Here’s what you really need to know about digital ads
July 10, 2025
Digital advertising, where clicks are customers and strategy is everything. Successful digital advertising requires more than just a budget; you need insight, intention and a clear understanding of the digital landscape. Let’s review the essentials every business needs to grow in a competitive online marketplace.
What is digital advertising?
Digital advertising is the art of promoting your products, services or brand through paid placements on platforms like websites, search engines, social media and email to reach your customers, build relationships and grow your number of customers.
Your goal? To find your customers where they already are: online. Whether they’re scrolling social media, watching videos or searching online for answers, digital advertising helps you stay visible, relevant and competitive in a crowded marketplace.
Types of digital display ads
Digital display advertising is a versatile tactic, offering various advertising formats to fit your different needs:
Static ads: Stationary ads containing text and images are easy to create and load quickly.
Interstitial ads: Full-screen ads covering an entire web page or app screen gain a browser’s attention.
Animated ads: Use motion to capture attention and convey complex messages with storytelling.
Video ads: Engage audiences with motion and sound on websites, social media feeds or pop-ups.
Rich media ads: Interactive ads with video, audio and clickable features for an engaging experience, often expanding and revealing additional content when hovered over or clicked.
Native display ads: Feel less like ads as they relate to the native content the consumer is viewing.
Pop-up ads: Appear as static or interactive small windows over a website’s content.
How to budget
Today’s market is reporting that 60% of budgets are spent on digital, as that’s where customers are spending their time. However, it’s not exactly a hard rule. You should invest where your customers spend their time and where it drives real impact.
Start with the 70-20-10 rule for maximum impact from your budget.
70% goes to proven advertising strategies that already drive results.
20% goes to advertising strategies designed to stimulate new growth.
10% goes to bold, experimental advertising strategies.
Use these five steps to build a budget that aligns with your goals, maximizes ROI and supports growth. The intention is to have advertising that is fresh and forward-thinking that involves strategic thinking, market awareness and an understanding of your business.
5 steps to develop a realistic advertising budget:
Your business goals: Define your specific business objectives so you know what to measure and how to define success. It also determines the best advertising tactics and distribution channels.
Market competition: Understand your competition to set your budget and create persuasive advertising that makes your brand stand out from the crowd. This knowledge highlights your unique products, services, benefits and advantages so your customers take notice.
Customer behavior: Know what your customers are looking for, where they’re looking, how they use your products and services and more to effectively communicate to their needs and wants.
Track and optimize: Continuously measure and evaluate your advertising over time so it can be refined and optimized to get the most out of your investment.
Buying cycles: You know when your customers are most likely to buy from you. Use this information to determine when your advertising spend needs to be the highest to capitalize on your peak sales seasons.
How to succeed
From analyzing website traffic to targeting ads, your digital advertising strategy needs to capture attention and retain your customers. To succeed, you need strategies that make a difference:
Understand your traffic: Analyze how visitors interact with your website across devices. Identify where they spend the most time, how they navigate and whether they complete key actions to uncover valuable insights that can guide smarter decisions.
Use advanced audience targeting: Go beyond location with strategies that include geotargeting, demographics, behaviors, contextual interests and first-party data so you can deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time.
Embrace video storytelling: Short, engaging videos with bite-sized content captivate and inform. 82% of consumers have been convinced to buy a product or service from a video, while 89% state they want to see more videos from businesses.
Prioritize mobile-friendliness: With search engines emphasizing mobile-friendliness in their rankings, your websites and apps must be ready to view on mobile devices. By creating a better mobile experience for your customers, you make it easier for people to find your business, driving more traffic and boosting your sales.
Captivate customers: Getting your customers’ attention within the first few seconds of seeing your ads is essential. Learn what they’re searching for and why they buy, then create ads that meet their needs and drive results.
How to measure
Measuring the results of digital advertising is important to understand its effectiveness. The right metrics reveal how your customers think, behave and respond to your advertising strategy.
Here are key metrics and methods to measure and interpret your digital results:
Impressions
Definition: The number of times an ad is displayed.
Significance: Indicates the reach and visibility of your advertising.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Definition: The percentage of people who clicked on the ad after seeing it.
Significance: Measures the effectiveness of your ad in engaging the audience.
Conversion Rate
Definition: The percentage of users who completed the desired action (e.g., making the purchase, filling a form) after clicking on the ad.
Significance: Reflects the campaign’s ability to convert clicks into desired outcomes.
Cost Per Conversion Rate
Definition: By CPC – the cost incurred for each click on the ad. By CPM – The cost per thousand impressions.
Significance: Helps evaluate the cost-effectiveness of your advertising.
Social Media Engagement Metrics
Definition: Likes, shares, comments and reposts measure the level of audience interaction with social media content.
Significance: Indicates audience engagement and brand visibility.
Email Marketing Metrics
Definition: Open Rate, CTR and conversion rate evaluate the performance of email campaigns.
Significance: Measures engagement and conversion from email efforts.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
Definition: Measures the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising.
Significance: Indicates the advertising’s profitability.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Definition: The cost associated with acquiring a new customer.
Significance: Helps assess the efficiency of customer acquisition efforts.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Definition: The total revenue a business can expect from a customer throughout their entire relationship.
Significance: Balances the cost of acquiring customers against their long-term value.
Website Analytics
Definition: Tools like Google Analytics provide insights into user behavior, traffic sources and other website metrics such as bounce rate and session duration.
Significance: Helps identify which content or ads drive the most engagement and conversions.
Attribution Models
Definition: First click, last click and multi-touch attribution show the touchpoints contributing to conversions.
Significance: Shows which channels or interactions influence customer decisions.
How to avoid mistakes
Want better results from your digital advertising? Start by following a few essential best practices to avoid mistakes:
Follow key search engine optimization (SEO) basics: Focus on keyword optimization, high-impact content and mobile-friendliness for higher rankings, more traffic and more leads.
Don’t overlook data insights: Use tools like Google Analytics or Hubspot to track metrics like traffic, conversions and user behavior to make informed decisions about your strategy.
Include audience engagement: Your content must resonate with your target audience to get comments, likes and shares. Don’t forget strong call-to-actions.
Don’t focus on one platform: Multichannel advertising ensures your advertising is balanced and reaches a wider audience with a cohesive message.
Do your competitor research: Knowing what your competitors are doing provides insights into what works and what to avoid in your industry.
How to get started
Follow these strategic steps to reach your desired audience and achieve your advertising objectives with digital advertising.
Set clear advertising goals: Define whether you want to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic or generate leads.
Partner with an experienced team: Advertising strategy, ad design and campaign management don’t need to be overwhelming. Work with an expert advertising team like ours so you have time to focus on your business and get the results you need.
Understand your target audience: Conduct market research to identify your audience demographics, interests and behaviors.
Know your competitors: Analyze your competitors’ ad placements, designs and messages to learn valuable insights to refine your advertising strategy, stay ahead of industry trends and better resonate with your target audience.
Choose the right networks or platforms: Select a social media network or search engine platform that aligns with your advertising goals, audience and budget.
Determine placement: Decide where your ads should appear on websites, apps and retargeting options to reach your desired customers.
Set a budget: Determine your budget based on your goals, your audience and the network and platforms you’ll use.
Design ads: Create visually appealing ads with high-quality images, compelling copy and clear calls-to-action.
Set up tracking and measurement: Use Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters, conversion tracking codes and pixel tracking to measure performance.
Test and optimize: Experiment with different ad variations and refine your targeting based on what works best.
Other terms to know
Here are a few helpful key terms that are valuable to know as you continue learning about digital advertising:
Key Performance Indicator (KPI): Measurable values used to track progress toward a specific goal or objective. Within digital advertising, KPIs include web traffic leads, cost per lead, conversion rate, click-through rate, customer acquisition cost and more.
Pixel tracking codes: Small, transparent images used on web pages to track consumer behavior and collect data for marketing analysis.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC): A digital advertising model where advertisers pay each time their ad is clicked.
ROI: Measures your advertising profitability by comparing the revenue generated against the advertising cost.
SEO: Optimizing a website to improve its organic (unpaid) ranking in search engine results.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Promoting websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages, often through paid ads.
UTM: A code added to a URL to track the success of a marketing campaign.
Digital advertising is constantly evolving, but you’ll be successful with the right strategy. Knowing the fundamentals of digital advertising puts you in control. Keep learning, stay knowledgeable and turn those clicks into results.
Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter or download our advertising whitepapers for more insights like these delivered straight to your inbox. And follow us on LinkedIn for more valuable advertising trends and tips.
