The Beginner’s Guide to Paid Marketing: How to Get Started
It’s all about being different to make a difference in the notice of the target audience in this fast-moving digital world.
One may consider-or perhaps not-that some of the great ways to do just that are through paid marketing.
Paid marketing is quick, precise, and a sure way to grow a brand, drive more traffic, or bump up sales.
But what is paid marketing, and how does one make the most out of it if he’s totally new in the field?
In this post, we’ll show you what paid marketing is all about, why it is so great, and actionable steps of how to get started-even on a shoestring budget.
What is Paid Marketing?
Paid marketing may also be referred to as pay-per-click advertising: basically, the paying to run ads across platforms in promotion of your brand, product, or service.
The platforms range from search engines like Google, social networking sites like Facebook and Instagram, or simply websites that accommodate display ads.
A very critical difference between paid and organic marketing is that, with paid, you pay for your message to reach the target audience, whereas with organic marketing, there are ways in which audiences can be reached without any sort of payment.
Such examples include SEO.
Why Should You Consider Paid Marketing?
While organic marketing is important to build long-term success, paid marketing brings immediate benefits and therefore complements an organic strategy.
This is Immediate Traffic:
The very moment any paid advertisement is kicked off, your business gets noticed.
Targeted Reach:
Paid marketing channels have the edge in that they allow you to reach your target audience based on demographic factors, location, interest, and behavior.
Scalability:
Paid marketing offers the most flexibility when it comes to budget scale. You can start with any amount and grow it according to the reaction you get.
There are many forms of paid marketing, and which you choose to execute will be based on both your goals and your audience. Let’s dive into some of the most common types.
Search Engine Advertising (PPC)
Paid marketing through search engines is, in fact, the most utilized form such as but not limited to Google Ads.
Paid search ads pop up either at the top or bottom of search engine result pages when people search for anything online.
How It Works:
You are bidding on specific keywords relevant to your business, and when people search those keywords, your ad might show.
You only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
Benefits:
This can be very targeted and effective since your message is shown to people looking for products or services like yours.
The tip is always to start by researching low-competition, long-tail keywords.
These are longer phrases that have lower search volumes and can offer more affordable CPCs and better-qualified leads.
Social Media Ads
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn create avenues for businesses in the creation of paid advertisements targeted toward the preference of their audiences.
How It Works:
You create ads with a view of user demos, behaviors, and interests. Target users by their age, location, interests, and even job titles.
Benefits:
Social media ads are interesting in their format because the ad format is rich in multimedia: image, video, carousel format.
You may also re-target the users who previously visited your website.
Start with no more than one or two places where your audience is most active.
For B2C businesses, this starting point will be either Facebook or Instagram, or even both. In the case of B2B, this would be LinkedIn.
Display Advertising
Display advertising is the method of offering ads on third-party websites in a visual manner.
These could be banner ads, sidebar ads, or pop-ups facilitated through ad networks, such as the Google Display Network.
How It Works:
Display ads utilize user behavioral, website content, or contextual targeting.
Benefits:
It does really well in brand awareness since it reaches users even when they are not actively searching for anything.
Beginners Tip:
While creating a display ad, use the technique called retargeting. That’s showing ads to users who visited your website but haven’t converted.
Video Advertising
Among other powerful means for engaging your audience, video ads will also increasingly be used on YouTube, Facebook, and a number of others.
This ad style trend is really just beginning to get extremely popular as the consumption of videos goes up.
How It Works:
Video ads will pop up before, during, or at the end of playing the video content.
You may build short video clippings by showcasing your brand or adding value to the viewer.
Videos are much more interactive and engaging in telling a story or showing your product in action.
Start posting your video ads, and it should be short and to the point as well.
You need to capture the attention in just a couple of seconds and remember to include a call-to-action.
Setting Paid Marketing Budget
Before jumping deep into paid marketing, you’ll have to set a realistic budget. How much you’re going to pay will depend on the size of your business, goals, and competition in your niche.
Determine Your Objective
But until you actually can budget for something, you’ll really need to know what you want to accomplish.
Want more website traffic, leads, or conversions? The clearer the goal, the easier it is to calculate a budget.
Choose a platform
Not all platforms will have the same cost. It may be that Google Ads need to have a higher budget compared to the Facebook Ads, maybe, depending on your niche.
Try different platforms until you get the best ROI in that.
Start Small and Scale
If you are new at this, start with a tiny budget just to see how the water tastes.
You should be scaling your spend over time as you see more data and what works.
Example:
Start running Facebook Ads for $10 a day. After a week, go in and analyze to find what the best ad was. Take that knowledge and scale off of it by upping the best ad’s budget.
Best Practices for Paid Marketing
In order to create effective paid marketing you’ll want to make sure to keep a few best practices in mind:
Test Different Ad Formats
Don’t rely on one ad format. Always test images, videos, carousels, and other ad formats-find what works for your audience.
Performance Tracking
Utilize Google Analytics and the native analytics on social media platforms to track ad performance.
Metrics like CTR, conversion rate, and ROAS give full insight into how further campaign optimizations will be carried out.
Utilize Compelling Ad Copy
Your ad copy should be clear, concise, and persuasive. Highlight the benefits of your product or service, with a strong call-to-action such as “Shop Now” or “Learn More.”
A/B Testing
Split testing may consist of creating two variants of an ad that you want to go live with, where slight changes can be made in each version, just to figure out which one works best.
Always test variations of headlines, images, and calls-to-action that give you the great combo.
Conclusion: Ready to Dive into Paid Marketing?
Paid marketing stands out as one of the powerful tools in your quiver for online marketing.
It gives you the immediate traffic coupled with measured results.
Whether your goal is to increase brand awareness, drive more traffic, or build sales-from each and every objective, there’s a paid marketing option that fits your needs.
Take that tiny step today: go out and play with platforms and formats.
Record your results, and in time, you’ll get that sweet optimization in your approach to receive the benefits of Paid marketing in the growth of your business.
Ready to fire up your first paid campaign? Go! Research what today is considered the best platform for your objective.
