Requested by UK Digital Marketing Agency – 500-word limit – targeted at an eCommerce Director for an e-publication

 

Keeping your Ads in one basket?

The forgotten channels – why you should diversify your Ad spend

 

Google and Facebook Ads reign supreme, and it doesn’t look like anyone will be taking the crown any time soon. But, as with any market with dominant players, other options are available with potentially more bang for your buck.

 

No one suggests a mass exodus from Google and Facebook; results speak for themselves. But, what if you can tap into markets they cannot reach? Yes, they exist! And with consumers savvier than ever, the need for specificity in advertising has never been more critical.

 

These challenger channels can help you tailor and target your advertising to your specific audiences. Budgets permitting, diversifying and multi-channelling your Ad spend is a guaranteed win in audience reach.

 

So, who are these Ad market challengers? 

Well, many have been hiding in plain sight all along…

 

Bing Ads/Microsoft Ads

The once considered dorkier cousin of Google, Bing (or Microsoft Search) has 18m unique desktop searchers in the UK alone, conducting 444m PC searches a month. As Bing users are mostly loyal to Bing alone, this presents a huge opportunity to reach audiences that Google cant. With less competition overall, Bing offers higher positioning, less bidding competition, and higher conversions for its advertisers at around 70% less CPC than its ‘cooler’ cousin.

Amazon

Shoppers are there to buy. Their higher level of customer awareness puts them past the point of discovery and research – advantageous to advertisers positioning their products. Amazon also offers useful metrics with more definitive information on advertisers investments, scoring highly in studies on ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).

With a large, loyal fanbase that rarely strays, the audience at Amazon is a profitable one.

Spotify

In Q4 of 2019, Ad revenue increased by 27% compared to 5% in Premium subscriptions – proof that users still love a freebie and are happy to receive targeted Ads. With over 299m monthly annual users, and data on their 138m+ subscribers’ preferences, trends, tastes, and more, it’s wise to utilise Spotify in the business of data over music.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Samsung’s latest whitepaper on Ads reports that of 30m+ Samsung SmartTV users, 54% watched Ad-supported video-on-demand in the first half of 2020, almost doubling from January to June. Once again, consumers are not prepared to walk away from quality commercials.

 

Emerging are marketing and data platforms like found.ee (newly acquired by Spotify) and ForbesOne that create opportunities for brands to engage audiences on previously out-of-reach sites through advanced data-led technology. Defining and refining audience targeting even further.

 

The Ad underdogs are evolving and want your business. 

Revisit your customer to reach your most profitable audience. Understand who your customer is, where they socialise online, what they buy, where from, and why. You can then take advantage of the ocean of opportunities presented by these valuable Ad-space challengers in 2021 and beyond.

 

 

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