In 2022 it’s no secret that we are living in a digital world where digital advertising is ruling. Digital ad spending worldwide – including both desktops, laptops and mobile devices – is estimated to stand at USD 320 billion in 2022. This figure is going to increase in the coming times, reaching USD 646 billion by 2024. (Sources: Statista Zenith)
The most heavily invested and rapidly growing segment of the digital advertising industry happens to be mobile advertising. Experts forecast mobile ad spending to rise from USD 276 billion in 2020 to approximately USD 495 billion in 2024 (Source: Statista). Also, Customers in the United States spend thirty-five hours per week using mobile devices. Ninety-two percent of the time is spent on mobile. This clearly indicates the jump in mobile usage.
As these figures continue to showcase an upward trend, adoption of digital advertising, especially mobile advertising is growing accordingly. Businesses have recognized that they need to target customers via digital advertising platforms and mobile marketing technologies. But there are so many digital advertising platforms out there that it’s overwhelming for businesses to choose which one is best-suited for them. So, which digital advertising networks are the best? - is the question that bothers most businesses and advertisers. It is difficult to answer the question definitively as there is not much data to be taken into consideration.
However, here’s a list of world’s top digital advertising platforms best suited for businesses to reach more customers earning high margin revenues:
1. Facebook Ads
Facebook has entered 2022 as one of the most successful digital advertising platforms in the world. Surveys reveal that Facebook Ads, Facebook Messenger Ads, etc. are some of the most used ad channels for businesses across the globe.
Facebook is commonly known for its targeting options and multimedia ad formats. With Messenger ad campaigns businesses can target customers through interest, location behavior, and more. Businesses can build a customer base using custom audiences and lookalike audiences features. They can easily combine ads via Facebook’s retargeting strategy. With lead generation ads businesses can generate leads, as Facebook allows its audience to subscribe in just a few clicks or drop in their contact information.
Facebook is struggling with several government bodies and consumer data privacy issues across the globe. Facebook Ads Manager was down for 8 hours in October 2018, giving tough times to advertisers. They also experience occasional bugs and glitches while using Facebook Ads.
2. moLotus Ads
moLotus is an innovative breakthrough mobile video customer interaction platform facilitating brands, telcos and customers. The digital advertising landscape has transformed completely as moLotus partners with big telcos across the globe. The breakthrough platform is disrupting the USD 1.7 trillion Global Marketing Spend (Source: PwC).
Brands and advertisers are using the moLotus unique capabilities like hyper-personalization, customization, interactivity, scalability, automation, integration and more to increase lead generation, customer acquisition, conversion, customer response, customer retention with quick high margin revenues.
moLotus personalizes brand messages using customer names and other relevant customer data. Businesses are targeting customers via hyper-personalized messages creating interactive campaigns with easy customer interaction options like SMS, Click URL, USSD, Callback, and more. Campaigns involve no application downloads, no spam, and no data plans offering a better purchasing experience to customers with convenient and low cost interactions.
The moLotus ad campaigns provide a number of customization options based on several business criteria including income, age, demographics, interests, etc. Customers get delighted by the personalized campaign messages loaded with best offers and product information coming straight from their trusted brands.
moLotus ad messages rapidly reach millions of customers across the world on their mobile devices irrespective of phone model or type. The messages remain intact in the mobile inbox until customers delete them voluntarily. The digital platform is automating and transforming customer processes like customer onboarding, reminders, contracts renewals, lead generation, loyalty, etc. for businesses bringing in agility and cost savings.
moLotus has a huge revenue potential across the globe benefiting brands across all industry verticals including E-commerce, Banking, Insurance, Retail, Automobile, Consumer Electronics, Government Sector, etc.
Even during the pandemic, businesses witnessed an increase in revenues, growth in customer base via moLotus. A sizable majority of brands and advertisers, previously spending huge chunks of their marketing budgets on social media platforms are switching over to moLotus.
3. Google Ads
Google Ads was launched just two years after Google.com, the most popular website in the world came into existence. The digital advertising platform which came into being in October 2000 was known as Google Adwords. After rebranding in 2018, it was renamed as Google Ads.
Google Ads is a paid advertising platform also known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform, where advertisers pay per click or impression (CPM) on an advertisement.
Google Ads have been effective in driving qualified traffic, or right customers by reaching the customers who are searching for products and services on Google search engine. With Google Ads, businesses can boost their web traffic, receive more calls, and increase store visits.
Using Google Ads businesses can create and share well-timed digital advertisements (via both mobile and desktop) reaching a huge target audience. Businesses show up on search engine results page (SERP) at the moment an ideal customer is searching for products and services via Google Search or Google Maps. This way, the ads reach the target customers when it makes sense for them to come across a particular ad.
However, Google Ads could be underperforming for several reasons. If advertisers use keywords that are too broad, Google will be placing the ad in front of the wrong audience, which means lesser number of clicks and a higher ad spend. If the advertisement does not match the customer's search intent, the advertisers won’t get enough clicks to justify their ad spend.
4. WhatsApp Ads
WhatsApp instant messaging service has released its official WhatsApp Business app in several parts of the world. More businesses have started using the platform to interact with their customers. It is integrated with digital advertising platforms like Facebook and Instagram, assisting businesses to reach and interact with a wider customer base. This allows the advertisers to capture more leads. WhatsApp isn’t just an instant messaging for businesses; it can effectively use it as a digital advertising tool for lead generation, customer acquisition and retention.
WhatsApp is helping local businesses to get new customers, offer customer support and maintain steady customer relationships. Businesses are taking the help of the digital advertising service and gaining more ad revenues.
Businesses from different industry verticals are using WhatsApp Business to acquire, engage, and retain customers at different stages in the buying journey. They are responding to customer queries more effectively, generating traffic to their website.
WhatsApp Business API is assisting advertisers in generating awareness by announcing new products and promotions, making product recommendations to customers; sending notifications, order confirmation, shipping updates, etc. to customers after they place an order.
WhatsApp Business app is available only on Android in most countries. WhatsApp Business app is limited access being restricted to android users. It lacks many essential capabilities to be present in a true digital marketing platform.
5. Microsoft Ads (Bing Ads)
Microsoft Advertising - previously known as Microsoft adCenter, Bing Ads, MSN adCenter - is a digital ad service that offers pay per click (PPC) advertising on the search engines like Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. In 2021, Microsoft Advertising surpassed US$10 billion in annual revenue. (Source : Wikipedia)
Just like Google Ads, Microsoft Ads uses both the maximum amount a brand advertiser is willing to pay per click (PPC) on their ad and the ad's click-through rate to ascertain how often an ad is shown. In this way the advertisers are encouraged to create and deliver effective adverts and to advertise only on relevant customer searches.
Businesses can target their ads by limiting their ads to desired demographics, interests, etc. and can adjust their bids accordingly. Using Microsoft Ads businesses can run their ads on specific days of the week or certain times of day.
Microsoft Ads offer advertisers a desktop tool to manage campaigns offline, called Microsoft Ads Editor. Using this editor, they can manage and make changes in the campaigns offline. Microsoft Ad service also comes up with APIs that can be used by advertisers to manage their advertising campaigns conveniently.
The Microsoft Ads service is stuck with a bunch of technical issues. Microsoft Advertising suffers from low speed and is time-consuming.
6. Taboola Ads
Taboola is one of the largest digital advertising platforms and well known in the segment of native advertising. It has over one billion unique visitors worldwide. In addition, it has investments from millions of advertisers.
Taboola advertising differs from that of other digital advertising platforms such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads. In place of products, promotions and brands, Taboola advertises content from other websites in order to generate traffic and the resulting agreements. Taboola ads are often seen by customers while reading an article on a blog or on some internet portals. The strategy behind this is to display content on the most visited websites on the Internet, in a way related to what the customer is reading or consuming, thus generating traffic for businesses.
Taboola unites brand advertisers and publishers creating opportunities for both the parties. On the one side, the advertisers gain good traffic from customers interested in what they have to offer; while on the other side, the publisher monetizes their website and earns more revenues via impressions and clicks. Therefore, Taboola is a proven way of monetizing websites and blogs.
Taboola’s user interface is clunky, making navigation, managing campaigns and viewing performance difficult for advertisers and publishers. The ads often reach irrelevant sites leading to poor quality leads.
7. InMobi Ads
InMobi is a mobile app-based digital advertising network having a global reach. Businesses can develop advertisements using the InMobi app platform empowered with an algorithm that helps in optimizing the ranking of the ads served on mobile devices.
InMobi advertising platform provides businesses an opportunity to drive customer engagement and revenue via personalized mobile advertising campaigns. Businesses can use the rich media contextual ads to cross-sell and re-target customers. The mobile advertising platform offers an ad tracker for tracking the conversions and events.
InMobi creates data monetization opportunities for businesses via app; striking a right balance between mobile advertising revenue and customer experience with appropriate native implementation of ad placements.
InMobi ads often suffer from low reach in many parts of the world affecting the global scalability of ads. The app-based platform should improve their anti-fraud mechanism.
Conclusion
The selection of digital advertising platforms for businesses entirely depends upon advertising budget, advertising goals, industry, and other niche factors. A close scrutiny of the digital advertising tools highlights the fact that most of the tools are either app-based or consume a good amount of data. moLotus is the only exception that bypasses the need for Internet connectivity or mobile apps. This gives it an edge.
Broadly speaking, all tools are of great importance to businesses serving different purposes. Businesses can use them in combination in their marketing mix to meet their digital advertising goals.
