We are currently celebrating our 12th year business anniversary - lots of good times and plenty of work with a great staff. During that time we have taken a lot of training and had our fair share of different types of clients. We have also learned that new small businesses need more than organic search settings (SEO) to get found, establish their brand and to generate sales leads.
Your business does need the essential onsite, offsite and local SEO settings properly done. However, it's the extra marketing efforts that position itself against the competition. While organic social media and blog posting can help with your branding, it can get crowded out by paid advertising. For the most part, organic SEO and posting doesn't usually provide the lead generation for most new small businesses, but paid search advertising does.
What paid advertising is recommended?
The web is filled with companies that offer digital ads such as Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, Yahoo, Yelp etc. but the top two digital advertising companies would have to be Google Ads and Facebook Ads. While these are both “king of the hill” and they offer different platforms, from our experience, each one of these are better at one type than the other. Having been trained every year with Facebook and Google to stay current, we’ve learned that Facebook is a little better in one area than Google and Google better in another.
So which one should I use?
Depending on the business type whether B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumer) you choice of a digital advertising may vary depending on your objectives. If you have a small business or online store, Facebook display ads based on demographics will provide the branding and awareness you require and help boost product sales. If your business offers services, then Google search ads based on keywords usually provides the lead generation required to increase sales.
What else do these ad platforms need?
Facebook Ads require setup, ad copy written, an image, ad budgets and a pixel code added to your website for tracking results. Depending on your objective, a hidden website landing page is required if you want good conversations for inquiries. Facebook store integration is required for products. Google Ads also requires the setups, ad copy written, keywords selected, ad budgets and Google analytics in place for tracking results. If you are using Google ads for your online store, integration to your products are required.
Final thoughts
While I haven't got into the various types of Facebook ads or Google Ads, I have placed a link to show what else they offer. (Video, Collections, Mobile, Store etc). Having said that, for most small business needs that we see everyday, Facebook display ads are requested for branding and awareness and Google search Ads for sales leads or sign ups. Although you can set up your own digital ads, they can be confusing. Therefore, a training marketing expert can provide better results and get better ROI to promote your business and increase sales.