Forget putting your eggs in one basket — multichannel advertising is your ticket to conversion success, says our Digital Marketing Manager, Tom R.
Since it landed on the scene in 1997, Google Search has dominated the search engine market. Today, it takes over 85% of the market share, with over 4 billion search queries every day.
It’s no wonder then that paid search — often referred to as pay-per-click (PPC) or Google Ads — has become one of the most popular and effective types of online advertising.
Although it’s a go-to for many brands, paid search isn’t the only type of digital advertising you should be investing in. Facebook’s expansion from a social media platform to online advertising outlet has accounted for one of the biggest shakeups of the online landscape. So much so that Google and Facebook now account for almost 60% of all global online ad spend.
But despite impressive stats from both platforms, many brands continue to pick a side — Google (PPC) or Facebook (social) — and loyally plough their ad spend into one single channel.
There are plenty of advantages to this approach. Google AdWords can help brands target users based on their device, location, and search relevancy. Likewise, Facebook’s advertising platform provides an opportunity for creative and concentrated targeting based on specific user profiles.
But whereas this single-channel approach may once have succeeded, user behaviour has changed. Users now use various devices and channels interchangeably — which means it’s easier than ever for single-channel ad campaigns to get lost or diluted.
As Kris Tait from The Drum recently put it;
“Consumers shop using many devices and the path to purchase is a winding one, with many elements contributing to that final sale. Yet many businesses are still very siloed and fail to share data across departments to put this overall picture together.”
Cue cross-channel advertising
While many brands or advertisers have traditionally focused on a single digital channel, using multiple channels together (cross-channel advertising) presents a bigger opportunity to target more users at various stages of the marketing funnel to seriously elevate paid ad performance.
“In 2020 we should see… more marketers move towards more sophisticated multi-touch attribution measurement models to acknowledge the full customer buying journey.
“Data that takes into account the entire customer journey will allow businesses to understand not only the ‘who’, but also the ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘why’. This sort of complex data can then be used to streamline marketing efforts, providing greater insight into what works in order to fully maximize ROI”, says The Drum’s Kris Tait.
The benefits of cross-channel advertising
Whatever the combination of Google, Facebook, Amazon, YouTube, Instagram, Bing or LinkedIn you choose, your unique mix of platforms not only helps you to reach a wider audience but also allows for more interactions that help feed users down the funnel to convert.
Sound good? Here are some of the other top reasons why you should use multi-channel advertising for your next campaign.
You’ll be able to connect with users multiple times
It’s a known fact that the more a customer engages with — and interacts with — a company, the more likely they are to make a purchase. Engaging a customer on multiple channels won’t just build trust and credibility, but also serves as a strong reminder to the customer that the company, its products, and its services exist.
For successful conversions, the advert needs to hit a customer in the right place (platform), at the right time (when the customer has a need for that product or service), and a cross-channel advertising strategy is an ultimate way of achieving this.
You’ll expand your reach
As platforms and devices become increasingly interchangeable, marketing on a single platform means you’re likely to be missing a large percentage of potential customers. But a multi-channel advertising strategy means that you’ll widen your reach, increase your presence, and heighten awareness at all stages of the marketing funnel.
You’ll gain better insights
It can be difficult for advertisers to know which platforms to invest in. But one of the biggest benefits of cross-channel advertising is that it offers a more complete picture of a brand’s customer data. This helps advertisers to understand how ads are performing — and how users are behaving in different places, at different times and at different stages of the funnel. This, in turn, helps advertisers make better budgeting decisions that will optimise CPCs and CPAs for maximum ROI.
You’ll have a better chance of increasing conversions
The more touchpoints you have, the better your chances of increasing conversions.
Customers rarely convert the first time they see an ad, but serving ads across multiple channels allows customers to interact and engage with your ads at a time that’s convenient and using the channels that they feel most comfortable. This, in turn, increases your chances of conversion.
Cross-channel advertising is an essential part of today’s digital marketing strategy, but knowing how to analyse user data effectively to make the right budgeting decisions can be tricky. If you need a little help implementing a multi-channel ad strategy to boost your ROI, then click here to speak to one of our accredited digital marketing experts, today.