Hey there, it's Dusty Thunder, a.k.a. Dustin Storm. Today, I’m not here to talk about Reddit stories or Am I the Asconaut stories. Instead, I want to talk to you about marketing—specifically, how digital ads work. This is all in relation to my day gig here at Storm Cloud Marketing.
We thought it would be helpful to start explaining things as simply and quickly as possible, so you can understand how the things we do in our marketing agency actually work.
If you’re a business owner or have a product or service you want to promote, you’ve probably wondered: How do digital ads work? How do ads work, period? How does all this stuff work? Sometimes, a lack of understanding can prevent you from even experimenting or getting started.
Let me give you the quickest rundown I can—a brief, high-level understanding of how digital ads work. That way, you’ll at least know a little bit and maybe feel ready to start experimenting.
Start with Your Target
When we think about digital ads, there are millions of options. Forget about all the noise for a moment and focus on your needs—and, more specifically, your target’s needs.
If you haven’t identified your target yet, that’s the customer most likely to need your product or service. Put yourself in their shoes and think about what triggers their need. What are they looking at that makes them realize they have that need? What are the symptoms? What are the problems that lead to your solution as a need?
Spend some time thinking about this before you get into digital ads. If you haven’t done this yet, do it first, then come back.
Let’s assume you know the symptoms that identify the pain or problem your product or service solves.
The Marketing Funnel
On the digital ad side, I often talk about things in relation to a funnel. Imagine a basic funnel with three levels:
- Top of the Funnel: Awareness. These are people who may not even know they have a problem yet, but they’re looking at information related to the symptoms.
- Middle of the Funnel: Consideration. People have identified their problem and are looking for more information about it and how to solve it.
- Bottom of the Funnel: Decision. Now they’re trying to figure out which solution to go with. At the very bottom are the solution providers—that’s where you come in.
At the very bottom, people are choosing who is going to solve their problem. That’s the basic funnel.
Above the funnel, you have people who aren’t even aware of the problem yet. Maybe they don’t have a symptom yet, but someday they will. You can still get in front of those people with ads, but that’s a topic for another day.
Start at the Bottom
I always recommend starting at the very bottom of the funnel. Why? Because those are the people looking for solution providers right now. They’re the quickest to convert, and it’s easiest to track your return on ad spend. These people are actively searching for businesses like yours.
Where do people go when they’re looking for a solution? Typically, a Google search. They’re searching for “providers of X service” or “solutions to solve X problem.” That’s where you need to be—on Google search text ads, specifically targeting people looking for solutions to the problem you solve.
Search text ads are at the very bottom of the funnel and are the quickest to convert. They’re also the easiest to track your return on.
Moving Up the Funnel
Let’s take one step up. Some people are looking for information related to their problem or about solutions—not necessarily solution providers yet. You need to be involved there too, but they’re not ready to make a decision.
When people are ready to make a decision at the bottom of the funnel, it’s easy—but that’s also where the most competition is. You’ll often see bidding wars for search text ads, where businesses compete for the top sponsored listings. This can get expensive and inefficient quickly.
There’s a tactical advantage to working further up the funnel as well. As people look for information about solutions, problems, or symptoms, these are opportunities to get in front of them—even if they’re not ready to make a decision yet. You can get a head start by developing a relationship and building trust with these people further up the funnel.
You’re not going to do this with search text ads, because they’re not looking for a solution provider yet. But you can use search ads to link to blog posts about their symptoms, problems, or solutions, breadcrumbing them down the path to make it easier for them to eventually choose you.
Just be aware: they’re not ready to make a decision yet, so it’ll take longer to nudge them down that path.
Using Display and Video Ads
What we often do is use display ads. Google now has responsive display ads, which outperform static banner ads and even let you incorporate video. You provide Google with different headlines, descriptions, images, and videos, and it reconfigures them to fit every possible space to get in front of people.
The benefit? Even if people aren’t looking for your solution or you as a provider yet, you can still help educate them, plant a seed, and build trust. Ideally, they’ll remember you and won’t even need to do that Google search at the bottom of the funnel where the bidding wars happen. If you develop a relationship with them further up the funnel, you can be their guide through the whole process.
As people look for information about their symptoms, the problem you solve, or solutions (but not necessarily solution providers), you can use responsive display ads to get in front of them and help educate them. Link to a blog post, offer proven solutions for a symptom, or explain what a symptom means. Breadcrumb them to educational resources to help move them down the funnel.
It’s not just responsive display ads—there are many options. You can use video campaigns, which are even further up the funnel and more focused on awareness. But you can still target people interested in specific topics, which is powerful. On Google, you can choose to only get in front of people looking at information related to certain topics, so you don’t have to spend a ton of money to reach the right people.
Final Thoughts
If you’re thinking about digital ads and have a product or service to promote, you have a lot of options. I recommend looking at the very bottom of the funnel first and doing some research (which you can do inside Google Ads) to figure out how strong the competition is. Does it make sense? Could it be efficient? Or are there already major bidding wars going on, meaning you need to look further up the funnel and adjust your tactic to build trust before someone is ready to choose a solution provider?
We’ll have a lot more to explain, but I’ll try to give you quick tidbits as we go to help you develop an understanding of marketing strategy and digital marketing without overwhelming you.
That’s the journey. This is the first step.
I’m Dustin Storm with Storm Cloud Marketing. You can discover more about our agency and even get in touch with us about your product or service at stormcloud.marketing.
