Biddable media can play a huge part in your overall marketing approach - if used correctly, of course. But what is it? And how does it work? Quite simply, biddable media refers to any type of media outlet that’s bought via real-time bidding. Whether that’s Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing or social media advertising, it covers a vast amount of channels.
Sounds simple, right? Well, if only it was that easy to implement within your campaign. When sat in the wrong hands, it can become expensive and ineffective very quickly. However, don’t let that put you off. Biddable media can provide a world of benefits to your marketing efforts and is a highly effective way of driving traffic and improving conversion rates.
This post will explore everything you need to know about biddable media, how it fits into your overall marketing strategy and the best practices you can follow to make sure you’re getting the most out of your paid marketing.
We’ll cover:
- What is biddable media?
- Which channels are cohesive with biddable media?
- How to implement biddable media within your strategy
What is biddable media?
Biddable media consists of ad placement opportunities that businesses and agencies compete for. As with any auction, whoever is willing to pay the highest price wins. Of course, the more sought after position, for example, the optimum position on a popular Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP), the higher the costs will be.
Paid marketing is a useful tool that can help benefit any marketing campaign. There are endless opportunities of what you can advertise and direct traffic towards. Have you recently launched a new product or service? Or, do you want to drive traffic to your new in-depth industry-relevant blog post? You can create paid ads as you desire.
As with any marketing strategy, your paid marketing campaign should always have an overall goal that aligns with the rest of your campaign. If you start creating ads without an end objective, it’s likely that they won’t get off the ground. Plus, if they don’t work in tandem with your other marketing channels, you’ll find that they’ll actually be counterproductive.
With biddable media, your budget is key. Without the right knowledge or tactical nouse, it’s easy to invest a lot of money for marginal returns. You may generate lots of unqualified leads, but if they fail to convert as they’re unsuitable, your campaign will be an expensive failure. So, you need to make sure that everything is in place before launching a campaign and starting the bidding.
Which channels are cohesive with biddable media?
As with all marketing channels, biddable media outlets are constantly evolving. This means that new trends are entering and dominating the market regularly. So, you should always be aware of new methods entering the frame and be flexible with your approach to get the most out of your paid marketing.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing
PPC is probably the most well-known method of paid marketing. You’ll come across PPC ads every day - well, at least every day you carry out a Google search. Which for most people, is multiple times a day at least.
See those results at the head of the page with “ad” located next to them? Well, they’re PPC ads that a business will have bid for to gain the position. Businesses will have strategically based their ads around relevant keywords that their ideal audience are commonly searching for - rather than placing them at the top of a page that’s the complete adverse of what they’re promoting.
Every time a visitor clicks through these ads, the advertiser will have to pay a fee to Google - hence the name pay-per-click. If there’s a lot of competition in your industry, you’ll all be vying for the top spot.
This can become expensive, especially if you don’t convert any leads from your efforts. With the right execution, PPC can put your brand in front of the right people instantaneously. By researching and choosing your target keywords carefully, you can keep costs low and return on investment (ROI) high - winner!
Social media platforms advertising
In a similar method to PPC, various social media platforms offer their own biddable media methods to reach your target audience. For example, Facebook allows you to target people based on interests and activity. Whereas, other platforms allow you to segment audiences based on gender, location and age.
Social media platforms allow you to get creative with your advertisements - this is the fun bit. As you’ll see when scrolling down your feed, social media ads are accompanied by creative images and descriptions. So, a witty caption and a relevant striking image will improve the chances of engagement and interaction.
You can also include a call to action in your ads - an instruction for the visitor to follow and take action after engaging with your ad. Whether that’s to sign up to your newsletter, get in touch or other ways to help grow your business effectively.
Video marketing can also be implemented within your social media ad campaigns. With the rise of people consuming quick snippets of information, videos could be a great addition to drive engagement. Each interaction will take a little chunk out of your ad budget, so do your research and plan effectively to stay cost-efficient with your approach.
Paid video and YouTube marketing
Videos are one of the main sources of information for internet visitors. YouTube is the second largest search engine and over 1 billion hours worth of videos are watched daily! So, in our opinion, it’d be foolish to pass up this amazing opportunity.
Whereas other channels work on cost-per-click, YouTube ads work on cost-per-view - you can tier these too. For example, if somebody bails on the video less than 30 seconds into it, you won’t be charged. However, if they click on an in-display ad on the side of the video stream you’ll then be charged.
As YouTube is owned by Google, there’s an effective bidding method in process. The same principles still apply. For more popular search terms, you can expect the bid to be a higher price and the competition to be more heated.
How to implement biddable media within your strategy
Implementing your paid marketing strategy is an exciting time for your business. It can be easy to get carried away with your ideas and launch before you’re anywhere near ready. This can be fatal for your ad campaigns and can lead to them being an epic failure.
The first thing we advise you to do when setting up your ads and preparing your campaign is to research, research and research some more. You can never be too clued up about your target audience, your potential target keywords, the industry and overall paid search market. Poorly researched campaigns rarely leave the floor and can become expensive quickly.
Your overall campaign should have a goal that dovetails with your overall marketing approach. So, it’s crucial to outline your paid marketing approach when figuring out your quarterly strategies for other marketing channels. Otherwise, the different mediums will be operating counterproductively and you’ll find that they’ll pull in different directions.
This can also lead to irrelevant ads - which is THE BIG no-no in paid marketing. Irrelevant ads are always going to be ineffective. From your landing pages, ad design and the content on your click-through pages, your messaging should be consistent and always portray the same offerings. If it doesn’t, you’ll end up with a confused visitor and an abrupt end to their user journey.
Constant testing and reporting should always be carried out before, during and after the campaign launch. If you don’t analyse your ads, how will you know what direction to shape further ones in? The answer is, you won’t. You’ll be leading blind ads, which is never the most efficient way to reach out to your target audience.
How to always create paid marketing ads that BANG
At Red-Fern, we realise the importance that paid marketing has within a holistic marketing approach. So, we know what it takes to ensure that your paid marketing ads are always on point. We’re experts at delivering campaigns that are proven to help businesses grow exponentially.
To help you out, we’ve created a free guide that outlines everything you need to know and prepare before you launch your ads. That way, you’ll be in the best position for success and producing groundbreaking results. However, it’s not quite ready yet - but it’s coming soon!
In the meantime, why not book a discovery call in with us? One of our expert team will be on hand to answer any questions and queries you may have. We’re vastly experienced in operating paid marketing campaigns across various channels for our digital partners, so find out more about how we can help your business today!