Digital Advertising in the post-Covid era

In July, Oldspeake launched a new webinar series featuring special guest Adriana Cowdin. Adriana is the founder of Dekaf Digital and an expert in the digital advertising arena. She joined host Despi Ross, the CMO of Oldspeake to discuss how digital marketers can make the most of their time and resources during the pandemic. Here are a few of the insights shared.

It’s never too late to get in the game.

Adriana reminded us that no one is immune to the impacts of this pandemic, so there has been an overall decrease in cost-per-click. With that in mind, it could be the perfect time for your business to invest in pay-per-click advertising or PPC. Additionally, the keyword search volume for “buy online” has gone up by 27,000 searches globally for the past two months, meaning that consumers are ready and willing to purchase online. Taking the time to research what keywords are driving traffic in your industry, and investing a small amount of money in a Google Ads campaign right now could go a long way.

Be aware of your consumers’ current needs.

A recent survey found that 24% of shoppers will not be ready to go back to the malls for the next six months. With that in mind, Adriana encourages companies to creatively engage with their audiences in a way that matches the shift in lifestyle. West Elm, for instance, is offering free Zoom backgrounds that feature pre-set rooms highlighting their furniture. This tactic naturally draws in more customers by meeting their needs in a unique and personalized way. Down the line, West Elm will be able to capitalize on this momentum with its highly engaged audience.

The investment is worth the money.

It might be tempting to hold back on dishing out the dollars to digital ad spend right now, due to nervousness about the market. However, even in the pandemic, we are still seeing growth in search volume and website traffic among many different industries. Across the board, there was an 8-9% growth rate in online conversion during Q1. This means as consumers continue to engage, advertisers who dedicate dollars to digital ad spend will see a return on their investment.

Get personal.

In a growing sea of content, personalization is key to standing out and increasing engagement. This can mean targeting consumers with landing pages that are direct to products that matter to them or creating specific supplementary content that engages your consumer to become a repeat customer.

Check, double-check, and triple-check your clickthrough links.

As you start customizing your ads, it can be easy to make the mistake of incorrectly linking your clickthrough pages. Do yourself a favor, and double-check all your links are connecting your consumer to the most specific and relevant URL before you launch your digital ad campaign. And, if you are already running ads, set aside an hour to review your ad inventory and the destination URLs. It’s the easiest thing you can do to make sure your ads return on your investment.