WHY ONLINE MARKETING IS IMPORTANT

Businesses are focused on online marketing platforms to grow their client base and stay competitive in South Africa. Having an online presence is crucial to the survival and success of any business today. Business owners should know which online marketing platforms are available, and which specific platforms are well-suited for their industry. This article will explain how online marketing works, and the Top Platforms to advertise your business:

MARKETING PLATFORM PAYMENT MODEL

PAY-PER-CLICK (PPC)

Pay-per-click is paying a marketing platform to drive traffic to your website. The marketing platform will provide free tools to construct text and image ads for your website. Once the advert has been created, you start driving traffic to it.

Each time the advert is clicked, the advertiser must pay for the click. The click price varies depending on the platform, competition, and industry. You pay for the click whether the visitor completed an action on your website (e.g., a Sale) or left immediately upon arrival. Most online marketing platforms work on this PPC model.

ALTERNATIVES

• Pay per view (Pay when someone views your video) PPC

• Pay per impression (Pay when time someone sees your advert) CPM

• Pay per acquisition (Pay when someone completes a sale, inquiry, or download) PPA

• Pay per install (Pay when someone installs your application) PPI

• Pay per engagement (Pay when someone engages with your adverts) PPE

• Pay per sale (Pay when someone completes payment) PPS

BENEFITS OF PPC

INSTANT TRAFFIC

PPC campaigns can be set up within a few hours and receive traffic instantly. Unlike SEO, which takes months, PPC marketing drives traffic immediately to a website. If you have a limited budget, it is wise to start with PPC before implementing SEO.

TARGETED TRAFFIC

PPC campaigns allow you to target a specific audience based on age, ethnicity, gender, and income bracket. You can target people from a city or suburb, and display adverts at certain hours of the day.

MEASURABLE TRAFFIC

PPC campaigns have analytics to help marketers track their traffic and make vital improvements to their campaigns to increase the ROI. Marketers can do A-B testing to determine which combination of titles, descriptions, and images performs the best.

TOP ONLINE MARKETING PLATFORMS

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

GOOGLE ADS

Google Ads is the best platform to drive valuable traffic to your website. Google ads reach an audience highly interested in your products and services. Search engine traffic is regarded as the highest converting traffic on the internet. This means the percentage of people who will complete an action after clicking your advert, is much higher than any other platform.

BENEFITS OF GOOGLE ADS

ADVERT CREATION TOOLS

Google provides marketers with online tools to help build their adverts. The available ad formats include text, image, video, shopping, and app ads.

FLEXBILE PRICING

Google Ads offers flexible pricing options where you can specify daily budget spending. You also have the option to pause campaigns whenever necessary.

ARTIFICAIL INTELLIGENCE

Google Ads have integrated advanced AI programs to learn from your marketing campaigns and implement more effective practices.

REMARKETING

Re-marketing re-targets people who have previously visited your website through Google Ads. It reaches your audience with a better offer or discount.

MEASURABLE CAMPAIGNS

Google Ads tracks important metrics to improve your adverts and campaigns. These metrics include:

- CLICK THROUGH RATE

• This is the percentage of people who viewed your advert and clicked on it.

• A successful clickthrough rate is 3 -5%.

- CLICKS

• This is the number of people who clicked on your advert.

• 20-30 clicks should lead to 1 conversion. (Eg Sale)

- IMPRESSIONS

• This is the number of people who saw your advert.

• For 1000 impressions, you should expect to get 30-50 clicks.

- CONVERSIONS

This is the percentage of people who completed an action such as a sale, inquiry, or download.

A good conversion rate is 3 -5%.

MARKETING OBJECTIVES OF GOOGLE ADS

Google Ads promotes the following:

• Brand Awareness

• Influence Decision

• Promote Conversions

GOOGLE SEARCH ADS

Use Google Search Ads to promote your services and drive leads to your business.

GOOGLE SHOPPING ADS

Use Google Shopping Ads to sell your products online and offline.

HOW PAYMENT WORKS WITH GOOGLE

You have to add your credit card details to your Google Ads account. Once you reach the click-value of R5000, Google will automatically take money from your card. Google also takes money from your account at the beginning of every month. The amount depends on the current balance of your Google Ads account.

BING ADS

Bing Ads is the second biggest search engine next to Google. The Bing platform is like Google but reaches only 2-10% of the global market. Bing reaches an older audience too, but studies have shown many Microsoft users are using Bing, especially in the US.

BENEFITS OF BING ADS

LOWER PRICES

Bing Ads have much lower PPC prices compared to Google. Bing ads have 30-50% lower PPC prices which allows businesses with smaller budgets to use their platform.

LESS COMPETITION

Most industries in South Africa focus on Google Marketing, and many do not consider Bing an advertising option. Bing has little or no competition in certain markets.

HIGHER RETURN-OF-INVESTMENT

With low PPC prices, marketers have enjoyed a higher return on investment for the money spent on campaigns.

VALUABLE AUDIENCE

Studies have shown that Bing users have higher levels of education and are more financially stable.

MARKETING OBJECTIVE OF BING

Bing ads are like Google Ads where you drive important sales and leads to your business. Most industries perform well on Bing, but the ones that do exceptionally well include:

• Technology

• Travel

• Finance

• Retail

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

FACEBOOK ADS

Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world. Many businesses in South Africa use Facebook to market to people of all ages. The majority of people on Facebook are 25- 44 years old. Younger audiences in their teens have been showing less interest in Facebook and paying more attention to Instagram. Instagram and other popular social media platforms such as WhatsApp are owned by Facebook.

BENEFITS OF FACEBOOK

WIDE AUDIENCE

The main advantage of using Facebook Ads is the level of information they have on the audiences’ interests and behavior. Target the right set of people based on their passions and habits.

AFFORDABLE RATES

Facebook PPC prices are lower than Google Ads, which allows marketers to drive more traffic with the same budget. Facebook allows you to share your adverts for even more exposure.

MARKETING OBJECTIVES OF FACEBOOK

Facebook
marketing is great for brand awareness and customer loyalty. If you are looking
to drive sales to your website, there are only specific industries that perform
well on Facebook, and these include:

• Cosmetic and Beauty

• Travel and Hospitality

• Health and Exercise

• Real Estate

• Household

• Technology

• Food

• Automotive

ALTERNATIVES TO FACEBOOK

LINKEDIN ADS

LinkedIn Ads has an estimated 930 million active users. It’s great for networking and B2B marketing. Most people on LinkedIn are educated meaning the audience comes from a qualified and higher-income bracket.

X ADS

X has an estimated 368 million active users with the majority of young adults from ages 18-29. Industries that perform well on X include technology, entertainment, news, sports, fashion, finance, cryptocurrency, and politics.

YOUTUBE ADS

YouTube has an estimated 2.5 billion active users. Video Ads have higher engagement than text or image ads and should be considered in your marketing campaigns. YouTube only charges once a person has interacted with your video or watched your video for a period (30 seconds)

TIK TOK

TikTok has an estimated 1.1 billion users and continues to grow. Like YouTube, TikTok provides short clips for entertainment. The best-performing clips range from 7- 15 seconds on TikTok. Advertising starts at $10 per 1000 impressions.

CLASSIFIED ADS MARKETING

GUMTREE

Gumtree Ads advertising is a great way to connect your business with the local markets. There are 1.5 million active users in South Africa. You can either place a Free Advert on their platform, or you can use their affordable advertising options.

HOW IT WORKS?

FREE ADS

You can add one free ad per category every day. Adverts require an enticing title, image, and description to succeed. Once you place your advert on Gumtree, it will be added to the Top of Free Ads. The next advert placed in your category will push your advert 1 position down. If you want to bump up your advert to the top or add more than one advert, you will be prompted to pay.

PAID ADS

Paid advertising options allow your advert to feature specific parts of the website. Here are the following advertising options available to you:

- FEATURED ADS

Featured Ads allow your advert to appear at the top of search results and receive more impressions and clicks. It costs around R50 per day to use Featured Ads.

- TOP ADS

Top Ads allows your advert to be placed at the top of your category listing. Bump-up Ads bump up an existing free ad you placed. It costs around R150 per day.

- BUMP ADS

Bump Ads allow you to promote an existing advert to the top of your category. It costs R20-R50.

BENEFITS OF CLASSIFIED ADS

LOCAL TARGETING

Gumtree focuses on the local market. It allows businesses to focus on an audience in a specific region in SA. The closer your audience is to your business, the higher the chance of obtaining a customer.

AFFORDABLE MARKETING

Classified advertising is much cheaper than traditional advertising. You can market your company for Free by placing daily ads. Paid advertising works well in specific markets.

MARKETS THAT DO WELL ON GUMTREE