What is Biddable Media?

There are more opportunities to buy ad space than ever before, and biddable media has become one of the biggest players in the advertising game. Biddable media has been on the scene for a while now, but there’s still some confusion around what it is and how to use it effectively.

In this article, we’ll explore:

What is biddable media?
The benefits
Mistakes to avoid
How to plan a successful campaign

Biddable Media Explained

So, what is biddable media?

In simple terms, biddable media is the process of buying advertising space (paid search or paid social media) through real-time bidding. Advertisers bid against each other for impressions and leads. If used efficiently, it can help your business to attract the right customers, drive traffic, generate conversions and improve sales.

Here’s how it works:

Biddable media works like an auction. A company will offer their media and businesses can bid for the advertising space. Sought-after advertising opportunities will cost more. For example, the top spot on a popular Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is likely to attract high bids.

Businesses need to do their research before bidding to ensure their target audience will see the placements. Results are tracked in real-time and so if an ad is performing particularly well, the advertiser can make a higher bid to give the advertisement more exposure.

So, what Biddable media channels are there?

Biddable Media encompasses paid search (PPC), display advertising, paid, social and more. It’s only a matter of time before other types of media follow suit.

Here’s a brief summary of the most prominent biddable media channels online:

1. Pay-per-click (PPC)

When you do a Google Search, the most relevant websites linking to your search term will appear first. You’ll find some of the top results have ‘Ad’ next to them. These are PPC ads that have been bought by advertisers.

Businesses have bid for this top position to get under the noses of people searching for specific keywords. For example, a company selling boots might select the term ‘red leather boots’ so people searching for red leather boots will discover their page first. If the visitor clicks through to the website via the ad, the advertiser will pay a fee to Google. If the visitor makes a purchase – it’s been worth the spend. If they click through but don’t become a customer, it can become expensive.

It’s important to choose your keywords carefully. Competitive keywords in a crowded market are more expensive and so you’ll have to weigh up what works for your business and objectives.

2. Social media platforms

Most social media platforms offer different biddable media options. Facebook allows you to target people based on interests, behaviours, and activities. Most other platforms will enable you to segment audiences based on location, age, gender and more. You can encourage more engagement with your ad by choosing the right imagery, caption and forming an enticing call to action (CTA).

3. Video marketing

Video is one of the most popular media outlets and can be an extremely powerful asset to your business. While other channels work on cost-per-click, YouTube ads work on cost-per-view. So, if a visitor only watches a few seconds of your video, you won’t be charged. Google owns YouTube and so the same bidding methods apply – the prices are always higher for more popular search terms.

The benefits of biddable media (if you do it right):

Biddable allows businesses to get in front of their target audience, appeal to them and encourage them to take a specific action. Once you’ve found what works for your brand, biddable media is scalable and measurable so you can keep the positive results coming!

Key biddable media benefits include:

Connect with your target audience
Drive traffic to your website or specific landing page
Improve sales and conversion rates

Mistakes to avoid:

To make sure your campaign is running as efficiently as possible, you need to plan, analyse and adapt. If you don’t define your target audience, marketing objectives and budget, you could end up throwing money away.

These are just some of the common pitfalls that cause missed opportunities:

Failing to define goals or align biddable media with the rest of your marketing campaign
Targeting an audience that is too broad or too narrow
Generating unqualified leads that won’t convert
Wasting budget (if you already rank well organically for a keyword, be careful not to redirect your ‘free’ organic traffic through a paid ad).

How to make biddable media work for you

Want to take full advantage of all the possible biddable media opportunities? Make sure you follow these 3 important steps:

Step 1: Define your objective

First of all, you need to define your goal. How does your objective fit in with the rest of your marketing campaign?

Step 2: Do your research & make a plan

Now it’s time to do some digging. You need to know exactly who your target audience is, otherwise you’ll end up getting your message to the wrong people and spending a fortune on clicks that won’t convert.

What does your audience value? What drives them? Be careful not to choose an audience that’s too broad or to narrow. On Facebook, you can really narrow down your audience, but it could mean you’re missing out on potential customers. Go too broad, and you could end up playing an expensive game without achieving a high return on investment (ROI).

It’s also essential to define the narrative you want to share with your target audience. What problems can you solve? This research will support your keyword strategy as you get to understand what terms and questions your target audience is searching for online (in real-time). By choosing your keywords carefully, you’ll keep costs low and get a higher ROI.

Want help making a water tight plan? Biddable Media knows how to grow your business with the power of social advertising campaigns.

Step 3: Test, analyse & adapt

Biddable media is continually evolving and so in order to succeed, it’s important to be flexible in your approach, keeping yourself clued up on new opportunities and trends. By testing and analysing your ads, you can keep a close eye on what does and doesn’t work for your business. To get more bang for your buck, track what works and scale it!

Finally, the key to success. . .

The digital landscape is always evolving and the scope of biddable media is expanding rapidly. Systems used to target potential customers are continually getting refined to give advertisers more options and insights.

There are always new competitors and features, and so to stay ahead of the game, we need to keep testing and analysing. Here are a few of our top tips for success:

Make sure your marketing strategy guides your bids
Take the time to define your goals and research your audience
Be relevant to your customers’ needs
Consider the whole customer journey – once a visitor has reached your page, what action do you want them to take?
Test campaigns, measure results and see what works for your business

If managed correctly, biddable media allows you to appeal to the right people, with the right message, at the right time.

Get Help With Your Biddable Media Strategy

Do you want to maximise returns from your biddable media budget? Get in touch to see how we can get your marketing strategy for 2024 on track:

There’s no obligation when you request a free PPC audit with the Biddable Media team.