Why Online Marketing These Are The Most Important Advantages Of Digital Advertising
Management Summary
Which channels are available digitally?
Different channels fall into the area of “digital marketing” or “online marketing”. Here we will look at the “data-driven” channels – these are those that can be measured, controlled and optimized using data.
| Search | Search engine advertising including Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), Shopping & Bing Ads |
| display | Banners &, native ads on premium platforms and reach networks, via targeting and RTB – real-time bidding |
| Video Ads | on YouTube and via real-time bidding (here oneCase study on programmatic video) |
| Social Ads | Facebook advertising including Instagram and various other platforms via targeting (advanced:Facebook Ads – now data-driven!) |
| Audio | “Radio advertising” is also becoming digital and can therefore benefit from targeting options (more information:What can programmatic audio do?) |
| Email marketing | a very efficient channel – click here for our starter kit with them7 “Must-Haves” in Email Marketing |
In addition, there are also “non-data-driven” measures:
| Search engine optimization | including optimization of the YouTube channel |
| Social media | editorial, organic support |
Advantage #1: Measure campaign success
Measuring campaign success is certainly one of the most important advantages of digital advertising.The success of all digital measures can be measured in many ways:
- in the play: How many people actually(!) saw my advertising, how many interacted?
- in commitment: How many came to your website because of this, what were they interested in and how intensely (branch search, advice, products, …)?
- on conversions:How many then visited a branch, bought online, subscribed to the newsletter, …?
Offline – Store Visits: ROI calculation from online to branches
In fact, Google now provides us with the measurement of store visitors after clicking on online advertising – we can use this to precisely demonstrate the ROI of the campaigns! This is currently unique for all forms of advertising.
Customer Journey & Attribution Modeling
We can then analyze and optimize the interaction of channels in individual customer journeys. That is, which channels work with which messages and how well they work. This makes it possible to further optimize the channel and budget mix.
Benefit #2: Targeted targeting
Another significant advantage of all digital marketing measures offered is the ability to address the target groups very granularly and specifically. At e-dialog we don’t just go by gender, age and region, but – depending on the platform – we have specific options available, including affinities (such as “Home Improvement”, “Green minds”, etc.), which we use for detailed target group targeting.
In addition, interactions with our own website help us to address interested users again (remarketing) and to find and address similarly valuable, not yet known people using so-called “statistical twins”.
Finally, we can use local targeting to specifically address people who are currently in a shopping center, for example.
More about this in ourOnline targeting compendium for RTB
Example: Targeting by weather and seasonality
It is possible to automatically play or stop online campaigns depending on the local weather (weather targeting). Seasonal influences and local factors (holidays, competitor openings, etc.) can also be taken into account in planning and ongoing optimization.
Benefit #3: Interaction
One of the most important advantages of online advertising is that it also enables interaction, i.e. offers a return channel. In the simplest case, this is a click – but interaction with an advertising medium (longer viewing, directions in the banner, video view) also means a deeper involvement than, for example, viewing a poster, advertisement or listening to a radio spot.
These factors can be measured, evaluated and therefore optimized.
Benefit #4: Budget Flexibility
One of the biggest advantages of digital marketing channels and measures is that there is no budget commitment, which means budgets can be increased, reduced and/or postponed at short notice depending on success.
With classic campaigns, depending on the media plan, there is usually a budget commitment, i.e. even if the campaign is not successful or the weather is not right, the campaign will still run.
Benefit #5: Ongoing optimization
The greatest efficiency lever is the ongoing optimization of the booked channels and ads: unlike the classic “fire-and-forget” campaigns, which – once started – can no longer be changed, the digital channels thrive on ongoing, daily optimization. This includes insights from user preferences, seasonality, competitor activities and even the weather.
This can only be done throughongoing optimization work, reporting, coordination and supportguaranteed and leads to a significantly higher ROI than with all other channels.
Budget optimization through measurement
Since all channels allow quasi real-time reporting, we constantly check their key figures and optimize according to the following criteria:
- channel: In which channel / with which measures do we achieve the best results?
- campaign: Which campaigns work better or worse?
- Message: Which advertising materials and texts work better?
Due to this, adjustments can be made in coordination with advertisers.
Optimization by goal and purchase funnel
The goals of the campaigns are defined differently depending on the stage in the “purchase funnel”:
- AwarenessThe main aim here is to generate reach and attention
- engagement: the user’s interaction is the goal
- transaction: the purchase or visit to a branch must be triggered here
By measuring and controlling all measures, we optimize the relevant goals and also control the costs per contact (CPM) right through to the ROI.
Benefit #6: Personalization
One of the magic bullets of online marketing is personalization. Addressing all users with the same message that is only relevant to a fraction of the recipients is a thing of the past. Users want to be addressed with relevant content at the right time – off-site and on-site.
User perception is very fast – within milliseconds a message is categorized as negative, positive, relevant or not relevant.
In addition, personalization is already a given and omnipresent for most users. This makes it all the more important to exploit all the possibilities for personalized communication and to put the watering can aside once and for all.
Dynamic advertising media is the basis for a successful offsite personalization strategy. With the help of a data feed, countless variations can be personalized automatically. You can dynamize according to a lot of data, e.g.:
- geography
- Customer status
- weekday
- time
- interests
- Pages visited
Individualization according to specific user segments, the so-called audiences, is most effective when it occurs both in the advertising material and on the landing page.
In addition to signals and affinities, advertising materials and messages can even be adapted to life situations such as an upcoming wedding or the purchase of a pet. For example, if a user is currently looking for an investment property, they will be shown a corresponding subject with the message “Smart provision in a prime location”. If you click on the banner, you will see a landing page with information that is important for an investor, such as information about returns. However, if our user is looking for a condominium that is dog-friendly and in the countryside, they will be met with a message that suits them for the same property.
1:1 personalization goes one step further. It makes it possible to display specific content to individuals. This means you can address the user by name onsite or recommend personalized products in the online shop based on user behavior. The user will thank you. Because the personalized recommendation is a welcome friend that saves the user’s valuable time and improves the experience on your website. Not just in e-commerce!
The following applies to all personalization ideas: planning, qualitative and quantitative analysis are the be-all and end-all. We are happy to help you with this.
In summary
Use the possibilities of digital channels and our know-how from customers such as XXXLutz, Rewe, Migros, T-Mobile and many more: This will give you the most efficient use of your advertising budget!
