According to eMarketer research, e-commerce spending will total $455.3 billion in 2023, up 17.2% from 2022. This figure is expected to reach 645.8 billion by 2025. This rapid growth emphasizes the importance of this sphere in today’s environment.
However, today’s Internet audience has formed an oversaturation of old advertising formats, so modern businesses are trying to keep up with the times, selecting more and more new platforms for placing ads to ensure a decent return on their investment.
The indicators of success of online advertising in recent times have become visibility, effective customer acquisition and their subsequent conversion into loyal brand supporters. In order to achieve these goals, it is important to understand the specifics of your target audience, to know how to allocate the budget competently to a variety of advertising channels and how to choose platforms for online advertising that bring the highest return. This article will help you in this regard.
How to choose platforms for advertising on the Internet?
Knowing how to choose an advertising platform for a particular business, you can guarantee its success and profitability with a high probability. To tackle this task, it is important for you to determine:
Your goals. Do you want to get an increase in traffic, increase visibility, increase social media followers, or other goals?
Characteristics of CA. Analyze the audience – age, income, what they are interested in, how they behave on the web. For example, if you want to interest young people, TikTok and Instagram will be more effective than Facebook and LinkedIn, which are popular with a more mature audience.
Geographic location. For example, Amazon is very popular in the USA and EU countries, but almost no one uses it in Ukraine. Decide which market you want to target.
The process of making a purchase. Think about how the order decision process will work. For example, ads in Google search can instantly drive orders, while targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram are more suited to building brand awareness.
The specifics of the product being sold. For example, Etsy is ideal for popularizing handmade products, and Google Shopping is the perfect solution for popularizing online stores. At the same time, a contextual media network is not suitable for promoting “urgent” services (plumber or car towing).
Relevant format. If the product is unique or performs a decorative, image function, then high-quality photos will play an essential role for potential customers. If you offer conditional courses for accountants, it is better to emphasize the knowledge of the latest changes in legislation and the quality of training.
Budget. The cheapest advertising is on message boards like OLX. But contextual advertising in search is one of the most expensive sources of traffic. At the same time, the conversion rate here is the highest. Do not forget that after the launch of the campaign you will need to conduct a lot of tests, because theoretical knowledge about the peculiarities of this or that platform can be very different from practice.
The best platforms for online advertising
With today’s variety of platforms and formats for online promotion, it is quite easy to get confused – what is best and for what tasks is suitable. To help you choose the best online advertising platforms, we have prepared an overview of the best of them, based on our personal experience in Internet marketing.
Google Ads
Google Ads is an undisputed leader that has earned its status thanks to its incredible audience reach and effective set of tools. This system processes countless search queries every second, providing advertisers with unique opportunities to attract traffic from those who are already searching for the promoted products.
Search. They help to display advertiser’s ads among organic search results, in response to search phrases entered by the user. The position of the displayed ad is determined by campaign optimization and the size of the bid per click.
Product ads. They help an online store to stand out from others by showing customers the current price and photos of the product. Google’s algorithms decide whether to show ads to a particular user based on the key phrase he or she enters and data from feeds uploaded from the advertiser’s site. You can use either a standard bidding campaign or an automated type of campaign called Performance Max.
Discovery. These are attractive graphic ads optimized for smartphones and other mobile devices. They appear in search, Gmail, and YouTube. Targeting works not by keywords, but based on the interests of potential customers.
Remarketing. This type of RC allows you to remind those who have already been in contact with your website or web application about you. As a rule, this target audience is already more “warm” and attracting them is much cheaper than working with new potential customers.
Advantages
Huge reach. We’re talking about the most popular search engine with over 85% of the market. This reach multiplies the probability of success of any marketing campaign.
Fast results. You can see the growing traffic and number of customers within minutes after the start. This allows you to quickly assess your return on investment and make the necessary optimization adjustments.
Precise targeting. You can select CAs based on the keyword phrases they used, demographics, geographic location, and device type, making it easy to find new customers.
Easy setup. Even if you are a beginner, it is quite easy to get started with this system. The intuitive interface and detailed reference information on Google’s website help.
Detailed analytics. Built-in statistics provide comprehensive performance data including impressions, clicks and conversions. They are your key to improving the quality of your services and advertising.
Disadvantages
Huge competition. In Google Ads for most topics, the output is overheated for all popular queries. Of course, competition is highly dependent on the country or even a particular region. But throughout the Tier 1 countries (USA, EU, UK, Canada, etc.) this is certainly true.
Cost per click. It is especially high if you are targeting highly competitive phrases or trying to maximize traffic. The price per click sometimes reaches tens or even hundreds of dollars, which can quickly exhaust any marketing budget. To keep costs under control, it is important to regularly optimize the campaign and add minus-phrases to exclude irrelevant queries.
Microsoft Bing Ads
The main alternative to Google in the field of search advertising. This network works on the same principle, giving you the opportunity to show your ads on Bing search engine pages and the company’s partner sites.
Types of campaigns
Text. Here they work in the same way as in Google. You can customize targeting, manage bid assignment, and work with key metrics to lift performance.
Shopping. They occupy much more space on the page, contain selected product images and significantly increase the likelihood of users going to your resource. There are two types of product campaigns – standard and smart. Standard ones are set up manually, while smart ones use machine learning to automate all processes, including optimizing bids and placement sites.
Automated. These campaigns are also known as Microsoft Performance Max. They are a response to Google’s technology of the same name. They give the opportunity to show ads of different formats and in different places within one campaign in an automated mode.
Pros
Large audience. Despite its much smaller market share compared to Google, Microsoft Search Network provides a significant reach. According to statistics, 13.2 billion search queries are performed here each month, and the number of unique visitors is at 655 million.
Work in several search engines. By advertising here, you automatically advertise on other sites that are part of the Microsoft Search Network (this includes Yahoo and AOL).
Less competition. Since Microsoft serves a smaller segment of the market, there are also many times less competitors. This makes it possible to show up at a lower cost per click compared to Google.
LinkedIn. This Bing chip provides the ability to customize targeting based on job title, industry, company, and other professional characteristics that potential clients specify in their LinkedIn profile settings.
Cons
Somewhat smaller reach. Even though MSN owns a good chunk of the internet, it’s still smaller than the search giant (they don’t call it Google for nothing). As a result, the amount of traffic and conversions received through Bing will be many times less.
Technology gap. Google is the first to innovate, with advanced personalization and optimization technologies. Microsoft, in turn, spends more time catching up with the leader and offering its analogs.
Facebook
One of the best advertising platforms on the Internet, providing access to a huge and, just as importantly, diverse user base. With over 2.7 billion monthly active profiles, this online service becomes an attractive medium for businesses of all sizes and orientations.
Ad formats
With a single image. This is a visually appealing option that can “hook” future customers with its attractive look and simplicity.
Video Ads. You can showcase videos in News Feed, Stories, and In-Stream formats that allow you to embed them before, during, or after other video content.
Carousels. They consist of a collection of pictures and videos (up to 10 different elements) presented in an interactive way. Each card inside the carousel can contain a link to a separate web page, which makes promotion through them quite effective.
Subsets. Includes a main video or image accompanied by three smaller ones arranged in a grid pattern below the main one. This is a product format that is particularly effective for online retailers.
Remarketing. Uses information about your visitors (collected through the Facebook Pixel) and information from Facebook’s own directory to connect personalized ads. Remarketing is used to show products that people have previously viewed or put in their shopping cart.
Advantages
Huge user base. This social network can provide a significant part of the CA for almost any business.
Detailed targeting. The widest range of criteria can be taken into account when setting up – gender, age, language, education, relationship status, profession, user location, etc.
Powerful analytics. “Facebook Pixel” allows you to track and evaluate the effectiveness of advertising by collecting data on user behavior and the results of their contact with advertising material. The system also provides detailed reporting on key metrics – impressions, clicks, conversions and ROI.
A wide range of placements. Ads can be placed in the newsfeed, on the sidebar, in messenger, and as video material in stories and live broadcasts.
Disadvantages
Competition. Given that Facebook uses a lot of businesses for promotion, it’s extremely difficult to stand out from the crowd here and set yourself apart from the competition.
Constant updates. Developers make changes and updates on a regular basis, which seriously affects the performance of campaigns. You should keep an eye on the updates and quickly adjust your strategies according to the new requirements.
Instagram
A fast-growing social network with more than one billion active accounts, which today is becoming a powerful way to promote business on the Internet. All work with the system is organized through a unified Meta Business Suite, which is also used by Facebook. However, compared to the usual social networks, here you should pay attention primarily to the visual component of the content – photo and video materials.
Advertising formats
One image. Suitable for display in the feed, stories and “Interesting” section. Each of these sections has its own technical requirements, which are important to take into account when creating creative.
Video advertising. Allows you to demonstrate the product in all its glory, revealing all its advantages. Meta Corporation constantly motivates users to publish more video content, so the share of this format will only increase over time.
Carousel. Works in stories and feeds. Here you can publish from 2 to 10 videos or images at a time. Each element can be complemented with a separate link to the advertiser’s website or brand page in a social network.
Selection. Allows you to show photos of products added to the Instagram store and add clickable links to selected sites to them. However, selections can only be published for accounts with the “Products/Services” type.
Pros
Large client base. Thanks to the high activity of users in Instagram and the growing audience of the service, clients can be found here for businesses in almost any niche.
Emphasis on the visual component. Such a presentation of a product or service is a more vivid way to demonstrate its value and benefits than a long text description.
Built-in store. You can create your own store within the service, without having to redirect users to other sites.
Cons
Lots of competitors. In Instagram, it is imperative to strategize, create not just stand out but outstanding content to win the user over a lot of competing brands.
The risk of being shadow-banned. This is when the account’s posts are simply not seen by users. The system does not even notify the owner of the profile. Such punishment can follow for violating the terms of the community, using prohibited hashtags, etc. To avoid this problem, carefully study and follow the rules of the social network and adhere to them when promoting your page.
TikTok Ads
TikTok is a fast-growing social network that has gained immense popularity worldwide. It offers various commercial tools that allow sellers to interact with buyers right in the app. Users can quickly evaluate the advertiser’s products and buy them right in the app in seconds.
Ad formats
In-Feed. A native video ad format that airs in recommended videos and takes up the entire available screen. Users respond quite warmly to it, interacting through likes, comments and reposts. By creating creative and engaging content, you can achieve a low cost per thousand impressions (CPM) due to high click-through rates and get a higher reach due to a high number of reposts. In this format, you can embed background music or subtitles to highlight highlights. And, of course, you can place a link and a call to action button.
Live Shopping. Allows you to buy your favorite products directly during broadcasts. This option is especially good when you need to stimulate impulse purchases.
Top View. This is the first thing a visitor sees when opening the mobile app. Here you can insert a video lasting from 5 seconds to 1 minute. Suitable both for launching something new on the market and for strengthening the company’s reputation.
Advantages
Number of competitors. Since TikTok appeared recently, the level of competition here is lower than in more familiar services.
Direct sales. You can add links to your products directly to publications, descriptions and your bio.
You don’t need an already established client base. The platform algorithms themselves select the right viewers for your content, based on their tastes, behavior and other factors, even if your account has few subscribers.
Disadvantages
Since the platform is focused on a specific demographic group, it cannot be called a universal source of traffic. The bulk of users here are members of Generation Z (born in the late 1990s and early 2000s) and Millennials (born in the 1980s and 1990s). Before launching advertising, carefully analyze the characteristics of your target audience and compare it with the average TikTok user.
YouTube
It is the world’s largest and most popular video hosting platform. In a survey of large B2C advertisers in the US and Canada in 2023, 48% of participants named YouTube as the platform with the highest return on ad spend (ROAS) for their business.
Launching a campaign here is done through Google Ads, making it easy to set up campaigns and manage your ad cabinet. Here you will also find all the tools you need to create video ads, which will help you to cope with everything even if you have no experience.
The service is suitable for:
Brands seeking to increase recognition. You can share your company’s story with users, demonstrate your values and uniqueness.
Companies launching new products on the market. Video reviews help prospective customers understand the benefits and features of a new product to evaluate the pros and cons before placing an order.
Online course sellers. YouTube is an ideal medium for distributing lessons and tutorials, attracting new students and learners.
Advertising formats
Splash pages. These are short clips of up to 6 seconds that appear at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of full videos. They can’t be missed, so viewers are guaranteed to familiarize themselves with your offer. Payment is based on the CPM model (for every 1000 impressions), i.e. you pay for views, not clicks or other actions.
In-Stream with no skip feature. Displayed before, during, or at the end of a longer video clip. The duration is usually up to 15 seconds. Payment is also charged for the actual number of impressions.
In-Stream with skip feature. Can be up to 3 minutes long and give viewers the option to skip the ad after 5 seconds. The advertiser pays only when the viewer has watched at least half a minute of the video (or all of it if it is shorter) or has interacted with the ad.
Out-Stream. Created specifically for mobile devices and displayed on websites and mobile apps that are part of Google’s partner video network. Starts playing without sound, but resource visitors only need to click on them to turn on the sound and view in full.
Ads in the feed. Displayed in search results and in the sidebar with recommendations. They look like regular videos, but are labeled with a special icon.
Pros
Popularity. Placing ads in YouTube guarantees good viewer reach and recognizability, because the service is the second most popular on the Internet after Google. In addition, Google search engine algorithms prioritize content from YouTube and index all videos added there. Thus, content here gets additional organic visibility.
Precise targeting. You can customize advertising to the right audience by taking into account detailed demographic characteristics – gender, age, location, etc.
Algorithms take into account the interests of visitors. When showing video ads, YouTube takes into account specific topics and keywords that users have previously been interested in.
Cons
Banner blindness. Due to the large number of commercial breaks, resource visitors often feel tired and irritated by them. Many viewers skip them as soon as the corresponding button appears, or move on to the next video without watching the video to the end.
It’s important to grab attention from the very first seconds of the video. If you fail to instantly engage your viewers, there’s a good chance they’ll simply skip your content.
Ad Block. Various third-party ad blockers often lead to lower conversion rates, as people potentially interested in your product don’t even get a chance to click through to the resource.
Twitter Ads
According to statistics from the Hootsuite service, Twitter advertising reaches about 11% of all Internet users, which makes this source very popular among advertisers. The platform is popular among experts, opinion leaders and specialists. In addition, a significant part of profiles here are made up of young people interested in new trends and technologies.
Advertising formats
Promotional Tweets. These look like regular posts, but are labeled accordingly. They can be liked, reposted and commented on, just like organic content. They appear in search results, among news, in regular profiles, and on official Twitter partners.
Video in the feed. Automatically plays among news items and loops if the duration does not exceed 60 seconds. Here you can add links to the advertiser’s web resource or social network page.
Account promotion. Used to attract traffic to a brand’s page on a social network. Such ads are displayed in the news feed, in search results and in the “Who to read” section. They are marked with a special icon and contain a “Subscribe” button.
Retargeting DPA (Dynamic Product Ads). With the help of this tool you can show Twitter ads to those visitors of your online store who were on the site and viewed the products, but did not make a purchase.
Advantages
Built-in store. Here you can create an online storefront right in your profile. This feature gives companies the opportunity to showcase up to 50 of their best-selling products to social network users simultaneously.
User-friendly interface. Twitter Ads Manager is very easy to use, making it accessible even for small businesses with little experience in online promotion. The service provides detailed instructions and customization tips to help you quickly learn the basic features and start using them.
Advanced targeting. The platform analyzes the communication of its visitors in real time, thanks to which it is possible to improve targeting settings. The system takes into account topics of discussion, popular hashtags, keywords and other data to determine the interests and preferences of the CA.
Disadvantages
Relatively small audience. Although Twitter provides access to a large portion of the Internet audience, its reach is limited. This is especially important for companies focused on maximizing their reach. In this case, additional sources of traffic will need to be connected.
Lengthy moderation process. The process of reviewing and approving advertising messages takes from 48 hours to several days, and in some cases up to two weeks. Delays in moderation can affect the timeliness and relevance of content.
Amazon
One of the largest and most influential trading platforms, especially for the English-speaking segment of the Internet. It ranks third in popularity, attracting a huge number of consumers willing to part with their money.
Advertising formats
Sponsored Products. Media messages with key phrase targeting. Once you click on them, you go directly to the page of the advertised product on Amazon. These ads can be found in search results and on other product pages. Payment is made for each click.
Sponsored Brands. They allow you to place up to three products from the same company on a separate banner at the same time. The banner is displayed on the search page and consists of three elements – the company logo, the title and the product itself. It often appears at the top of the list, at the bottom or inside the search results.
Video ads. Amazon allows you to place it on its own resources, such as IMDb (a database with reviews and ratings of movies).
Audio Ads. You can use 10- to 30-second audio ads that play without skipping on audio streaming services, either from Amazon itself or third-party services. This option is available even for those who don’t sell anything directly on Amazon.
Advantages
Scalable audience. There are over 300 million profiles on Amazon and over a hundred million loyalty program members.
Cross-platform. Amazon PPC is compatible with various devices, which allows you to place links to promoted products in apps on smartphones, tablets, laptops and other devices. In addition, displays on other company-owned sites and its branded devices (Kindle or Fire TV) are also available.
Automation. Here you can launch campaigns both with manual settings and automatic ones. The latter demonstrate better efficiency and significantly save time and effort. The system optimizes them independently based on the collected performance data, making the necessary corrections.
An audience ready to make a purchase. Unlike others, the service under discussion is primarily a marketplace. People come here with the clear intention of studying the assortment and, if everything is to their liking, make an order.
Disadvantages
The dominant position in the e-commerce market certainly attracts a lot of sellers, from which there is intense competition for consumers’ wallets. This leads to higher cost-per-click and lower return on investment (ROAS).
LinkedIn
The platform is focused on professional communication and development. It gathers people interested in establishing business contacts, finding job offers, employees or partners. This is why this network is most suitable for promotion in the B2B (business-to-business) sector.
However, it should not be underestimated for B2C areas (business to consumer) either. For example, it is the ideal place to find qualified employees. By starting a recruitment program here, you are guaranteed to get responses from professionals in the industry you need.
Ad formats
Sponsored Content. Assumes shows directly in the news feed. The average clickability here is about 0.4%. Advertising material includes text of up to 128 characters, a headline of up to 38 characters and an image with a resolution of 1200 x 627 pixels. Note that 70% of views on this format are made from smartphones, so try to optimize creatives for mobile screens.
InMail. Allow you to interact directly with your customers by sending them personalized messages. This approach works in a more targeted manner and helps create a sense of personalized appeal.
Lead generation forms. LinkedIn allows you to create forms to collect contact information within the service itself, without having to redirect people to third-party resources. However, keep in mind that the quality of leads received may not be the best. The less information you ask for, the higher the chance of filling out the form. Therefore, include only those fields that are really necessary for further work with leads.
Advantages
Large Audience. It’s a global network of 722 million profiles from 200 countries. And 40% of the 303 million active members log in to LinkedIn daily.
Precise targeting. The service allows you to show ads to the most appropriate audience due to detailed audience targeting on a number of parameters.
Paying audience. It is mostly inhabited by entrepreneurs, top managers and experienced professionals who are ready to spend large sums of money if the product or service is really of high quality.
Disadvantages
Orientation on the B2B segment. Due to this feature, LinkedIn will be ineffective for online stores selling mass-market goods. Before investing in this platform, analyze how much your target audience is represented on LinkedIn.
Long sales cycle. As a rule, people are not ready to make a purchase immediately after viewing promotional material. However, they may be interested in the offer if you provide them with valuable and relevant content. Therefore, the strategy here should focus on building trust and engagement step by step. In the end, the size of the deal should be large enough to justify the cost and provide a profit.
OLX
The largest bulletin board in Ukraine, which attracts an incredible number of visitors every day. Especially well here works advertising in the categories of real estate, cars, household items.
Placing on OLX, you can describe your offer in detail, add photos and specify your contacts for communication. High traffic and convenient interface of the site will provide good visibility of your products to a huge audience.
Advertising formats
Rising Ads. New offers of advertisers here are placed at the top of the list of the corresponding category, while older ones are gradually moved down. The ad is valid for a month, after which it needs to be reactivated. The function returns your ad to the top of the list as if it had just been added.
Placement in the top category. Allows you to fix your advertisement at the top of the list for a certain period of time in accordance with the selected package. In this case, the card with information will be marked with a special marker “Top”, attracting additional attention.
VIP-announcement. It is placed on the main page, which is viewed by thousands of site visitors every day. This ensures maximum reach and multiplies the chances of a quick sale.
Pros
Affordable cost. One ad even in the most competitive categories will cost only 500-1500 UAH/month, and in some simple topics – in general in 30-50 UAH, which is incomparable with other sites.
Wide coverage. Placing on OLX, you get access to an incredible in its volume base of buyers from all over Ukraine.
Creating a business page. Here you can create your own business page, which serves as a kind of analog of a website. On it you can add a logo and banner of the company, a short description of the activity, contact information.
“OLX Delivery. Allows you to order your products with delivery throughout Ukraine without prepayment. In this case, the seller is also insured – if the buyer does not pick up the order at the post office, this item will be returned to the sender free of charge. OLX cooperates with the leading carriers of Ukraine (Ukrposhta, New Post, Meest Express), which guarantees the reliability and efficiency of delivery.
Cons
A lot of inadequate customers. Because of the huge number of visitors on OLX there are a lot of inadequate people. Sellers have to spend time communicating with “problem” customers and resolving disputes. In addition, the rejection rate of goods sent by cash on delivery from OLX customers will be higher than from other advertising sources.
You will not be able to sell expensive. On OLX usually come to find “cheaper”, because the prices here should be set lower than on other sites.
Telegram Ads
This is an advertising platform of the popular messenger Telegram, which is rapidly gaining popularity among advertisers. Here, messages are posted in public channels of relevant topics that have more than a thousand subscribers. Users of messenger, as a rule, are more active to the groups to which they are subscribed and loyal to the ads that are posted there.
Advertising format
Today, Telegram offers only one option – native texts organically integrated into the content of channels. They look natural and unobtrusive, and are placed as the most recent message in the channel being viewed.
Pros
Nativity. Advertising messages fully copy the design of the channel author’s posts, keeping the same style and layout. The absence of unnecessary links and media files does not distract from the consumption of the main content.
Automation of interaction with customers using bots. This eliminates the need to hire a separate manager to handle inquiries. Bots automatically answer questions, provide information, accept orders and even payment.
Matching the interests of your target audience. In your personal cabinet you can quickly customize the parameters of the audience you are looking for, as well as choose the desired topics of channels for publishing ads.
Cons
Targeting. Telegram pays serious attention to user privacy, which imposes certain restrictions on targeting through official advertising.
Format. You will have to fit all your creativity into 160 characters of dry text, which can only be supplemented with emoji. This requires a special approach to content creation – it must be concise, informative and attractive at the same time.
