How to Target your Online Advertising for Better Results

Written by Shane Cousins
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What you need to know

Online advertising is a great way to get your business in front of customers but, you have to make sure it is in front of the right customers because any mistake made when using online advertising will end up being a costly mistake. To learn more about online advertising and Google Adwords check out the rest of this blog!


It’s no secret that online advertising can be a great way to get your business in front of potential customers. But if you want to make the most of your advertising dollars, it’s important to target your ads correctly. By targeting your ads to specific demographics, you can ensure that your message is reaching the right people. And by using dynamic content, you can keep your ads fresh and interesting, ensuring that people will keep coming back for more. In this article we will show you how to target your online advertising so the right people can see your ads.

What is Online Advertising and How does it work

Online advertising is a way to promote your business or product on the internet. It can take many different forms, such as text ads, banner ads, or pop-ups. And it can be targeted to specific demographics, so you can be sure that your message is reaching the right people.

Online advertising works by displaying ads on websites or other online platforms. When someone clicks on an ad, they are taken to the advertiser’s website or landing page. From there, the advertiser can try to sell them a product or service, or simply get their contact information so they can follow up with them later.

The Benefits of Online Advertising

Online advertising is a great way to reach potential customers. By targeting your ads correctly, you can ensure that your message is reaching the right people. And by using dynamic content, you can keep your ads fresh and interesting, ensuring that people will keep coming back for more.

The benefits of online advertising include:

  • Reach a large audience: With over 3 billion people using the internet, online advertising allows you to reach a large audience.
  • Target your ads: You can target your ads to specific demographics, so you can be sure that your message is reaching the right people.
  • Keep your ads fresh: By using dynamic content, you can keep your ads fresh and interesting, ensuring that people will keep coming back for more.
  • Save money: Online advertising is often more cost-effective than other forms of advertising, such as print or television.

How to Target your Online Ads

If you want to make the most of your online advertising, it’s important to target your ads correctly. Here are some tips for targeting your ads:

  • Know your audience: The first step is to know who you want to reach with your ads. Are you trying to reach a general audience or a specific demographic? Once you know who you’re trying to reach, you can start to target your ads accordingly.
  • Use keywords: Keywords are words or phrases that people use when they are searching for information online. By targeting specific keywords, you can ensure that your ad is displayed to people who are interested in what you have to offer.
  • Use demographics: You can target your ads to specific demographics, such as age, gender, location, and interests. This ensures that your message is reaching the right people.
  • Use retargeting: Retargeting is a way to target ads to people who have already visited your website or landing page. This ensures that your message is reaching people who are already interested in what you have to offer.

Measuring the Success of your Online Advertising Campaign

It’s important to measure the success of your online advertising campaign so you can see what’s working and what isn’t. There are many ways to do this, including:

  • Click-through rate: This is the number of people who click on your ad divided by the number of people who see it. This is a good way to measure how effective your ad is.
  • Conversion rate: This is the number of people who take action after clicking on your ad, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. This is a good way to measure how successful your campaign is.
  • Cost per conversion: This is the amount you spend on your campaign divided by the number of people who act. This is a good way to measure the return on investment for your campaign.
  • Cost per click: This is the amount you spend on your campaign divided by the number of people who click on your ad. This is a good way to measure how effective your ad is.

When you’re measuring the success of your online advertising campaign, it’s important to keep in mind that not all campaigns are created equal. Some campaigns may be more successful than others, depending on the goals you’re trying to achieve.

If you’re not sure how to measure the success of your online advertising campaign, contact a professional marketing company. They will be able to help you measure the success of your campaign and make suggestions for improvements.

How to get Started with Google Ads

The main way to get your ads out there is through Google Ads. Google Adwords is a type of pay per click (PPC) marketing tool that every marketer should have in their tool-belt. It allows you to advertise your products and services to web users with no upfront commitment and you only pay for clicks actually delivered to your website.

You can set up your adverts to display on Google’s Search Network (the first three listings that appear in search results) or on Google’s Display Network (websites displaying Google adverts via Adsense).

Google Adwords can be an Expensive Business if you aren’t sure what you are doing, so here are our 10 steps to get you started with Google Adwords

1. Sign up to Google Adwords

To start your first Google Adwords campaign, go to adwords.google.com, find the “Start Now” button, and sign up for an Adwords account. Once you’re logged in, click the “Create your first campaign” button.

2. Select your campaign type and name

Next, choose your campaign type, as a beginner we recommend only selecting the “Search Networking only” option. Name your campaign. Remove the tick next to “Include search partners” for now until you have some analytical data to review your adverts performance.

3. Choose the geographic location

Next, decided how large or small a geographic area you want to target. You can choose whole countries, counties and cities. You can also choose custom designed geographical areas such as latitude-longitude coordinates or the radius around a particular address.

4. Choose your “bid strategy”

Change the default “Big strategy” to “I’ll manually set my bids for clicks.”. This gives you more control and will enable you to obtain a greater understanding of how Adwords works.

5. Set your daily budget

Your daily budget is the maximum that Google is authorised to charge per day and you are likely to reach that most days – so set it wisely! Google offers three payment options:

  • Manual payments – make payments before you adverts show
  • Automatic payments – make payments after your adverts have been shown
  • Monthly invoicing – some businesses are eligible for a Google credit line

6. Create your first ad group

Click “Save and continue.” Now it’s to write your first ad. Google adverts are made up of four lines with character limits:

  • Headline: up to 25 characters of text. Include your keyword in your headline as more people click on headlines containing their keyword search term.
  • 2nd line: up to 35 characters. Use this space to describe the benefits of your product or service.
  • 3rd line: up to 35 characters. Use this space to describe a key feature or offer of your product or service.
  • 4th line: your display URL. Your display URL has to be the same domain as your site, but doesn’t necessarily have to be the specific landing page that you take people to. A good idea here is to use a tracking URL to give you additional analytical data.

7. Insert your keywords

Next you will need to insert your keywords into the keyword field, Paste these in, one set at a time, using the plus signs, brackets and quotes to see how many searches of each type you get. Be careful not to select hundreds of keywords for now. Start off small. This way you can analyse your keywords closely and determine which ones are and aren’t working for you.

8. Set your maximum cost-per-click

Set you maximum default bid (your cost per click) whilst remembering that every keyword will need a bid price of its own.

It is also important to remember that low cost keywords will stretch your budget further, whilst high-priced keywords will exhaust your daily budget quickly. If your budget is used up, you risk your advert only being seen part of the day rather than the full 24 hours.

9. Review everything

Double check your ad and keywords to be sure they are a good match. Then check your cost per click to ensure they meet with your aims for your adverts. Lately double-check your daily budget to be sure you don’t accidentally drain your marketing budget immediately.

10 . Add your billing details

As soon as you confirm your payment information your adverts will be submitted for approval and begin showing. Now it’s time to learn some basic do’s and don’t to ensure your first Google Adword adverts are set in the right direction.

Do’s:

  • Have an open mind and test different headlines and lines of your ads.
  • Focus on the exact keyword you want to get clicks on. The more specific these are, the cheaper and more effective they become.
  • Point your advert to a landing page on your website rather than a generic page such as your about us page.
  • Your landing page should at least capture an email address for the money you are spending on Google Adwords.
  • Always follow the rules to the letter. There are regular updates to these, so make sure you read them and follow.
  • Continuously monitor, analyse and amend your adverts to make them more effective.

Don’ts

  • Point your adverts to a one page website, this will never be approved by Google.
  • Try to get clicks that send the visitor to another advert. This is called arbitrage and you result in your account being banned.
  • Make low quality, poorly thought out landing pages that aren’t even related to the ad.
  • Write headlines or lines just to get clicks. That is not the aim of the game. You want to attract high quality clicks, not quantity.

Conclusion

Online advertising is a great way to reach potential customers and promote your business. By targeting your ads correctly, you can ensure that your message is reaching the right people. And by using dynamic content, you can keep your ads fresh and interesting, ensuring that people will keep coming back for more.

Measuring the success of your online advertising campaign is important so you can see what’s working and make improvements. If you’re not sure how to measure the success of your campaign, contact a professional marketing company. They will be able to help you measure the success of your campaign and make suggestions for improvements.

Still have questions about targeting your online advertising? Contact us today and we’ll be happy to answer them.

if you enjoyed this article, why not read our article on Which Ecommerce Platform is the best.

WTBI is a creative, digital services consultancy based in Corby, Northamptonshire. Providing well-thought-out, digital strategies to solve difficult business problems for our clients. With technology changing at a high pace, we need to keep our clients engaged in reshaping their business through digital innovation and new opportunities.

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