Breakdown Of The Good, Better, And Best Paid Media Platforms On Which To Advertise Your Ecommerce Business – Part 2.
We discussed Google Ads and Google Shopping, Bing and Facebook in Part One of this blog. Let’s look at LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram and what makes them great or less appropriate for some campaigns and audiences.
If it’s the global workforce you’re after, LinkedIn is the platform to grab their attention. With the world’s largest professional network, LinkedIn is perfect for B2B campaigns and B2C professional products. You can create high-quality leads and reach the right decision-makers and niche audiences. If you want to engage an Ecommerce audience, Facebook or Google Ads might be better platforms to consider. Another drawback of LinkedIn is that the platform doesn’t offer the best analytics and usability. You can’t customise reporting views like you can on Google or quickly duplicate ads, campaigns or campaign groups. Be that as it may, it’s worth the extra effort to set up your campaigns once you’ve established that your professional audience is on LinkedIn and engages with content on the platform.
YouTube
With over 2 billion monthly logged-in users and the ever-increasing popularity of video formats, no business can ignore YouTube. It can create brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. YouTube is part of the Google Ad system that provides excellent support, solid data and retargeting abilities, including remarketing ads. The audience is diverse and watches over a billion hours of video daily. They browse through their feeds or engage with the content they are watching. It might be expensive to create video ads, and they can be interruptive. But if you need to demonstrate your products in any way, you can’t ignore this format or platform. Even B2B businesses use YouTube for explainer videos and product reviews.
TikTok
The latest social kid on the block, TikTok, is quite a phenomenon. Young engaged users spend 476 minutes a month on the platform, second only to Facebook ads. They pride themselves with 1 billion users worldwide and over 50 million in the US alone. It’s the age of the influencer, and TikTok’s numbers prove that. The platform has created its Creator Marketplace to help advertisers partner with relevant influencers. You can get creative and use hashtag challenges to increase engagement and awareness. The TikTok app integrates with Shopify, so you can publish new posts without leaving the Shopify dashboard. The platform also allows international publishers to reach new markets. Unfortunately, TikTok’s costs don’t always compare favourably to other platforms. It starts at $10 per CPM (cost per 1,000 views), quite expensive compared to Instagram and Facebook. You’re also limited to in-feed ads because TikTok doesn’t offer ad placements. It means viewers are interrupted. They don’t always like that. You also have to use native creative to ensure audiences don’t swipe away. Lastly, there is no place for any stills on TikTok. It’s video only, which in itself can be restrictive.
Another highly visual, or visual only, platform is Instagram. With over 130 million shoppers tapping on posts each month, you’ll be a fool not to advertise there. You can create image-based ads, videos, reels and use Instagram stories to promote your products and interact with your audience. The users are highly engaged, with over half of the platform’s audience online every day. They also have high intent, with 75% of Instagram audiences taking action or responding to ads. One-third of these users end up buying, making it the ideal platform to drive sales. They offer comprehensive targeting and a plethora of ad formats, including Collection ads where users don’t have to leave the platform to buy a product (mobile only). Unfortunately, your ads have to live up to the platform’s performance. They must be high quality if you want them to stand up against other ads. The platform takes time to master, and in some cases, only specialists will be able to tap into the potential your budget can deliver.
Paid media platforms are a bit like payment providers. Not all of them are created equal. No matter what and where you sell online, you need a trustworthy payment provider. Speak to Truevo. We provide flexible payment solutions, for multiple channels, in over 150 countries. Get started with faster payments, easy set-up and complete security. Get in touch. We can’t wait to do ecommerce with you.
