Regardless of the size of the industry of a business, or its products and services, there are very similar steps that companies need to take to create their digital advertising campaigns.

The process starts by setting goals, defining the target audience, assigning a budget, and choosing the right channel.

Goals

The first step in any campaign that companies create is setting the right goals. When companies have a clear idea of what they want to achieve with their campaigns, and how the goals are going to be measured, the odds of creating a successful campaign increase.

Companies can aim to increase brand awareness, grow their social media following, or simply generate more sales with their digital advertising campaigns.

However, when setting goals, they need to be following the SMART framework, which means creating specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals.

Target Audience

Once the company has set its goals, it’s time to decide which audiences it plans to target with that campaign.

The great advantage of digital advertising campaigns is that companies get to target very specific audience segments.

With digital advertising campaigns, companies can fully take advantage of the targeting features that various ad platforms provide, and target customers based on their age, demographic, gender, interest, or location.

No matter what a company decides to target, it should account for the goals that were set in the beginning.

Budget

One of the essential elements for any digital advertising campaign is setting an appropriate budget. The budget is going to define how much companies can spend and which channels they choose to advertise on.

Companies can base their budget on a number of factors including their goals, the timeframe of the campaign, the pricing of the solutions, previous results, or the company’s overall marketing budget.

Although it’s important to establish a budget at the beginning, companies should also be prepared to be flexible with it.

Channel

The last step in creating a digital advertising campaign is to decide which channel the company will be advertising on. The channel in question needs to match the company’s goals, target audience, and budget.

For example, most companies tend to prefer advertising on Google, but this choice can be quite expensive for specific keywords.

Additionally, companies that want to increase their social media following shouldn’t be looking to advertise on Google in the first place and should choose a social media platform instead.

If a company is launching a digital advertising campaign for the very first time, it’s best to stick to a single channel to make it a lot easier to keep track of the performance and get more information for future campaigns.

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Ronn Torossian is the Founder & Chairman of 5W Public Relations, one of the largest independently-owned PR firms in the United States.

With over 20 years of experience crafting and executing powerful narratives, Torossian is one of America’s most prolific and well-respected Public Relations professionals.