What is paid advertising?
Often, paid advertising refers to advertising your products on Facebook or AdWords or on some other platform and trying to sell those products. But since we’re talking about lead generation, paid advertising is a bit different. As it refers to generating leads, paid advertising can be used as a top-of-funnel strategy to promote a cheap or free lead magnet in return for a person’s email address.
Sometimes, a paid advertisement will sell a lead magnet for a heavily discounted price to increase perceived value of the item offered, and thus conversion rate. Or sometimes, the ad will drive people to a gated piece of content that requires the visitor to sign up for the website’s email list.
However it’s done, there are several different types of paid advertisements. Here are a few.
- Facebook Ads — This is one of the most common places for businesses to run advertisements for lead generation. Right under Google, Facebook is the most visited site on the internet and 68% of Americans use Facebook regularly. It’s relatively user-friendly and Facebook has a remarkable amount of data at its fingertips that can help you target your ideal audience. Here’s a helpful guide that details how you can generate leads using Facebook ads.
- Google Ads — This can also be used as a way to generate leads and drive website traffic, but AdWords is typically better for generating direct purchases. 65% of people click on a Google ad, for instance, when they are looking to buy something, but that percentage drops significantly lower when they are simply looking for information. Using AdWords to generate leads might be best if you sell something cheap rather than offering something for free. Here’s a helpful guide that will teach you how to use AdWords to generate leads.
- Instagram Ads — These ads can also be used for generating leads and are quite good at doing so. You can post Instagram ads on the same platform as you would for Facebook ads (since both are owned by Facebook). Since Instagram is a highly personal and visual platform, lead gen tends to work best if you offer a free lead magnet in your advertisements. Here’s a helpful guide on using Instagram ads to generate leads.
- Pinterest Ads — Pinterest demographics are slightly less varied than some of the other advertising platforms you have access to. 81% of Pinterest users, for instance, are females and men account for only 7% of pins. In other words, this is a great place to generate leads if your audience is primarily women and your product is highly visual.
Which advertising platform is best for your business?
It’s important to recognize that different advertising platforms work better or worse for different businesses. You must first determine where your ideal market is already hanging out and then market to them there. If they are on Reddit, then run Reddit ads. If they are on Facebook, then run Facebook ads. And if you don’t know where your ideal market is, here’s a guide that will help you find them.