Complete List of Major Digital Advertising Channels Excl. Google & Facebook
Looking to expand and improve your Digital Advertising Channels?
The digital advertising landscape has become more complex than it was 10 years ago. Today, brands have multiple options and advertising channels to choose from. According to recent data, the global digital advertising expenditure in 2021 is around $455 Billion and projected to grow to $645 Billion by 2024. As advertising spend increases, brands face more competition and a rise in advertising cost, especially if they don’t diversity their advertising channel portfolio.
In the post, I go through all of the Digital Advertising Channels you need to know. Some of them are used by most brands today, such as Google Advertising, Facebook Advertising, and Instagram Ads. Some are not very common as others, and present opportunities for your brand to disproportionately grow, tap into new audiences, and minimise its cost of advertising.
According to eMarketer, 55.2% of total digital ad spend goes to display advertising, and 40.2% goes to search advertising.
In Australia, Google and Facebook have an absolute monopoly in the digital advertising channels that businesses use. Between both of them, they represent 80% of total ad spend, with Google taking the bigger piece of the pie, with 53% market share. The rest goes to other websites and publishers. Perhaps this picture looks a bit different in other markets, but Google and Facebook still remain a major force in the digital advertising space.
Where does that leave brands and advertisers? Generating traffic and sales through Google and Facebook is still a priority, and if you’re looking to make serious sales, you have to have a presence in these channels. But, you also have to go beyond these channels and look for other sources of online traffic.
Below are some of the most viable alternatives and major advertising platforms to consider for your advertising channel mix.
1. Microsoft Advertising
In the desktop search engine market, Bing has a global market share of 6.84% with over 1 billion monthly visits. In the U.K., Microsoft has 21.3% share of the desktop search market. In Australia, Microsoft has 19.3% share of the desktop search market. It’s a major player in the search advertising space.
In comparison to Google, Bing’s average CPC is 33% lower than what we see on Google Ads but what’s more noteworthy is that Bing’s average CTR is about 50% higher than what you’d see on Google Ads.
When you advertise with Microsoft, you get access to searchers on Microsoft Bing, MSN, Yahoo, AOL, and more sites powered by Bing, including DuckDuckGo, which is part of the Microsoft Advertising network and has a solid 2.5% of the search engine market across all devices.
If your brand relies on high search-intent traffic, Microsoft Advertising is a must to add to your digital advertising channel mix.
2. Yahoo Ads
Another market player in the search and display advertising space is Yahoo. Although compared to Google and Bing, Yahoo has a much lower search volume, what it stands out is the much lower cost per click (CPC). To put things in perspective, the market share of Yahoo Search is around 2.7% of global searches. And that’s still a quite significant market share. But the opportunity to advertise on Yahoo is beyond just search ads. Yahoo display advertising is a great opportunity for brands to tap into new audiences and pay less for clicks and traffic.
3. Amazon Ads
In 2020, Amazon’s U.S market share in the digital ad landscape grew to 10.3%. Amazon is quickly growing and taking a few major seats in the advertising world. In 2021, sales through Amazon are expected to surpass $468 Billion. Customers trust Amazon. So, if you are an e-commerce business, leveraging Amazon advertising is a no-brainer.
In addition, Amazon provides an opportunity for advertisers through the Amazon DSP, a demand-side platform that enables advertisers to programmatically buy display and video ads.
Amazon DSP ads appear on Amazon’s suite of digital properties, including Android, iOS, and Kindle Fire. As an advertiser, you’ll have the ability to display ads across all major exchanges including its owned and operated properties such as Alexa devices.
4. Twitter Ads
With 192 million daily active users, Twitter is a social media platform that presents incredible advertising opportunities for brands. And although the userbase is not as large as that of Google, Facebook, and other platforms, the platform has a few advantages over its rivals. For example, historically speaking, Twitter Ads outperformed Facebook in terms of engagement and click-through rates. However, when comparing apples to apples, recent data on revenue per visitor (RPV) on Twitter is $0.44 compared to $0.93 for Facebook.
Worthy to note that whilst the CPM of Twitter ads reached a high of $7.35 in Q2 2018, it trended downwards to $5 in Q1 2020, which is a positive sign that cost of advertising on the platform is not getting out of control.
For brands looking to increase their reach and generate more sales, Twitter is a great channel to complement your digital advertising channel mix. Another advantage of Twitter is that its users tend to have a high income. Data shows that 77% of Americans who earn $75,000 or more use Twitter, and 80% of Twitter users are affluent millennials.
In saying that, it’s important to research and ascertain whether your target audience spends time on Twitter.
5. Pinterest Ads
Over 25% of the time on Pinterest is spent shopping—higher than on any social media platform.
As of early 2021, Pinterest ranks as the 14th largest platform in the world by the number of global active users and according to Pinterest themselves, there are 478 million people that use Pinterest every month and 60% of users are females.
Although most businesses don’t prioritise it in their digital advertising channel mix, Pinterest is certainly a great platform to help people discover your brand and make a buying decision.
Because people on Pinterest are looking for inspiration, creative input, and new ideas, delivering the right brand message to the right audience can be quite effective for your advertising campaigns.
6. LinkedIn Ads
With over 750 million members, LinkedIn is where it’s at when it comes to professional networking and finding talent. LinkedIn is a great platform for B2B lead generation, but its advantages stem beyond that. Although advertising on LinkedIn is relatively more expensive than other social media platforms, it can be a lot more targeted and effective, depending on your advertising campaign and the nature of products or services. With an average CPC of $5.26, it’s almost double/triple what you’d pay on other platforms.
What’s brilliant about the platform is the quality of the userbase. 4 of 5 LinkedIn members drive business decisions. If you are looking to generate sales and leads for a B2B business, LinkedIn is your number one go-to platform. But LinkedIn can also be used to reach consumers for B2C businesses. Because of the nature of the demographics on LinkedIn, B2C businesses with high ticket value products can effectively generate sales through LinkedIn.
7. Reddit Ads
In 2019, Reddit announced that its platform has 430 million active users with 30% YoY increase. That number is most likely over half a billion people today. In Australia, there are 17.55 million people who use Reddit, roughly two-thirds of the population. So, why do people use Reddit?
- To get entertainment – 72%
- To get news – 43%
- Other purposes – 17%
- To follow brands, companies – 17%
One of the advantages of using Reddit Ads is that the CPC is much lower than platforms like LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Another advantage of Reddit is that you can target audiences by the Reddits and subreddits they are part of – which is a great way to identify interest and narrow down your reach.
8. TikTok Ads
61% of TikTok users (16 to 64 years old) said they tend to buy brands they see advertised.
As of Jan 2021, TikTok is the 7th most used social media app in the world, with approximately 700 million users. With 60% of TikTok users being Gen Z, it’s a prime place for businesses targeting this young demographic.
Advertising on TikTok is not cheap compared to other platforms. However, with a reported starting CPM of $10 and a minimum budget of $500, you can create a TikTok advertising campaign. TikTok offers three main types of ad formats: In-feed native ads, Brand takeover ads, and Hashtag challenges.
For big brands with large ad budgets, you can expect to pay anywhere from $20,000 – $200,000 for Brand takeover ads (Digiday, 2019). An alternative way to advertise on TikTok is to partner with an influencer. A TikTok influencer with over 2 Million followers can charge around $1,000 per post.
9. Snapchat Ads
If your target audience comprises millennials and Gen Z (13 and 34 years), Snapchat is a must-use platform to advertise. Why? According to Snapchat, they reach 75% of millennials and Gen Z, and over 280 million people use the platform every day. Advertising on Snapchat requires a minimum budget of $5 a day, which means any business can take advantage of the platform.
Some of the sectors that can leverage Snapchat Advertising are e-commerce businesses, App and game developers, and local businesses. What’s really cool about Snapchat is the Ad formats. You can create Single Image (video) ads, Collection Ads, Story Ads, AR Experiences, Commercials, and Filters.
10. Twitch Ads
Over 2.5 million people are watching Twitch right now, and there are 30 Million average daily visitors. Twitch is a young demographic platform with 73% of its users are under 35.
From Homepage carousels to Homepage headliners, Super Leaderboard, and Twitch Premium Video, Twitch offers advertisers a variety of ad formats to capture their audience’s attention with high-impact display units and unskippable ads that play directly into live broadcasts. The CPM on Twitch can vary dramatically and normally ranges from $1 to $10.
What’s unique about Twitch is that they offer what’s called Brand Partnership Studio, which allows brands to partner with their in-house team of strategists, producers to connect more effectively with the Twitch community.
11. Spotify Ads
From Foodies to Fitness Enthusiasts, Tech Early Adopters, Gamers, and New Parents, Spotify has a wide range of audiences. In Q1 2021, Spotify had 356 Million users and 158 Million premium subscribers.
With screen fatigue getting more real, Spotify is becoming a platform of choice for many users and an alternative way to relax, fuel a workout—or even learn something new. Thanks to the powerful Spotify algorithms, 68% of Spotify users 16 to 40 years old said they regularly discover new content on the platform. What’s more interesting is the Spotify saw a 140% increase in listening to New & Politics podcasts (Jan-Nov 2020 versus Jan-Nov 2019).
If you’re a brand looking to leverage Audio advertising and capture large audiences, Spotify is the go-to channel. However, advertising on Spotify requires you to fork out a big ad budget starting at $25,000 per campaign, with CPM ranging from $5 to $30.
