A quick introduction to the different digital marketing channels, the pros and cons of each and how to start putting together a digital marketing strategy for your business.
2. What we’ll cover
Overview of some of the main digital marketing channels:
● Google Ads & Display Advertising
● Search Engine Optimisation
● Social Media & Paid Social Advertising
● Email Marketing
● Affiliate Marketing
Devising your own marketing strategies
- setting goals & monitoring
5. Google Ads
What is it?
Google Ads / Google AdWords is an online
advertising platform allowing businesses to
place brief adverts in front of web users.
Often known as pay-per-click or PPC
advertising.
How it works
Google Ads works on an auction basis
which takes place every time a user
performs a keyword search.
7. Google Ads
Pros
● Only pay for clicks to a website
● You choose the keywords you want to appear for
● Get quick & measurable results
● Manageable budget - set a daily / monthly budget and set a limit
of how much you want to pay for each click
● Full control of ads
● Target geographical areas
● More ad space
8. Google Ads
Cons
● You pay for clicks and not conversions
● Can be high cost per clicks (£40-50 in finance industry)
● Needs time investment
● Needs good converting landing pages
● Your potential customers might not be searching for your
services – they don’t know they need you yet!
● Advertising policies and restrictions
● Limited character lengths
9. Google Ads - Display Advertising
What is it?
Another option on the Google Ads platform is to
run display adverts, where you place an advert on
web pages across the internet.
This runs through the Google Display Network -
known in the industry as GDN
How it works
You target users based on their browsing history,
the websites they are on and the interests they
have.
There’s a range of different advert types you can
use to reach people.
The Google Display Network can help you reach
people while they’re browsing their favourite
websites, on YouTube, checking their Gmail
account or using mobile apps.
10. Google Ads - Display Advertising
Pros
● A good way of getting brand exposure and in front of an audience who may not
be actively searching for what you offer
● Generally cheap clicks and you only pay for a click
● Visual ads
● The Google Display Network covers over 3 million websites and 650,000 apps
Cons
● Less likely to generate lots of conversions
● Harder to track the true impact of the adverts
● Less control over where your adverts are shown
12. Search Engine Optimisation
What is it?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process taken to
improve your site to get higher rankings in the organic
results of search engines.
How it works
There are three main areas of SEO:
● On Page SEO - How well individual web pages are
optimised
● Off Page SEO - The process of gaining links back to
your website to help give it more authority within
Google
● Technical SEO - How well the technical aspects of a
website are set up to help your site be crawled and
indexed
Over 200 ranking factors are involved when deciding how
to rank a site
13. Search Engine Optimisation
Pros
● You don’t have to pay for traffic (sort of…)
● Can get good visibility on your brand terms
● Once rankings are established you have a strategic advantage
● SEO can be used on keywords that are expensive in PPC
Cons
● SEO results take time to achieve
● It requires constant attention to keep rankings high
● Some keywords can be very competitive to rank for
● Less control over the keywords you rank for
● There is a risk of being penalized
15. Paid Social Advertising
What is it?
● A way of displaying adverts or sponsored messages on social media
platforms.
● This can be done on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat,
Pinterest and TikTok
How it works
● Each platform differs slightly but all allow you to decide the audience you
want to advertise to, how much you want to spend and the ad creative you
want to use.
● You can either ‘boost’ your posts with paid budget or set up adverts to
promote images, videos, gifs etc in lots of different ways
16. Paid Social Advertising
Pros
● A good way to get round low organic reach on business pages
● Around 3 billion people use social media
● A wealth of data available to target specific audiences
● Platforms are good at serving ads to the most effective audiences - particularly
Facebook
● Can pay for clicks to a website, for video views or impressions (times an ad is
shown)
Cons
● You need to ‘warm’ up the audience
● Need good ad creative, messaging and landing page on a website
● Can get lower quality leads
● Time intensive
● Some platforms (LinkedIn mainly) has high cost per clicks / impressions
17. Posting on Social Media
Channels
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok
Pros
● No costs
● Connect directly with audience
● Data & reporting available
● Build your brand
Cons
● Low reach and algorithm limitations
● Negative feedback
● Needs time investment
● Results are not instant
19. Email Marketing
What is it?
A form of direct marketing by sending a commercial message
to a group of people to promote your business’s products and
services.
How it works
There are many different platforms to send emails to
subscribers / customers such as Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign,
GetResponse, Klaviyo
These platforms help you build an email and send it to a
specific list of people to promote a service, give the latest
news or discounts.
20. Email Marketing
Pros
● Generally a cheap cost
● Helps keep audience engaged
● Build relationships with customers and prospective customers
● Drive traffic to a website, social media or anywhere you’d like
● Can segment emails to go to certain users / demographics
Cons
● GDPR restrictions
● Need to have an email list
22. Affiliate Marketing
What is it?
The process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s
businesses.
Sometimes known as Performance Marketing
How it works
You have a website, you place a piece of content or link on your
website which leads a user to another website.
When the user makes a purchase through the website, you receive a
% of that sale (a commission) based on the agreement
23.
24. Affiliate Marketing
Pros
● Cost effective
● Only pay for a sale
● Reach new, loyal customers
● Help gives online presence
Cons
● Initial set up fee & charges on sales
● Time intensive
● Less control over how affiliates promote you and where
● Most common in retail, financial services, automotive
26. Defining Your
Digital Strategy
Things to think about:
● Who is your target audience?
● What are they doing online?
Searching on Google, on LinkedIn,
Facebook etc
● What do you want to achieve?
● How quickly do you want to achieve
‘it’?
27. Acting On Your
Digital Strategy
● Deciding on the marketing channel(s)
● Website / social media channels
● Content
● Tracking
28. Monitoring /
Tweaking
● Reviewing data
● Using reports
● Progress against goals
● Review creative, messaging, adverts
● Make changes
● Test, test, test
32. Channel Summary Main Pros Main Cons
Google Ads Paid ads at the top of
Google
Quick, targeted
visibility
Costly & needs time
and knowledge
Search Engine
Optimisation
Non paid ads
underneath the paid
ads
No costs, big
opportunities
Needs time and
knowledge
Paid Social Media Sponsored ads on
social media feeds
Good targeting &
reach potential
Requires good
imagery / ads
Social Media
Posting
Non paid posts on
social media
channels
No costs.
Opportunity to build
brand
Can have lower
reach
Email Marketing Emails sent to
subscribers
Low costs.
Opportunity to build
brand
GDPR restrictions &
need email lists
Affiliate Marketing Promoting products
& services to earn ££
Cost effective – only
pay for sales
Not applicable for all
industries / websites
4 Stages to a successful digital marketing strategy:
Define Act Understand Tweak
