Getting started with digital and social media advertising

Key takeaways

• Digital advertising can help you reach the right customers at the right time, with greater targeting than traditional media.
• Platforms like Google, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok each offer unique benefits. Choosing the right one depends on your business goals and audience.
• Start small, track your results and use data to refine your strategy – even a modest campaign can deliver real results.

Online advertising has completely changed the way businesses present themselves and find new customers. Advertising through Google and social media allows you to reach thousands more potential customers than you ever could in the past.

Yet competition for attention is fierce, with more than $4 billion being spent on internet advertising in Australia each quarter. It’s important to make sure you’re using the right platforms and talking to the right people so that you get the most bang for your advertising buck.

This guide will introduce you to the field of digital advertising and provide some tips and tools to help you develop an online advertising strategy and get the word out about your business.

What is digital advertising?

Digital advertising – also called online advertising or internet advertising – basically refers to any ad you see while using a computer or mobile device.

There are three primary types of digital advertising:

• Search: the ads you see at the top of the rankings when you search for something on a search engine like Google.
• Display: on-page assets like banners, video ads or featured article links. 
• Social media: video and still image advertising that appears in people’s feeds on apps like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

Most businesses won’t need to use every type of digital advertising – it's about working out who you want to talk to and how best to reach them.

Benefits of digital advertising

Digital advertising is different from traditional advertising because of the ability to target your ads to very specific groups of people. In traditional advertising you might take out an ad in the paper or a commercial on TV, but you have no control over who exactly sees it. 

With digital advertising you’re able to target your ads so they’re only seen by, for instance, women aged 18-25 who are studying at university. This also means digital advertising tends to be more affordable than traditional advertising as you only need to pay for the people who actually see your ad.

Similarly, digital advertising makes it much simpler to assess the effectiveness of your campaigns. You can track in real time how many people have seen your ad, how and if they responded, whether they clicked through to your site and how much each view and click cost.

With this kind of data you can run multiple campaigns at the same time to see which ones work best and use that info to make improvements, boosting effectiveness and saving you money.

The difference between social media and other digital advertising

While search ads and social media ads both allow you to target your ads to very specific audiences, the way they work in practice is very different.

Search advertising is easier to get started with, as it’s usually text-based and doesn’t require any existing accounts or following. Simply set your audience and budget and your ad will start being shown to relevant people.

On the other hand, social media advertising works best when it’s attached to an account with an existing following. You don't need thousands of followers, but due to its social nature your ads are more likely to look reputable, be shown to the right people and be engaged with if they’re building off an existing brand identity and social media style.

For more on how to use social media for your business, check out our how to get started with social media guide.

Best platforms for digital advertising

Google Ads

Ad types: Text ads, display banners, shopping ads, video ads.

Accounting for almost 95% of the search market in Australia, Google Ads is built for businesses with high-intent customers – for instance, as a plumber working in Maribyrnong you want to appear at the top of the rankings when someone searches for “plumber Maribyrnong”.

Through its Google Display Network, Google Ads also offers options to appear in Maps and Shopping queries, as well as in Gmail and YouTube. 

With extensive reach and high number of views, Google Ads is great for driving website traffic and conversions. We recommend reinforcing your Google Ads with an effective marketing plan and developing relationships and engagement with customers.

Meta

Ad types: Image, video, carousel, Stories, Reels.

Meta’s advertising tools let businesses target users on Facebook and Instagram with video and still images. 

Beyond the vast reach of these platforms, they are also increasingly how people find community and learn about new products.

Operating in such visual and video-driven platforms means that Meta advertising can provide strong engagement, leading to greater brand awareness and helping to generate leads. 

Meta also leverages the huge amounts of data they have on their users to offer hyper-targeting tools, so that you can make sure your content is only being shown to the people you think need to see it.

TikTok

Ad types: In-feed videos, branded effects, hashtag challenges

TikTok is the newest force in digital advertising, but also the most difficult to use effectively.

Engagement is everything on TikTok, so your content needs to instantly capture attention and tell a story that customers want to see. But if you succeed, your content can become “viral”, being shown to millions of people.

Brands with a strong visual identity and tone of voice (as well as a creative team) are better equipped to make an impact, while TikTok may be less useful for local businesses and service operators.

Pinterest

Ad types: Promoted pins, video ads, carousel, collections

Compared to Facebook or Instagram, Pinterest is a smaller player in the social media space. However, what Pinterest lacks in userbase, it makes up for in shopping engagement.

Pinterest campaigns reward products that are creative and surprising, so the platform could be worth exploring if you’re selling something unique that looks good on camera.

LinkedIn

Ad types: Sponsored content, text banners, direct messages

LinkedIn has a very specific audience and is best suited to a very specific type of advertiser – primarily companies offering business-to-business (B2B) and professional services.

However, if you fit into one of those categories, LinkedIn can be a powerful advertising tool with strong professional targeting and a highly engaged and financially well-off audience.

YouTube

Ad types: Skippable/non-skippable video, bumper adds

YouTube ads are effective for brand awareness, storytelling and product demonstrations.  YouTube is the second-largest search engine after Google, so reach is huge and engagement strong. It’s also part of the Google Ads ecosystem. The visual storytelling opportunities on YouTube are great for showcasing products and building emotional connections with users. 

Tips for getting started with digital advertising 

Not sure where to start? Engage the support of a digital advertising consultant for best results. They’ll help you set up for success, saving you time and ensuring you have the right strategy for your business.

Set clear goals: work out a realistic plan before you get started. Know what your baseline is and how you want to improve. Are you looking for visits to your website, conversions and sales or just engagement? How much are you willing to spend to get there?

Start small: while the platforms make creating ads simple, getting the most out of their tools will take longer. Try a small campaign first, see how it lands and use what you learned to move on to something bigger.

Know your audience: Digital advertising’s biggest plus is its ability to target very specific parts of the audience. So, who are your customers and why do they choose you? If you have multiple demographics, is it worth creating different ads to speak to each group? And which platform are they most likely to use?

Take advantage of AI: AI tools can create social media tiles, optimise ad copy, come up with catchy headlines and plenty more. Check out our Small Business and AI article to learn more.

Video is powerful, but hard to do well: Research shows that video advertising is more engaging and leads to greater recall and click-throughs than still images. However, video is expensive to make and advertise with (and bad video can hurt your brand), so make sure you have a clear plan and expectations of success before you start using it.

Track your progress and refine your strategy: Make sure to use and understand the analytics dashboards offered by your digital advertising platform. Are your ads hitting their targets? What happens if you tweak the message or audience? Ask AI to come up with some alternate headlines and copy so you can see how different messages change the results.

Make digital advertising work for your business

Digital advertising gives businesses the ability to reach targeted audiences, track results and adjust strategies in real time, often at a much lower cost than traditional advertising. But whether you're aiming to drive traffic, build awareness or generate leads, it’s important to make sure you’re using the right platform to reach the right potential customers. 

If you’re new to online advertising, start small and focused. Take the time to understand your audience, test your messaging and use analytics to refine your strategy. With the right plan in place, digital advertising can be a practical and powerful way to grow your business.