# The Small Business’s Guide to Getting Started in Digital Advertising
Author:  Pal Sinha, Barnali 
Author URL: https://financedigest.com/author/pal-sinha-barnali
Published: 2021-07-09
Category: BUSINESS
Category URL: https://financedigest.com/category/business
Meta Title: 3 Tips for Small Businesses Starting Their Digital
Meta Description: Learn how small businesses can build their brand, improve SEO, and embrace self-serve advertising to make the most of digital advertising opportunities.
URL: https://financedigest.com/the-small-businesss-guide-to-getting-started-in-digital-advertisinghtml

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By Lisen Zethraeus, CMO at [DanAds](https://danads.com/)

It’s an exciting time for a small business when it looks to launch its first ad campaign. But the world of advertising can often be confusing and, if you’re a small business with no dedicated marketing team, and a limited budget, it can be difficult to know where to begin.

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Lisen Zethraeus, CMO, DanAds

Here are three tips to help [small businesses](https://www.financedigest.com/small-businesses-run-out-of-cash-before-they-run-out-of-potential.html "Small businesses run out of cash before they run out of potential") make the most of what’s on offer when starting their digital advertising journey.

**[Build Your Brand](https://www.financedigest.com/learning-from-the-disrupters-how-finance-brands-can-build-transformative-business-models.html "Learning from the disrupters – how finance brands can build transformative business models") and Your Story**

In the beginning, it’s easy to get caught up with growth. What can we do [next to make the business](https://www.financedigest.com/novartis-to-spin-off-generics-business-sandoz-next-year.html "Novartis to spin off generics business Sandoz next year") bigger and better, and how quickly can we do it? Growth is obviously fantastic, but small [businesses often make the mistake of jumping into advertising before the company](https://www.financedigest.com/keeping-an-eye-on-company-purse-strings-where-do-businesses-go-wrong.html "Keeping an eye on company purse strings – where do businesses go wrong?") is ready, and the results of a too-soon ad campaign can be underwhelming and a drain on

precious resources.

Of course, there’s no “perfect time” to launch an ad campaign, but the more groundwork the company does to build up the brand in the [early stages](https://www.financedigest.com/valuing-your-early-stage-startup.html "Valuing your Early Stage Startup") – in particular its SEO – the more successful any future ad campaigns will be. It’s all very well spending lots of money on advertising but if you can’t be found with a quick [Google search](https://www.financedigest.com/a-year-in-property-google-searches-reveal-what-buyers-were-looking-for-this-year.html "A year in property: Google searches reveal what buyers were looking for this year") because you’re so far down in

the rankings, the campaign is unlikely to make much of an impact.

If you are in a competitive industry (as nearly all [small businesses](https://www.financedigest.com/small-businesses-and-scams-what-you-need-to-know.html "Small businesses and scams: What you need to know") are), having a content strategy that can boost your rankings on search engines is key. In fact, a company blog is often the best place to start, as they are cheap to maintain and don’t require enormous amounts of manpower.

Before jumping straight into digital advertising, make sure you’ve built out a bank of insightful,  creative, and, above all, engaging content that drives up organic [growth to your business’s](https://www.financedigest.com/which-kpis-should-a-budding-business-focus-on-for-sustained-growth.html "Which KPIs should a budding business focus on for sustained growth?") website. By doing this over a sustained period of time, the [business will be in a much better position when it comes to launching a digital](https://www.financedigest.com/3-reasons-why-businesses-get-stuck-at-the-starting-gate-of-digital-transformation.html "3 Reasons Why Businesses Get Stuck At The Starting Gate Of Digital Transformation") ad campaign later down the line.

**Embrace Self-Serve Advertising**

When it is time to [launch your first campaign](https://www.financedigest.com/seenthis-launches-emissions-dashboard-to-enable-advertisers-to-analyse-data-reduction-and-emission-savings-on-campaigns.html "SeenThis launches Emissions Dashboard to enable advertisers to analyse data reduction and emission savings on campaigns"), it can be scary to think about. Traditional advertising routes, particularly with big publishers, can be complicated and expensive. However, the world of [digital advertising](https://www.financedigest.com/seenthis-launches-creative-platform-to-boost-performance-and-reduce-co2-emissions-in-digital-advertising.html "SeenThis launches Creative Platform to boost performance and reduce CO2 emissions in digital advertising") is changing dramatically and, with the advent of self-serve, the advertising game has been completely revolutionised, and the real winners are small

businesses.

Traditionally, if you wanted to purchase ad space with a big publisher, you’d have to go through the sales/ad ops team, which doesn’t sound too bad. However, the [problem is that these big](https://www.financedigest.com/with-big-bets-on-musk-these-funds-may-have-a-tesla-problem-in-23.html "With big bets on Musk, these funds may have a Tesla problem in ’23") publishers often have very high minimum spends, and this tends to push out a lot of the smaller players whose budgets tend to be more modest. Even if you can get your hands on the cash to meet the steep minimum spend requirements, navigating the tiresome back-and-forth of sharing assets, working out who to target and negotiating costs can be very time-consuming and, for a [small business](https://www.financedigest.com/interest-rates-are-cut-to-an-all-time-low-what-will-this-mean-for-small-businesses.html "Interest rates are cut to an all-time low. What will this mean for small businesses?"), time is a precious commodity.

It all comes down to targeting, and how you as a [business are able to define](https://www.financedigest.com/defined-benefit-pension-schemes-should-they-stop-you-buying-a-business.html "Defined benefit pension schemes: should they stop you buying a business?") who you wish to speak to, and in which context. Where do you believe you will find the ideal audience that is going to benefit from what your [company has to offer](https://www.financedigest.com/navigating-a-buoyant-ma-market-does-the-deal-corridor-with-the-us-or-eu-offer-british-companies-the-better-scope-for-growth.html "Navigating a buoyant M&A market: Does the deal corridor with the US or EU offer British companies the better scope for growth?")? This should be looked at both in terms of where your target audience is situated physically, but also in which publications they would be interested.

This is where self-serve saves the day. The idea behind self-serve is exactly that, for businesses to serve themselves, taking away the constraints of having to deal with in-house ad ops teams. It has allowed big publishers such as Mail Metro Media (MailOnline &Metro), Reach PLC (The Mirror & Daily Record) , Bloomberg Media Group, Hearst Magazines (Elle, Cosmopolitan & QC Magazine), and even some non-traditional publishers, including SoundCloud and Tripadvisor (who all offer self-serve advertising platforms), to significantly lower their minimum spend requirements, opening up entirely new avenues for [small businesses](https://www.financedigest.com/10-dirty-tricks-for-small-businesses-to-watch-out-for-when-negotiating.html "10 dirty tricks for Small Businesses to watch out for when negotiating") looking to get their foot in the door.

What’s more, due to the nature of self-serve infrastructure, it allows businesses to have a [completely transparent overview of their campaigns](https://www.financedigest.com/dominos-completes-first-contextual-and-attention-powered-campaign-with-gumgum-and-playground-xyz.html "Domino’s Completes First Contextual and Attention-Powered Campaign with GumGum and Playground xyz"), from budget, to assets and, notably, targeting. Self-serve allows small businesses to reach either very broad or extremely targeted audiences, depending on what’s deemed necessary for the [business at that time](https://www.financedigest.com/why-the-new-year-is-the-best-time-to-start-your-dream-tech-business.html "Why the New Year is the best time to start your dream tech business"). This is something that would either be extremely costly, or just not feasible with traditional [managed service advertising](https://www.financedigest.com/national-world-launches-new-ad-manager-platform-powered-by-danads-empowering-businesses-to-take-control-of-their-advertising.html "National World launches new ad manager platform, powered by DanAds, empowering businesses to take control of their advertising").

The [list of big](https://www.financedigest.com/uks-top-big-ticket-shopping-list-of-2017.html "UK’s Top Big Ticket Shopping List Of 2017") publishers offering self-serve advertising platforms has increased dramatically over the past 5 years and more and more are surfacing all the time. Do your research and find the publishers you want to advertise with – you’d be surprised how many have a self-serve ad platform in place which will [save you a lot of time and money](https://www.financedigest.com/how-to-save-money-on-business-tripsabroad.html "How to save money on business trips abroad").

**Don’t Put All Your** [Eggs In One Basket](https://www.financedigest.com/investment-eggs-in-alternative-baskets.html "Investment eggs in alternative baskets")

It can be very easy to get caught up in a campaign but it’s important not to neglect your other channels. Social media ads, blog/website ads and video ads are all great [places to start your digital](https://www.financedigest.com/the-evolution-of-loyalty-and-its-place-in-the-digital-age.html "THE EVOLUTION OF LOYALTY AND ITS PLACE IN THE DIGITAL AGE") advertising journey. Although running one big campaign might seem exciting, the [key to success](https://www.financedigest.com/hiring-smart-is-the-key-to-success-for-entrepreneurs-heres-how-you-do-it.html "“Hiring Smart” is the key to success for entrepreneurs. Here’s how you do it.") is consistency and reach.

Your campaign might be a fantastic one, but a competitor who is doing something similar, in addition to three more [across various other platforms](https://www.financedigest.com/squirro-launches-new-advanced-ai-platform-trinity-to-enable-machine-learning-to-deliver-insights-driven-applications-across-the-enterprise.html "Squirro launches new advanced AI platform TRINITY to enable Machine Learning to deliver insights driven applications across the enterprise"), is likely going to get more eyes on their business and, ultimately, be in a much more secure position should, for example, there be any sort of downtime or outage on a single platform.

The beauty of [digital advertising](https://www.financedigest.com/miq-partners-with-seenthis-to-advance-sustainability-in-digital-advertising.html "MiQ Partners with SeenThis to Advance Sustainability in Digital Advertising") is that it’s flexible; you can always ‘go with the flow’. At the end of the day, it’s about [knowing your customer – specifically which channels they use and where you’ll need](https://www.financedigest.com/g20-summit-what-you-need-to-know-now.html "G20 Summit: What you need to know now") to be to get in front of them. Make sure that you’re advertising with purpose, [across multiple channels and don’t be afraid to let the ever-changing advertising](https://www.financedigest.com/alphabets-miss-fans-inflation-fears-across-digital-advertising.html "Alphabet’s miss fans inflation fears across digital advertising") landscape guide you.

Try new things and be adventurous. You’re only going to regret the chances you don’t take.


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