Online Ads: What Formats And Platforms Are Available For Singapore Marketers?

The use of online ads in Singapore is a tried and tested strategy for creating brand awareness and generating leads. However, recent changes have made it necessary for marketers in Singapore to rethink about the most effective online ad formats and platforms to use.

In recent years, there has been a rise in the use of ad blockers. Similarly, social networks such as Facebook are imposing stricter algorithms to weed out spammers. You need to be aware of these changes since it will help you know about online ad formats and platforms that can amplify your message to as many people as possible.

There are dozens of channels that you can use to market your brand online. These channels have different metrics. Buying advertising space alone isn’t enough. You should ensure that you’re on the right platforms and that your ads are in the correct format.

Best Formats for Online Ads in Singapore

These are some of the ideal online ad formats and digital marketing trends that you can use to market your business. 

Banner Ads

Arguably, banner ads are the most widely-used online ad format. Banners typically contain short text or graphics for promoting a product or service. They are those visual objects found on webpages, and they provide hyperlinks to advertisers’ websites.

Users will open advertisers’ websites when and as they click on the banner ads. Banners provide information besides persuading buyers to purchase the product/service.

Pop-Up Online Ads in Singapore

These ads often appear on their own window when users either open or close a web page. Many users consider pop-up ads to be annoying and irritating. Most browsers come with in-built settings that allow users to block pop-up ads. Therefore, this online ad format may not give your brand the online visibility that you have been yearning for.

Interstitial Ads

Interstitial ads open in users’ browser windows even when they click on links to new web pages. Typically, interstitial ads appear for several seconds before the intended webpages load. After that, the ads will close automatically so that the intended pages open in the current browser window.

Banner Swapping

This isn’t an ad format per se. Banner swapping involves the exchange of links directly between websites. For instance, Company X will agree to display the banners of Company Y. Likewise, Company Y will display the banners of Company X in the form of links on its website.

Email Ads

The use of emails to market a brand may sound out-dated, but it can help you reach out to the intended audience. Emails can help you reach many people at the same time, and at a low cost. Nonetheless, unsolicited emails can elicit a negative response from the audience. On the flipside, solicited emails tend to be well-received.

Apart from the massive reach of email advertising, other advantages of this ad format include real-time tracking and unparalleled targeting. Emails are an effective way of generating leads and direct sales for your brand.

Mobile Video Ads

You can create high CPMs by using innovative 15-30 second lightweight mobile videos. Many users access the Internet via mobile devices. This is a lucrative market that you should explore. To fully capture the interest of mobile users, ensure that your videos are entertaining. This will guarantee optimum interaction.

Mobile Banner Ads

To reach out to mobile users, marketers are increasingly using online mobile banner ads in Singapore. These ads can help you monetise your mobile traffic instantly. They feature eye-catching designs that guarantee a massive reach. With mobile banner ads, it’s easier to increase brand awareness besides retaining your current customers.

Native Ad Formats

Native advertising involves the strategic placement of sponsored listings at the end of a blog post. Often, these ads get camouflaged and integrated into the platform that they appear. You can promote your brands through native advertising by using networks such as Outbrain, AdBlade, and Taboola.

Best Online Ad Platforms for Singapore Marketers

Singaporeans are spending more time on the Internet than before. Therefore, you shouldn’t overlook the power of online ads in Singapore. Knowing about the best ad formats to use isn’t enough. You also need to be on the right channels so that as many people as possible see you.

Ad platforms act as a link between advertisers who are searching for advertising space online, and content publishers. If you are looking for the best online platforms in Singapore, here are some options to consider.

Facebook Ads

Facebook is the most prominent social media platform in Singapore. You should leverage the popularity of the platform to market your brand. In as much as Facebook promotes itself as a platform that allows users to connect with their friends and loved ones, many users interact with and follow brands on the platform.

By advertising on Facebook, Singapore marketers will be putting their brands in front of the largest social media platform. Facebook also has several advertising targeting options. Singapore marketers can post different ad types on this platform including native ads, interstitial ads, and in-stream video ads. Facebook’s Ads platform also targets Instagram users.

AdMob

This advertising platform was acquired by Google in 2009 and has grown into one of the most sought-after mobile ad platforms. AdMob is beneficial to marketers who are aiming at monetising by showing their ads on mobile apps. When using this platform, marketers can choose the ads that they want to show.

Similarly, they can set filters so that only relevant ads get displayed. Within this ad platform, marketers can display four types of ads. These are banner ads, video ads, native ads, and full-page interstitial ads.

AdColony

AdColony is one of the most trusted advertising platforms in Singapore. This is attested to by the fact that it’s used by notable organisations including Hilton Garden Inn Serangoon. With AdColony, a publisher can display video ads even during in-app usage.

The platform is particularly popular among mobile game developers who tend to display videos ads after gamers have completed a task or attained a certain level. Using this platform, Singapore marketers can target users based on different metrics.

These include platform (iOS or Android), device (iPhone, iPad, Android tablet, etc.), connection type (Wi-Fi, 4G, etc.), geography (country, town, etc.), demographics, and content (games, entertainment, etc.). Therefore, AdColony is the best platform for online ads in Singapore since it can help marketers reach to the right audience based on different metrics.

Airpush

This is among the largest mobile ad platforms for Android. Airpush allows marketers to display 12 different ad formats including push notifications, video ads, overlay ads, landing page ads, rich media ads, and in-app banners.

Bing Ads

Bing Ads may not be as prominent as Google or Facebook ads, but this advertising platform can significantly boost your SEM campaign. The platform is relatively affordable when compared to Google. Singapore marketers will pay up to 70% less to advertise on Bing than Google.

This is a tremendous value because Bing receives an average of 5 billion hits every month. Affordability isn’t the only benefit that Singapore marketers get from using Bing’s mobile ad platform.

Bing gives you control over the location, language, and scheduling of your campaigns. Moreover, you can leverage the Social Extensions app to funnel traffic to your social media pages, thus giving your campaigns a visibility boost.

Google Ads

Arguably, Google is the most prominent and widely-used platform for online ads in Singapore. Google Ads can get displayed both on mobile and desktop devices. One exciting feature about this platform is the device targeting functionality, which allows marketers and publishers to target either smartphone or tablet users.

When using Google Ads, marketers can publish ads within browsers, apps, and Google search results. You can post different types of ads via Google ads including image and text ads, video and image app promotion ads, and TrueView ads.

Google Ads has access to the most prominent search engine. By using this platform, Singapore marketers get the opportunity to show their ads to the largest Internet audience. This results in more brand visibility, thus generating more leads and revenue.

Finding the Best Ad Format and Platform for Your Brand

Reaching the right audience isn’t as easy as it may seem. It requires you to be on the same channels that your audience is. If you are targeting millennials, for instance, Facebook or Instagram ads will be more effective than email marketing.

The dynamic and multicultural nature of Singapore’s consumer market necessitates the need for marketers to use a mix of ad formats and platforms. This entails experimenting with different ad platforms and formats to determine those that produce optimal results.

By continually monitoring the effectiveness of different platforms and ad formats and making necessary arrangements, it will be easier for Singapore marketers to get the best out of each online marketing campaign.

How To Target Audiences In Online Ad Campaigns

The key to a successful online ad campaign is targeting a specific audience. Marketing in Singapore is a challenging task, mainly due to the presence of many businesses in every niche. Competition is at a record high, and consumers are increasingly ignoring ads. This calls for the use of smart ways to reach niche audiences and increase the success of online ad campaigns.

5 Proven Ways of Audience Targeting to Improve Your Online Ad Campaigns

If you are looking to improve your online ad campaigns, here is how to get started with audience targeting.

• Pixel your campaigns
• Identify your clickers and converters
• Personalise your messages
• Produce quality content
• Expand your audience reach

The traditional approach to advertising is wasteful. You send message to the general public, and only a few people end up purchasing your stuff. Audience targeting, on the other hand, is a campaign based on consumer data and usually generates a better ROI than the old methods.

Audience Targeting for Successful Online Ad Campaigns

For those looking to do online advertising in Singapore, you should follow these steps to increase your success rate.

Pixel Your Campaigns

Before you get started with online ads, ensure that you have adequate information about your existing clients. The best way of doing this is by placing pixels on your website and campaigns. Pixels are small bits of code put in a webpage to gather data about your visitors’ behaviour on your site.

Pixels are invisible unless you view the source of a webpage. They work by reading and placing cookies, which usually contain critical information about a user’s browsing patterns. This information is useful for targeting your online ad campaigns in Singapore.

Identify Your Clickers and Converters

Once you collect data using the pixel, you can use it to build an audience for your marketing campaign. You should identify the clickers and converters – these are the people who are already interested in your products and services. From here, your online ad campaigns should solely focus on this group.

After building a solid list of potential clients, you are ready to go into the analysis stage. Analysing your target audience gives you a better understanding of them. You will know their age, income level, profession, gender, and so forth. Also, you get better insights into their taste and preferences, as well as their online shopping habits.

Collecting this information is crucial for developing online ad campaigns in Singapore. A strategy that is based on data is more likely to be successful than random guesswork. With data, you know what your audience wants. Most importantly, you get to know what you cannot learn through personal interactions.

Personalise Your Messages

If you are an experienced digital marketer, you probably know the significance of personalised messages. To increase the success of your online ads, you must send messages that are relevant to your target audience.

You should use the information gained at the data collection phase to guide you in creating messages for your targeted audience. This way, you increase the chances of engagement than when you send a generic message.

For example, if your clickers and converters are into email marketing, you will need to include the subject in your subsequent messages.

By analysing your audience, you will discover that different sections of the audience have varying preferences. For instance, a segment of your audience may prefer a free trial, while others could be satisfied with a product demo when you pitch a product to them. When serving your ads to these groups, you must keep the varying preferences in mind.

Produce Quality Content

Besides targeting, another factor that affects your online ad campaigns is the quality of your content. Even if you target the right audience, poor content is unlikely to attract any attention. Many companies are investing in digital marketing, so you need exceptional content to have a chance of succeeding.

Here are some ways of improving the quality of your content.

• Use a storytelling approach – instead of urging customers to purchase your products, tell them how it will solve their problems. If they find the story relevant, they are more likely to buy.
• Use visual ads – it easier to digest information that is presented visually than reading large chunks of text. Your online ads campaign should have loads of visual content, such as infographics, interactive videos and images.

Expand Your Audience Reach

One of the many objectives of a marketing campaign is to increase the reach of a brand. The information you collect about your existing audience can be useful for this purpose.

There are two ways of expanding your reach – using lookalikes and through retargeting.

Lookalikes

Lookalikes are people who are likely to be interested in your products because they have similar qualities to your existing customers. There are many ways of finding lookalikes, but you can always start with the clickers and converters mentioned earlier.

Alternatively, you can purchase data from a data provider. You can then target the users on the data set that have similar preferences to your clients. This ensures that you focus your online advertising in Singapore on people likely to buy your products.

Retargeting

Your personalised advert might reach the right person, but it is not a guarantee that they will convert. If a prospect does not convert at the first instance, you can bring them back through retargeting.

Retargeting allows you to deliver ads to people who visited your website without converting. You should optimise the subsequent ads based on the actions they took the first time they visited your site. For example, if they added an item to a cart but did not confirm the purchase, you can offer a discount or free shipping.

Google AdWords has a Similar Audiences future that allows you to find consumer with the same qualities as those in your retargeting list.

Recap

Here is a recap on how to use audience targeting to improve your online ad campaigns.

• Pixel your campaigns – this is useful in collecting data about your current customers
• Identify clickers and converter – this helps with narrowing down to people who are likely to purchase your products.
• Personalise your messages – consumers are more likely to purchase a product if its advert is relevant to them.
• Produce quality content – you need quality to grab the attention of your prospective clients.
• Expand your audience reach – you can increase the scope of your ad campaign using lookalikes and retargeting.

In this age, your marketing strategies need to be data-driven to increase their effectiveness and reduce wastage of resources. Implementing audience targeting for your online ad campaigns is an excellent starting point.

How to Get the Most Out of Digital Advertising

Now that you know the best formats for online ads and how to target prospects, let us shift gears and look at gold-worthy tips on how to get the most out of digital advertising. Note that 45% of new businesses fail within the first five years due to a lack of proper planning.

Even though digital advertising has a high ROI (Return on Investment) than traditional advertising, you need to plan well for each campaign. Every decision should be based on accurate research data. The campaign should be wired to resonate with the business model and aspirations.

Let us dive in and look at tips and strategies on how to get the best possible results from digital advertising.

• Use Smart Creative Elements

Gone are the days businesses would generate leads using bland or generic online ads. With competition getting stiffer across all niches, using smart creative elements in your ads will place your brand ahead of the curve.

Remember, the human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than blocks of text. In your quest to land new clients, make sure that your online ads are complemented with succinct visuals. The logo, colour scheme, mascot, and font should be designed to capture the attention of prospects and encourage them to visit your website or take any other desired action.

Sure, at first, you won’t know which image or text will deliver the expected results. The only way of jumping this hurdle is by experimenting with different elements and tracking the results. Use images with a high aesthetic value so that your social media or email marketing campaigns feel familiar to the customers but not too repetitive.

The ads should automatically tell a cohesive story about your brand. The images used in the ads should match with the ad copy and CTA (Call to Action). If you are having trouble creating CTA, click here for some free inspiration.

Concisely, using the correct creative elements in your ads will capture potential customers’ attention and maintain their interest in the brand or offer throughout the sales funnel. More importantly, the details should make it easy for them to remember your brand.

• Be Wise in your Spending

Firstly, every online platform that you distribute the ads on delivers varying value to your brand. Compare and analyse the platforms to know which ones you should spend more time and money on and which ones you should ditch.

One mistake that businesses make is using the same platforms used by their competitors or companies in the same niche. I’m afraid that’s not right – there is no guarantee that you will get the same results as your competitors. This is based on the fact that some platforms are best suited for companies in specific niches.

Consult widely and carry out extensive research to identify a platform that best matches your brand’s goals and objectives. Consider the value each platform offers to estimate the amount of money you should commit to it.

For example, Google AdWords offers the best ROI when the demand for the product or service on offer is definite or guaranteed. On the other hand, search advertising offers minimal results to new businesses introducing new products in the market.

If you are considering running ads on social media platforms such as Facebook, check analytics and fine-tune the campaign by changing factors such as age, location, and level of education to target ideal customers.

• Carry Out Your Research

As a new business, the temptation to rely on the results of research studies done by other companies may prove difficult to ignore. In addition, you probably have some ideas that may work for your target customers based on past results or experience with similar ads.

However, the digital advertising landscape is dynamic. What worked last week may yield little or no results today. You may predict that clients will react to your ads in a particular way only to end up spending thousands of dollars and getting no results.

It minds baffling that some businesses on a tight budget continue to spend money on paid advertising and only focuses on watching clients click on the ads. They are unaware that some of the clickers are tangential to the services and products promoted.

Overall, carry out your research and use the data collected to enhance your online ad campaign. There is no shortage of market data analytics tools you can use to make sense of the data. Use the insights to make your ads laser-focused on specific consumers.

• Understand the Buyer Journey

What is the buyer journey? It is the process customers go through when before deciding to do business with your brand. It starts from becoming aware, considering, evaluating, and deciding to spend their hard-earned money on the product or service.

When running an online ad campaign, understanding the buyer journey informs the ads and ad copy you display at different stages. Here are 22 free consumer journey analytics tools you can use to understand the specific actions they take before converting. The analysis will help you know which ads to display and how to make the buying process easier by pinpointing the friction points.

Digital marketing experts recommend starting by targeting prospects who are at the bottom stages of the funnel. Google is one of the top search engines that use user’s search history to know which type of content and ads to show them.

• How Well Do You Know the Target Audience?

Fully knowing who your ideal customers are will help you to understand how best to market your brand. The most successful brands have put in place protocols that enable them to understand who the buyers are before targeting them with ads.

This is one of the most critical steps in running an online ads campaign, regardless of whether the ads will be online or offline. A clear definition of the target audience will inform the ad format, ad copy writing style, and ad distribution channels.

For example, know which social media sites they spend most of the time on to understand where to run the ads. Facebook is leading the race of top social media platforms that deserve the title of “marketing powerhouses” as it allows marketers to define markets based on multiple factors. On this social media platform, companies can target customers based on a maximum of 10 different interests.

• Tie Social Media Data with ROI

To get a clear perspective of your ad campaign’s performance, you should connect or tie back the social media metrics with the results achieved. When doing online advertising, it goes without saying that thousands will see the ads of people. Some will be interested in your brand, and some will not.

Take into consideration this aspect with evaluating the results. Identify ads that deliver the highest engagement levels and driving conversions. Focus more on such ads and tweak ads that provide little results.

Go the extra mile to segment the audience based on various factors such as how they interact with your brand, previous orders, and interests. Remember, the social channels you use for ad distribution are a living and breathing select group of potential customers in constant flux.

If possible, delegate the ad campaign monitoring task to several team members with the required skills and expertise. Doing so will ensure you respond to their comments in real-time and with enough vigour to paint a positive image of your brand.

In short, your brand needs to start connecting the social media metrics with other hard metrics such as leads, registrations, sales, and ROI.

• Make Sure All Marketing Channels are Integrated

If the multiple marketing channels you use have been working independently, now is the time to integrate them. Consistent messaging will ensure you connect and engage the audience effectively. The first step is ensuring that the ads are integrated across all the platforms. This move will ensure that customers get the same message about your brand irrespective of the platform.

Keep in mind that every social media platform has a different feel and vibe, so work smart to ensure that your digital efforts resonate with each platform. While at it, make sure that you maintain a consistent voice and image of your brand.

The takeaway is that – an integrated ad campaign has immense potential of generating better results than a single drive or initiative. Facebook Ads, for instance, are excellent when used to promote a new product or promotion. Still, it offers even better results when working in tandem with email and other marketing channels.

• Leverage Geo-Fencing

Geo-fencing is a pretty new digital advertising facet with many potential for brands and individual marketers, especially in the B2C. It enables brands and companies to target different customers intuitively based on factors such as physical location. The main goal is to hope it guides them through the buyer’s journey using ads.

Geo-fencing combines digital advertising to engage with the customers at the right time. The only way to achieve this goal is to display the right ad and copy to them. Consequently, geo-fenced campaigns have the potential to increase sales by 27% on average.

As mentioned earlier, when doing any digital marketing, take the time to do research. The results will help you to know the consumers and determine the type of ads to display. Consider geo-fencing as a virtual fence around the ideal customers.

• Product Listing Ads Should be Optimized

Users want to see the correct product listing when they search on Google or any other search engine. Ensure that the listing has all the elements they need to decide whether to purchase the product or not.

Using the wrong elements or missing information will discourage a potential client from following through. So, make sure that your ad answers all the questions and eliminates any friction points or doubts. Any information that may help them convert should be included in the ad, no matter how small it seems. 

The most successful brands optimise the product listings to mimic detailed product descriptions. One secret to stand out from the crowd is combining a top-quality photo of the product with the description. The picture will add visual appeal to the ad, thereby increasing the click-through rate.

• Combine Internet Display with Search Engine Advertising

This tip is ideal for brands running moderate or large ad campaigns online. Numerous studies show that combining the two increases ROI by increase clientele reach. While a large number of people who come across an internet display ad will click on it, only a small fraction of them will be lured by the internet display ad to conduct a search related to the product.

The synergistic effect of internet display and search engine advertising will not be practical if done on a small scale. To get the most results, it is recommendable to purchase and target many related search words and display ads.

• Optimise the Landing Page

The landing page is a solid pillar of your online ad campaign. You will end up wasting thousands of dollars on the campaign and getting no tangible results if the ad redirects prospects to the wrong page. Even worse, if the ad is connected to the right page, the content on the landing page does not match the user’s intent.

As you create the ads, make sure that the supporting or related landing pages are optimised. This includes writing stellar text, incorporating the target keywords in the copy, and making sure that the call-to-action buttons are functional.

Monitor the performance of the landing page to know if there are areas that need to be tweaked. Use these top landing page tools to supercharge the landing page. You may have to try out several of them to find one that matches your campaign and business model.

 

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Top 10 Digital Marketing Trends in 2020

The digital world is in a constant state of flux.

Workflows, ideas, products, and even perceptions are refined and redefined with every passing minute.

Nothing in the digital space is immune to change.

It used to be, when a company gets a winning product or formula, it would be set for generations or several years at least. But that’s not the case today– even less so in the digital space. 

In all likelihood the “future trends” you’re using to guide your digital marketing processes might be outdated by now.

And the only way to do things right is to unlearn some of the things you know and learn about the digital marketing trends that matter today (in 2021).

Let’s examine 10 mega digital marketing trends in 2021:

 

1# The Aftermath of Covid-19 Pandemic

The covid-19 pandemic brought chaos to people’s lives and the economies in the world.

However, there was a silver lining – the e-commerce adoption of ten years was compressed into three months. 

As governments’ reinforced lockdowns, businesses and consumers were left with no option but to go digital. The buying and selling of goods and services moved from physical brick-and-mortar stores to the hallowed walls of the internet.

As a result, the e-commerce share of the world’s retail trade catapulted from 14% in 2019 to 17% in 2020.

Overall, the pandemic accelerated e-commerce growth for 4 to 6 years, according to Forbes. 

The online share of sales from the total retail sales jumped from the previous 16% to 19% in 2020.

The growth of online retail sales was even more pronounced in 7 key countries, with the Republic of Korea recoding the highest share (at 25.9% from the previous 20.8% in 2019). 

Economy	Online Retail Sales (in US$ billion)			Retail Sales (In US$ billion)			Online Share (% of retail shares)
	2018	2019	2020	2018	2019	2020	2018	2019	2020
Rep. of Korea	76.8	84.3	104.4	423	406	403	18.2	20.8	25.9
Singapore	1.6	1.9	3.2	34	32	27	4.7	5.9	11.7
China	1,060.4	1,233.6	1,413.3	5,755	5,957	5,681	18.4	20.7	24.9
United Kingdom	84.0	89.0	130.6	556	564	560	14.9	15.8	23.3
United States	519.6	598.0	791.7	5269	5452	5638	9.9	11.0	14.0
Australia	13.5	14.4	22.9	239	229	242	5.6	6.3	9.4
Source: UNCTAD                   @MediaOne Marketing

 

60% of companies across industries also witnessed new buying behaviours. 

Companies aren’t just looking to pivot or keep up with the growing demand for easy online shopping and seamless delivery. 

The focus has changed and more directed towards the future. They want to build a more secure and resilient infrastructure.

52% of retail brands now want to transition to more resilient infrastructure, while 47% want to deploy contactless mobile payments and 45% are more motivated to create a more robust selling platform.

It’s not the case that things will be returning to normal. It turns out, re-opening and vaccines are driving new opportunities.

The plans you had or had put in motion before the pandemic must now be worked afresh. Re-examine them – their budget, scope, and timeline – and reprioritise them. 

The point is to start planning on where you want to see your organisation 5 to 10 years post-covid, instead of beating yourself up for where you’d have been had it not been for this pandemic.

 

2# Accelerated Digital Transformation

The covid-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the way we work. Organisations were forced to find ways that they could quickly implement digital solutions.

As a result, customer digitalisation was accelerated 4 to 6 years ahead of their time. Additionally, the share of digital or digital-enabled products in their portfolio was accelerated by about 7 years.

With restrictions on movement and in-person events, the only option marketers had was to turn to virtual events and digital marketing channels to connect with customers. 

The Rate of Digital Transformation in the Different Sectors

Restrictions on movement also saw consumers spending much of their time online. By March 2020, internet use had shot up by 70%, and the number of people using streaming services increased by 12% since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic.

Naturally, marketers are drawn to where their customers are. Social media, websites, email marketing, mobile, blogs, landing pages, and webinars were among the few ways marketers were engaging with them.

Customers became more receptive to digital offerings after the pandemic, with 84% of them placing an increased value on digital experiences. Consequently, the only way marketers can keep up with the new shift in customer demand is by utilising a mobile-first focus.

 

3# Real-time Insights

Good marketing isn’t just about keeping up with consumer demand. But using real-time insights to stay ahead of it. 

Search insights have improved a great deal – it’s like explicitly hearing a customer’s voice as they inform your brand about their needs, wants, and intent when running an online search query or randomly interacting with the internet.

You’re missing out on a massive business opportunity by not setting up your organisation to listen, analyse, and activate customer insights with real-time personalisation. 

 

4# High-quality Content and Content Velocity has Never Been this Important

Content velocity is the measure of how much content your organisation puts over a certain period. Say you want to know how your content is performing against you competitors. The first thing you’d want to do is choose a period (one month, quarter year, etc.) and then measure your content (word count or the number of posts) against what your closest competitors are producing.

It’s a general belief that the more content you produce, the more edge you gain.

Wrong. 

When scaling content marketing, quality should always precede velocity. 

You’re also missing out on a lot of opportunities to appear in the search, email, social media, and other digital channels by only publishing once or a few times a month, regardless of how much painstaking work and attention you’re directing to the content creation process. 

The point is to try and increase your content velocity while paying close attention to quality. None should come at the expense of the other. 

Take a deep look at the content you’re already producing and see if you can figure out how to produce high-quality content at scale. 

 

5# New, Digitally Conscious Customers

Consumer habits are no longer like they used to be.

Apps, mobile devices, automation, machine learning, and much more, now mean customers can get what they want at that exact moment they need it. 

What’s more?

There’s a shift in customer expectations. Today’s customers are more connected, app-native, and fully aware of what technology can do for them. 

Because of that, modern customers rate organisations for their digital experiences first, and for their products and services second.

As a marketer, that calls for you to rethink your overall marketing strategy, specifically how you interact with your target audience:

• For a B2B sales team, a digitally first experience demands that you replace the cold calling with something more engaging, like social selling.

Your customers are active on social media, and so should you. 

Don’t wait for your customers to make the first move. Rather, make a point to reach out to them, build a connection, and educate them on a thing or two. 

Simple. All you need to do is start sharing relevant content on your expertise or as a solution to their problem.

• For a marketing team, a digital-first experience means cutting your spending on offline marketing activities in favour of digital ones.

It means reducing the amount you spend on billboards, direct mail, and TV ads in favour of SEO, PPC ads, social media marketing, email marketing, and so on. 

Your customers expect highly targeted content and messages from you. You can only achieve this through a thorough data-driven content marketing strategy. 

• For a customer service team, nothing is barring you from making the first move. You’re not restricted to waiting to be conducted. 

A digital-first strategy isn’t reactive, but proactive in reaching out to customers that are out seeking help on the various digital channels. 

Forums, review sites, social media, and communities are all part of the touted customer service eco-system.

To accommodate the modern buyer, you must think about creating a digital-first experience. 

 

6# Intelligent Automation

Talk of intelligent automation, where you’re not just automating tasks to reduce redundancy.

Think of intelligent automation as something you must do. It’s no longer a case of “what if”, but when, where, and how fast.

To define, intelligent automation is where artificial intelligence meets automation. While artificial intelligence embraces a chain of technologies, particularly machine learning, vision, and language recognition, automation is a concept that can be traced back to the early days of the industrial revolution. 

The same way automation has advanced is the same way artificial intelligence has improved. 

Intelligent automation relieves you of the pressure of being involved in every single one of the decisions your company or organization makes. Instead, it allows you to empower machines to not only take action based on if/then scenarios but also learn and understand individual customers in ways that are almost impossible for humans to do at scale.

Imagine having a machine take action in real-time or when a customer is most receptive to recommendations, personalised, messaging deals, and content. 

 

7# First-party Data, a Source of Better Marketing Insights

Marketers don’t have to rely on cookies as a source of data, especially after Google made it official that they’ll be phasing out third-party cookies. They have other sources to work with: offline, operational, transactional, and online. While each of these sources come with its own sets of advantages and disadvantage, nothing offers more value than first-party data. 

Third-party data is becoming a hard sell. In its place, comes first-party data, which has time and again proven to be a source of better marketing insights.

It’s accurate and easier to control, in addition to offering endless possibilities for campaign optimization and personalisation. 

Better, marketers are embracing it because it allows them to operate in a cost-effective and privacy-compliant way. Not only that: it’s also a great strategy for establishing trust and long-lasting relationships with customers. 

 

8# Hyperlocalisation Goes Beyond Crossing Borders

The adage, “the customer is always right” still makes a lot of sense. It’s our job to provide customers with the information they want or the services they need frictionlessly and seamlessly. 

As it turns out, customers are searching and consuming online information from their mobile devices. 

Hyperlocalisation is the process of creating content based on specific data, narrowed down to a region or city level. It involves looking at how shoppers search and buy products or services online, and adjusting your marketing messages accordingly.

Hyperlocalisation in 2021 takes localisation to a whole new level by adding an extra layer of personalisation to your marketing strategy.

Hyperlocalisation comes in different forms:

• In retail, it allows stores to tailor their offerings based on local demands and trends. It even allows businesses to personalise the recommendations they serve to customers in-store. 
• Retailers can offer customised promotions or coupon codes for individual cities or localities. 
• Allows retailers to text their customers directly, personalising the whole experience. 

 

9# SEO and PPC Go Hand in Hand

The gap between PPC and SEO continues to narrow.

Gone are the days when the two used to operate as separate entities. In fact, it goes beyond the two teams knowing what the other team is up to.

Rather, the two are collaboratively working together, as true partners in crime. 

The SEO team will pick off where the PPC team left, sharing a mutual understanding of the different SERP features and brand placements.

The two teams must work together in ensuring a more consistent coverage on a list of search terms to maximise ROI and limit costs. 

There are a lot of ways the PPC team can benefit from SEO data and vice versa. 

Google has made it clear that they’ll be rolling out the “Page Experience” or the Core Web Vital update any time soon. But as it stands, some industries are more prepared for this update than others. Meaning, if your company happens to fall for any of these industries, then technical SEO will no longer be an option for you, but a necessity.

 

10# Transformation in the Way of Working

The covid-19 pandemic had people restructuring their work lives. 

It made people realise that they could work from home and still get the work done without sacrificing anything.

In a recent study finding as published by Adobe, the number of people working from home for at least a day or two in a week had skyrocketed from 28% to 80% by the third quarter of 2020. 

As it turns out, productivity wasn’t affected. If anything, managers report that it either stayed the same or improved significantly. 

And even with things getting back to normal, it’s widely speculated that this new work transformation will be the new normal. In other words, people will continue to work from home.

 

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5 Mistakes That Will Completely Wreck Your Google Ads Campaign

The average cost per click on Google Ads is $1. Small and medium-sized businesses spend $9,000 – $10,000 per month on these ads. Such a huge investment can go down the drain if you don’t plan well. Here are seven mistakes that you should avoid when running a Google Ads campaign.

Mistake 1: Poorly Crafted Ads and Missing Ad Extensions

Knowing the suitable ad format for your campaign is just one piece of the campaign. If the ad copy is poorly written or you don’t have ad extensions, you will not see any results. Luckily, Google has features to help advertisers write the best copy. There are also settings that you can change to realise the full potential of the ads.

Ad extensions will enable you to enhance the ads by including sitelinks, location, and call extensions. Incorporating this essential information in the ad will crank it up to its ability to capture the prospect’s attention and lure them to click on them.

Consequently, the right ad extensions will increase the click-through rate, and if the copy is excellent, you will notice an increase in conversion rates. As mentioned earlier in this article, make sure that the landing page is high-converting.

Mistake 2: No Clue about Conversion Rates and Profit Margins

Even when doing offline marketing, you need to monitor the conversion rate and profit margins to know if you are headed in the right direction. Without tracking, you won’t know whether the ads need to be enhanced or other marketing channels should be brought on board.

Set up conversion for sales or inquires in the “Tools and Analysis” then select the “Add new conversion” option.

Knowing the expected conversion rate will help you save money by ensuring that you don’t spend more than the ideal amount on an ad campaign. Use the formula below to calculate the profit margin.

Note that profit margin varies from one industry to another. Identify what thresholds or metrics work for your niche and test it to know if it matches your brand. Ideally, an accurate estimate of the profit margin is the secret to creating a high-performance Google Ads campaign.

Mistake 3: Avoid Using Negative Keywords

This is one of the most common mistakes businesses, especially those using Google ads for the first time. More than 6 million keywords are processed daily by Google. 15% are new keywords that have never been recorded.

Some of these keywords will be top quality, while others will exhaust your budget and target. One of the benefits of using negative keywords is that they eliminate other keywords that don’t match the promoted product or service. As a result, you will increase the revenue accrued from the ads and reduce the cost of running the ad campaign.

Be different and joining the high-performing marketers by creating a list of potential negative keywords. Using them is one of the surest ways of connecting with the most targeted customers, reducing cost, and at the same time increasing return on investment.

More importantly, they increase the quality score of your Google ads. Do not just copy and paste these keywords; optimise them to match the campaign. On the same point, the negative keyword list will increase conversion if you tailor the Google ads to appear on display and search networks.

Mistake 4: Ignoring your Brand Name When Bidding

Do not just focus on the target keywords, be unique by placing bids on your brand name. This strategy increases conversion, but you need to put into consideration the value of your brand. According to Loyalty360, 66% of savvy customers in the United States are willing to spend more on a service product if the company offers a positive/desirable customer experience.

When biding on your brand name, you promote your brand to existing and new customers, especially social media users. Some of the reasons advertiser give for not bidding on their names include:

• The brand name does not get match organic traffic
• The brand keywords don’t record enough traffic
• The site is already ranking at the top

All these reasons make sense, but they could be hindering the brand from getting to the desired cruising altitude. Remember, it is not all about impressions, visitors, and clicks when running a Google ad campaign. Revenue generated is equally important to your business growth and sustainability.

Mistake 5: Unaware of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

What is the lifetime value of your ideal customers? If you don’t have a straight answer to this question, the chances are that you are spending money and time on the wrong Google ads.

Determine how much you spend on Ads to land one customer. CLV is a crucial metric that will help you to know the value of a customer to your brand. Calculate the total amount of money you spend to net customers on a long-term basis. While them, consider the return purchases from the loyal customers.

Note that lifetime value is different and more complex than ROI. However, the two depend on each other to scale up your business and increase revenue. Knowing the CLV will inform your decisions to adjust the campaign. You will start bidding on keywords that will drive the right leads to the landing pages.

As noted by David Skok, many new businesses fail because their CLV vs. acquisition cost looks like this:

Final Thoughts

Online advertising can help you reach a broader audience than you would when using traditional advertising avenues. There are multiple ad formats and platforms for rolling out online ads in Singapore. Marketers can only know which platforms or ad formats work best for them by testing out options that are under consideration. Use the above tips and insights to customise your online ad campaigns today. Our team of professional digital marketers can do this for you and create custom campaigns for your brand. Contact us today for more details. 

 

 

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