Digital Advertising Growth Creates Branding Opportunities

Digital advertising is now the fastest growing ad format in the United States. The latest advertising forecast from Strategy Analytics projects a whopping 13% growth for digital ad spending in 2015. Just to be clear, “digital advertising” includes search advertising, social media ads, video, mobile and online display advertising of any sort. Search engine advertising is the big gun, accounting for 45% of digital ad revenues for the year.

Looking at it from a different angle, television will remain the biggest advertising medium this year with $78.8 billion in revenue and a 42% share of total U.S. ad expenditure. Digital takes second place with $52.8 billion in ad spending and a 28% share. But no matter how you slice it, the rapid and widespread growth of digital advertising creates significant communication opportunities for nearly every brand.

Why is digital advertising important for you?

Let’s take a look at a few scenarios:

1. If your company currently utilizes traditional media or direct mail, but your digital presence is limited to your company website, it’s time to revisit your media strategy. There are a whole lot of people spending a whole lot of time with social media, mobile phones and search engines. If your brand is absent when – and where – they’re looking, you are missing a huge opportunity to engage potential customers. Based on the growth projections from Strategy Analytics cited above, digital’s share of the advertising pie is simply too large to ignore.
2. Let’s say you are a local or regional company that avoids traditional media advertising because of the cost. You have a website that’s fairly well-optimized for the search engines, engage in social media and do a bit of direct mail as well. By adding digital advertising to your media mix, your brand message will reach many more potential customers. Google Display, Google Adwords, and a variety of ad formats now available on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can help expand your brand footprint immensely at a reasonable cost. Definitely worth exploring!
3. If some form of digital advertising is already a part of your media mix, congratulations!  You are taking advantage of some powerful tools for building your business. You’ve probably established some benchmarks and measure the results of each campaign. In your situation, the proliferation of digital ad formats will provide more opportunities to fine tune your media strategy for the long term.

Make no mistake. Traditional media formats aren’t going away. They retain a huge share of the advertising marketplace and their ability to build brands has been proven time and again for more than a century. But the media landscape is indeed shifting. Some media will capture a larger share while others wane. Right now, digital ad formats are on the move!  We owe it to our companies and our brands to explore the opportunities!

You can find more information from Strategy Analytics here.