Every marketer has heard the hype: Digital advertising is the key to growing your brand, and a small investment in, say, paid search or display ads is all you need to reach new customers and grow your business.
So let’s start with realistic expectations. What can you expect from your digital advertising investments?
What Digital Advertising Does Well
- Increase brand awareness and visibility. Digital advertising reaches new customers where they spend their time: online. With targeted ads, your brand connects with consumers throughout their daily digital experience.
- Drive traffic to your website or landing page. Digital ads let consumers click through to your websites directly from an ad. The rate at which consumers do just that is known as a campaign’s “click-through rate” or CTR.
- Generate leads and conversions. Digital ads turn viewers into customers with targeted messaging, clear calls to action, and a smooth path from ad to purchase.
- Provide measurable results and insights. Digital advertising shows you exactly what's working through real-time data and testing. You can optimize campaigns as they run and use insights to improve future results.
What Digital Advertising Can’t Do
- Guarantee immediate sales or conversions. Consumers may see and click on your ad, but you still have work to do. Conversions come through nurturing—telling the consumer your brand story and how you intend to deliver on a promise.
- Provide personal contact information of users. One common misconception is that you can see precisely who clicks on your ads. In reality, you only get anonymized data about user behavior, not personal identities. Only consumers can decide if and when they provide you with their personal data.
- Replace the need for a comprehensive marketing strategy.Digital advertising works best as part of a complete marketing strategy, not as a standalone solution for building customer relationships.
Why Setting Realistic Expectations Matters
Setting realistic expectations helps you avoid disappointment, allocate budget effectively, and make better decisions about targeting and messaging. Understanding industry benchmarks means you'll recognize good performance when you see it.
Learn More
Ready to set realistic goals for your digital advertising? Download What to Expect from Digital Advertising: A Beginner’s Guide to Setting Goals, Targeting, and Anticipating Results to learn how to create campaigns that deliver real business results.
