Online advertising: strategies for better results

In the end, classic advertising is like a megaphone: You address a lot of people, but only a few of them are really your target group. Precisely because so many platforms and options are available, it is also more important than ever to proceed strategically. Only those who know how online advertising works and which instruments really work can meaningfully expand their reach and attract new customers in a targeted manner. So forget the watering can and work with the laser pointer!

What is online advertising?

For a long time, online advertising was only associated with banners on some websites. Over the years, online advertising has developed into a huge market. Nowadays, it is possible to address your target group almost directly, avoid wastage and thus increase your conversions in a targeted manner. And it doesn't matter whether you run a local business or run an international e-commerce business. Would you like to improve the performance of your website and generate more sales? With Google Ads, you can reach potential customers at the exact moment they're looking for a product or solution. Would you like to increase the awareness of your brand? Campaigns on social media channels such as Facebook or Instagram are then ideal. And the best part is that everything is analyzable. So you always know how your ads are performing. You can test, optimize, and refine your advertising messages until they hit the spot on. Thanks to modern technologies and platforms, the possibilities are virtually limitless. The only important thing is: You need a well-thought-out concept, clear goals and an understanding of how to combine the individual online advertising methods in a meaningful way.

The difference between online advertising, internet advertising and online marketing

Terms such as online advertising, internet advertising and online marketing are often used interchangeably, but there are clear differences. In a narrower sense, online advertising describes all paid measures in the digital space with which you can build visibility and reach. This includes Google Ads, display ads, Facebook advertising, video ads or even banner ads on websites. Some also include email marketing, as it can be used in combination with ads and landing pages, but it does not officially fall under the term online advertising. Internet advertising is a slightly older term, but is often used synonymously. This, too, is primarily about paid ad formats on the Internet.

Online marketing, on the other hand, is much more comprehensive: In addition to paid advertising, it also includes measures such as search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, email campaigns, influencer marketing, social media strategies and much more. While SEO ensures that you are found organically, online advertising allows you to buy targeted places in search results or on platforms in order to be immediately visible. Online advertising is therefore a part of online marketing, specifically that which stands for paid reach.

What do the terms push and pull marketing have to do with online advertising?

When you advertise online, you always work with a mix of push and pull marketing. Pull marketing means that you address people who are already actively looking for information or offers, such as with Google Ads or SEO. Users have a specific interest, and you offer the right solution. So you literally “attract” them with what you offer (e.g. by Googling them and then ending up with your blog article or product). Push marketing, on the other hand, works more like a digital sales stand. You actively present your offers, often to people who have not just explicitly searched for them. This happens, for example, via social media ads, banner advertising or display advertising on third-party sites. This is about generating attention, arousing needs and raising awareness of your brand. Both strategies are justified and it is important to think about the right balance, depending on the target group, product and budget. Ideally, push and pull campaigns complement each other to form an effective overall strategy that generates both spontaneous attention and targeted demand.

The most important channels for strategic online advertising

As already mentioned, there were only banner ads at the beginning. Today, however, you can choose from a variety of online advertising measures. These include

• Google Ads,
• social media marketing and
• Display advertising.

Google Ads: The classic in search engine marketing

This advertising system allows you to place targeted ads that appear directly above the search results, i.e. right where potential customers are actively looking for solutions. Here you can easily work according to the “cost per click” principle. So you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad. Google Ads offers various formats for this, from text ads to shopping ads to video ads on YouTube. This allows you to narrow down your ads geographically, display them according to the time of day and even customize them individually, depending on which keywords a user enters. Another advantage is also the database. You can see exactly which ads are performing, which keywords are converting and where you can optimize your budget.

Social media marketing: advertising on social networks

Social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok or Threads start exactly where traditional advertising often fails: because of a genuine connection with people. On the platforms, the focus is on dialogue and thus on the trust that is created. Through targeted targeting, you can ideally place online advertising that is tailored precisely to specific target groups, such as age or profession. Here, too, you can choose between different formats that you want to promote, such as carousel or individual contributions, stories, reels or even story ads with several consecutive slides.

Display advertising: Using banner advertising in a targeted manner

Display advertising, i.e. placing advertising banners on various websites, is probably the oldest form of online advertising and at the same time one of the most effective when used correctly. Unlike search ads, where users are actively searching for something, here you present your advertising message in the appropriate thematic environment. Modern display networks such as the Google Display Network or specialized platforms offer you access to thousands of websites on which you can automatically display your banners. Here you can filter for target groups, topics, keywords, or even specific pages where you want your advertising to appear. And here too, the format is flexible: From classic banner formats (leaderboard, skyscraper, Rectangle) to interactive HTML5 ads, everything is possible. This form of advertising is also particularly effective when combined with retargeting, i.e. retargeting visitors who have already visited your site but have not yet bought anything.

Affiliate marketing as a supplement: reach through partner networks

Affiliate marketing is a smart way to expand your reach without investing directly in ads. In doing so, you work with partners (e.g. niche blog operators, other companies in your industry with a similar target group, influencers or bloggers), so-called affiliates, who promote your products or services on their channels. In return, they earn a commission for every successful sale or lead. The special thing about this is that you often only want real results and therefore have no wastage and no fixed costs. This makes affiliate marketing particularly attractive for start-ups, e-commerce providers and companies with clearly definable offers. In this case, the advertising formats range from classic banner ads to text links to sponsored posts or product recommendations as part of content and influencer marketing.

There are also specialized platforms for this purpose, such as AWIN, Belboon or Digistore24, which you can use to find and manage affiliates. But your own partner programs are also possible. However, trust is important in any case. The more reputable your offer, the more often it is promoted by affiliates.

Measuring and optimizing performance: Which key figures really count in online advertising?

Do you want to place your first ads and then measure potential successes? No problem In the world of online media, you have the advantage of being able to measure almost every interaction, from the first click to the purchase, in real time. But which key figures are really important? In short, it depends a lot on your goal, the platform, and the form of your advertising. However, the most important SEO and performance metrics that you should keep an eye on as an advertiser include:

• Click-through rate (CTR): It shows the relationship between impressions and clicks. A high CTR signals that your ad fits the content and target group.
• Conversion rate (CR): This key figure shows how many visitors take a desired action, such as buying a product, filling out a form, or signing up for your newsletter. This metric is particularly important for landing pages or e-commerce campaigns.
• Cost per click (CPC): The amount you pay per click on your ad. While a low CPC is good, it's not the only goal. Quality and conversion count for more in the end.
• Cost per Acquisition (CPA): This figure shows how much an actual conversion, i.e. a new customer, a lead or a sale, really costs you. This key figure therefore helps you to assess the profitability of your ads.
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Here, the financial return is measured in relation to the invested advertising budget, which makes this key figure one of the most important for scalable campaigns. An ROAS of 4 means, for example, that you generate four euros in turnover for every euro invested.
• Length of stay & bounce rate: This SEO data from tools such as Google Analytics shows you whether visitors only visit your site briefly or are intensively engaged with your content (e.g. blog articles, products, videos), which can help you with targeted on-page optimization.

It is important that you never look at your figures in isolation. For example, a high click-through rate is of little use if no one converts, and a low CPA is not sustainable if customer satisfaction or shopping cart value is not right.

Tools and technologies to monitor success: How to keep track

The good news is that you don't have to manually analyze everything. There are numerous tools that help you centrally evaluate campaign data, identify weak points and initiate improvements. Some of these tools are even free or have freemium models, making them attractive even for small businesses. Tools that we can recommend as an SEO agency can be found in the table below.

A/B testing and campaign optimization in practice: progress through comparison

With so-called A/B tests, you can also test different variants of an ad or landing page against each other and thus draw valid conclusions. This method is now an integral part of every professional online marketing strategy and deals with questions such as:

• Headline vs. headline: Which headline is more convincing?
• Call to action (CTA): “Buy now” or “Learn more”?
• ad text: Emotional vs. fact-based?
• Pictures and videos: Which forms of presentation achieve the most interaction?

A landing page with a product video, for example, can convert significantly better than the purely text-based version. Another test, on the other hand, can show that even small changes in the CTA (e.g. “Try now” instead of “Start for free”) can increase the click rate. It is therefore also important that you only change one variable per test so that you can correctly interpret the results. In this way, you can further develop your SEO strategy and advertising concept based on data — instead of using gut feeling.

Trends and future of online advertising: automation, AI and new formats

What works today may be out of date tomorrow. For advertisers, this means that if you want to remain visible and relevant in the long term, you must not only master the status quo, but also identify new developments at an early stage and strategically classify them. In the following paragraphs, we will therefore tell you which trends are currently shaping the industry, which formats will become more important in the future and which opportunities you can already use today to make your advertisements smarter, more targeted and more successful.

AI-powered, automated online advertising

For many, the future of online advertising clearly lies in automation. Platforms such as Google Performance Max, Facebook Advantage+ or programmatic advertising show where the journey is heading: away from manual campaigns to dynamic, AI-optimized ads that adapt to user behavior, interests and conversion data in real time. These systems analyze billions of data points, such as click behavior, purchase histories, time, device and location, and based on this, automatically display the appropriate ad to the right target group. The big advantage for you as a user is that you save yourself complex settings and reduce wastage at the same time. So you can fully concentrate on strategy, content, and creative testing. By the way, this also applies to smaller companies. These too are increasingly benefiting from “smart campaigns” and automated creatives, particularly in the e-commerce sector.

Native ads and personalized ads

Native advertising is no longer a niche trend. Advertising disguised as editorial contributions fits seamlessly into the look and feel of a platform, whether on news portals, on social media or in blogs. Native ads have the advantage that they do not disturb the flow of reading, which means that they enjoy significantly higher acceptance than, for example, social media ads or classic banner advertising. Formats such as sponsored posts, content recommendations or in-feed ads therefore usually also achieve better click rates. At the same time, however, personalized ads are also becoming more and more relevant. Thanks to first-party data, AI-supported targeting and dynamic display, you can now tailor your advertising messages individually to individual user groups, depending on device, location, interests or buying behavior.

Voice search, multisearch, and voice ads

With the rise of voice assistants such as Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant, search behavior also changed. And even today, there seems to be no end in sight to the development, quite the opposite. More and more users speak instead of typing and expect direct, precise answers. For advertisers, this means that content should be language-optimized, i.e. capable of dialogue, formulated naturally and tailored to specific questions. At the same time, multisearch continues to develop, which means the combination of language, image and text. Google is already testing advertising formats that evaluate visual and spoken search queries and generate suitable ads in real time. Therefore, prepare your content early on for voice commerce, for example through language-optimized landing pages, product data or structured FAQs.

Video ads: moving images, powerful impact

Video advertising is booming, whether on YouTube, Instagram Reels, Facebook, Pinterest Video Pins, or TikTok Ads. The combination of visual appeal, emotional impact and storytelling makes video content one of the most effective formats in all online advertising. So it's no wonder that interactive video ads and shoppable videos, where users can buy directly from the video, are considered the next stage of evolution. Particularly short, mobile-optimized clips with a clear message and call-to-action are successful and often more effective than any text ad. We therefore recommend using videos in a targeted manner, for example as a teaser, testimonial, tutorial or highlight spot for new products. It's best to use different places (feed, story, pre-roll, in-stream) for this. Among other things, this ensures that you reach users at various stages of the customer journey.

Conclusion: With online advertising for more visibility, customers and sales

Whether it's Google Ads, social media or banner advertising: Each format of online advertising offers its own advantages, opportunities and challenges. It is therefore all the more important to strategically coordinate the appropriate channels and forms of advertising, always with regard to goals, budget and user behavior. Modern tools and technologies enable you to precisely track and thus data for well-founded decisions and optimizations.

Do you want campaigns that not only bring clicks, but real results?

Then let's work on it together. As an experienced SEO agency, we support you with strategy, implementation, performance measurement and long-term optimization. For online advertising that achieves more! Just talk to us, we're looking forward to hearing more about your project.

FAQ: Frequently asked questions about online advertising

Below you will find answers to the most common questions about online advertising.

How much budget do I need to start online advertising?

With just a few hundred euros a month, you can start your first campaigns. In the end, it is not so much the budget that is decisive, but the strategy behind it.

Which platform brings the most visibility?

It depends on your target audience. In B2C it's mostly Facebook or Instagram, in B2B it's more like Google Ads or LinkedIn.

How long does it take until results are visible through online advertising?

You can often see the first results after just a few days. Stable performance, on the other hand, usually requires at least 4 to 6 weeks of optimization time.

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