Luckily, due to the development of online channels as well as their native Advertising platforms, brands have now more opportunity than ever to target and scale their communications, directing them at the exact target market they desire with a minimum cost. However, choosing the right channel(s) to advertise on can spark debates within Marketing teams, while being more “adventurous” in implementing campaigns on channels never-before used by the company can be?—?the least to say?—?stressful. For this reason, we have picked the most cost-effective and top performing channels we have discovered (as a general rule), to help you go the extra mile and lead while obtaining great results this Autumn.
Spotify Advertising
Starting with the newest of all, our most-recent favourite platform to advertise on is Spotify.
The company has opened this year a new service allowing brands with a smaller budget to engage on this platform too, and deliver targeted audio ads to audiences through its streaming service. As drivers of Marketing Innovation, we have partnered with them since the beginning on Summer to find out all about how we can help our clients obtain better results. Here is what we found:
Due to the newness of the platform, the competition from brands is not yet very strong. For this reason, the costs per Ad Served are in many cases lower than on platforms renowned to be very cost-effective (such as Facebook or Instagram)?—?or, better said, the effectiveness is higher per dollar spent. The reasons why we are so excited about it for the purpose of driving Brand Awareness are:
Ads cannot be skipped by non-premium users (which is the majority of users)?—?this means they have to listen to the whole ad (up to 30 seconds). This massively increases the chances of recall as opposed to other mediums, mainly as customers are not yet as used to hearing Audio ads when listening to on-demand music as they are to seeing visual ads on their mobile devices. As opposed to Youtube, these customers were used most probably since they have started using Spotify to have advertising interrupting their experience, which reduces the negative impact for the experience in the mind of the listener.
Ads are delivered in an audio format?—?and the Voice platform is currently the fastest growing platform globally?—?for more information, read this article. This allows the brand a higher direct engagement (there’s no “mute” option) while allowing it to also strengthen the link with the audience and add a Call To Action directly within the ad.
The platform is seriously effective, and is in its primary stage at the moment, where competition is not very high. Moreover, if your target market are Millennials and Gen Z, this might be the single most important ad delivery platform to engage with them through Push messages (and not pull them through the brand through other activities).
If you are a brand and would like to find out more about the opportunities here, write us at hello@marketiu.com?—?expanding on this platform now this might very well be a business life-changing decision!
Facebook & Instagram
Indeed, the two Social Media platforms still remain amongst the most effective ways to raise awareness and display your brand in front of your desired target audience, while allowing you to segment and choose devices in a very advanced way. While we still remain huge ambassadors for Social Media Advertising, for the Awareness Stage, making it work in a cost-effective way will require brands to integrate it with a broader set of cross-channel campaigns and not rely solely on these platforms alone .
A quick tip from us: In order to make it effective, we tend to work with our clients to identify the exact media consumption behaviour of the ideal Customer persona, and then deploy Awareness campaigns based not only on these insights, but also third party data and the interaction of the desired audience with our clients’ websites?—?as well as their competitors’ platforms. If you choose to set up your Social Awareness Campaigns in-house, make sure you push them at your customers mapped against their Customer Journey with your brand, and you also create a system with at least one other Communications channel. This will ensure you create more meaningful relationships overall and reduce your cost/acquisition.
Influencer and Micro-influencer Marketing
Word-of-mouth has always been an effective way of customer acquisition, and we, as humans, always trust more the opinion of the ones close to us or the ones whom we admire. As most things are moving online (as well), Influencer Marketing has seen great returns for brands choosing to go down this route.
The main reason why this is great for driving Brand Awareness isbecause the message to new audiences doesn’t come straight from the brand, but rather from a person they trust, recommending them a new product or brand. Therefore, the barriers and concerns in the mind of the potential customer are lower and they are more prone to check out your brand or even engage further. Moreover as you can collaborate with Influencers on multiple platforms including Online Blogs, a big aspect to consider is also the SEO optimisation improvement back-linking to your site and the long-term potential gain through recurring traffic on the influencer’s blog.
What’s the deal with Micro-influencers?
These are essentially influencers with smaller audiences?—?usually up to 10–15k followers on Instagram, 5k on Youtube or 1k on Blogs.
Why are they important and where can they contribute to your brand?
Micro-influencers are generally perceived as having a more engaged community with which they tend to interact more closely?—?therefore the “recommendation effect” is stronger?—?hence why the conversion rate can be higher. Moreover, prices for collaborations with Micro-influencers are generally lower, which can enable a brand to create a genuine Social Influencer campaign, collaborating with a wider network of “Social Stars” while sticking to a more modest total budget.
Wrapping it up….
While these are at the moment our favourite picks for driving Brand Awareness mainly in a B2C context, the key in the modern highly-competitive market is integrating these channels to work together, creating multiple cross-channel touch points and creating interest and desire for the product in the mind of the customer.
Best of luck, and if you would like to discuss further ways in which you can double your Marketing results, write us anytime at hello@marketiu.com.
About us:
At Marketiu, we help you get to the edge and maximise your Digital Marketing returns as well as exponentially grow your business by combining latest Strategic Industry Know-how with intelligent Marketing Execution, Automation & Personalisation tools & Tactics on all required channels.
We have obtained continuous success through Marketing channels integration and optimisation, great scheduling and on-spot control. We offer top-class tailored Marketing Consultancy, Social Media & Cross-channel Digital Advertising Services as well as All-round Digital Production, and have worked with brands ranging from Luxury International Cosmetics, Financial Services and Entertainment supporting their growth. We’d be happy to answer any questions you might have too?—?just write us @ hello@marketiu.com
Think we can help further? Get in touch @ hello@marketiu.com for a free Marketing Audit and Consultancy session, and let’s prepare the ground for setting your business on a rising Profit Curve!
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