Many retailers or business owners would say a smaller digital advertising budget would be a waste of money as you wouldn’t make any impact against the major players.
Savvier business owners will tell you that you absolutely need to advertise. You just need to be creative and have a deep understanding of your target audience. With the right tailored approach to digital advertising you can still win with a small budget.
Here’s where you should start looking.
1. Get super targeted with your digital display advertising
If your location is small and you have a small budget, chances are your target audience will be in close proximity to you or condensed into a specific location.
It’s crucial to get as much value as possible from any digital advertising spend, meaning you have to be as precise as you can in ensuring only your target demographic sees your ads. You can’t afford to waste impressions on anyone else.
Geotargeting provides this precision, ensuring your ads are targeted at your audience, and only at your audience, within a defined geographical location set by you. With this tactic and approach it’s then up to you to ensure your ad creative, messaging and offers are desirable enough to earn those CTR and entice customers to your website.
2. Engage with users when they’re on the go
As lockdown restrictions ease we will see footfall again become an essential to the future of your business. Whilst Geotargeting offers a solution to get in front of potential customers that are based close to your location, Geofencing ensures you have the chance to entice customers in when they’re on the go, nearby.
By placing a geofence around your premises you can digitally engage with anyone that enters that area. Once users enter one of these fences they will have a digital marker placed on them, with digital display ads served to them on their mobile devices in real-time on the go.
Keep your radius to no more than five minutes walking distance from your location, consider what will entice local shoppers inside, and ensure your call to action is clear and understandable. Information detailing any updates or changes to your services, opening times, special offers and safety precautions will instil a sense of trust and confidence with your audience.
Once lockdown is lifted and you have seen success from your Geofencing campaigns consider drawing fences around your competitors’ locations to compete for custom with standout messaging, offers and deals.
3. Learn from the data
Smaller budgets demand a fluid approach. With more campaigns running and more reports in place, you’ll begin to understand what works for you and your audience and what doesn’t, ensuring your upcoming campaigns can be as tailored as possible.
Running Geofence campaigns will also give you enhanced customer data. When customers arrive from your Geofenced promotions, begin to measure a variety of metrics including sales, time in store, and how often they visit your business. All of this information adds depth to your business analytics and enhances the viability of your ongoing digital advertising strategy and honing your budget further.
4. Be precise with your messaging
Your messaging is so important. Geotargeting and Geofencing are a way to engage with potential customers, but it’s your messaging that will pull them through the door. This has never rang more true than now.
It won’t work if it’s out of date. Imagine the scenario – you run a campaign on a specific product and a cut price deal. The product sells out, but you continue to run the same ads. First of all, you’re wasting your budget. Secondly, those customers that do make their way online or in store to purchase the product will be extremely frustrated by the experience you’ve provided. They likely will not come back.
Using In-feed ads removes the possibility of this scenario. By connecting a product inventory to digital display ads through a live-feed, all ads are automatically updated in real-time with any changes to inventory, stock, offers or deals. It’s efficient, effective and essential for optimising budgets.
5. Understand the mindset of your local audience
How do your customers react when the weather changes? Are key products in high demand with the onset of summer and do certain lines sell out at the slightest hint of frost?
How your target audience behaves in line with the weather is crucial to a tailored approach in advertising. Understanding this mindset and changing your ad creative in line with those changes that truly speaks to your audience will set you apart from the competition regardless of the size of their advertising budget. It isn’t just the weather that can play its part. Other external factors including the day of the week, time of day, or even political, sporting events and global crisis should all be considered.
Understand your audience, define their key pain and pleasure points and tailor your advertising with the correct use of Dynamic ad creative when the time is right. Your digital advertising will be much more relevant and soon begin to stand out amongst the rest.
Fluid Ads can help enhance your local advertising strategy in these crucial times irrespective of the size of your budget.