Crafting an Online Marketing Budget

Does your day-to-day consist of you browsing your News Feed on Facebook? Do you scroll your Timeline on Twitter looking for the next great piece of content to Re-tweet? Do you Google or Bing questions; hoping the answer is just a click away? If you answered "yes" to any of the questions above, you've experienced the uprising of online advertising. If your business doesn't have stake in this expansive marketing vehicle, odds are you’re falling behind!

1. Set your goals

If you think you’re ready to start spending money and time in online marketing, think again! Begin the process by establishing goals with your marketing team. This could include, but is not limited to, amplifying brand impressions, increasing email signups, growing online sales, navigating users through a series of pages, etc. The possibilities are endless but keep in mind: without defined goals, you can't measure success. So make sure you have measurable goals before you begin spending that precious budget.

2. Ask the right questions

Crafting a sound online marketing budget depends heavily on asking the right questions. Answers to these questions will help achieve the goals you've established. Let's go for the opening question:

What kind of ads can I run?

Online advertising is broken down into 4 major types:

•  Search (AdWords, Bing Ads)
•  Social (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
•  Display (Endemic, Programmatic)
•  Video (YouTube, Exchange, Pre-Roll)

Now that we've identified the mediums of which to market online, lets learn how each ad type works into an overall strategy.

What are the functions of each ad type?

•  Search – Demand Fulfillment – Further down in the sales funnel, keyword-driven, reputable platforms.
•  Social – Demand Generation – Promote community building, content promotion, brand engagement & more.
•  Display – Demand Generation – Help push organic search traffic, brand recognition, run on niche-specific sites.
•  Video – Demand Generation – Visitors are fully engaged with the video, interactive, preferred content medium for many.

Forming the right media mix will make or break the success of your campaign. The team at LaneTerralever achieves the right mix for our clients using the "Wide Tail" approach, which is the mentality that multiple Online Marketing platforms are required to get the most bang for your buck. By widening the number of places potential customers could encounter the brand, you increase the opportunity of that potential customer of becoming a loyal, lifelong customer.

The third and final question in this process is assigning percentages of the budget to each ad type/platform.

3. How much of my budget should I spend on each ad type? 

Here’s a way to think through this question and allocate dollars accordingly:

•  Search - 60% ("I want to increase online sales and gain market share in search engines today")
•  Social - 15% ("I need to grow my social audiences and cultivate opportunities for building my community but I can do this slowly.")
•  Display - 25% ("Display ads are a great way to supplement Organic Search. People will see us in Display then search for us in Google or Bing.")
• Video - 0% ("I don't have any videos but my Marketing agency is gonna help us with this!”)

Ready to jump in?

If you've established measurable goals and answered the questions above, you're on your way to spending your budget the right way! As long as testing, measuring, and optimizing are in your team’s vocabulary, you’re well on your path to online success. So, whether you want to increase your email subscribers, boost online sales, or amplify the recognition of your brand, setting aside an online marketing budget will help propel your efforts. What are you waiting for, get out there and be heard!