11 Ways To Do Online Advertising And Pros and Cons
Updated: Sep 20, 2019
If you are good at online advertising, you can get a lot of visitors in a short time and also a lot of turnover. In this article I tell you about 11 different types of advertising places and different platforms to do this.
I share the advantages and disadvantages of each platform so that you know which platform is most likely to be profitable for you.
The different forms of online advertising
There are different forms for advertising. There are many, that's good news. It makes it more likely that you can do it profitably.
Advertising Option 1:
Contact and advertise on specific websites
Are there any players in your market that you may be able to contact with the question if you can advertise on their website?
If so, this potential can be very profitable. You can choose the website yourself, and can therefore better assess whether it is profitable.
Whether it is profitable depends of course on several factors. For example:
• How much the website owner asks for an advert to be placed
• In which places and in what size can the advertisement(s) be placed on the website
• How relevant the visitors of the website are
• How much profit you earn per visitor or customer
Pros:
• Big differences in asking price
• Often choice in terms of advertising places
• Choose specific websites
Cons:
• Big differences in asking price
• Less stable than general advertising systems
• Contact and maintenance takes more time
When this form of online advertising is suitable for you:
Whether this way of advertising is suitable for you depends very much on the possibilities in your market. Are there websites that have relevant visitors? And are they open to an advertiser on their website?
Advertising Option 2:
Google AdWords (Search engine advertising)
You see Google AdWords ads as soon as you use their search engine.
It then stands at the bottom or at the top of the unpaid results. The organic results are determined on the basis of Google’s estimate on what visitors find relevant and
valuable.
Approximately 5% of the google visitors click on the paid places. The organic results are clicked by more than 100% of the people (because some people click on multiple results).
AdWords ads are the most used online advertisements at the moment.
Because you can determine under which search term your advertisement appears, the visitors are often relevant and buying.
Regardless of relevance, you also take the people who are possibly searching for a product themselves at the moment your ad is displayed.
All this ensures that AdWords often generate sales.
A disadvantage with AdWords is that they are strict and many people use AdWords. The highest bidding advertiser (to be displayed) is placed above or below the results.
This ensures that you have "bid-wars" under popular keywords so that the price to advertise under these words is so high that you cannot make a profit.
So you are lucky if you are in a suitable market.
They are also somewhat strict in terms of rules. You cannot officially have any unscientific language on your landing page. This can be tricky if you want to use vendor-like texts.
You may have to create a separate page with a new (without unscientific language) sales text that may reduce your conversion.
Pros:
• Very relevant visitors
• purchase ready visitors
• Stable and simple to manage
Cons:
• Possibly too expensive for profit
• Reduced possible conversion
When this form of online advertising is suitable for you
Whether this way of advertising is suitable for you depends very much on your market and how much you can get from a visitor.
If you can get more money out of an AdWords visitor than your competitors, chances are that you can offer more and thereby earn money.
If you are in a highly competitive market, chances are you have to pay so much for an AdWords spot that you make a loss.
Whether or not I would recommend you AdWords also depends on whether you are actively searching for relevant topics from your market.
Alternative to Google AdWords:
As alternatives you can try Bing ads or 7search . But with Bing visitor numbers are much less and at 7search even less.
Advertising Option 3:
Google AdWords in the display network (via AdSense ads)
Really belongs to option 2 because it happens in the same system. But it looks like this:
You see these types of ads on all types of websites. You can recognize the ads by the appropriate mark on the picture.
There are 3 possible ways to choose your advertiser target group.
1. Google's system checks which pages where their ads stand up are relevant to your specified words and show your ad there.
2. You select the websites that are relevant
3. You place a cookie on the computer of everyone who visits your website. this allows you to show your brand to these people on every website that has google AdSense
(the name of the system for website administrators). This is called retargeting.
When you visit websites in the AdSense Display Network you will see ads relevant to what you are viewing. For example, the right advertisement about mortgages is shown to me because a Google AdSense cookie has indicated that I have previously searched for mortgages.
Google AdSense is as strict as Google AdWords and here too the highest bidder wins.
Pros:
• Targeted visitors
• Retargeting possible
• Stable and simple to manage
Cons:
• potentially too expensive for profit
• Reduced possible conversion
• Less good to target than google AdWords
When this form of online advertising is suitable for you:
It works the same as Google AdWords.
Whether this way of advertising is suitable for you depends very much on your market and how much you can get from a visitor.
If you can get more money from a visitor than your competitors, chances are that you can offer more and thereby earn money.
If you are in a highly competitive market, chances are you have to pay so much for a place that you make a loss.
Alternatives to Google AdSense:
BuySellAds
If you plan to sell ad slots on your site, then you can leave a request to BuySellAds and wait until there is an advertiser who wants to buy them. Here you can get a decent income, but while your site should be a quality SOM with good performance. BuySellAds pays 75% of the received income, payments 2 times a month without any limits.
Clicksor
Clicksor offers a wide range of advertising formats, but the most popular are two of them: text and in-text advertising. Given that 150,000 pages already work with Clicksor, this ad network seems to be a good alternative to Adsense. Pays up to 60%, depending on the type of advertisement (for pop-up ads, as a rule, more). Payment is possible with paypal, by check or bank transfer, the minimum amount for payment is $ 50.
Qadabra
Very easy to start on this ad network. Qadabra provides various types of ads, there are also pop-up options. Accept international traffic and make payments through PayPal ($ 1 minimum withdrawal amount), Payoneer cards ($ 20 minimum) and bank transfer ($ 500 minimum).
is without doubt the best Google AdSense alternative. Chitika gives a fairly high fee and many advertisers are connected to the network. In addition, Chitika has a very nice system to work with and the ads that are shown are adapted to the search behavior and interests of the person.
Chitika also offers a good system for setting up and managing your advertisements yourself.
Chitika is completely free and - I think this is very important - also safe to use. You just get paid nicely, and the payment can be made from a low amount.
Affiliate programs
The affiliate program is a system of rewards for sales. The person is registered in the affiliate program, then the partner receives links for posting them on his website. If the visitor who has been transferred through the affiliate link, has placed and paid for the order, a personal remuneration is credited to the personal account of the partner.
Remuneration can be either in a fixed form or in a percentage.
In some affiliates, you can earn more than $ 50 for each sale, depending on the product. Personally, I recommend always testing the product that you are selling. The better
you are in it, the higher the sales. You can insert affiliate links anywhere: in text, banners, pictures and this in time can bring good passive income.
Advertising Option 4:
Bing ads
Bing ads are the same as the Google AdWords. The only difference is that the former is displayed on Bing search results and the latter on Google search results.
Bing is a search engine like Google but you can reach far fewer people via Bing ads than with AdWords. But it still has advantages.
Because there is less competition you pay less per advertisement.
And they are less strict than Google. You can be more "vendor". So you pay less and earn more per click.
Unfortunately, there is less scaling up and there are far fewer visitors via Bing than with Google.
Pros:
• Very relevant visitors
• Purchase ready visitors
• Stable and simple to manage
Cons:
• Often very few visitors possible
When this form of online advertising is suitable for you:
As with any advertising form, it depends on your business. If you are in a market where there is a lot of money and you do not see advertisers at Bing, I can highly recommend you to try Bing.
I do not expect you to get rich with it. But if you have nothing to earn extra money, then this is a good one.
Alternatives to Bing ads:
As alternatives you can try Google AdWords or 7 search . But with 7 search much less is possible in terms of visitor numbers. Google AdWords has more upscaling potential than Bing.
Advertising Option 5:
Facebook ads
Facebook has a huge number of visitors. That is why you can potentially attract a lot of visitors with Facebook ads.
There are different ways to choose who see your ads.
• You can choose your target group according to likes you fill out. If I want to focus on people with the interest "internet marketing" then I can choose that.
• You can also upload a list of at least 500 e-mail addresses (for example your buyers) and Facebook will make a profile of the average e-mail. They then look at the average age, gender, hobbies, earnings and many other matters. On the basis of this they select people who are relevant to your ads and as a result of which your advertisement potentially has a high chance of being profitable.
• Finally, they offer a retargeting option. This is showing your ads to visitors of your website, your sales page or anything else relevant. These people have shown interest in your business before, so it can be very beneficial to target these people.
Personally, I find the retargeting function of Facebook the most interesting.
A disadvantage is that you may not be able to focus specifically enough on your potential buyer. It is very market dependent. For example, if you sell something such as a health product or medicine that people are normally discreet about it or feel embarrassed about it, you will find few people on Facebook who indicate that they are interested.
Likewise, you can also have markets where just too many people are interested in who are not interested in spending money. If you are a car seller then chances are that you will not be able to quickly get people interested in "cars" to exchange their car or to buy a new one.
Pros:
• Possibly targeted visitors
• Retargeting possible
• Simple & cheaper than AdWords
Cons:
• Possibly not targeted visitors
• Less good to target than google AdWords
When this form of online advertising is suitable for you:
If you are in a market where possible buyers "like" relevant matters, then you are more likely to be able to advertise profitably.
If you have a lot of visitors on your website that you can "retarget", I would also try this.
Retargeting is one of the most profitable advertising methods.
Alternatives to Facebook ads:
As alternatives you can try Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram, these are all described below.
Advertising Option 6:
YouTube advertising
YouTube advertising is simply the videos you sometimes see before a video starts on YouTube or as a break during a video.
To be honest, I have never advertised videos through YouTube.
This is due to the following reasons:
• It has never been relevant in terms of visitor selection (what I can do on YouTube, I can also do so on other channels but more specifically).
• Making a good video costs money and time
Apparently retargeting is also possible with YouTube ads. What makes me think of trying it.
YouTube ads are paid on the basis of views.
Pros:
• Videos can work better
• Many viewers possible
Con:
• A lot of costs and work make videos
• Possible visitors are totally irrelevant
When this form of online advertising is suitable for you:
I would only recommend this if you have already tried other forms of advertising profitably and need more places for expansion or if you have a lot of experience with videos.
The danger is that you spend money and time on making videos and it ultimately does not produce anything.
That is why I recommend trying other systems first and doing it only if you are convinced that advertising works for you.
Alternatives to YouTube advertising:
You can try dailymotion as an alternative. That is a video website like youtube, but it is less popular.
Advertising Option 7:
Twitter is a popular social media platform, which means a large group of potential visitors.
You can focus on growing your twtitter account, or sending visitors to a website of yours.
You can aim for interests and the followers of specific people. You can also let twitter make an estimate of the people who follow your account or a mailing list that you upload and use that to determine a group to show your advertisement.
You still have specific choices such as targeting gender or a specific language.
Pros:
• Easy to use
Cons:
• Not relevant for everyone
When this form of online advertising is suitable for you:
I recommend this only if you have tried other things successfully or if it is relevant to your business.
It is relevant if you already use a lot of twitter for your business or if many potential customers in your industry use Twitter and it is easy to focus on them.
Alternatives to Twitter ads:
There are various alternatives for this. Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram. These are described on this page.
Advertising Option 8:
Pinterest is a social media platform where mainly pictures and photos are shared.
Pinterest is one of the emerging social media advertising platforms. In January 2016, Pinterest had more than 100 million active members. The reach of Pinterest in the world has
increased enormously in the past year. The online bulletin board is especially popular among women. They represent over 80% of users on Pinterest.
As a company, brand or organization you can create a Pinterest business account. By making smart use of Pinterest, companies can provide a lot of branding. This mainly involves expressing brand values and creating a feeling for the brand or company. By adding categories to pins, they are shown on relevant topics. Soon, advertising on Pinterest will probably increase these possibilities.
What does advertising cost on Pinterest?
Advertising costs on Pinterest are calculated on both CPC (cost-per-click) and CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) basis. Perhaps in the future also a CPE (cost-per-engagement) model will be introduced, as is the case with Twitter advertising .
Advertising on Pinterest can be suitable for:
• Branding
• Loyalty promotions (aimed at existing customers)
• Increasing brand awareness
• Generating more Pinterest followers for a brand
• Communicating actions
• Responding to current events
• Product introductions
If many of your potential customers use Pinterest and the way of advertising is relevant then I can recommend it.
Pros:
• Easy to use
Cons:
• Not relevant for everyone
Alternatives to Pinterest ads:
There are various alternatives for this. Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. These are described on the current page.
Advertising Option 9:
To advertise on Instagram you need a Facebook advertising account .
The way you can focus on visitors is very similar to Facebook. But the form of advertising is very similar to Pinterest. Instagram users are mainly young people.
It is a graphical way of advertising with photos or videos.
Instagram is built for the mobile and visual world we live in at the moment. Where in the past the consumer did not have the opportunity to interact with a brand, it is now different. The consumer is critical, choosy and filters the content that he / she wants to see.
Advertisements on Instagram are therefore primarily a means to work on branding your product or organisation, increasing your brand awareness. It is not a direct way to build a big fanbase, but a way to reach the people who fall within the target group of your brand.
The Facts
Worldwide, Instagram has more than 400 million users per month and the platform is still growing;
Every day, users share more than 80 million videos and photos together;
Instagram has a large group of young users.
Instagram users are 2.5 times more inclined to interact with an advertisement than on other social media channels;
Instagram is from Facebook and a completely mobile platform. This provides opportunities to leverage the synergy between Facebook's targeting capabilities and reach your mobile audience with powerful visual ads;
Advertising on Instagram is possible via the Facebook advertising account that you already use at the moment;
1 in 5 minutes spent on mobile platforms worldwide takes place on Instagram and Facebook (combined indeed). That is more than the ten largest platforms that follow together.
What can I use Instagram advertising for?
You can use Instagram ads for various purposes, but I advise to focus more on brand experience than on performance-related (conversion) goals. Enable Instagram ads for:
Branding / brand awareness;
(social) storytelling;
Influencer marketing;
Loyalty actions aimed at existing customers;
Respond to events.
Fully mobile platform
Instagram Ads are currently only displayed within the Instagram app for Android and iOS users. Instagram ads are not shown to people who view Instagram on the computer or via the mobile website.
Some tips:
Use targeting groups that your company already knows. Think of: your Facebook fans, retargeting of website visitors or upload your mail file in a separate custom audience.
The targeting options demographic data, behavior and interests have been merged with Facebook and can now be found in the detailed target group options section. This makes it possible to exclude certain characteristics so that you can make your target group more specific and therefore even more relevant.
Create different advertising sets per campaign. You can test with: placement, targeting, image use, texts and call to actions.
Build custom audiences of viewers of your video on Instagram and retarget this audience with targeted ads on Facebook, or vice versa.
Check your current campaigns daily!
Analyze the negative feedback on your ads and keep an eye on the relevance score.
By striving for a personal approach, you are relevant to your target group. This of course increases the chances that people will remember your ad later when they look for exactly those products or services that you sell!
Ad recall
In the beginning I told you that the ad recall according to Nielsen on Instagram is 2.8x higher than on other platforms. But what is recall actually? And why is it so important?
Ad recall is a metric that can show the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. Within Facebook this is called 'estimated advertising reminder'. There are many factors that influence the extent to which ads are remembered. Examples are:
The creativity: your images, video, text and links:
The current brand awareness;
The target of your ad.
You can now add this new and strategic metric in your reports. The estimated increase in ad reminders is a useful statistic that allows you to choose the effectiveness of different tactics (right target audience advertising material).
Some tips:
Use the (new) Facebook pixel on Instagram to measure cross-device and cross-platform;
Add your Instagram advertising sets together within your Facebook campaign;
Link your Instagram account to your Facebook business manager;
Make sure your campaigns are measurable in Google Analytics, for example you can use Google's url builder;
Analyze, report and optimize the campaigns simultaneously.
Because you use the same targeting as on Facebook, this makes Instagram not only creative, but also a very targeted platform for advertisers. Again, both platforms are unique, have their own identity, so this requires a specific approach of your target group. If you simply push through your Facebook ads on Instagram, you will miss the board completely and you will have a great chance of receiving a lot of negative feedback on your ads.
So keep in mind that Instagram uses information about user actions on both Instagram and Facebook. In addition, the platform also retrieves information from websites and apps from third parties. For example, users who follow other users and the things they like on Instagram and Facebook.
When this form of online advertising is suitable for you:
Just as with Pinterest, I recommend trying it only if other forms of advertising are successful.
Or if you have great expectations that your target group can be found on Instagram and you do not have a problem with a graphic form of advertising.
Alternatives to Instagram advertising:
There are various alternatives for this. Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. These are described on the current page.
Advertising Option 10:
mobile advertising
There are many different apps that you only have access to on your mobile phone.
Many people use this and that ensures that there is a unique method for advertising. And that is in apps (ie within the apps)to people with a mobile phone.
There are many ways in which your ad can potentially be shown. It depends on the type of app you use.
With games, with an app for the weather, a sports app, everything is possible.
Unfortunately, in terms of orientation, you are less accurate in many cases. You can often choose on which app your ad is shown, but that usually ends with it.
In addition, mobile visitors are less likely to be buyers and are less likely to click on your advertisement.
Pros:
• Many visitors possible
Cons:
• Often not very effective
When this form of online advertising is suitable for you:
Advertising to mobile users is especially interesting if you can do that on a relevant app. If not, the chance is small that you can advertise profitably.
Advertising Option 11:
Other advertising systems
There are many adverting systems that I do not find relevant enough to mention specifically.
Usually they work as one of the above. Here are some International systems that you can also target worldwide visitors with:
• Clicksor
• Adblade
• Chitika
• Ligatus
• 7 search
Final advice for choosing advertising systems
which advertising system is most likely to be profitable for you is always dependent on the type of business you have.
In addition, it is also important to have as many earnings per visitor as possible, otherwise you run the risk of advertising places being outbid.
I recommend trying as much as possible and keeping track of whether something works or not.
Make sure you increase your conversion and the number of earnings per customer, which makes it a lot easier to advertise profitably.
Start, test and improve.
Good luck.