Optimise your ad spend to drive sales and build brand loyalty

As a marketing professional, staying ahead of digital trends is essential to driving successful campaigns and strategies. DataReportal’s annual Digital 2024 Global Overview Report is packed with insights that shape the digital landscape.?

I’ve studied the latest report and handpicked the most important stats you need to know as a marketer, and over the next few weeks, I will share these with you so that you can make informed decisions and stay competitive in this fast-evolving space.?

This week, let’s look at digital advertising. Two sets of stats stand out for me in the report. Firstly, the massive increase in global spending on digital ads, and secondly, the fact that search advertising is still taking a large portion of the advertising spend pie.

1. Massive increase in digital ad spend

The global spend on digital ads reaching USD $720 billion in 2023 (a 10% increase from 2022) signals a highly competitive and growing market. Marketers must continue to optimise ad budgets to stay ahead in this ever-expanding space.

Looking longer-term, digital ad spend has more than doubled over the past five years, with the latest total roughly 117 percent higher than the figure reported for 2018. This shows a clear trend towards digital-first advertising strategies. For marketers, this means it’s critical to have a multi-channel strategy that spans social media, search, and display ads to maximise impact.

2. Search ads remain essential

With 38.8% of digital ad budgets going to search ads, amounting to USD $280 billion, search continues to dominate in performance marketing. For both B2C and B2B brands, search ads remain a vital tool for lead generation and intent-driven targeting.

The growth in search ad spend, even by a slight 0.1%, suggests that while newer platforms like social media and video ads gain attention, search continues to deliver the highest ROI for many brands, particularly those targeting high-intent users.

Let’s take a closer look at some inspiring global brand campaigns from smaller B2C and B2B brands that have successfully leveraged digital advertising to grow their market share.

Successful campaigns by B2C brands?

Glossier : Search ads and social media interaction

Glossier, a beauty brand selling directly to the consumer, used search ads to target people looking for beauty and skin care items. They successfully combined search ads with influencer efforts on both Instagram and YouTube, making it easy for potential customers to find a product and buy it. Their search ads reached people actively looking for specific beauty solutions and raised knowledge of and encouraged loyalty to the brand.

This Glossier search ad campaign targets people who are ready to buy, and their social ads help build community and customer trust. They do this by using both high-conversion strategies and brand-building strategies.

Allbirds : Ads that search and show up on websites for careful shoppers

Eco-friendly shoe brand, Allbirds, uses search ads to reach people who care about the environment and who are looking for shoes that are good for the environment. Allbirds combines this with show ads on Google and Facebook to encourage potential customers to come back to their website to buy. Their display ads talk about how eco-friendly their materials are, which appeals to the beliefs of their target market.

Allbirds gets a lot of search traffic from people who are already interested in buying, and its display ads about sustainability help spread its message. This is in line with the rising cost of digital ads in both forms.

Inspiring campaigns by B2B Brands

Monday.com has programmes for search ads and videos

Work operating system, Monday.com , uses search ads to reach companies that are looking for ways to handle projects. They spend money on video ads on YouTube and display ads on LinkedIn to show how their platform helps businesses run more smoothly. Monday.com uses both search ads to get people's attention right away and video content to show how their platform can help people.

This strategy uses both the intent of search ads and the growing preference for visual material in the business-to-business (B2B) space. Their video campaigns educate and engage people in a wide range of businesses that make decisions.

Loom : Search and social ads for teams that work from home

Loom, a video chat app for teams that work in different places, has gained more business-to-business (B2B) customers by using search ads to reach companies that need help working together remotely. They combine this strategy with ads on LinkedIn and Twitter, targeting specific business needs such as remote work and communication. This multi-platform approach allows them to reach a wide range of users, from small businesses to big corporations.

Loom was able to reach people who were actively looking for tools to help them work from home by focusing on search ads. Social ads also helped spread the word about the brand, establishing Loom as a major player in the B2B remote workspace market.

For both B2C and B2B brands, the ongoing growth in digital ad spend, particularly in search ads, demonstrates the importance of investing in intent-based targeting and multi-channel campaigns. Brands like Glossier, Allbirds, Monday.com , and Loom exemplify how smaller brands can successfully leverage the expansive reach of search, display, and social ads to drive sales and build brand loyalty in a competitive landscape.

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