Your business can benefit immensely from using sponsored ads to showcase your brand and increase business awareness. However, for businesses (especially smaller startups and local business) finding the time and/or expertise to design for sponsored search ads is difficult. Even if you’ve already used the best tools for finding keywords, your sponsored ads still need to look appealing to users.
Unless you’re well-versed with sponsored search ads and design, it’s best to work with a proper PPC marketing agency who can handle the gritty work for you. The goal is to look as appealing as possible both from a content and design perspective, and both elements take research and hard work.
Search Ads For Google Display Networks
Google AdWords comprises two different networks: the Display Network and the Search Network. The Search Network is text-only — these are the ads that appear along the top and/or sides of organic search results pages. The Display Network are where display ads are placed across a huge network of websites. These are visual banner displays that appear on sites who opted to show ads. According to comScore, and supported by Google, “the Display Network reaches over 90% of Internet users worldwide through 2 million sites and apps.”
Unfortunately (or, fortunately for you) image-based ads are one of many underused AdWords features. Nearly 68% of ads on the display network are just plain text ads — a shocking number considering image ads have higher conversion rates than text ads. If you have the time and design talent, Google has an ad builder that allows you to put ads together containing visual elements.
This is especially important for industries where photos go a long way, such as the travel, lifestyle, and interior design and decoration industries. Still, even B2B companies can benefit from adding small graphics and images. As with regular text ads, always be split testing your work to see what works best. Images are consistently more engaging than text, and great design is often an indicator of the business’s products and services.
Facebook Ads
Facebook advertising is still full of untapped potential. These ads are image and text-based spots that are shown to targeted users in the right column or on the user’s News Feed. It usually consisting of a compelling headline, attention-worthy image, and convincing copy. To help steer you in the right direction, take a look at these Facebook ad examples that work.
If you aren’t already targeting an audience on Facebook, you should include it in your marketing and advertising strategy as soon as possible. The average user spends more time on Facebook than any other social platform out there. Research has also shown that ad displays featuring a call-to-action button had a clickthrough rate 2.85 times higher than those who didn’t.
YouTube Video Ads
There are more than six billion hours of YouTube videos viewed on a monthly basis. The Google Display Network runs video ads on the platform based on a wide variety of demographic options. There are many benefits of YouTube video advertising, including the ability to reach targeted viewers, quickly create video campaigns, and accurately measure your success. Furthermore, YouTube video ads are much cheaper than TV commercials.
While Google has plenty of tips for creating effective video ads, digesting all this information can be troublesome for people who aren’t familiar with video editing or marketing. Sure, you may be able to throw up a basic video, but you can’t forget that you have a very short amount of time to capture the attention of viewers. Therefore, this is where you put your best foot forward.
There are production companies like Sandwich Video who focus specifically on creating impactful video advertisements. If you have a product in the software space, you might want to consider online tools like PowToon or ToonBoom, which require little to no editing and coding experience. You could also hire an experienced freelance video editor on platforms like Fiverr or Upwork. And lastly, you can work with marketing agencies that provide a wide suite of services you can benefit from.
Consider your needs and budget, but always be open to different options. For example, if you feel like working with an agency is out of your budget, reach out to a few to see what type of answers you get. You’ll be surprised to find that many companies will work with you, and are happy to provide a proposal detailing exactly how they plan to help achieve your business goals.
