If you own or run a business, then it’s only right that you should use online advertising. While referrals, organic search traffic and growing popularity with your brand will bring in customers, it’s never wise to rely solely on them. For some businesses, they boast about their lack of advertising spend like it’s a badge of honor. Put simply, ‘natural’ revenue can’t be depended on.

Online advertising can yield a huge ROI, but there are a number of things to be aware of before creating your first campaign. Initially, since there are loads of places to buy ads, it’s important to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each platform. And that’s in relation to your target customers, not someone else’s.

Display Ads Or Banner Ads

Display ads or banner ads, for example, stand out very noticeably. Impact-wise, they’re awesome, particularly as they tend to target customers who were not originally looking for a product or service at the time of their internet experience. However, they need to be used properly or they can come across as trashy and intrusive.

Text Ads

Text ads like the ones you normally see within Google searches and can be very effective because they appear to people who are searching for something specific and relevant. The challenge though, is to create sharp, compelling copy on a topic that you’ve researched thoroughly and includes relevant keywords.

Google AdWords is the obvious choice out there for most businesses. Just make sure that you track and analyze your campaigns so that you can make iterations and continually improve performance. There are other online ad options out there (such as dynamic display ads) that will performance impressively, but any campaign will need a combination of planning and experience in order to achieve the optimal result. Preparation is key to any marketing or advertising campaign, old-school or otherwise, so make sure you’re clear on what your goals are and who your target audience is.