Getting traffic for everyone is a big challenge. This is it, whether you’re a media titan or the owner of a modest corner store. If you don’t really produce content in a niche area, the content you produce is very difficult to get noticed. If you generated your content for a business reason, everything is considerably more challenging for you. Because there are many people that want to promote the website, like you.

Advertising and content marketing are two efficient methods for increasing website traffic. Most website owners consider these two approaches to be substitutes for one another. Is it really like that? Let’s have a look…

Advertising Increases Traffic Quickly

The most crucial marketing tool utilized to increase website traffic within content marketing is SEO. But search engine optimization is something like black magic. Because Google, the king of search engines, doesn’t fully explain how it works or even uses the phrase “SEO,” it’s nearly impossible to forecast exactly what effort will yield.

The most important thing everyone knows about SEO is that it is very difficult to get quick results. It takes time for content on websites with low attribute authority to rank first in Google. However, business requires speed.

Here, advertising is crucial. If you need a new content page to get people to your site quickly, all you have to do is advertise. However, you should also be aware that traffic on its own is meaningless.

Good Content Converts

Advertising is effective in attracting traffic. However, conversion must be your primary objective. You need quality material for it.

The issue here is that high SEO rankings aren’t always a result of quality content. Google finds a good correlation between content quality and search result ranking in English. However, the same is not true for less spoken languages. It takes effort to produce quality content produced in these languages according to SEO techniques.

Advertising and Content Marketing Should Go Hand in Hand

For long-term results from your website that are cost-effective, you should combine content marketing and advertising. You should not misinterpret these two marketing tactics as substitutes for one another.

While you should concentrate on content marketing for content that you hope will have long-term success, you should concentrate on advertising for time-sensitive marketing initiatives. By doing this, you may maintain steady website traffic without going over your spending limit.

The first thing we do when the economy is struggling is reduce our wasteful spending. Brands also do this.

Nearly everyone anticipates a global economic downturn. As a result, businesses are implementing safety measures. They reduce the costs they believe are unnecessary. Among these costs, advertising takes the lead.

However, there is a serious issue at hand. Can you make sales without advertising?

The practice of corporations reducing their advertising budgets during economic downturns is not new. We have observed that during numerous worldwide crises, advertising spending has substantially decreased. This, however, is a practice that dates back to a time when conventional advertising predominated. Things have changed a little since then.

The structure of advertising spending is where there is the most disparity. In traditional advertising, having a high advertising budget nearly always equals success, but in modern advertising, a significant influence can be made with a lesser budget if it is used wisely.

So, this business isn’t as dangerous as it used to be, and if you’re smart, you can make a difference with a small budget.

Budget cuts for advertising during a crisis are highly risky. Let’s look at the reasons for this.

If You Lose Your Voice, You Lose Your Market Share

When a brand cuts its advertising budget, it creates a huge opportunity for its competitors. This circumstance has occurred frequently throughout history. The most well-known of these instances was when McDonald’s in the 1980s reduced their advertising spending. Following McDonald’s error, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell upped their advertising budgets and saw significant revenue growth.

Today, that still holds true. Brands have the ability to seize market share from rivals by acting aggressively during times of crisis.

The Consumer’s World Changes

The intensity of the economic crisis alters the worldview of the consumer and, consequently, the connection they form with your brand. Consumer trust is poor during these times, and the brands they are loyal to go through significant shifts. The consumer’s confidence in you will be undermined by your absence during this transformation. Consequently, it will be quite challenging to protect your current sales.

Advertising Is Not an Extraneous Expense

At the beginning of our article, we said that we cut some expenditures that we deem unnecessary in times of crisis. We made sure to emphasize that one of these costs is advertising. This is a significant error, though.

Like any of your finances, your advertising budget might need to be reduced during a crisis. However, drastic cuts to your advertising budget could leave you unable to support current sales and risk permanently ceding market share to rival companies.

There are some options available to you.

• Examine your marketing spending plans. Focus on efficiency.
• Recognize your consumers’ struggle. Create campaigns and messaging that are specific to these challenging times.
• Be reassuring and upbeat. People need to relax.
• Keep track of every dollar you spend. Consider receiving a return on your investments more than ever.
• Don’t keep your voice down. However, concentrate on generating a return on your assets more quickly.

What we call web traffic today is actually mostly mobile traffic. Mobile traffic accounts for at least 60% of total web traffic in most countries. Advertisers are very interested in mobile devices because mobile users are much easier to track down than desktop users.

It’s clear that mobile marketers collect massive amounts of data. But a cookie-free future may be full of great struggles for them. Although it is not easy to overcome these problems, there are some ways.

Creating Value

The number one goal of every mobile marketer should be to obtain voluntary consent from users. For this, the value created by my communication platform must be equal for both parties. In other words, you need to create value for your users as much as they create value for you.

The concept of “value” has a very broad definition. “Value” can be personalized content or promotional codes. You should decide the value of your drink according to the dynamics of the communication platform you have and be fair to your users.

Finding the Right Context

In modern marketing, context is one of the most important variables for creating effective communication. Mobile platforms, on the other hand, have great advantages in detecting context.

Thanks to mobile devices, it is possible to detect many behaviors and geographical locations of the user. For example, showing low prices to a user doing product research on a mobile phone in a shopping mall means communicating effectively with the user in the right context. However, of course, it is necessary to give importance to creating value while establishing this contextual communication. Otherwise, this communication can turn into an annoying experience for the user.

Brand Apps

Undoubtedly, one of the biggest dreams of every brand manager is to have the application of his brand downloaded by the masses. However, it is not that easy. Because people are very selective about the applications they will install on their phones and the permissions they give to these applications.

Mobile apps are great for identifying the user. However, a brand needs to do more than others to get its app installed.

Making the mobile app part of the mix while integrating marketing efforts can be a good solution. The automotive and white goods sectors have been successfully implementing this strategy for a while. With the mobile app, you can keep track of when your car needs service or how long the warranty on your fridge lasts.

The end of third-party cookies is not the end of the world. You need to stop relying on just one piece of code to identify users. When you create real value for your users, you will really start to get to know them.

In the old days of advertising, radio ads were a big part of the mix. Radio was one of the few tools that advertisers could use, along with the press and TV. As time went on and television and then the Internet became more popular, radio became a less important medium. So, advertising on the radio also lost its value. However, with the modernization of radio, a new age for audio advertising has begun. But not many people understand how big this change is.

Traditional media still have the lion’s share of audio advertising. While 28.28 billion dollars were spent on audio advertising in 2021, the figure was 5.92 billion dollars for digital channels. Although it is predicted that the change will be in favor of digital channels, it is predicted that traditional channels will maintain their superiority even in 2027 projections. It is estimated that in 2027, 28.38 billion dollars will be spent on audio advertising in traditional media, and this figure will increase to 10 billion dollars for digital media.

Although it is foreseen that advertising expenditures on digital audio channels will increase by 100% in the next 5 years, this is not enough. However, digital audio channels have things that other channels do not offer.

A Better Audience

We can say that digital audio advertising platforms offer a more refined audience. Studies show that the average podcast listener is a university graduate, a business owner, and a high income group. In this way, digital audio ads are great for reaching a high-purchasing audience.

Better Connection

Digital audio improves brands’ connections with their target audience, both physically and emotionally.

Digital audio ads, unlike display ads, cannot be skipped. There is no ad blocking software for these ads either. In this way, it is easier for ads to reach the target audience.

He knows that listeners have a higher emotional bond with podcasts. Therefore, it is possible for brands that advertise on these channels to benefit from this connection.

Better Targeting

You may have observed that Spotify offers the best personalization experience among all digital content platforms. This is because people are more selective when it comes to sound. The same goes for podcasts. This selectivity also allows for much more accurate targeting in audio ads.

Undistracted Attention

Perhaps the biggest advantage of audio commercials is that the audience listens attentively to the advertisements. The sound is usually heard while walking, driving, or cooking. Therefore, there is usually no interaction with any media device during listening moments. This allows listeners to listen to audio commercials without being distracted.

Audio ads are making a comeback with the digital audio revolution. This is a very untouched area with great potential. This potential needs to be used.

We discuss the value of the gaming sector for advertising. However, when we compare the size of the industry with the existing advertising expenditures, we see that the gaming industry is not given enough space in advertising without the need for a long analysis. We would like to examine this issue more thoroughly.

Is It Still a Niche?

We can say that the advertising industry’s biggest bias against the idea of “game” is that this idea is still seen as a niche. But that is not how things actually are. To categorize gamers as a niche audience now, when mobile games have significantly increased the number of casual players, would be to demonstrate a shocking lack of knowledge.

One can categorize the players into hardcore and casual gamers. Casual gamers are those that play video games for fun, typically on their mobile devices. Hardcore players, on the other hand, are individuals who incorporate PC gaming into every aspect of their lives.

It is certain that the advertising industry has developed a certain understanding of casual gamers. Investments and advertising-related technologies are growing quickly. However, it’s uncertain how much is sufficient.

On the other side, the advertising business has no idea who the audience for hardcore players is. Something is known to be going on there, but no real effort is being made.

The following details need to be understood: The video game industry is larger than the combined size of the movie and sports industries. Globally, there are 2.7 billion players. And these are significant numbers.

Chance for the Perfect Context

Creating engagement is one of the main issues facing modern advertising. Ads must be presented to the intended audience in the appropriate context in order to generate engagement. Games offer this context.

Games undoubtedly rank among the content types with the highest levels of engagement. Both movies and sporting activities can’t keep viewers glued to the screen. Sometimes, even during the most thrilling tournament finals, we check our phones.

Games are not like that. The video games provide an engaging experience. They also provide it every day, not only on particular days. The typical gamer plays for seven hours per week.

It is true that there is tremendous potential here. Advertisers must effectively utilize this potential. According to the context, they must insert their advertisements inside the games.

For a long time, automakers have included their vehicles in racing simulations. This is a good example of product placement by context. However, it’s pretty simple. It is possible to make more sophisticated integrations with today’s technology.

The ad industry has to learn more about the gaming sector and broaden its current understanding of games. The game world no longer being a mysterious box will be advantageous for both the advertising industry and the gaming sector.

For most of the population, social media has become the internet itself. Therefore, social media is one of the most important communication points for brands that want to meet their target audience on the internet. However, the fact that e-commerce businesses use this contact point only for the promotion of products and services causes them to add another layer for sales. Social commerce makes it possible to sell things through social media, which speeds up the sales cycle.

Inspiration in the Purchasing Process

Undoubtedly, shortening the check-out process is one of the most important advantages of social commerce. However, this is not the only advantage. In particular, the younger generations get their inspiration for shopping from social media. A study showed that 97% of Gen Z use social media as the biggest source of content for their purchasing decisions. This means that social commerce does not only make the e-commerce process practical for the user; it also shows that it brings users closer to the source of inspiration.

A More Personalized Way to Reach Your Audience

One of the most important reasons for the success of social commerce is the ability to reach potential customers through personalized systems. Since the activities of people on social media are much more traceable than on other channels, it becomes easier to recommend products and services that they are more likely to purchase.

Communication and Sales: One Channel

One of the biggest advantages of social commerce is that communication and sales with the target audience can be carried out through a single channel. Brands that restrict their sales to their own e-commerce sites use their social media for communication while selling from their websites. The fact that these two channels act independently of each other causes a lack of synergy. Social trading solves this problem. In this way, a more loyal customer base emerges.

There is data to confirm this insight. A study showed that 72% of millennials are more loyal to brands that engage with them on social media.

There Are Great Opportunities for Small and Medium Businesses

We should also say that social commerce offers great opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses. Recently, there has been a shift in e-commerce from large retailers to smaller businesses. These businesses consist of local businesses and businesses with expertise in a particular field. Social media offers these businesses great opportunities. Since these businesses are more likely to be able to communicate with their customers more effectively than big retailers, they are also more likely to make sales.

To summarize, social commerce has reached a level that e-commerce operations of all sizes simply cannot ignore. Businesses that use social media not only as a communication channel with their target audience, but also as a sales channel earn more. If you run such an operation, you should seriously consider using the power of social media to sell.