6

Introduction to Online
Lead-Generation
Advertising

THERE ARE THREE lead-generation tactics—search engine marketing, social media advertising, and display advertising—that might be grouped under the heading of online lead-generation advertising. Each of these three tactics uses online ads as a basis for reaching out to target customers.

This chapter gives you a short overview of some common principles and secondary elements associated with online lead-generation advertising. Since these common principles and elements apply (in one form or another) to all three tactics, I think it’s best to take a quick look at them. In Chapters 7–10, I’ll look at specific ways you can apply these principles and elements to each online advertising tactic.

It’s very important that you should understand the difference between creating an online ad for lead generation and creating one for brand awareness. Brand awareness ads are based on creativity, and your hook for the ad usually tries to spark an emotional response from the person who sees it. When you create an online ad for lead generation, your approach is based more on the medium of expression. Search engine ads on Google and Bing, as well as social media ads on Facebook, are text-based ads. These ads are very functional and don’t give you a lot of room for branding.

Search engine and social media ads only offer a limited number of characters for each ad you post (e.g., 25 characters for the headline, and 70 characters for the message on search engine ads). Your ad must include a title, value proposition, CTA, and offer using that limited number of characters. In creating your ad, you will concentrate more on creating compelling copy that will prompt your target audience to click on the ad.

The many types of display ads (image ads, video ads, Flash animation ads, etc.) give you more room for branding. But the function of these ads is still to bring in leads. As we’ll see in Chapter 10, display ads have evolved beyond the simple brand advertising tools that they once were, and have become a very useful lead-generation tool.