Digital content, as well as its audience, is growing at an incredible speed what with four billion people using the internet. This means if you want your business to grow and get noticed then digital advertising cannot be ignored. Although similar to traditional advertising, the spread of information about a brand here is comparatively easier, reaches a wider audience as well as generates more sales in a cost-effective manner. Though due to the virtual nature of advertising, it often leads to huge expenses without even reaching the targeted demographics. This is one of the main reasons many marketers are still less convinced.
Hence before opting for a digital campaign, it is necessary to evaluate the pros and cons so that we have a better picture of the results we can hope to achieve with the kind of resources and platforms used or whether it is really suitable for our business.
The Pros of Digital Advertising
1.Target effectively
You can focus on a specific online market segment and target customers based on location, gender, age, socioeconomic status or a niche audience. This helps ensure that the ad is shown only to the interested audience and you can reach out to customers likely to buy your products.
2. Low cost
Digital Advertising comes at a lower cost compared to print due to its inexpensive process of production followed by greater visibility. Digital ads have constant exposure day and night unlike the limited time allotted to radio and television ads. Many platforms have free options which may come as a basic package. Then again digital ads do not charge for views and have to be paid only when customers click on them.
3. Monitor and measure
Digital advertising allows you to monitor and track the results of your digital campaign to establish how effective it has been. With various metric tools, you can measure the return on investment of your ads as well as take full control of your overall spending. Web analytics help you check what keywords are working, track conversion rates, estimate the number of visitors that come to your site, obtain detailed information about customer response and find the peak site traffic days or hours across the site. This helps you strategize your campaign better by using the right resources or tactics to get the maximum benefits from your ad.
4. Customer engagement
Digital advertising encourages brand interactions and allows businesses to remain competitive by building relationships with their customers through different digital channels. By talking about your products, replying to comments, answering customer queries and solving problems you can build a credible reputation as well as attract repeat customers. Regular and informative blog posts, newsletters, special offers, and business promotions will help deepen your relationships with your customers and solidify your business presence. In turn, you will develop a loyal customer base who will review your products or share it across digital platforms thus attracting more attention to your brand.
The Cons of Digital Advertising
1. Not everyone’s on the Internet
Digital advertising does not reach all customers as there are many areas in the world that do not have internet facilities. Hence digital advertising is not preferable for every brand especially those that cover a large rural base or have customers in remote areas. Digital ads are also not geared for elderly people who aren’t tech savvy. Again only businesses selling consumer goods can benefit from digital advertising while there is no scope to sell industrial and pharmaceutical products through digital channels.
2. Digital advertising campaigns can be copied.
It is very easy for your rivals to copy your digital advertising strategies thus creating an adverse effect on your digital campaigns. This is one of the pitfalls of digital advertising as it is very easy for your competitors to copy information, images, and products and sell them as their own
3. Declining ad-clicks
The internet is inundated with so much information these days that people are easily distracted from what they intended to do in the first place. Their attention span is decreasing and most likely they are losing their patience to what you have to say just because they have information fatigue. Digital audience is increasingly blocking all kinds of advertising such as avoiding banner advertisements, closing pop-up commercials and bypassing ads in online videos. They no longer want to be overwhelmed with all the online ads and make full use of the blocking options available on internet browsers.
4. High Competition of Brands
With so many businesses using digital advertising there is fierce competition from different digital competitors to attract potential customers. A customer will often see their pages saturated with ads from similar brands displaying next to each other. This naturally causes confusion and makes it difficult for consumers to narrow down their choices. Unless the value proposition of your product doesn’t stand out from the rest, it will be difficult to gain optimum visibility and withhold the attention of your target audiences.
Moon Pearls 