There are hardly any sales without ads. Well, save for already established brands and essential commodities. No one needs to advertise meat or hamburger, but they make tremendous sales daily. For most other commodities, advertising is crucial, and where you choose to place your ads is an important piece of the puzzle.
Advertising is expensive, so you need to craft a strategy that not only works for your budget but offers you the most returns on investment. And notably, some advertising mediums are more influential than others.
Why it matters
People see myriads of ads daily, but the average consumer is afraid of getting ripped. Although they don't stop purchasing altogether, they ignore all except the most relevant ads. Here is where trust and authenticity come in.
Consumers are influenced by ads they deem relevant, especially when such ads are on a trustworthy platform. This is where leveraging the most influential and powerful ad mediums becomes important.
Sounds interesting? Let's dive in!
5 most powerful advertising mediums to leverage today
Here are the most powerful advertising mediums you should consider using:
1. Mobile advertising
Mobile dominates the marketing world hands-down, as the average human spends about 5 hours on their mobile devices daily.
You could be surfing the Internet on your smartphone, and an ad pops up. Interestingly, users are now targeted based on their browsing history so that only relevant ads are presented. Imagine Googling about UX, and an advert on a UX course pops up soon after.
Mobile ads enable businesses to target consumers in real-time, and the ad revenue generated has been on an upward trend since 2006. Given how powerful mobile marketing is, the marketing shift is gradually leaning from "mobile-first" to "mobile-only."
2. TV ads
Whoever said traditional advertising is dead? Far from it! TV advertising remains one of the most powerful mediums of advertising to date. How? There are many reasons.
Firstly, TV ads are considered more credible because only big reputable companies can afford to pay the price. Furthermore, about 90% of the US population will watch TV in one week.
Here's the sweet part; most TV watchers are adults over 35 years because younger people tend to stick with their smartphones. Now, linear TV advertising targets the older population known to account for over 50% of all US consumer spending. So if you leverage linear TV advertising, you're reaching more than half of your target audience right where they are.
3. Search engine marketing
You probably found this blog post through a Google search. That's Search engine marketing -- placing content or ads on the world's largest billboards, the search engine results pages.
When you make a Google search, you'll find some websites at the top tagged "Ad". These results got there through a form of search engine marketing known as pay-per-click (PPC) or keyword advertising. For example, you could bid on the keyword "personal injury attorney near me" such that when a user types a related phrase on Google, your website will pop up at the top of the SERP.
Search engine marketing is one of the most powerful forms of advertising as it makes you visible to everyone searching for you on Google. You're placed at the top above the highest-ranked organic pages, meaning your target audience gets to see you first. It's like having your shop in front of the marketplace.
It's called pay-per-click, meaning you only get to pay when a user clicks on your ad.
4. Video advertising
Apart from TV ads, video advertising wasn't so popular until recent years. In short, video advertising skyrocketed in popularity with the advent of TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms supporting short video clips.
Today, 73% of marketers intend to invest more into video marketing. That clearly screams how influential videos are in the world of marketing today.
Why is video advertising so powerful?
Videos are attention-grabbing
Easy to consume
Quickly binds into the audience's memory
Videos are perfect for illustrating benefits
Easily goes viral as people like sharing videos more than any other content
In short, video advertising is one of the best ways to generate brand awareness
5. Email
This goes without saying; you've probably received a ton of emails today. Companies use email marketing because they know the rich potential it offers, especially for B2B. More than half of B2B marketers consider email their most effective revenue generator.
What makes email marketing tick is its ability to let you segment, target, and send personalized messages. Email marketing can help you:
Increase engagement
Improve customer retention
Increase site traffic
Upsell to existing customers.
The average conversion rate of email is 3%. While the figure looks infinitesimal, it is higher than many other channels.
So, there you have it, the 5 most powerful advertising mediums of all time. So which are you planning to leverage? Whatever choice you make, remember that designing the right strategy and consistency are key to driving the results you want to see.