Four Ways to Combat the Rising Cost of Digital Ads

In a recent podcast, Elliot Olson and I did a conversational deep dive into ways that multi-location businesses can prosper in an age where digital ads are rising each year.

Elliot and I explored the following four ways.

1. Putting a Greater Focus On Earned Media and Earned Visibility.

Earned media is exposure or publicity gained from marketing other than paid advertising.

How can a multi location business get organically higher up on Google search rankings? There’s no silver bullet. It requires investing time and effort into:

• Customer reviews of your product/service.

• Your product/service being naturally included in external media.

• Recommendations that are word-of-mouth.

• Customers creating and sharing social media about your product/service.

2. Leveraging Email Lists and Email Campaigns.

Most companies are doing email marketing, but how many are getting great conversion rates with their email campaigns? More specifically, what are you doing with your email list?

Here are some ways to improve your campaigns:

• Work with the corporate head office to segment your lists according to subscriber interests, areas, etc.

• Give your subscribers ways to only receive emails that pertain to their interests, areas, etc.

• Invest time in writing attention-grabbing content.

• Consider revamping your newsletter so that it resembles a “news feed.”

• Include incentives in your emails (e.g. discount codes, coupon codes).

3. Focusing on Digital Ad Localization.

If you can localize your messaging, people respond much more. Not just with clicks. But with purchases.

In Google ads, the quality score of an advertisement is high when a particular ad really targets what consumers are actually looking for, and sends consumers to a page that corresponds to the ad they just clicked on.

With dozens of locations, this isn’t easy. To achieve that, you really need the right kind of technology. You need a platform that empowers you to automate the process of creating landing pages at scale, and creating localized ads at scale.

4. Investigate Alternative Channels.

As marketers, we sometimes stay with what we’re comfortable with. I’m talking about Google ads, Facebook ads, etc. At times, it’s difficult to really push ourselves into different or new systems and mechanisms to find fresh leads.

Is there a non-digital channel that you could investigate using for advertising?

Direct mail is still a great untapped opportunity for many businesses. But you have to localize it. If, for instance, you’re doing a postcard campaign, have palm tress on the postcards you send to your customers in Florida. And for your customers in Colorado, have mountains on your postcards.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out our full conversation about ways multi-location businesses can prosper in an age where digital ads are rising each year.