04/17/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/17/2024 05:08
Imagine being able to identify where your potential customers are, targeting and engaging them effectively, and driving business growth with optimized spending.
That's the advantage of using a digital advertising platform to help your audience convert.
In this article, you'll learn about the top online advertising platforms' unique features. Plus which platform to choose to reach more of your target audience with better ROI.
What Are Advertising Platforms?
Advertising platforms are digital spaces where businesses display paid ads to promote their products or services to a targeted customer base.
Platforms range from social media networks and search engines to websites and apps. Each offers various ad formats and targeting options to reach potential customers effectively. We'll cover the main ones later in this section.
Use digital advertising platforms to increase your business's visibility, drive website traffic, and boost sales.
For example, a local bakery could use social media advertising on Facebook to reach interested users from a specific geographic area.
Image Source: Meta Ad Library
Compelling ads can attract new customers, promote special offers, increase in-person traffic to a physical store, and more.
Focusing on a qualified audience allows you to allocate your marketing budget more efficiently.
Further reading: Paid Advertising 101: A Beginner's Guide
How Do Advertising Platforms Work?
Advertising platforms operate through three main components that enable you to reach your target audience more successfully.
Imagine a small business launches a new product and uses an advertising platform to promote it.
This targeted approach maximizes the ad's impact, improving its chances of driving sales and achieving a better return on investment (ROI).
The Top 12 Advertising Platforms
The right digital ad platform can help you reach your target audience, engage potential customers, and convert interest into tangible results.
Understanding these platforms' strengths and niches is the first step toward crafting a successful online advertising strategy tailored to your business needs.
Here are some of the best platform options to use for your ads:
1. Google Ads
Google Ads offers your business a direct pathway to appear in front of potential customers precisely when they search for your services or products.
Google's extensive network includes its search engine, YouTube, and the Google Display Network (GDN).
Here's what a Google Search ad looks like:
The cost of advertising on Google Ads varies widely. Depending on factors like keyword competition, the quality of your ads, and your targeting specifics.
The advertising platform operates on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, meaning you pay only when someone clicks on your ad. Which makes it a flexible option for businesses of all sizes, as it gives you control over budgets and bids to maximize your ROI.
Further reading: How Much Does Google Ads Really Cost?
Google Ads supports the following ad types:
2. Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads lets you run ads across Facebook's ecosystem (over 2.1 billion daily users) thanks to seamless integration.
This advertising platform's audience encompasses many users, making it suitable for any business.
Below, Colorado State University ran a Facebook video ad to announce its summer courses:
One of the vital strengths of Facebook ads lies in its detailed targeting options, including:
The integration with Instagram has the following advantages:
As of March 2024, the average CPC for Facebook Ads (cost per click) was $0.778.
Besides image and video ads, types of Facebook ads include:
Further reading: Check out our comprehensive guide on Facebook Business Manager to learn how to build custom audiences for effective Facebook ad campaigns.
3. Instagram Ads
Instagram is the second most popular social network marketers use, after Facebook. And it allows businesses to set the same ad campaign objectives as Facebook.
Instagram Ads' strong visual appeal captures the attention of younger demographics, who are highly active on Instagram. As of January 2024, 28.4% of Instagram users in the U.S. were between 25 and 34 years old.
The cost of advertising can vary widely depending on factors such as targeting, ad format, competition, and time of year.
On average, Instagram advertising costs $0.00-$0.25 per click, $0.00-$4.00 per 1,000 impressions, and $0.03-$0.08 per engagement. Meta recommendsstarting with at least $5 for your budget.
Instagram offers several ad formats, including:
Here's a fashion brand's carousel ad showcasing its products:
4. LinkedIn Ads
With over 700 million professionals on the platform, LinkedIn marketing can be particularly effective for business-to-business (B2B) marketing.
93% of B2B content marketers reportedly use LinkedIn for organic social marketing.
LinkedIn Ads target factors including job titles and functions, industries and companies, skills and seniority, plus education and experience.
LinkedIn supports different ad types to help businesses reach their goals, such as getting more visibility or finding leads.
In this sponsored content ad, LinkedIn addresses the platform users with a topic that's highly relevant to them:
You need a minimum daily budget of $10 for any ad type. New or inactive campaigns must have a minimum lifetime budget of $100.
After launching, the minimum lifetime budget becomes $10 multiplied by the campaign's duration.
5. X Ads
The X (formerly Twitter) platform allows you to target ads based on demographics, interests, behaviors, keywords, and specific events or conversations.
You can also engage with an audience in real time. This immediacy makes X Ads particularly effective during live events, product launches, or any time-sensitive promotions.
X has different types of ads, including:
Below is a promoted tweet from cybersecurity company Bitdefender:
You can make X Ads fit your budget with no minimum spend by setting a cap at the start of your campaign. Your targeting, design, and bid choices will affect the cost.
6. Pinterest Ads
Pinterest ads are paid-for posts or "Pins" that advertise a product or service to users on the platform. As Pinterest is a visual platform, advertising focuses on images and video.
There are plenty of opportunities to reach an audience here, where 46% of weekly users report discovering a new brand or product.
Pinterest offers a variety of ad formats, including:
Check out this promoted pin example from the Mazda car manufacturer:
On average, Pinterest ads cost $0.00-$0.10 per click, $0.00-$2.00 per conversion, and $0.00-$1.50 per 1,000 impressions.
7. YouTube Ads
YouTube is arguably the most prominent video advertising platform. Its ads enable you to advertise your content to audiences of all demographics.
Choose from several video ad formats depending on what you want to achieve, who you want to reach, and the story you want to tell.
See this in-feed video ad example:
YouTube ads cost around $0.11-$0.50 per view or action, with businesses typically setting a daily budget of $10.
The actual cost of your campaign can vary according to the quality of your video, whom you're targeting, and your ad goals.
8. Snapchat Ads
Snapchat's advertising platform may suit your business if your primary audience is young adults.
In January 2023, one in five global users were men between 18 and 24 years old. Women between 18 and 24 made up 18.3% of all Snapchat users.
Its focus on images, temporary messages, and a commitment to privacy and creative expression attracts a younger demographic.
Plus, Snapchat's AR lenses offer engaging and deeply immersive interactive experiences because:
Here's an AR ad from Coca-Cola:
Spend as little as $5 daily on ads, but Snapchat recommends at least $20-50 daily to help your ad complete an "Exploration Phase."
This phase allows the platform to determine who in your target audience will most likely take action on your ad-and optimize its performance accordingly.
9. TikTok Ads
TikTok's short-form video content provides a unique and engaging way for advertisers to reach potential customers (1.5 billion active users worldwide in 2023).
The ads can go viral as a result of these factors:
See this viral in-feed ad from TikTok:
Types of TikTok ads include:
10. Amazon Ads
Amazon Ads can increase your brand visibility, give you a competitive edge in the crowded ecommerce space, and improve your chances of conversion.
A direct shopping integration seamlessly incorporates advertising solutions within Amazon's vast ecommerce platform (which recorded 2.7 billion visits in December 2023.)
The average CPC for Amazon ads is $0.81.
Further reading: What Is Amazon PPC?: A Complete Beginners Guide to Optimization
Ad types include:
Check out this sponsored product ad for a writing tablet:
11. Bing Ads
Microsoft Advertising, formerly Bing Ads, is an effective alternative to Google Ads.
The Bing search engine and its partner networks (other websites and platforms that show Bing ads) complement Google Ads by tapping into a different audience segment-often with less competition and potentially lower costs.
It's an appealing option for advertisers seeking broader reach without a significant budget increase.
The average CPC on Bing across all industries is $1.54.
Bing ad formats include:
12. Apple Search Ads
Apple Search Ads can help you improve your app's discoverability, given the vast number of apps available in the App Store (over 1.83 million).
Ads can appear in different formats depending on the user's device and search query. They always have a blue background and an ad disclosure icon.
Here's the app ad we got when we searched for "vacation planner:"
Image Source: Apple
Apple Search Ads automatically generates your ad based on the existing metadata, video, and imagery in your App Store listing.
Here are some unique features of Apple Search Ads:
Choosing the Right Advertising Platform for Your Business
Run your ads on platforms where your target audience spends its time and engages most actively.
Ensure they complement your marketing objectives, such as increasing brand awareness, driving sales, or fostering customer loyalty.
Ultimately, your ad platform choice has to make financial sense.
Apply the following four key criteria to determine the best ad platforms for your needs.
Target Audience and Demographics
Understanding your target audience and its demographics helps you focus your advertising strategy on where it will be most effective to maximize engagement and ROI.
Gain insights into your potential customers' behaviors, preferences, and online habits (like where they spend the most time online). Then:
Semrush's One2Target tool provides the comprehensive audience insights needed to help you choose the right ad platform.
Click "One2Target" under ".Trends" in the left-hand navigation bar. Select your target location, enter up to five competitors' domains in the input box, and click "Analyze."
You can also click the "Create List" tab to learn about the audiences of up to 100 domains.
Your report will look something like this:
And covers various audience factors, including:
Here are some actionable tips to use the tool data effectively:
Budget and Cost-Effectiveness
Assess different platforms' cost-effectiveness to maximize reach and engagement without overspending.
Start by defining your advertising objectives to determine the critical metrics for your business goals.
Examples of ad metrics include:
Choose digital advertising platforms with metrics that align with your goals and target audience. Then, estimate the potential ROI for each platform.
For example, your ROI is positive if a platform's average CPC is $1 and you can convert one in every 100 clicks into a $150 sale.
Follow these best practices to continue assessing platform cost-effectiveness:
If you pick Google Ads as your platform, Semrush's Advertising Research can support your campaigns by analyzing your paid search competitors.
You'll get valuable data including the keywords competing domains bid for, plus estimated monthly costs for the ads that rank on SERPs.
Click on "Advertising Research" from the "Advertising" drop-down to open the tool. Enter your competitor's domain, select the target location, and hit the "Search" button.
You'll see a report showing a detailed analysis of your competitor's advertising history in Google Ads.
The "Positions" tab shows the keywords your competitor gets traffic for, how much traffic, and the estimated cost to rank for those keywords in Google Ads.
Scroll down to view the "Paid Search Positions" and the keywords, their volume, and respective CPC.
Apply the tool insights to your ad campaign strategy. For instance:
Ad Format and Content
Platforms that support ad formats best suited to your message increase your chances of captivating and resonating with potential customers.
So, base your choice on your preferred content delivery types-whether video, image, text, or interactive formats.
Here's how:
Use Advertising Research to assess how to outperform your closest competitors' ad copy in Google's paid search results. View their headlines and CTAs, and the landing pages where they direct traffic.
Click the tool's "Ads Copies" tab.
The report shows unique ad copy that the domain ranked for in Google's paid search results. And for how many keywords.
Click on the "Keywords" dropdown menu under each ad to view which keywords triggered the ad's SERP appearance. Complete with each keyword's search volume, CPC, and competition level.
Use this information to:
Further reading: Check out our PPC Keyword Research guide on using PPC Keyword Tool to streamline keyword management.
Performance Tracking and Analytics
Analytics provide insights into your business's key performance indicators (KPIs)-such as CTR, engagement rates, conversion rates, and overall ROI.
And helps you tweak your ad campaign parameters and target prospects more effectively for higher ROAS.
For example, if a particular ad underperforms in CTR, you can adjust its content, audience targeting, or placement to improve its performance.
If you run an ad campaign without access to analytics, you could miss out on crucial data. Like who engages with your ads, when they're most active, and which ads drive conversions.
Let's explore how to find an ad platform that meets your performance tracking and analytics needs:
Use Diverse Advertising Platforms to Broaden Your Reach
Combining ad touchpoints can extend your brand's reach and help you capture more market share.
A multi-platform presence reinforces your brand message and encourages deeper engagement through repeated exposure.
For instance, you could build a campaign where a consumer sees your brand on a Twitter ad in the morning, watches your YouTube video ad in the afternoon, and encounters a retargeting ad on Facebook in the evening.
Apply these three tips to maximize your conversion potential through ad diversification:
The Semrush toolkit helps you optimize a multi-platform advertising strategy.
Sign up for a free trial to understand your audience's preferences and behavior, gain insights into competitors' advertising tactics, and craft ad content that resonates with your prospective buyers.