Business Strategy in Advertising — Not sure where to start?

Working in the advertising space for the last decade, it’s a common question I have heard time and time again — “What are our competitors doing?” to which I reply, “Where are you currently finding the answer to that question?”. There are many benefits to being the first to try something new, but getting left behind risks your brand of future sales.

3 Tips to help you get creative and upleveling what you are doing:

1. Ask yourself what has not been done before you attempt to see what has. Not only will this be an opportunity for you to discover a pioneering way to advertise, but it may also make it clearer why no one else is doing it. Think of this to as a way of saving you budget.

2. With new rules and regulations on advertising (especially in EAU), platforms like Microsoft Advertising, Meta (Facebook), Google Ads and others will have to release a ‘library of ads’ per brand to consumers.

What does this mean exactly?

From a privacy and regulation perspective, it means consumers have the right to know when something is being shown to them that is paid to be seen on your screen (after all, spending money on advertising is a key to sales). To you as a business owner or advertising leader, it gives you a full library of the creative, ad copy and date of placement from your competitors. It means you can see exactly what is being done in real time.

I recently spoke to a friend about their paid search media strategy. While she does not work in the media space, her work is in the creative element. When I asked why they weren’t protecting their brand when a consumer is ready to buy, she put her own basic knowledge of SEM to the test. “Kids clothes for X brand” on 3 major search engines — and there it was, a competitor bidding and stealing their conversions on their brand terms.

3. Stop asking ‘what’s new’ with your advertising platforms. I often hear direct clients and their agencies wanting to bring new pilots and betas as an opportunity. Imagine wanting to do something newer and more complex when the basics aren’t in place. Get grounded on the foundation of what you have in place and ask the question “how do we adopt what’s currently available and how do we get more efficient” — you’ll find the answer is quite simple (and if you have representatives from an advertising partner, they can support you with that by auditing your account).

For more information and quick reads on career coaching, business branding, and advertising strategies please visit www.equaltrend.com.