Digital advertising has solidified its place in the marketing world as technology, the internet, and advertising platforms have grown in popularity in recent years. When the first digital ad was launched in 1994, it was just a simple banner ad. Today, digital marketing has become one of the most prevalent forms of advertising, with an estimated $378.16 billion spent worldwide.
With how prominent digital advertising has become, some may be wondering how that affects other marketing channels. While there are several pros to online marketing, there are also cons where other channels exceed.
So, while digital advertising has become an essential piece of a marketing strategy, it is only one piece of the puzzle. In fact, depending on your industry, print, radio, television, and vehicle advertising could be a better advertising option or used to compliment any digital content that your team is producing and spending money on.
Cost
Budgets and costs are often at the forefront of any business strategy and dictate what marketing efforts can be taken. Understandably, business owners will want to spend as little as possible but still reap the greatest return on investment (ROI) to boost profits. This is where the beauty, and one of the most significant benefits, of digital advertising, comes in.
Marketing on digital platforms often allows you to set your budget and optimize the cost it takes to make conversions. While some platforms will have a minimum spend requirement, many others offer flexible options for brands with smaller budgets.
While the idea of advertising with a small budget is great, it is important to remember that those budgets can cap off the reach of your marketing efforts. If you hit your daily or monthly budget, your ad will stop being shown on the platform to prevent overspending and will require monthly payments to continue campaigns. This is one of the most significant differentiators between digital and traditional advertising.
Traditional advertising often requires an up-front payment to cover a set period of time. During this time, the advertising space you paid for belongs to your brand and can reach people until the time period ends and you either make another payment or move to another space. While it can be an effective way to reach a wide audience, these payments can be costly. Cost is truly where vehicle advertising shines for this very reason.
With the lowest cost per thousand impressions and the greatest number of impressions per dollar, wrapping a vehicle costs between $0.15 to $0.77 per thousand impressions. On top of these low costs to make impressions, wrapping your vehicle is often a one-time payment. Your company owns the wrapped vehicles and can continue to use them as long as they’ll run. The only additional costs you’ll have to consider are the ones for car washes to ensure your fleet looks its best.
Audiences & Targeting
Reaching the right audience is essential to achieving conversion goals. The process of identifying, targeting, and reaching your ideal audience has never been easier than it is when using digital advertising. On many platforms, you can target your specific audience by their location, age, job titles, and even interests in order to get your ads in front of the right people.
These criteria are critical on digital platforms, such as social media and search engines. You will also want to target specific keywords to reach customers looking for solutions related to what services your brand offers.
Digital advertising truly thrives and outperforms other marketing channels when it comes to reaching specific audiences, but that doesn’t mean that it reaches the most people. Digital ads will have to bid and compete for space in a way that traditional methods do not.
This means it is possible that your digital advertisement may not be seen by as many people as you’d like. Traditional marketing channels will have their own space without competing with other brands as long as they remain paid for.
Reaching a broad audience is where vehicle advertising takes #1. On average, a single wrapped vehicle can make between 30,000 and 70,000 impressions daily. While these impressions may not be the exact target demographic for your brand, it promotes brand awareness and helps keep your company at the top of consumers’ minds when the time comes that they need your services.
Measuring Digital Advertising Results
Another area where digital advertising has changed the marketing process by leaps and bounds is how brands can measure the success of their campaigns. Thanks to all digital ad campaigns being managed through online dashboards, it is possible to track data on how each ad has been performing.
From impressions to cost per click to conversions, digital advertising offers an easy and convenient way to see the results of your marketing work and the opportunity to optimize and make edits as needed to improve performance.
While measuring results through traditional marketing methods is slightly more difficult, it isn’t impossible; you just have to get a little more creative. While you may not get immediate data from a vehicle wrap or a billboard, you can still measure your conversions and ROI. By adding a specific website, email, or phone number to these marketing channels, when people contact your business or visit the site, you can track what piece of your marketing strategy brought them to you.
Where Should You Put Your Marketing Budget?
In truth, this answer will depend on various factors, most notably your industry, the size of your business, and what your total marketing budget is. Often, the best marketing strategies will incorporate several different marketing channels. This way, a brand can reach as many people as possible. Every marketing channel will have its pros and cons, which is why it is essential to consider all of the factors before investing your budget.
While digital advertising has revolutionized how companies reach consumers, it hasn’t killed off the effectiveness of more traditional marketing methods. Vehicle wraps have proven time and time again that they have staying power in the world of marketing and advertising.
A wrapped fleet can earn an unlimited number of impressions over time without having to pay recurring fees for advertising space, feature custom, branded designs, and help your brand reach a local audience that will use your service.
Fleet Wrap HQ has a proven record of helping businesses grow their ROI. With over 12,000 vehicle wraps under our hood and over 24 years in business, we have seen firsthand the effect running vehicle advertising has reaped benefits for customers. If you’re looking for options beyond digital advertising, contact us today and discover the difference vehicle wraps can make for your brand!