Digital Marketing empowers businesses to reach new heights; with its help, business owners can grow and expand their businesses faster and at less cost than traditional marketing. It enables its advertiser to reach its target audience, drive sales and increase brand awareness more effectively. It also possesses better control over your business reach, where you can decide your audience through various filters. Even your advertisement can chase your audience to take action on your services or products
As we have so many digital marketing platforms, it’s quite complex for a business owner to select the best fit for their advertising need, unless you are an expert or have hired a professional digital marketing agency.
In this article, We will discuss the best seven digital marketing platforms, their inception, who they cater to, the campaign type they offer, and their pros and cons. So let’s start –
1- Google Ads
Established: October 2000
Google Ads is definitely one of the best digital marketing platforms. Google search engine process around 99000 searches every single second. With this large amount of traffic, you get excellent visibility when running text-based PPC ads on the top of search results. Along with Google Search, Google has a great display network of website, mobile apps, and YouTube ownership, where Google run Banners, text & video ads.
The Google ads platform is an all-rounder of digital marketing. But with this variation and flexibility, the advertiser must decide what campaign type they should select from the Google ads platform.
Here are our tips based on requirements types –
- Lead Generation – Search Campaign (Text-Based Ads)
- Brand Awareness – Display and Video ads
- Video Promotion – Video ads on YouTube.
- Event Promotion – Banner ads and Video ads on YouTube.
- Product Sales – E-commerce Campaign + PPC Campaign + Retargeting Campaign.
- App Promotion – Mobile App Promotion Campaign.
Who should consider it:
Businesses of all sizes targeting various demographics.
Campaign types:
Search, display, shopping, video, and app campaigns.
Google Ads Pros:
Large user base, giving access to a broad audience
Highly targeted advertising based on keywords, demographics, and interests
Wide range of ad formats
Robust analytics and reporting features
Google Ads Cons:
It can be expensive, particularly for competitive industries
Requires ongoing optimization for maximum effectiveness
2- Facebook Ads
Established: 2007
Facebook has around 1.80 Billion active users per day, and this is why the Facebook ads platform can be considered the number 2 best digital marketing platform. Facebook advertising has an advantage over Google ads in small cities and villages where people typically do not search Google to get services and products in their daily routine.
An advertiser can use Facebook advertising to reach its target audience in these smaller locations. Facebook advertising platforms allow their audience selection using various options like Location, Age, Gender, Language, Detailed Targeting, Connection, and Placement.
Facebook ads also provide options to upload your customer list and create a custom audience or Lookalike audience from various data.
Here are our Tips for Facebook Promotion.
1- Have a new launch product to promote – Try a Video ad for better engagement & sales.
2- Have an e-commerce site to promote – Try carousel ads & collection ads.
3- Brand Awareness & Lead Generation – Try Lead Generation & Brand Awareness Campaigns with image and video format ads.
4- For Quick Promotion – Publish a post on your business Facebook page and Sponsor it using the “Sponsored” button.
Who should consider it:
Businesses targeting a specific demographic or looking to build a community around their brand.
Campaign types:
Image, video, carousel, slideshow, and collection ads.
Facebook Ads Pros:
Access to Facebook’s vast user base
Excellent targeting options, including custom and lookalike audiences
Cost-effective for small budgets
Integration with Instagram ads
Facebook Ads Cons:
Ad performance may be affected by changes in the platform’s algorithm
Less effective for B2B marketing
3- Instagram Ads
Established: 2013 (as part of Facebook Ads)
Planning to target a Younger audience? Instagram ads could be the best strategy for promoting services and products in front of Youth. As Instagram has a significant audience base for the younger community, they actively engage with their favorite content, making an Instagram reel, posting photos, and chatting with their friends.
Although Instagram ads are also controlled by Facebook Ads Manager, so when you create a campaign on Facebook ads, It gives you the option to select Instagram as the platform plus the ad locations you want to choose for Instagram.
Who should consider it:
Brands with visually appealing products or services targeting younger demographics
Campaign types:
Photo, video, carousel, and stories ads
Instagram Ads Pros:
High engagement rates compared to other platforms
Access to a younger, more mobile-savvy audience
Seamless Integration with Facebook Ads
Instagram Ads Cons:
Limited to visually-oriented content
Less effective for B2B marketing
4- Bings Ads
Established: 2006 (rebranded as Microsoft Advertising in 2019)
Bing ads are the second most popular advertising platform for the Pay Per Click text-based search engine ads. Bing shows these ads on the Bing search engine. If you think that Google ads reach is insufficient for your advertising campaign and want more reach, then you can add Bing ads as part of your strategy. Sometimes advertiser shift to Bing ads in search of low competition on Bing for a particular niche.
Who should consider it:
Businesses looking for a cost-effective alternative to Google Ads
Campaign types:
Search, audience, and shopping campaigns
Bing Ads Pros:
Less competition, potentially lower costs
Integration with Microsoft’s search network
Similar features and targeting options to Google Ads
Cons:
Smaller user base compared to Google
Limited ad formats
5- LinkedIn Ads
Established: 2008
LinkedIn Ads meet the demand of corporate audience targeting with higher accuracy compare to other advertising platforms. It allows us to select the audience based on their location, company, Demographics, Education, Job Experience, interests, and traits.
Tips– You have a product or service which is only consumed by certain types of companies, so with LinkedIn, you can select that Industry or Company. For more accuracy, you can filter your audience to only target the key decision-makers of the companies or industry. No other platform gives you that much level of professional audience targeting.
Who should consider it:
B2B businesses and those targeting professionals
Campaign types:
Sponsored content, sponsored InMail, display ads, and dynamic ads
Linkedin Ads Pros:
Excellent targeting options for professionals and industries
High-quality leads
Access to a niche, professional audience
LinkedIn Ads Cons:
Higher costs compared to other platforms
Limited creative options
6- Amazon Ads
Established: 2008
Amazon is a home for online buyers & world’s best e-commerce website to sell products in a variety of categories. It has a great search feature that pushes the best-performing products to the top of the list. Amazon ads can help those advertisers who are newly registered sellers on Amazon and want to feature their products quickly in front of potential buyers.
Who should consider it:
E-commerce businesses and sellers on Amazon
Campaign types:
Sponsored products, sponsored brands, and sponsored display ads
Amazon Ads Pros:
Access to Amazon’s massive customer base
High purchase intent among users
Multiple ad formats and targeting options
Amazon Ads cons:
Limited to businesses selling on Amazon
Competitive marketplace
7- Outbrain
Established: 2006
Outbrain is among the best native advertising platform with its capabilities to blend your ads with the content where your ads show without disrupting the look and feel of original content. This non-disruptive approach increases user engagement and positively impacts the user experience, as the ads do not appear intrusive or disrupt the natural flow of content consumption.
Who should consider it:
Brands looking for content marketing and native advertising solutions
Campaign types:
Native advertising, content discovery, and video ads
Outbrain Ads Pros:
Access to a network of premium publisher sites
Non-disruptive ad formats that blend with the content
Outbrain Ads Cons:
Limited reach compared to larger platforms.
Potentially lower conversion rates.
Less control over ad placement.
We hope this article helps you select the best advertising platform for your digital marketing requirements.
