Facebook and Google are not the only sources of traffic for digital marketing. Premium traffic can come from platforms that you never knew existed…

Social media advertising prices are all over the place, but there’s no denying that the most successful digital marketing platforms are also the most expensive. Facebook and Google dominate digital ad campaigns, and businesses flock to them.

Facebook ad campaigns can cost up to $0.95 per click.

Compare that to Google… The average cost for CPC ad campaigns averages between $1 and $2. Paid search campaigns are even more expensive.

But here’s the good news… 

While the two behemoths battle it out, other platforms have carved out their own space. There are many alternative places for creating and running a successful ad campaign online.

Alternative Digital Market Channels

Facebook and Google are instantly recognizable, yet there are many alternatives that may work better for you. Check out the following success stories and see for yourself. Why limit yourself to one or two platforms?

There are companies that thrive with platforms that are cheaper than Facebook and Google.

In no particular order:

Digital Marketing Channel #1: SmartyAds

SmartyAds is a full stack programmatic advertising company that offers a variety of media buying solutions. It also specializes in finding ad monetization alternatives. Mobile game developer Vesta Soft employed the services of SmartyAds and reduced total advertising costs by 70%.

Here’s how they did it:

Their initial goals were clear. Vesta Soft wanted to reduce CPI costs down to $0.65. They also wanted to get 30,000 new app installations and reduce all advertising costs by 70%.

SmartyAds banked on its in-house experience and unique approach. Cutting out third parties and middlemen shaved dollars off advertising investments. SmartyAds also used a variety of marketing channels and maintained operational transparency.

That’s how SmartyAds achieves their results – it was all about keeping things in-house.

This type of campaign ensures that there’s no loss of control over budget spending. It also ensures better communication between the client, advertiser, and target audience.

Digital Marketing Channel #2: RevContent

Here’s how RevContent helped relaunch Tommy Chong’s brand of CBD products:

As you probably know, CBD products and advertising on social digital marketing channels don’t go hand in hand.

Establishing a trustworthy brand wasn’t difficult for a celebrity like Tommy Chong, but finding a profitable traffic source to feed his ecommerce site proved difficult.

RevContent’s first steps were simple: inflate CPCs by 10% and win bids on traffic sources. Collect data and use it for scaling traffic in the near future. Then use a third-party optimizer, such as Brax, and increase profitability within the first month.

The result? Guaranteed high-quality, profitable traffic – and 533% profitability on Tommy’s advertising campaigns. 

And they did it on a budget of $60,000 in ad spending per month through select third-party optimizers.

That’s still a lot of money, but keep in mind that this is one story. RevContent operates with smaller budgets too.

The takeaway here is the rate of conversion… Or profitability. A 533% increase is as big as it gets. Numbers like that don’t come up for Facebook or Google paid campaigns, especially not for large businesses and brands that are already worth millions. 

A business like yours may need personalized ad campaigns… 

Digital Marketing Channel #3: AdRoll

Take the Wigs.com website… It’s a niche business, and scaling wasn’t easy. So, how did the company earn up to 50% more in sales?

Its chief marketing officer, Darren Williams, sought the help of AdRoll. This marketing platform is ideal for creating personalized ad campaigns. Its tools lend themselves to every type of business, small and large.

In the case of Wigs.com, they needed to create a unique marketing campaign – one that focused on empathizing with the shoppers who frequented Wigs.com. This way, different audiences felt like the campaign spoke directly to them.

Digital Marketing Channel #4: InMobi

InMobi has one of the best success stories. This Indian mobile advertising tech company collaborated with Mastercard. They increased click-through rates to 4% during the first stage, and up to 7.6% in the second stage.

Their campaign reached a total of 1,160,000 users.

The goal of this ad campaign? Target Indian travelers and promote Singapore as the ideal travel destination.

And, of course, get travelers invested in spending more on Mastercard.

First, InMobi helped Mastercard engage 700,000 users. This allowed real-time optimization of mobile ad creative. This then served as a base for the second phase of the campaign: customize the ads for Singapore audiences and help users get unique offers with a simple click or tap of a button.

Mobile advertising campaigns are essential in today’s business environment. Even more so, given social distancing constraints. You might benefit from a partnership with InMobi, no matter where your business is.

You can increase revenue and widen your user base even more, especially if you want a piece of the Asian market. This type of advertising service is an ideal fit for a direct-to-consumer business.

Mastercard is a huge player, but InMobi doesn’t only cater to giants. It creates custom, optimized campaigns for a variety of businesses.

Digital Marketing Channel #5: Taboola

When Honda started working with Zenith Media, they had a simple goal in mind…

Creating a native advertising campaign that used audience segmentation and retargeting to greater effect. 

Ultimately, they wanted to increase engagement while reducing the cost of said engagements. That’s why Honda turned to Taboola.

The resulting campaign led to a 21% increase in conversions, compared to the car giant’s previous campaign. But most impressively, Honda also managed to reduce its Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) by 18%.

As mentioned, Taboola uses native advertising techniques to reach prospects.

But what does that mean?

Have you ever scrolled through an article and come to a set of recommended articles at the end? The recommendations look like they’re part of the website and don’t disrupt the experience at all.

That’s native advertising.

Each of those articles gets placed there by a company like Taboola. They prove especially successful when stacked up again ads that disrupt the user’s experience. And as we can see from the Honda campaign, it costs a lot less to attract prospects using this tool.

Digital Marketing Channel #6: Outbrain

When Babbel started using Outbrain, it was already established as the world’s leading language app. The company operated an “always-on” ad campaign, which kept them in customer’s minds… But it also cost a lot of money.

Babbel wanted to reduce its CPA while also creating more effective and targeted advertising.

That’s why Outbrain created a campaign that combined the following:

• Retargeting potential prospects based on their previous actions
• Using lookalike audiences to target new prospects based on Babbel’s previous customers
• Leveraging interest targeting to get in front of people with specific interests, such as learning a new language

Much like Taboola, Outbrain specializes in creating native advertising campaigns. In the case of Babbel, the lookalike campaign alone led to a 20% reduction in CPA. Add onto that a further 4.6% reduction in CPA from the retargeting campaign, and you have a real success story.

With Outbrain’s targeted approach, your content can reach appropriate audiences in the places that they visit most often. This means no more costly searching for the right audience or advertising to people who may have no interest in your content.

Digital Marketing Channel #7: Bing

There’s often a temptation to overlook Bing’s advertising service in favor of Google’s. After all, Bing has a much lower market share in terms of search volume, so it seems natural to go with the bigger company.

But when used well, Bing’s own search advertising service can offer amazing returns!

That’s what Casino Supply discovered when they started using the platform. They decided to give Bing a try after experiencing unsatisfactory results from other paid search platforms. Today, Bing accounts for 25% of the company’s total paid search spend.

Why?

Casino Supply gets a 5% conversion rate from Bing Ads, which is much higher than its rate from any other platform. They also see a much lower bounce rate than they do from other campaigns.

The ultimate result is that Casino Supply makes $8.20 for every dollar that they spend on Bing Ads. That’s a more than 8x return.

The great thing about Bing Ads is that the platform’s instantly familiar to anybody who uses Google Ads. In fact, you can even import Google Ad campaigns into Bing Ads, which means less work for you… And if Casino Supply shows us anything, it’s that Bing can produce amazing results that lead to a higher ROI.

Conclusion

Running a successful ad campaign is about more than balancing your advertising budget. It has a lot to do with where you spend that budget. Don’t be afraid to keep things in-house.

Creating a personalized ad campaign and representing your brand the way it deserves might be easier (and cheaper) than you think. Reach out to your dream audience. Go outside the realm of the overused (albeit popular) digital marketing channels.

Having a hard time finding the right platform or ad service for your business? Try the free daily business coaching lessons at predictableprofits.com. Get more tips, examples, and personalized solutions as you educate yourself to help your business grow.