admin In Advertising, Art, Branding, Business, Design, Digital Solutions, Email Marketing, Facebook, Fayetteville, General Info, Graphic Design, Lead Generation, Media Services, Raleigh, Search Engine Optimization, SEO,

What Makes an Ad Stand Out – Good Text, Display, or Video?

As a business owner, it is important to understand the basics of what goes into a good advertisement.

All brands need promotion and the correct kind of promotion is key. In order to expand your business, it’s essential to have an effective advertising campaign. When done incorrectly, money is wasted on ineffective or poor ads. Our goal is to save money with ads and, in turn, make them more money with new clients or customers.

At 219 Group, when clients ask us “What makes a good ad?” – there is no easy answer, as it is largely based on each client. However, we will do our best to answer this in general terms.

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF ADS

It is important to understand what makes a good ad and what does not.

Good ads:

Call to action / tell the prospective customer to do something.
Engage customers based on where they are in the customer journey.
Regardless of channel, it seamlessly translates brand identity.

Bad ads:

Do not follow the rules and get disapproved.
No call to action / do not ask the customer to do anything.

TEXT ADS

In 2021, Google confirmed Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) are the default in new ad accounts. What this means is that strategies need to fit both formats to include the expanded text ads.

RSAs are made up of:

Minimum of three headlines (30 character limit each), maximum of 15.
Two descriptions (90 character limit each), maximum of four.
One path set (two 15-character addendums to your root domain)
Optional tracking templates.

As only the first two headlines are guaranteed to show in a text ad, it is imperative that you pin the calls-to-action in either headline one or two.

In text ads it is important to make sure each headline can stand on its own while being related to the others.

DISPLAY ADS

Display advertising is defined as a mode of online advertising where marketers use visual ads to advertise their products on websites, apps, or social media. It has been mistaken that display is only useful for remarketing; but display ads are good for various parts of the consumer’s journey. Display ads can create and build brand awareness.

The steps for display ads include creative for all the potential spots, or sacrificing some creative polish to use responsive display ads.
If you choose to opt for a responsive display ad (RDA), you are sacrificing some level of brand control in exchange for reach. These ads will open all possible placements to you.

Display and Responsive display ads require:

At least three images or videos, including a logo (can have up to 15 assets)
One long headline
At least one regular headline
At least one description
Business name
Final URL

Display ads have their own downfalls but tend to outperform traditional ads simply because they stand out. They allow more creative either from your website or social or stock images if you prefer.

Display ad tips:

If using video, make sure it is no longer than 15 seconds.
While RDAs will have a CTA button, regular display does not therefore, make sure to build a call to action button into your ad.

VIDEO ADS

Video advertising is the process of displaying ads either inside online video content. This is typically before, during or after a video stream, known as pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll or as standalone ads.

How video ads work on Youtube:

Bumper: 6-second spots serving before or after the main video.
In-stream non-skippable: 15-second spots that serve before/during/after the main video.
In-stream skippable: 30+ second spots serving before/during/after the main video that can be skipped after five seconds.
Outstream: Video spots serving in spots other than main YouTube.

Video ad composition:

Video: If you selected a time-specific format, you’ll receive a warning if your video is incompatible
CTA: 10 characters (“Learn more” is always a good option)
Headline: 15 characters to position your CTA
Final URL: Where your clickable element will lead
Display URL: What the user sees (root domain is the best choice)

The most important thing to remember about YouTube is understanding what you want your audience to do. If your goal is to drive them to a landing page or website, you need to make sure they watch long enough to see the website. If the goal is sales, then do not waste time on the bumper ad for awareness and put your call to action for a sale.

WHICH AD TYPE IS BEST

To decide which ad type is best is to look at the client and goals. A great ad is the result of many things – the right target audience, the right creative and using the channel correctly.

DIGITAL MARKETING YOU CAN TRUST

At 219 Group, we do a lot of things well. Websites, landing pages, banners, newsletters, social media, mobile marketing, search engine optimization, email and paid search campaigns are the best ways to engage with customers in an increasingly digital, mobile and personalized world. We have assembled a team of professionals to create complete digital strategies and tactics that leverage all available forms of digital media at different levels of the marketing funnel.

admin In Digital Solutions, Fayetteville, General Info, Raleigh,

Digital Audience Building – How To Target Effectively And Efficiently

targeting customer audience target market marketing

With the ever-changing ways of the internet, we have to know how to effectively reach our customers. Especially since the existence of COVID-19, we are not interacting with people on a regular face-to-face basis; however, we can influence them through social media and other digital media.

WHAT IS AUDIENCE TARGETING

Audience targeting is a way to make sure that your digital ads are being displayed only to the people that are most like your ideal customer. With roughly 9 out of 10 people on the internet, if you were serving your ads to everyone they would get lost and run the risk of not being shown to your ideal customer. Rather, crafting messaging or ads that feel personalized toward the audience most likely to buy from you is a much better strategy. Audience targeting is performed by taking the available data on your ideal customer or client such as — individual characteristics, interests, and behaviors.

DEFINING YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

As discussed, a social media target audience is the specific group of people you want to reach with your social channels. Begin by asking yourself the 5 W’s – start with Who is your current customer database, your competition, and what is your product.

Age (use a range)
Gender
Education
Location
Some of their interests (list 3-5)
Occupation

WHERE TO USE AUDIENCE TARGETING

Audience targeting can be used on paid social and paid search. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, and YouTube have interfaces that make it easy to build your audience with the characteristics you want to target.

OTHER WAYS TO HIT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Audience targeting helps to avoid wasting money on ad impressions. If you want to branch farther than paid search and social you can try some additional targeting techniques such as geofencing and retargeting. You can run either the same ad or a new ad to that same person in hopes of securing a conversion by repetition, a special offer, or improved messaging.

Display Advertising – Display advertising is defined as graphic advertising on websites, apps, or social media through the use of banners or other ad formats made of text, images, video, and audio. The main purpose is to deliver general advertisements and brand messages to site visitors.

Geofencing – Geofencing uses GPS to show ads to people near a chosen location. How it works is a virtual geofence is drawn around a location, ads are then served to anyone browsing the web via desktop or mobile in that area.

Behavioral Targeting – Behavioral targeting is a method that uses historical behavior to personalize the types of ads consumers see. Using this strategy, relevant ads and messages are displayed to users based on web-browsing behavior. It is a powerful method because the data helps match the ads to each consumer’s actual behavior.

Categorical Targeting – Categorical targeting is the method of placing display advertisements on social media, apps, and websites that are categorically relevant to both your company and your customers’ interests.

Mobile – Mobile targeting is where certain target groups are shown ads on mobile devices. User-oriented data is what drives who/when gets advertising and the ads are formatted to the technical requirements of smartphones and tablets.

Retargeting – Retargeting uses data on people who have already engaged with your ads or have visited your website. You can either then show the same ad or a new ad to that same person in hopes of securing a conversion by repetition, a special offer, or improved messaging.

A targeted ad campaign will always perform better than an untargeted campaign; hands-down. Understanding your audience, how to build it, and how to target is crucial to all businesses.

admin In Fayetteville, , Uncategorized

How to Create Effective Content for Social Media

FACTS

97% of adults between the ages of 16-64 say they logged onto at least one social network in the past month.
Compared to other social media platforms (Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook) Instagram drives the most engagement per post.

Source: Socialstout.com

Know Your Audience

Now if you’ve been binge reading our blogs (for some strange reason), then you’re probably asking yourself, “how many times are these guys going to say this?”. And honestly until we’re blue in the face, and even then, we’ll probably take the risk. The key to a running a successful social media account is truly knowing your target audience. Whether it be women, aged 18-30, living in California, or men, 30-45, in Central Georgia, every business should have a target audience that they’re trying to market to. When it comes to finding your target audience, it may seem like you’re playing the guessing game. In the early stages of finding your target audience, it takes a lot of trial and error posting. For example, posting about a new product that’s available could be a test to see how many likes and followers it generates. After the posting, do your research and use the data, that you collect, to run another test post. You should continue to use this strategy until you find the right target audience.

Use your voice

So, what happens after you find your target audience? You keep them engaged! Now that you’ve figured out your audience, it’s time to entertain them. Posting relevant content that will engage your audience is key. Keeping your followers engaged builds a sense of trust with the company. For example, running contests and adding questions to posts can be a way to create buzz on your page. It creates a way for the followers to learn about your company.

Are you using the right platform for the story?

Social media is very broad, and each platform is different. You could post the same picture on each of your sites and your followers will depict each story differently. Twitter is generally used to let your friends know what’s on your mind while only using 140-280 characters. It is also a place to follow friends, post pics, and retweet/favorite other’s tweets. Instagram is a media sharing app where you can post pictures/videos. When posting on Instagram, add hashtags to add more engagement to the posts. Facebook is a mixture of the both, but it’s more personal. Facebook users range from Millennials to Baby boomers, so the spectrum is wide when it comes to promoting a business. Just remember to have fun and remain professional.

admin In Branding, Business, Fayetteville, Media Services, Public Relations,

What Not to Do When It Comes to Social Media

Often times, businesses focus more on what to do when it comes their social media platforms, neglecting what they shouldn’t do. Luckily, we at 219 Group haven’t forgot and have composed a list of a few don’ts when it comes your social media.

Don’t Like Your Own Status

There’s a meme out there that states “Liking your own post, is like giving yourself a high five”. Although you may think your status, that you created, is interesting, let’s give your followers the chance to make the decision on their own. One thing that you could do is encourage your employees to like the status and possibly share it on their personal pages. This is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness.

Don’t Get Muted

Sometimes, businesses get so caught up in reaching their audience on social media, that they constantly post every hour, without pacing themselves. Flooding your followers’ timelines with a post can become very nerve racking to some and can force them to mute your page, or even worse, unfollow you, which isn’t good. Try pacing yourself, create a schedule stating the number of times you will post a week (preferably 2-4 times a week). This will show your followers that you are consistent on your page but that you are not over posting as well.

Don’t Forget That It’s Business… Not Personal

One of the main problems for businesses is that they forget that their social media pages are not meant to be personal. Posting birthdays, pictures from crew lunches, or work parties are great but anything such as political views or opinions on current events is a big no-no. It is best that you keep those things on your personal page. This can give your business a bad look regarding your brand can lead to followers blocking your page and you possibly losing business.

As a business owner, managing your social media and your company can be tough task, at 219 Group, we can help. Give us a call or fill out a quote form to discuss social media services with one of our account executives.

admin In Fayetteville, Public Relations

Tips on How to Have a successful Public Relations profile

For any business owner, public relations is a very difficult task. When it comes to PR, doing it a certain way can either grow your business or hurt it. Here are a few tips on how to do public relations successfully.

What is Public Relations

Before we start diving into those tips, we need to first understand what public relations is. The definition of public relations is to professionally maintain the public’s perception of someone’s or something (organization/business) image. We at 219 Group summarize PR into three categories, which are PRESS RELEASES, BIG IDEAS, & PUBLICITY STUNTS. For when dealing with PR they can fall under either category if not all.

Tip #1 Identify Your Message

Have you ever seen a fragrance commercial and you ask yourself “What are they trying to sell me here?”. Not a clear message, right? Well that shouldn’t be your PR campaign. Your campaign should be able to grasp someone’s attention but also deliver a clear message. Your message should involve your company culture as well as why your company is unique. Identifying your message should be the firststep when developing a PR plan. Creating a message “along the way” can result in it getting lost or changing.

Tip #2 Know Your Audience

Along with identifying your message, knowing your audience is a major key as well. Over the years, we at 219 Group have seen companies miss their mark during a campaign because they just didn’t know their audience. Don’t let that be you. Knowing your audience will be beneficial when knowing what media outlets, you should use, when delivering press releases and ad spots.

Tip #3 Create a Calendar

PR Campaigns can go from six months to a year, so it is common for someone to get lost or mixed up on what to do day by day. That’s why it is important to have a calendar that has your campaign planned out. Having a PR calendar is a great way to plan ahead and accordingly.

Tip #4 Find a PR Firm to Work With

Running a PR campaign along with your business can be very stressful. That’s why it is important to find a PR company that can do the work for you. We at 219 Group have years of experience in public relations; creating campaigns for companies across the sandhills region, as well as in the triangle and inner banks areas. Not only will we develop a clear message, but we will also find your audience, with market research, and create a thorough PR schedule.

Give us a call! Or click here to learn more.

admin In Facebook, Fayetteville, Media Services, Raleigh

Is Camera-Based Messaging The Way Of The Future?

Is ‘snapping’ and real-time video the way of the Future? Facebook is betting on it.

Facebook just rolled out three new features to its platform, in what seems like a move to remain relevant and dominate in the social media space. These new features are being called Facebook Camera, Direct, and Stories.

The Facebook camera feature, like Snapchat, gives you all the effects and filter fun you can ask for. It provides reactive effects along with style effects that can add things like falling leaves or artistic filters. Integrated with the new camera effects is the stories feature. In stories, you’re able to add photos and videos to a storyline throughout the day which will last 24 hours. To add any photo or video to your story, you simply tap on the “your story” icon in the ‘stories’ bar at the top of your news feed. The main difference is that unlike Snapchat’s pre-approved lenses and filters, Facebook’s camera effects are mainly created by the community. People and pages will be able to develop and submit frames that, once approved, can be used by other people, offering more choices and creativity to the interaction.

The Facebook Direct feature is an in-app messenger which allows users to send photos or videos only to specific friends or family. Once they are viewed, a person can reply or react before they disappear. All three features, when used together, allow you to the same thing you can do in Snapchat, but interacting instead with the friends you currently have on Facebook. By integrating these features, the platform is cementing the idea that camera-based messaging represents the future of social interaction. “Content is changing from text to photo and videos,” says a representative from Facebook.

Thinking about how you can start integrating more visuals and videos into your social media marketing? 219 Group is ready to help your Fayetteville business get in front of your customers and stay on top of these marketing trends. Call us today at 919-483-4749!

admin In Branding, Fayetteville, Raleigh,

How to use Instagram to tell your story and connect with your customers.

Instagram has become a widely popular social media platform over over the last year or so. With 400 million active users every month, it may be something you want to consider using in your social media marketing efforts. It’s important to do this the right way for it to be effective. The most important thing to remember with Instagram is that it’s a visual platform where photos and being able to tell a story through them, matters.

Instagram offers a variety of features that will allow you to connect with your ideal customers. The first of these is the use of hashtags. Using hashtags in your photo posts will help users find you through their mobile instagram searches. You should be using general hashtags when you’re posting product or lifestyle images. If you’re running a particular campaign, use tags that are specific to that, including your business name. Like most other social media platforms, it’s important to monitor your hashtags (specifically for your business name), so that you can respond to customer’s comments and questions.

Some other useful features are Instagram Stories and the Geo Tracking feature. Instagram Stories is very similar to Snapchat in the way that the stories disappear after 24 hours. The story feature allows you to tell a better story to your followers. The geo tracking feature allows you to add your location to your photos when you post. If your building/office is open to customers, you can add your location so they know where to find you.

This platform can be a lot of fun when used correctly. You can use it to show off products and services, show behind the scenes looks into your business and offer exclusive deals. It’s an amazing way to really bring your business to life and put a human face on it. This will help to establish a certain amount of trust between you and your customer and will keep your business fresh in their mind.

For help using Instagram marketing and social media marketing in general to further your business goals and attract more customers, give us a call today! 219 Group is experienced in handling many social media accounts for our customers and would love to discuss how we could help you with yours!

admin In Fayetteville, Graphic Design, Public Relations, Raleigh

How Public Relations and Logo Design Work Together

Looking to increase brand awareness for your Fayetteville business? Let the professionals help!

At 219 group, our award winning team of graphic designers are experts in logo design and will help you take your brand to the next level. Your logo is the first thing customers see when they look for your business. Much like a book cover, your logo design should draw attention and have a wow factor! When you outsource your logo design to our talented professionals at 219, we’ll get you the logo that makes customers remember!

Creativity is our specialty. Our professional graphic design team will not only help you create your logo design but also incorporate it into a full brand. Designing your logo, brochures, ads and more, we’ll make sure every element of your brand is cohesive. Your customers will be able to recognize your company and your brand after our team of designers works with you to develop or even revamp your brand!

Once we’ve developed your logo design, our team of marketing experts will increase awareness for your brand by developing a strategy to increase your public relations in Fayetteville and surrounding areas. Revitalizing your logo and your brand isn’t enough. Our team at 219 knows that you have to work to select and target your ideal audience. Public relations brings your business into the local area and creates awareness for your company as a whole. Together, our graphic design team and our public relations experts work to develop content and design that will increase your presence on the web and in the community.

Don’t stress trying to design your own logo or trying to figure out your own public relations strategy. Let the professionals handle it! Let 219 take your company to the next level in logo design and public relations for continued growth and success in Fayetteville!

Fayetteville

Tips on How to Have a successful Public Relations profile

Is Camera-Based Messaging The Way Of The Future?

How Public Relations and Logo Design Work Together

What Makes an Ad Stand Out – Good Text, Display, or Video?

Digital Audience Building – How To Target Effectively And Efficiently

Nothing Less Than Intentional Graphic Design

Why An Effective Public Relations Strategy Matters

The Essentials of Web Design

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Digital Audience Building – How To Target Effectively And Efficiently

Nothing Less Than Intentional Graphic Design

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