2017 saw record growth in Digital Advertising dollars throughout the United States.  According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, those dollars are actually $40.1 BILLION.  And, that’s just for the first half of 2017.

$40.1 billion represents a 23% increase over the same time period in 2016.  What can we take from that?  Businesses are spending money on digital advertising, and lots of it.

 

Of that $40.1 billion, Mobile Advertising took over half of it, coming in at $21.7 billion during the first 6 months of 2017.  That number is up from $15.5 billion during the first half of 2016 and up from $8.2 billion during the first half of 2015.   With a majority of ad dollars being spent on Mobile Advertising, can you include yourself in that mix, or are you missing out on a vital piece of the pie?

With Mobile Conquesting, one of the products that we offer, there are a lot of opportunities to target people on their mobile devices (think smart phones and tablets).  From targeting people by their behaviors, targeting people based on where they have been, to geo-fencing and using weather to trigger your ads.  Mobile Conquesting has a multitude of options to get your message in front of the right people.

 

In addition to Mobile, another digital platform on the rise, which most people could probably guess, is Social Media.  In fact, Social accounted for $9.5 billion in the first half of 2017.  With platforms like Facebook and Instagram constantly growing its user base, have you found your place amongst them?

Facebook, which owns Instagram, is constantly changing their advertising platform.  Luckily for you, we are always up to speed on these changes.  Whether your clients are looking to increase phone calls to their business, promote their upcoming events or job openings, or target just their current client database through our Custom Audience Targeting, Facebook and Instagram are areas where we can help them achieve all of the above.

Another big player in the growing world of Digital Advertising is Digital Video, including video on both desktop and mobile.  $5.2 billion was spend on Digital Video in the first half of 2017 making this a great weapon to have in your marketing arsenal.

There are many different ways that Digital Advertising can be included into your clients’ marketing mix.  Pre-roll advertising can increase brand recall by 65%, according to a study by Nielson.  Why not utilize video as a part of your Keyword Advertising campaign?  With our Digital Video ads, the client will only pay for those impressions, IF someone watches at least 25% of their ad.   How’s that for exceeding expectations?!

These numbers above are national numbers, including national advertisers.  So how do local markets with local advertisers stack up?   In addition to the IAB, another company, Borrell Associates also takes a look at advertising trends and spending.  Borrell Associates studied local advertising, specifically small businesses generating less than $50 million.

What did they find?  76% of those that spend money on advertising, invest in digital.  Let’s look at that one more time.  Of the local businesses that spend money on advertising, 3 out of 4 spend money in digital.  Are you knocking on the right doors?  How are you prospecting?

Digital advertising is not a trend.  It’s not a fad.  It’s not going anywhere.  Businesses are investing more money in digital than they have in the past.  Why?  Because it works!

Now is the time to educate your clients to the importance of digital advertising as part of their marketing mix.  Now is the time to secure your portion of the digital dollars in your market.