Digital Media for Business

This post is part of the 10-day digital branding series. For a complete guide on building your digital business, sign-up for our newsletter or purchase the book.

Online advertising can be purchased in micro-increments and you can pinpoint, with reasonable accuracy, who is viewing and reacting to your ads. In this section, we are going to discuss the two most popular forms of web advertising – search and display advertising.

Search: Buying and displaying ads next to search results is called search advertising. In this scenario, you purchase keywords and phrases that relate to your product. When a user initiates a search based on those terms, your ad is presented alongside search results. Since most search engines sell ads based on the CPC method, you only pay when a user clicks on an ad.

Display: Unlike search advertising, display advertising is shown alongside content other than search results. For display advertising, most sites use a CPM model, meaning you are charged based on the number of times your ad is displayed.

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Facebook is a great site for reaching your audience. In this post, we’ll go through a few steps that will help you reach a highly targeted audience via Facebook ads.

1. To begin, visit http://www.facebook.com/advertising/. Click on ‘Create an Ad’.

2. On the next page, enter in the destination URL. This is the link to your landing page, after a visitor clicks on an ad. For tracking purposes, use Google Analytics Link Builder. Make sure that your Title and Body Text are appropriate and enticing. While Facebook indicates that including an image is optional, it is highly recommended that you use an image as it helps attract more attention. Click ‘Continue’ to proceed .

3. In the next section, Facebook will ask you to define your target. You can go as broad or as narrow as you wish. Make sure that you take advantage of the Connections feature. This will allow you to match demographics with interests. Click ‘Continue.’

4. The next option refers to your advertising strategy — CPC vs. CPM. If you’re unfamiliar with these terms, the book goes over this process in detail. Make sure that you determine which process is appropriate for your business. Define a daily budget to prevent un-necessary fluctuation in cost. Click on ‘Create.’

5. Once you’re satisfied with your ad, provide payment information. After submitting your ad, Facebook will review your ad, and if approved, make it live.

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