Did you know not all online ads are the same?
In this article we’ll cover the difference between different ad platforms, and how “Intent” based advertising can vary significantly from “Contextual” or “Behavioral” advertising. These differences can make a HUGE difference between how ad platforms are approached, and whether you even want to advertise on them at all!
If you want to just skip to the end and get the “Too Long, Didn’t Read” summary, click here. But if you read that section and want more context to the “Why”, I’d recommend reading the whole post:
First, why paid advertising? Why not focus on organic/free traffic sources?
If you’ve been in business long, you know that traffic to your website, offers, freebie, or your online or offline store is the lifeblood of any business.
Without traffic (AKA people looking at your stuff), it’s impossible to turn visitors into customers… because you have no visitors!
But why not focus on free (or organic) traffic, such as from google search, YouTube, Pinterest, your Facebook page, Instagram posts, etc?
Well, a few reasons:
First and foremost: you sacrifice control.
With free & organic traffic strategies, you have almost no control over whether or not you actually receive any traffic at all.
If you’ve ever tried SEO (Search engine optimization) you’ll know it can take months or years to rank for search terms in google – and often that isn’t even a sure thing! I know of countless entrepreneurs who spend thousands on SEO companies and get ZERO results.
You’re depending on your platform of choice to push your content out to their audience for free, instead of pushing it out to their advertisers who pay them to do the same thing! (And yes, even if people follow you, they’re not YOUR audience. That’s the platforms audience that they kindly let you tap in to… but that’s a topic for another blog.)
You might remember when Facebook pages first came out – the reach was great! If you had 10,000 Facebook followers, you’d reach 30-40% of them with almost every post.
Now? You’ll be lucky if you get in front of 1% of that audience organically. Why? Because Facebook (and now Instagram as well) want businesses to pay for reach instead! It’s what’s best for their business, they couldn’t care less about your organic audience.
The other downside to depending on organic traffic is it cannot scale in the vast majority of circumstances.
Even if you’re ranked #1 for a search term – there’s only so many people searching for that term!
You’ve only got so many Facebook or YouTube or Instagram followers, and you have limited control over your growth on those platforms, or whether those people see your content at all.
Why distinguish between different ad platforms – aren’t they all the same?
No, all online ad platforms are not the same. But there is overlap between them, and some serve very similar purposes. I touch on these briefly at the end of this article. But first, there’s some background info we’ve got to cover.
Any time we talk about advertising, the first thing you need to consider is the awareness level of your prospect. If you haven’t heard of the “levels of awareness” that’s ok – it’s pretty simple but very powerful, if carefully considered and well executed.
It’s generally thought that there are 5 stages of awareness, moving from least aware (and therefore least likely to purchase YOUR product or service) to most aware (choosing you if they have the option to). Theses stages are:
- Completely Unaware
- These users are the hardest to turn into customers, because they don’t know what they don’t know. They’re completely unaware of the problem you solve, your solution, products, or brand. Only the most ambitious brands ever break into this market.
- Problem/pain aware
- These customers are aware of the problem or pain they experience in your marketplace, but aren’t aware of ANY solutions, let alone yours.
- Solution aware
- These customers know the pain and know there are products or services out there that fix it, but don’t know which solution to pick, and probably don’t know your solution exists.
- Product aware
- These customers know the pain, know the solution, AND know of your product/service. These customers just need to be convinced that you’re the right choice for them.
- Most aware
- These customers know the pain, the solution, your solution, and your brand. Not only do they know your brand, they trust you and your products/services. They’re probably already customers of yours, and are the ‘low hanging fruit’ that simple need to be introduced to your product.
These stages are important when it comes to paid traffic, because the awareness level of your prospect informs what kind of advertising you should be using.
For example: People who are “solution aware” are probably doing research on the best solutions, so Google advertising might be a good fit. People who are problem aware may be demonstrating certain behaviors (like visiting websites specific to their problems, engaging in groups or forums, or following pages that speak about these problems.) In those cases, behavioral advertising through Facebook or Instagram might be a good fit!
These stages are essentially the difference between your prospect searching “How do I know if there’s a leak” (problem aware) vs. “Plumber Seattle” (solution aware), or even “Joes Plumbing service Seattle” (product aware). The first is seeking information and has no intention to hire a plumber yet. The second is both “Problem aware” and “Solution aware”, they know they need a plumber and just need to find the right one. The third is “Product Aware” – they know they need a plumber, and they know exactly who they want to hire.
How determine the right ad platform for you:
Determining the right ad platform comes down to a simple formula:
Awareness level of your prospect + type of product/service you offer = Type of advertising you should perform.
The reason being comes down to one thing: user intent vs. behavior.
User intent:
User intent is pretty self-explanatory: What’s the intention of the user when they’re on a particular platform?
Are they browsing, researching, or seeking out a specific solution?
For example: Google searches often demonstrate “User Intent”, but not always. A person who searches for “plumber Seattle” obviously has the Intention to hire a plumber – they’re seeking out a specific solution for some kind of plumbing problem.
However, if they instead search for “low water pressure”, they’re likely in the “Problem aware” stage of awareness. They know they have a problem (low water pressure), but aren’t sure what solutions are out there.
Searching for information is not the same thing as Intent. Intent is “I know there is a solution out there, I just need to find the right one.”
If this person with low water pressure sees a google ad for a plumber – are they going to hire him? Probably not! Because they don’t yet know that they even NEED a plumber yet.
But what if they instead saw a Facebook ad later that day with “Four reasons your water pressure is low, and how to fix them” – in context this ad would make a whole lot more sense, because the content is moving the prospect from “problem aware” to “solution aware”. If the solution they’re led to is “Hire a plumber”, then an ad for your plumbing service is probably well placed!
Let’s look at another example:
Someone googling “Why am I so tired at 45?” isn’t demonstrating intent to hire a health coach. They’re still in the research phase – and need to be moved towards a solution.
Essentially – they are “problem aware” (They know they’re tired/stressed/anxious/low energy) but they don’t yet know what solutions are out there yet – and they definitely don’t know that you offer a solution.
In both of these scenarios, Google ads could be a good option. But the KIND of ad would likely be different.
The challenge with Google ads (or any other search engine) for many markets is you’ll still have to move most prospects from “Problem aware” to “Solution aware” to “Product aware”.
So how do we do that?
Start the process early with Contextual and Behavioral advertising:
Because MOST prospects are not yet “Product aware” and depending on your service they may not even be “Solution aware”, it’s important to start the process early. This is where behavioral and contextual advertising comes in.
Behavioral advertising is the kind of ads most people think are a bit creepy. They’re the ads that show up when you look at a pair of shoes online and see the same pair in your Facebook feed the next day. The ads are placed based on past behaviors and demographics.
Contextual advertising is similar but slightly different – it’s when you’re seeing an ad for a pair of shoes when you’re on an article about “best running shoes”. The ad is placed based on the “context” of the content/website the user is currently looking at.
These types of advertising are the ones you see in your Facebook or Instagram feeds, as pre-rolls to YouTube videos, or on articles about certain topics.
And the BEST use for them is to move your prospect from “problem aware” to “Solution aware”, and sometimes even to “product aware”.
In some cases, this might be done all at once through the ad itself (like a video talking about the problem, the solution, and your solution). Or it can be done through multiple steps like we outlined above, or a sales funnel that walks users through each step.
For example, in a funnel your ad might introduce the problem, your landing page introduces a solution, and your product page introduces YOUR solution.
But the end goal is always the same: Take a prospect who is “cold” and turn them into a lead or a customer.
If you want to learn about how we implement these ads for our clients, click here to get our step-by-step checklists through OIA Insider.
Wrapping up: Which should you choose?
If your prospect knows about the pain or problem they’re experiencing – you should probably start with behavioral ads on Facebook and Instagram, as they’re a relatively inexpensive way to test different target markets, different pain points, and so on. Plus you can generate leads, sales, and goodwill with the marketplace at the same time.
However, if your prospect knows about solutions to the problems they’re experiencing, and especially if they’re doing searches that are heavily Intent Based – then ads on search engines are your best bet.
Nowadays that primarily means Google ads – but if you’re in Ecommerce that could mean ads on Amazon or other marketplaces as well.
Plus, keep in mind YouTube is also the second largest search engine in the world – second only to Google – and uses the same ad platform as Google, so if your products can be demonstrated or explained well via video then YouTube ads are a great option too.
Many of these platforms can do multiple different kinds of advertising: For example, Google ads offer Contextual advertising through the Google Display Network (GDN), and YouTube ads can be placed as Search, Contextual, OR behavioral, (or all three), depending on your objective.
Most of the time, Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms where users aren’t actively seeking out new information or products are best for behavioral advertising. They have excellent algorithms that can put your ads in front of the right people, but the people on those platforms are almost never actively seeking out new products or services. This is why it’s great to start with free, high value content that educates prospects to the next stage of awareness.
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