Advertising significantly increases your brand’s exposure to relevant customers
Online ad campaigns offer advanced targeting capabilities that can boost ROI
Advertising directly impacts sales and revenue for many small businesses
The numbers are clear: Advertising is a key investment for businesses both big and small. Companies around the world spend over $500 billion per year on ads—and digital advertising specifically is set to continue growing by more than 10% in 2021. But why is advertising important?
Seven key benefits why advertising is important
From launching a new product or service to simply trying to get your brand out into the world, ad campaigns can help you reach more of the right people.
Advertising is a type of paid promotion that brings attention to your key message, and it’s the crucial next step for making your digital marketing strategies work. It increases your exposure to help you achieve your business goals, whether you’re aiming to build your customer base or quickly grow your sales volume. Even if you don’t hire an ad agency, you can benefit from advertising in the following ways:
1. Build awareness
One of the most direct results of advertising is increased awareness of your brand, product, or service. Potential customers will likely have to come across your business a handful of times before they start to remember you, and ad campaigns help you achieve this.
Marketers often use paid ads to not only get in front of more people, but to get in front of the same people several times over. Many digital platforms use trackers called “cookies” to determine who has previously seen your ad. Thanks to this data, businesses like yours are able to retarget the same viewers. With this continuous reach, you can become well-known within your target market.
2. Educate consumers
Beyond simply building awareness, advertising helps you educate consumers about how your products or services help them and what your brand stands for. You can use ad campaigns to generate a deeper understanding about everything from your company mission to the value of what you sell.
As your target market understands more about your business, they’ll feel a stronger connection to your brand, getting you one step closer to making a sale and helping you build customer trust and loyalty.
You can also use ad campaigns to educate consumers about topics relevant to your business. For example, a plumber marketing campaign may run a social media ad that includes an infographic about a simple hack to fix a toilet clog. By doing so, you can increase your visibility as an industry expert while also driving consumers to learn more about your brand.
3. Boost your reputation
Advertising enables you to enhance your small business reputation. Both offline and online advertising can boost the prominence of your key messages—the takeaways you want your target audience to have—and highlight the good aspects of your company.
Ads that evoke a feeling of likeability have a proven impact on sales growth, so advertising can affect perceptions. For instance, if you’ve had any negative exposure, running an ad that highlights a positive part of your business can redirect potential consumers away from the unwanted attention.
4. Acquire new customers
Acquiring new customers is a must for business growth. Advertising is important because it can help you reach more people within your target audience with messaging that appeal directly to them.
Online advertising—including social media ads, and others is particularly crucial for customer acquisition these days. Through online ads, you don’t have to appeal to a broad audience as you would with traditional advertising mediums like print ads or television. Digital advertising allows you to specifically reach the people who match your exact target demographics, key interests, and more.
As you reach highly specific segments of your target market without wasting cash on those who won’t be as interested you can send highly targeted messages for a better return on investment (ROI). Because of this, advertising can be one of the most cost-effective ways to gain leads and convert new customers for your brand.
For example, if you own an auto repair business for luxury vehicles, you could use advertising to specifically target high-income residents of your surrounding area. Rather than marketing your services on a billboard or in a magazine which would be viewed by a more general audience you’ll make every dollar count.
5. Retain current customers
Customer retention is the foundation of business growth. You need loyal, returning clients—these are the people who love your brand, send you referrals via word of mouth, and likely spend more money on your product or service.
Effective advertising drives repeat business by turning your customers’ attention back to you. You can use ad campaigns to retarget members of your target audience, including people who are already in your customer base. As you consistently remind your buyers of your brand—perhaps piquing their interest with new products or discount pricing for loyal members—they’ll continue to feel connected to you and buy from you instead of turning to your competitors.
6. Stay ahead of the competition
No matter what type of business you run, you have competitors. There will always be brands vying for the attention of the same consumers. Even if you don’t know who those competitors are, there’s a good chance they’re among the many brands contributing to the billion-dollar advertising industry.
In this sense, advertising is important because everyone is doing it. If you’re not using ads to put your brand at the forefront of people’s minds, your competitors will gladly take the spotlight. And if you stay in the shadows too long, you’ll lose relevance in consumers’ minds.
Staying ahead of the competition—especially in saturated industries—is all about continuous exposure. Beyond the reach you gain organically or through word of mouth, ads can help you achieve that.
7. Make sales
When answering the question “why is advertising important?” it would be remiss not to mention its effects on sales. Ads are powerful tools for helping small businesses earn the money they need to survive and thrive.
Ad campaigns can directly influence sales, driving more consumers straight to your physical store, website, and even specific product pages if you run an ecommerce brand. Digital search ads alone help businesses gain about $11 per dollar spent on average. Ads of any medium can even help you cross-sell products and services, increasing the value of each consumer’s individual purchase.
Many digital ad options allow you to set your own budget and pay only when you receive clicks, such as pay-per-click (PPC) options. As such, advertising can play a big role in improving your company’s overall bottom line, too. As advertising helps you achieve high ROI, you’ll have extra revenue that you can reinvest in your business for a continuous cycle of advertising and growth.
Meet your business goals
Why is advertising important? It’s important because it can drive business growth. Advertising works to amplify your small business marketing and helps you reach the right audience with positive, targeted messaging that converts potential customers into paying customers. It also helps you retarget your audience, whether you’re aiming to build brand awareness or drive returning business from loyal customers.
source@business.yelp.com
