Online Advertising Price: How Much Does It Cost to Advertise Online?
This article attempts to highlight the cost of online advertising. Here we talk about the different channels in internet advertising that businesses must know of before planning any strategy.
Planning to advertise your business online? If you are a novice at this, the first thing you’d ask is – how much does it cost to advertise online? Unfortunately, the most common (and distressing) answer you will get is – “it depends”. Unlike traditional forms of advertising, the scope of online advertising is wide. There is a wide range of possibilities that makes it difficult to zero down on an amount immediately. There is PPC, SEO, email marketing, social media, display ads, content marketing that make up online advertising. Each channel is different and hence their price ranges and models also vary.
In the year 2021, we saw unprecedented online ad spending. According to a report, in US alone online media spending was predicted to cross the $285.2 billion mark, a substantial increase from $240.3 billion in 2020. We can only imagine where the figures will reach by the end of 2022. Though not every business invested in online ads, some chose to spend millions to amplify their campaigns across multiple platforms. Some businesses chose to spend minimally on online marketing. Some chose to linger in between.
If you are just beginning, a ballpark estimate may help you decide. However, what’s more, important is to know which channels to invest in. Your online advertising price will depend on the advertising channel you choose. In this blog, we shall talk about the options (read channels) before you and how much you may expect to pay.
Cost of Online Advertising by Channel
The reason why online ads have become so popular is because of the control you have over your spending. You can decide your budget first, choose the most appropriate channel and work towards your goals.
Since there are many channels of advertising in the online medium, it’s important to understand them.
# 1 PPC Advertising
There are two types of search results displayed by Google and other search engines. One is the organic search results, and the other is the PPC (pay per click) ads. Search engines allow businesses to pay for ads on their search results pages. Every time someone clicks on them, you pay.
But it isn’t just that. There is also a bidding system whereby if you pay more than your competitors for clicks, your ads will be more frequently displayed. Depending on the competition in your industry, the cost per click will vary. If for some industries, the cost is just a few cents per click, for other highly competitive industries, the cost per click can run to a few hundred dollars.
The average that Google charges are about $1 to $2 per click but for some competitive industries such as real estate, insurance, law & financial services – cost per click can vary from $13 to $65+. Though, for a small or medium-sized business, this can mean an average PPC spend of about $1,500 to $5,000+ per month. A good rule of thumb is $1,100 – $1,500 minimum per target location/market.
# 2 Social Media Advertising
Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn let you operate an account free of cost. You would think that you don’t need to spend extra on these platforms but that isn’t how it works. Advertising on social media platforms is very lucrative. You can reach out to more people with social media ads.
The online ad models here work similarly to Google Ads wherein the average CPC for Twitter is $0.38 while it is $0.97 for Facebook and $3.56 for Instagram. For LinkedIn, the average CPC is the costliest at $5.26.
On average, social media ad management services can cost you anything between $1000 to $3000 per month.
But if you are looking for a more all-encompassing social media strategy that includes advertising on multiple networks and are professionally developed, the monthly ad spend can range anything in between $1000 to $5,000+.
# 3 Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is one of the cornerstones of digital marketing. If you want your website to reach your target customers, you must invest in SEO. The math here is simple, the better optimized your site is, the more people it will reach, and you will see more conversions.
SEO requires expertise. There should be a strategy in place that ensures success. Unless you have SEO knowledge, it is best to outsource the work to an experienced agency. This, of course, costs money. The monthly rate can run anywhere between $700 to $2000+ (this will all depend on the scope of work, industry competitiveness, target locations & target keyword topics).
# 4 Email Marketing
As one of the oldest forms of internet marketing, you would think it to be an obsolete form of advertising. But the truth is that it still has one of the highest ROIs among all online marketing channels. Creating relevant content for email marketing plays a decisive role in the success of your campaign.
There are two ways of going about email marketing. You can either choose to draft the mails yourself and use an email platform to reach out to all your customers, or you can hire a digital marketing agency for the job. The former is cheaper and can cost you as little as $10 per month (though at the higher-margin it can run to $1000). But if you hire an agency to manage your emails, they will charge you for strategic development, content creation, sending, and tracking of the emails. This will be expensive and can cost you anywhere between $500 to $1500 monthly.
# 5 Content Marketing
Running and managing a blog is not a new thing. You must already be doing it. If so, congratulations! You are moving in the right direction. It is a simple strategy of publishing original content on your website at regular intervals to continuously offer readers new and informative articles.
It isn’t impossible to manage blogs and you can do so to reduce costs. But hiring a professional will mean that the job is done better. The results will add value as their content development strategy will be backed by adequate market research. An agency will simply not post but will plan, publish, distribute, promote, and track the content. Content marketing can thus cost you as much as $10,000 per month, though at the lower end you can get the service for about $2000 too – this will all depend the scope of work involved for your content marketing campaign. Please note: these ranges all depend on the level of service and scope of work that your content marketing campaign will include.
How to Zero Down on The Right Channels?
The final decision on which channels you should invest in will depend on your budget and target audience. For an e-commerce site, investing in PPC ads will make more sense while for a B2B software provider, investing in content marketing will be more meaningful.
Irrespective of the channels you choose what’s important is to strategize before you begin pouring the money. At every point in the step, you must keep your potential customers in mind. This will give you direction and sense.
Strategizing is often a tough job. It requires research, customer analysis, market study, and much more. It is best that a boutique digital marketing agency such as Cyrusson Inc. is hired. As one of the leading boutique companies we have experience and expertise in handling all your digital marketing needs – and that too at a budget. If you are unsure about the cost you will need to bear, schedule an appointment with us. Let’s talk to understand your business and see how best we can optimize costs for you.