Article

7 tips for running an awesome online ad campaign

Today’s most powerful marketing tool for reaching this "instant gratification" audience is online advertising.

January 18, 2016

By Michelle Lenzo, vice president of regional sales at Gamut, smart media from Cox.

If you’re in the limited service restaurant business, you’re probably aware that your customers are impulse decision makers. They decide what they want and they want it now. Today’s most powerful marketing tool for reaching this "instant gratification" audience is online advertising.

There are a myriad of clever ways to reach hungry customers directly and inexpensively through online and mobile advertising campaigns. So how can you be smarter about your restaurant’s digital media campaigns?  There are several tips to consider when venturing into the world of online advertising:

1. Offer mobile-optimized deals.
   In today’s age of the smart phone, mobile-optimized content matters. Make sure you are offering restaurant coupons and deals on mobile-optimized internet landing pages. When coupons are loaded onto smart phones, hungry customers are more likely to visit your restaurant now.
2. Track more than just clicks.
   Despite common misconceptions, it’s important to rely on metrics rather than the number of clicks. Multi-media or high impact ads are great opportunities for customer engagement in a variety of ways, not just by actually clicking on the ad.
3. Use mobile advertising to geo-fence.
   Today’s GPS technologies enable advertisers to automatically send a message to a smartphone user once they have entered into a specified geographic area. This is particularly powerful for the limited service restaurant business. For example, a potential customer walks into a 3-block circumference of Bob’s Burgers at lunchtime, and he sees an ad for a burger and fries value meal on his phone. Because customers are likely to cash in on such deals when they are in a nearby vicinity, this increases the chances for a sales conversion.
4. Play games.
   It’s important that campaigns include rich media, such as ads that features video, audio or other interactive elements. Rich media games are a particularly great way to generate high brand lift and increase customer engagement.
5. Leverage partner networks to optimize ads.
   Every advertiser relies on a network of media partners to distribute its content. Relying on these partners (i.e. online publishers, websites, blogs, social media sites, online newspapers and magazines) to optimize ads will help increase deeper site engagement. Beyond the initial click, customers return to your site to do things like sign up for loyalty cards and look at your menu’s nutritional information. Take advantage of your digital network to drive these sorts of customer engagements and measure them. 
6. Look to cross-platform to supplement TV budgets.
   If your TV advertising budget is not where you want it to be, using digital cross-device advertising products can be extremely helpful. This allows advertisers to access multi-screen impressions and will extend a campaign’s reach to a TV audience. Cross-platform, high-impact placements on computer screens, mobile phone and tablet screens and TV screens will help to reach potential customers wherever they are throughout the day.
7. Don’t forget the basics.
   In the end, content matters. Create engaging creative ads with a strong call to action. Nothing helps to drive product sales better!