Most will agree now that digital advertising is practically a must for a business today. So why are so many business owners still putting off starting their own digital ad campaign? In a surprising number of cases, it may actually be due to the paradox of choice!
There are so many digital advertising platforms available now that it’s only natural for some to feel overwhelmed. Which one is best for your industry? Which one is most likely to give you good ROAS or return on ad spend? Which one can you actually afford?
To help you out here, we’ve shortlisted the top five digital advertising platforms you should be using if you’re based in Singapore. This should give you a better idea of where to go and what to do.
Meta
By Meta, we refer to both of the company’s major social media platforms: Facebook and Instagram. Both offer amazing benefits for the savvy advertiser, from a wide range of ad formats to amazing targeting and budgeting tools.Â
In addition to that, both have massive reach. A Statista ranking of social media platforms in October of 2023 had Facebook at the top spot with 3,030 million active users and Instagram at fourth place with 2,000 million.Â
This means you have the opportunity to access an absolutely enormous audience on these platforms. While people of all ages seem to use them, though, it’s worth noting that majority of users seem to be in the 18-34 range for both Facebook and Instagram.
In any case, both clearly offer virtues to a lot of businesses. While they can be used for just about any part of your funnel, we recommend them in particular for retargeting.
TikTok
An increasingly popular social media platform with younger Millennials and Gen Z, TikTok is a great place to advertise if you want to focus on video ads. With the introduction of TikTok shops, you can get even more out of this platform while selling products now!
We’ve already written about how to set up TikTok shops before as well as how to boost their performance. In brief, though, pairing these shops with TikTok ads can be a great way to do the following:
Improve your TikTok shop’s visibility.
Send targeted messages to the people most likely to be your customers.Â
Promote new products quickly, without having to create super-polished video ad content.Â
That being said, TikTok can be useful even if you don’t have a TikTok shop. Among other things, it’s also one of the better digital advertising platforms for, say, driving discovery traffic to a webpage (especially if your target audience skews young).
Do we really need to say why Google’s digital advertising platforms are among the best? Google is the most popular search engine in the world and its video arm, YouTube, is the most popular video platform in the world.Â
Google’s platforms also have robust ad tools for marketers. A variety of ad formats and types are offered, and a largely pay-per-click system makes budgeting relatively easy.Â
All of these benefits seem to bear out in practice. A survey of marketers from Instapage also showed that while both Facebook and Google were tied for most-used ad platforms, Google outperformed the other platform by delivering the best ROAS for 44% of marketers (vs. Facebook’s 25%).Â
In any case, if you want to get started on Google ads, try our article on running search ads. That should tell you the basics for success!
Quantcast
The Quantcast Platform is a good option for low-CPA designed to get you quick results based on granular audience insights. With one of the biggest shares in audience metrics, it’s actually something you can use to plan your ads for other channels.
This makes it a little different from the other platforms we’re recommending, but no less useful. The easiest way to think of it is probably as a programmatic ad platform that lets you connect to the right people based on a tonne of user data.
Another of the heavy hitters in social media, but mostly used by professionals, which explains why ads on it also tend to be aimed at professionals. In other words, LinkedIn is best used when your ads are B2B (business-to-business).Â
Like the other big platforms in this list, LinkedIn has a variety of ads that can be used to serve different purposes in your funnel. Event and Spotlight ads are great for raising awareness, for instance, while Conversation and Carousel ads are good for leading to consideration and conversion.
X, previously Twitter
The platform previously known as Twitter may not be very widely used in Singapore, but it’s still one of the go-to platforms for Web3 marketing. Specifically, if you’re in the crypto space, this is probably one of the best places to run digital ads.Â
This probably makes sense when one considers that the platform is about as fast-paced as crypto itself. In any case, it’s largely recommended for boosting awareness about projects and encouraging conversions like sign-ups for initiatives. Some crypto companies also use it for community building and interaction.
A Final Word on Using Digital Advertising Platforms for Your Funnel
Now that we’ve shown you our top picks for digital advertising platforms, it’s vital to note something here: you don’t need to put your entire marketing funnel in just one of these channels.
Instead, leverage each channel to serve you according to its strengths. Where does it do best? What part of your funnel can it serve most effectively?
Map channels and ads against your customer journey for best results and don’t be afraid to use multi-channel strategies. As an example, why not start with programmatic ads for cheap and broad awareness, add YouTube ads for quality clicks, and then Google Search ads for conversions?
This lets you account for the different parts of your channel effectively, combining channels for the best outcome. You can also tweak your efforts along the way if you find that certain channels simply appear to work better for that part of your funnel.
If you find that this is too intimidating or complicated, don’t worry: you can always ask us for help. Reach out to us and we can chat about your digital marketing needs.