8 Tips to Create an Effective Digital Advertising Plan

#1 Set Your Objectives

What is the purpose of the digital advertising plan? To boost sales? To launch a new product? Create more customer engagement? Your digital marketing plan must outline specific goals and expectations from your online advertising campaign.

One of the biggest advantages of specifying goals and setting objectives is that they give you a way to compare your results with your expectations. You can, therefore, know if you are on the right path or need to revisit your plan if the outcome of your digital advertising efforts falls below the expectations.

Know More: Strategic Ways To Improve Your Digital Marketing Efforts

#2 Target Your Market

Who is your target audience? Are you focusing on a specific demographic group? Digital advertising has a wider and deeper reach than traditional advertising. However, reaching a wider audience is not going to increase your sales unless you can tap into the audience that will be interested in your product. For example, if you are a cosmetic brand for young adults, you may want to target a particular age group and gender.

Therefore, you need to define your target group in the digital advertising plan so that your campaigns are focused and reach the requisite audiences.

#3 Budget Allocation

What percentage of your marketing budget can you spend on online advertising? This is important as every effort that you put in for digital advertising is going to cost money. Be sure to allocate the budget accordingly so as not to overshoot your proposed advertising spend.

Planning your budget is crucial as it will help you to distribute and streamline your online advertising efforts into different channels in an efficient manner.

#4 Introspection

What are your strengths that you can leverage on in your ad campaigns? You need to know where you stand with your competitors and how much of the market share you have. And the best way to do it is by a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) analysis which will tell you about your vulnerabilities and major advantages.

In addition, you will be able to analyze the risk factors and develop a digital advertising plan to handle unforeseen circumstances.

#5 Determine Channels

Which channels are going to give you the best returns for online advertising? Digital advertising can be done via search ads, display advertising, online video advertising, stream media advertising, social media advertising and audio advertising. Each of these channels have their own benefits and work in different ways to generate sales for you. Depending on your target audience, budget and other related factors, you would have to decide on a strategy to advertise on these channels so that you get maximum returns.

#6 Content Creation Strategy

What kind of content do you need for your ads? As you may already be aware, content is key to your advertising initiatives. Content has the power to garner attention and draw potential customers to your business. Your content can be video, audio or text-based according to what you believe will work for you the best. What is important is that you create a detailed description of your content plan including how you plan on creating the content. For example, you may create content around trending topics and take inspiration from viral content on various social media platforms. If that is the case, it needs to be documented as part of the content creation strategy in your digital advertising plan.

Read More: 7 Copywriting Tips To Turn A Marketing Copy To Sales Copy

#7 The Exact Plan

What kind of ads would you design? Which channels would you target your ads on? At what frequency would your ads be presented to your audience? Your digital advertising plan is probably a sub-section of your digital marketing strategy but it needs to have a roadmap to your online advertisements. You can decide if your ads need to be interactive or not and how they can make the greatest impact on your target audience.

A detailed description with timelines, digital platforms that you want your ads on and other associated details should be documented clearly in your digital advertising plan.

#8 Measuring Success

How do you know you are on the path to success with digital advertising? Digital advertising gives you measureable metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs). These performance indicators such as conversion rate, click-through-rate, cost per acquisition and return on investment can help you to assess the success of your digital advertising campaign. Compare the output of your digital advertising efforts to your original estimates to see if you have reached your goals. Measure each channel to analyze the results and eliminate what isn’t working for you. In case your content seems to fall short, you may have to rethink your content strategy. If the results are below your expectations, you need to make a course correction on your plan.

Read More: 5 Analytics Metrics To Rope Your Digital Marketing Strategies With

Conclusion

Whether you run a large enterprise or a small business, you need to have a digital advertising plan that is synced within your marketing teams. Sure, it takes time, coordination and efforts to create an impactful online advertising plan. But in the end, you will have achieved better results with an effective digital advertising plan.