Where Should I Advertise My Small Business?

Perhaps the word "small" in small business is a misnomer. Small businesses aren't small in potential, just in physical size. Your small business can be as big as you want to make it! And part of this bigness comes with advertising.

A small business with any budget can make use of creative advertising approaches and resources. So you'll want to choose an outlet that will give you a fighting chance within your market.

If you're wondering where you should advertise your small business, the following list gives you modern options to put your small business into the ring with your competitors. As you read, keep the following in mind:

• For how long do you want to run your ad?
• How creative do you want to be with your ad?
• Can you afford to run this ad, or is there a more affordable option?
• How easy will it be for you to track and measure results?

Google Ad Words

Google Ad Words is arguably one of the most effective ways to advertise your business. Developed by Google, Google Ads offers advertisers a platform to display product listings, brief advertisements, and video ads. These ads will show up on search engines, videos, and mobile apps. You'll be able to reach an incredibly wide audience through this platform, whether you run ads for free or boost your campaign with paid packages. And, even more, you can track conversions and other actions.

Facebook Ads

Commanding slightly over 1.4 billion users daily, Facebook is smart for a small business to capitalize on its brand. The social media giant offers flexible advertising options for small businesses, starting at $5 for an ad campaign. A small business can also use Facebook's advertising feature on Messenger to reach established and potential customers.

Influencers

Your small business doesn't always have to do the advertising. They can get someone to do it for them. By collaborating with popular influencers -- social media users who have a great deal of power over other users' purchase decisions -- your advertising can bridge generations, markets, and social media platforms. Most influencers have a range of packages to suit any budget. On average, with just $100 a small business can reach out to over 100,000 followers.

The advantage of advertising through an influencer is that influencers have non-drop, real followers; Not online fake traffic syndicates sold by some unscrupulous dealer. Influencers command a large following, making it easy for your small business to improve brand visibility and conversion rates. Additionally, followers trust their influencers, so any brand they endorse gets a huge following quickly.

If you choose to go with an influencer, you are leaving the advertising in their hands. So choose your influencer wisely.

Bloggers

Bloggers are an important facet in small-scale business advertisements and can influence their followers to check out your business. Whether you have no budget or a huge budget, this model is flexible for you.

Yahoo and Bing Local

Yahoo and Bing Local are online channels a small business can use to advertise their business. By investing as little as $30 per month with Yahoo Local, you'll have access to various Yahoo Business advertising plans. The same applies to Bing.

YouTube Advertising

If your small business has a small marketing budget, then YouTube advertising is an ideal choice. And if the business wants to make a big splash and spend lots of money, YouTube still offers a great advertising platform. Depending on your business's needs, you can take advantage of free advertising by leveraging SEO or running paid ads. Additionally, you can create a channel that you can use to advertise for free.

Pricing for placing an ad on a YouTube video that is not your own is tricky. YouTube will charge you around $0.10-$0.30 per view. This could potentially get expensive.

Event Sponsorship

Sponsoring social events is a creative and impactful approach to advertising. Through sponsorship, potential customers will get to know your business on a more personal level. It will also establish relationships with sponsors who will promote your business as long as the professional relationship remains intact.

Native Ads

Native ads blend in with the scenery. When a social media user scrolls past a native ad, they may not even realize they are looking at an advertisement in the first place. It may seem sneaky, but it's a sleek, smart, and subtle advertising option.

Native ads are not cheap. If your small business is fortunate to have a large budget, with money left over, then you'll find great success with this method.

Business Listings

Most online business directories offer free listing packages. Though this is cost-effective, premium packages deliver better results. Business listings are an ideal way to advertise, no matter the kind of budget a business has. A great advantage of this kind of advertising is that online listing platforms have quality traffic. This leads to higher conversions.

Conclusion

The advent of online advertising has greatly transformed how individuals and organizations position their brands. As opposed to traditional advertising, online advertising channels are effective, flexible, and available. So, is an influencer promoting your business, or are you choosing the less is more approach with a native ad? It's all a matter of where you see your business -- and where others see it, too.