusively focus on optimizing media buys for mobile traffic alone.
8. Bid the Right Way
Bidding for ads is a skill unto itself. It usually requires media buying expertise. The kind of knowledge you find at a marketing agency.
Bidding for digital media buying requires strategy, too. Your bidding should be low and strategic. This avoids overspending with your media buying budget.
When you bid with automated processes or independently, you need to know different features connect. Your traffic volume determines how many ads you need. How many ads are clicked through affect how much you should bid for the number of advertisements you need.
When using RTB to buy media, you can set parameters for these features. Automated buying gives you chances at the most competitive ads at the best prices. Marketers optimize RTB parameters based on their understanding of related increases or decreases.
9. Test Your Strategy and Adjust
Testing purchased media is critical to your digital media buying. It determines the effectiveness of your media buying budget. It also helps your ads impact your target audience.
If you don’t test your digital marketing strategy, how do you know it works? There are many ways to track ad effectiveness. One particular method is known as split, bucket, or A/B testing.
A/B testing compares two similar ads. One piece of content varies from version A to version B. These versions are tested on two sample audiences, then switched.
After sampling both ads on both target audiences, you learn which is more effective. You can do this multiple times in a campaign for the highest return on investment from your purchased media.
10. Don’t Forget Creativity
One of the most overlooked elements of digital media buying is creativity. Many new ad purchases include the use of generic pieces that merely “get the job done.” Marketing experts understand how standout media is worth the investment.
When you spend more on hyper-targeted ads, you should see a return on invested dollars. Marketers know how to bid low for general media buys. They also know which ads are worth more, especially if labeled as competitive.
When you remember to keep purchased media creative, you help your brand stand out. Brand recognition should not be limited to your website alone. You want consistent attention across platforms.
Visibility and recognition are essential for your digital marketing strategy. When ads are creative, they increase click-throughs. Of course, you should only select creative ads based on how effective they are for your campaign(s).
Where to Find Digital Media Buying Experts
Now you know essential tips for digital media buying, you need to experts you can trust. The best way to round out your digital marketing strategy is with a company that understands your needs. Go Florida SEO has you covered.
We’re experts in all kinds of internet marketing: audio, display, PPC, and more. We can help your ad campaign go further than ever before.
To get started boosting your ad purchases and marketing campaigns, connect with us today for a free strategy consult.
