When you hear advertising, what comes to mind?
Do you think of print inserts or website ads? Those emotional John Lewis videos at Christmas? Or billboards and posters you see on the tube or at the train station?
The average person is exposed to well over 5,000 ads every day, so we all have a pretty good idea what advertising looks like. What is a little harder is understanding how different advertising media can help your business.
Advertising formats each have their own particular use in appealing to different target audiences or conveying certain kinds of messages. That means you need to think hard about choosing the right advertising media for your business’s goals.
To help give you an idea of what different media can do for you, we’ve put together a list of some of their specific benefits and applications.
We think video should be at the core of every brand’s marketing strategy. When it comes to building your brand’s visual identity, video has clear and inherent advantages over other formats in terms of impact and memorability.
Beyond your branding elements, video lets you demonstrate your products to a receptive audience. Even a short demo video allows you to quickly show off how your product looks and works, and what makes it unique in a crowded marketplace.
You also have the strongest chance of cementing in someone’s memory with video. Viewers claim they retain 95% of a message conveyed to them via video. With the average attention span now down to 8 seconds, it’s no longer enough to capture a customer’s attention; you really have to hold it.
Display advertising - the boxes and banners you see on sites across the internet - is pretty much the default mode of advertising online.
While your display ads will help you generate sales, that's not what they're best at! Instead, their primary function is raising brand awareness. This means building up name recognition among your target audience by placing them on sites where your (future) customers are most likely to spend their time.
Digital display is an indispensable part of any advertising strategy. So whether you’re new in town and building a customer base, well-established but keen you keep your name out there, or if you have recently rebranded, this is a key tool in your advertising toolbox.
Social media matters a great deal for businesses these days. But algorithmic changes, problems with trust, and the inherently distraction-packed environments of social platforms can all limit the impact of the average company’s marketing posts.
Social display takes your social posts out of their original, noisy habitats and places them on our news websites where people actually pay attention to what they’re reading.
Social display helps you engage a new audience with your social media posts without needing to worry about battling for attention on those social platforms themselves.
In order to be successful and grow your business, you want to reach your target audience and choosing the right advertising product is the way to do that. Some platforms offer an affordable way to mix and manage your online strategies, like our own self serve ad manager.
Marketing your products or services is an ongoing process. Knowing which product to utilise will be a challenge, but don’t be afraid to mix things up. There are things that certain products can do that you may not have even thought of, so if you have been sticking to one advertising type for ages, it may be the time to try something new.
Still not sure which format is right for you? Download our in-depth guide for a more detailed overview.
