Five Marketing Ideas To Combat the Costs of Paid Advertising

Have you been feeling the pinch of paid advertising recently? You’re not alone. At the start of the year, Meta’s CPM (which is the amount you pay per one thousand views of your content) had increased 61% YOY. And over at Google, their programmatic display CPM had increased by 75% YOY.

The price of paid advertising is on the rise and shows now sign of slowing.

So what does this mean for you and your business, when more than likely you don't have endless pots of cash to fuel the paid advertising fire or constantly shuffle budgets between campaigns? Well, it’s time to get a little creative.

Organic marketing is still a key way to engage and attract new customers, as well as retain those all-important old ones. Here are five ideas to get you going:

1. Showcase Your Products and Services Through Video

Social media platforms love video. Following on from the stratospheric boom of TikTok, Meta similarly announced a pivot in their algorithm that favours Instagram Reels. More than that, YouTube Shorts receive 15 billion views a day. These short-form, vertical videos are around 30-60 seconds in length and encourage scrolling thanks to their quick and captivating nature.

Storytelling is key here, as you have to hook your audience in and encourage them to watch with an interesting proposition. But it doesn’t have to be difficult! You don’t need scriptwriters or a full-scale production. Work with what you have. Tell your brand’s story, share behind-the-scenes snippets from your workplace, and launch or showcase new products and services. Above all, remain authentic to who you are as a business. Audiences will see that and appreciate it.

If you wanted to dig a little deeper into video content, YouTube still reigns supreme with 2 billion people using the platform each month. So it’s well worth investing time into longer video content too.

2. Make Use of User-Generated Content

Sharing user-generated content - or UGC - means to collect and repurpose your customers’ photos and videos to share on your own channels. It’s a win-win as you can celebrate your customers, while cutting down on the time and costs of your marketing efforts. Think of it more as content curation from your end, rather than content creation.

UGC can act as a testimonial of sorts, as it shows your product or service in the hands of real and happy users. This in itself is one of the strongest marketing tactics you could hope for.

Sourcing UGC also gives you a chance to speak with your customers. Getting this conversation going is a great way to build relationships and strengthen their brand loyalty. Try putting a call out for their photos and videos, you can incentivise this with a small discount, or run a competition for them to tag you in their shots.

3. Diversify Your Organic Social Media Presence

If you’ve been steadfast in using just one or two social media channels for a while now, why not branch out and try something different? You could have a whole new audience or customer demographic waiting for you on another social channel.

It doesn’t have to be perfect or successful from day one, think of it as a test-and-learn marketing activity. Do a little research on potential channels you could join, then to save time and effort, repurpose content that already exists. This could mean a simple edit of your post copy, for example.

To boost your LinkedIn lead generation, it's crucial to cross-promote your content on other social media platforms. Encourage your audiences on one platform to follow you on another, as they may find your channel-exclusive content interesting. It can increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your LinkedIn page. Using LinkedIn automation tools can also help streamline the process and save time. Additionally, if you only show behind-the-scenes business updates on LinkedIn, shout about it on Instagram too as someone from your audience may love that type of content but not be aware you’re creating it. You might consider using a social media collaboration tool to help you with the process.

4. Make Sure Every Step of Your Email Marketing Journey Is Engaging

Marketing doesn’t end once you’ve bagged the sale. Far from it in fact. You want to create a loyal customer base that keeps coming back for more, and that’s done by ensuring every step of your email marketing is considered and engaging.

You can use email automation tools such as Mailchimp or Klaviyo to help you map out your customer journey, and then create communications and marketing content for each step.

Have fun and get creative with it. Say someone’s popped an item in their basket on your website but hasn’t checked out. Send them an email to ask if they need help with the product, or even offer them a discount.

These personalised touch-points can be a real differentiator between you and your competitors.

Then, once you’ve closed the sale be sure to keep in touch. Ask for reviews and recommendations, or provide exclusive sneak peeks at new products to make your customers feel excited and included.

5. Use Schema Markup on Your Product Pages

Do a little housekeeping to give your digital content the best possible chance of getting seen. This is essential behind-the scenes stuff that will undoubtedly pay off.

Schema markup is metadata that helps search engines like Google understand and categorise your product pages. If you use it, it means you’re more likely to be featured in Google’s rich snippets, which are the enhanced descriptions that appear in search results.

You can stand out from your competitors here by creating schema markup that’s exciting and champions your brand’s unique selling points. So take a little time to do research on what they’re using as schema markup. This can be as simple as Googling your industry’s keywords and competitors’ brand names to see what comes up.

You Can Do It

Thinking creatively is the way to get any stagnant advertising stream flowing. Innovation doesn’t have to be ground-breaking and a lot of creative people feel that when they’re restricted by budget, they actually become more creative.