5 Best Small Business Advertising Platforms for 2022

“Where should I put my marketing budget?”

This is a question every business owner asks themselves.

With companies spending over $250 billion on digital advertising, it’s become abundantly clear that Advertising Platforms are the route most growing businesses must go.

But with so many choices, it can be difficult to navigate the digital advertising landscape. You have a lot of factors to consider, which is why we’ve compiled this guide.

What is an Advertising Platform?

An advertising platform provides access to all varieties of online advertising.  Through these platforms, businesses can buy media across any number of websites, targeting specific audiences, behaviors, keywords or combinations of each.  This media is generally bought on a CPM, CPC or CPA and can take the form of banner ads, content, native or video.  Today, the majority of media is bought through Advertising Platforms.  A trend which shows no sign of slowing down!

What is Pay-Per-Click Advertising?

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an online advertising model in which advertisers pay each time a user clicks on one of their online ads – It’s also the most popular form of payment for most small business advertising platforms. You’re already familiar with pay-per-click if you’ve noticed the advertisements that appear alongside search results on Google. Essentially, it’s a way of buying visits to your site. However, businesses running ads are only charged when a user clicks on their ad, which is where the name “pay-per-click” comes from.

The number of pay per click ad networks has skyrocketed in recent years. From traditional search engine result pages (Google and Bing) to social media (Facebook and LinkedIn), to native advertising. Unfortunately, there is no blueprint that you can apply to any business, which is why it’s up to you to compare your options and decide which network is best for your business. Take a look at this selection of PPC ad networks to get a better understanding of your options.

 

Google Ads

Let’s start with the titan of the industry. There are no bones about it, Google Ads is the ruler of the PPC world. Just from a traffic point of view, they feature an enormous ad network of millions of 3rd party websites. How do most people find anything? Google. It’s a verb for crying out loud. However, the downside is competitiveness, since it’s a top choice for every ad buyer.

Features

With Google Ads, there’s something for every stage of the buyer’s journey. You can capture their information and start sending them content through AdWords, and if they don’t convert, you can use retargeting software to draw them back. You can also put constraints on your daily budget, maximum bids on keywords, and more so that you never spend more than you want to.

Pros

• Easy-to-understand results
• Quicker results than SEO
• For any budget
• Hyper specific targeting based on keywords, audience, geography or other data

Cons

• High cost-per-click
• Time invested (steep learning curve)
• Requires constant optimization
• Fierce competition

Google Ad Recommendation

The biggest advantage of using Google Ads over social media ads is intention. People are looking for something specific and you’re offering that product or service. When people use Facebook, they don’t want to be advertised to, they want to look at weddings and baby pictures. However, you will need to invest time. You need to keep monitoring your campaign to find out what’s converting, what’s not, and so on with continuous optimization.

 

Bing Ads

Like Google, Bing is a search engine that provides a standard web search, as well as specialized searches for images, videos, shopping, news, maps, and other categories. Owned by Microsoft, research has revealed that the typical user on Bing is generally over the age of 35 and between the ages of 55 and 64, and most are parents. Also, one-third of the Bing Ads audience has a household income of $100,000 or more. So if that’s your target audience, Bing Ads might be a smart choice.

Features

While similar, there are several features offered in Bing Ads that are not available in Google Ads. With Google, there isn’t much visibility into Google search partner performance beyond aggregated metrics. With Bing Ads, you get more transparency. Bing Ads offers reporting on individual search partner performance and you can exclude search partners from both the ad group and campaign levels.

Pros

• Less competition
• More control of your campaign
• Demographic-based targeting
• More affluent average user

Cons

• Less traffic
• Not a diverse audience
• Smaller geographical presence

Bing Ad Recommendation

Even though Google has more search volume, Bing can get you higher positioning, less bidding competition, and generally a lower cost-per-click. Additionally, you can expand your reach into new and unique territories. The platform also offers you the option to directly import your existing Google Ads campaigns into Bing Ads so you don’t have to recreate everything from scratch.

 

Yelp Business Ads

Yelp ads work similar to Google Ads and Facebook Ads in that business owners can pay to get preferential rankings and placements. With these ads, you can target potential clients as they are deciding which business products and services they want to purchase. When you sign up for Yelp advertising, your ad also gets impressions on the profiles of your competitors, which has the potential to sway them to your business.

Features

If you’re on Yelp and you’re not paying for it, then your competitors’ ads will show up on your business’s profile page – this is called conquesting. But if you’re paying for Yelp Ads, your business will show up when people search for your niche, and your competitors’ ads will be restricted to your profile page. You’re also able to organize and feature images that complement your business in the way you’d prefer. You can also feature order forms, coupons, and so forth for additional monthly fees.

Pros

• Hyper-local focus
• Ability to conquest competitors
• Full control over what you spend

Cons

• Ads are quite expensive
• Unable to set location controls or keywords
• Fees add up as you use more features

Yelp Business Ads Recommendation

Are Yelp Business Ads worth it? It depends. They’ve certainly received negative feedback, but the network can also be very useful. People still read reviews before choosing to purchase a product or service, which can make Yelp Ads very useful in that regard. Especially if your business is well established and you have a good amount of positive reviews. But if your company isn’t well established, you might consider other PPC platforms.

Pro-Tip: How to remove bad Yelp Reviews

 

Facebook Ads

Facebook is the most targeted form of advertising and is a very useful tool to reach your target audience. If you really know your customers, it’s great because you can advertise to people by age, interests, behavior, and location. Facebook claims that they are 89% accurate when it comes to targeted campaigns. This means well designed Facebook campaigns can have excellent ROAS.

Features

Facebook has found a way to combine visual content and storytelling with Native and Carousel Ads. With this type of ad, you can leverage up to 10 images or photos, headlines, links, and a CTA. With Facebook pixel, you can measure conversions, optimize your ads, and gain insights on the users visiting your website. Facebook ads also feature behavior targeting which is based on past purchase behavior, purchase intent, device usage, travel preferences, and other behavioral characteristics.

Pros

• Very specific targeting using 1^st party data
• Competitive but highly effective PPC rates
• Can start with very low daily budgets

Cons

• Learning curve
• Only Facebook users see your ads
• Metrics aren’t always correct

Facebook Ads Recommendation

If you set up your campaigns right, they will drive high-quality clicks that produce value for your business, which makes Facebook ads a more profitable way to market your business than other advertising channels. For a profitable campaign, you’re probably looking at a potential cost-per-conversion of $30 or $300 according to the data. If that seems too high for you, you might consider alternatives.

 

LinkedIn Ads

If you’re a B2B business, the LinkedIn Ads network is a great option to market your products or services. With 675 million business professionals on their platform, you’re certain to find your audience. It also helps that they provide you with all the information you need to reach those targets. Plus, LinkedIn’s users have an incentive to keep their professional profiles and job details current, so you always have updated data.

Features

The LinkedIn ad system collects information from everyone in their network, which includes their company, industry, and job title, or vocational function. When using LinkedIn to target your audience, you can advertise not just to people at a certain company but people at specific positions at that certain company. They also have a Lead Accelerator tool which allows you to organize your ad campaign strategy and optimize the way you approach prospects.

Pros

• Access to business professionals
• Very accurate user and profile data
• Customize your budget

Cons

• More expensive on average
• Difficult to engage users on platform
• Inferior user interface and clunky usability

LinkedIn Ads Recommendation

LinkedIn Ads allow you to target prospects by their job titles, skill set, seniority, company name, industry, and more, which could make it a great potential revenue stream for your business. However, most people on the platform are using it for career advancement or professional and personal development. So if your product or service doesn’t fit into what they’re looking for, LinkedIn ads might not be for you. If they do fit, LinkedIn ads could very well be a good fit.

That’s it!  Our list of the best advertising platforms for small business.  Now that your ads are up, be sure to check out our 5 Rules for Small Business Marketing!