Online Advertising: Tiers of Engagement
Online advertising is becoming a more viable investment for companies because of the many ways to measure return on investment (ROI) through customer engagement. With a continually growing number of websites and online mediums, advertisers are able to measure ROI by generating meaningful and consistent engagement to help gain loyal customers. There are three tiers of engagement to consider.
A crucial part in attaining measurable ROI goals with online advertising is determining which websites are worth the investment. There a number of dynamics to consider when planning online initiatives. First, it’s important to seek out sites that cater to a relevant audience. That’s the luxury of the internet; every website is created for a specific audience, making it easier for advertisers to effectively target potential customers. But what makes a website an effective advertising tool besides hosting a relevant audience? We’re talking about measuring ROI by engagement, so we have to consider the capabilities of a website. Today, many advertisers are integrating several types of mediums in their online campaigns in order to better engage site visitors. We want to generate a customer’s interest in our product, so we must give them various ways to interact with our online content. Associating online advertising efforts with websites that don’t demonstrate versatility is a waste of money.
The second tier of measuring ROI by engagement is by the number of clicks on a banner ad, which we correlate to the creative content and messaging of the banner. Clicks on a banner cannot be measured alone and should be analyzed in relation to how many views or impressions the banner received, which we call a click-through rate. Banners that have high click-through rates tend to have the following characteristics in common: a recognizable brand image, whether that is a consistent logo, font or design template; short, easy-to-read copy, often in bullet-point form; as few frames as possible; and a strong call to action.
The action a viewer takes on the landing website after clicking on the banner ad is the third tier of engagement. We call the points of action a visitor takes on the destination website or landing page conversions. Each business or organization will have differing conversion points; the important part is making it easy for a visitor to engage with the site while also being able to track that engagement. There are many ways to make a destination site easy to engage with: clearly-visible links to articles, papers, coupons or product pages; clear content and design; fully-functioning pages (don’t direct your banners to a broken site or one that is not fully finished). A visitor actively engages with the company if he/she reads an article, downloads a coupon, or buys a product. This type of active engagement is the goal of online advertising, which may ultimately lead to a new customer.
By taking into consideration site relevancy and versatility, paired with creative content and clear-cut direction for interacting site visitors, we are able to accurately measure ROI through customer engagement. Influencing customer engagement with your online content is invaluable to building brand awareness, customer loyalty and online sales.
M/C/C is a full service advertising agency. Offering public relations, social media, and SEO services as well. To find out more information about advertising, be sure to visit their blog.
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