Tips for Using Content Based Advertising to Increase Website Traffic

Today’s consumers are far savvier and less likely to click on advertisements. Think about how many times a day people see marketing messages. They wake up and hear a radio ad, their phone pings with reminders from various brands and they see billboards driving to work. Content based advertising gives them something concrete for their effort with your brand. 

In the B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Insights for 2022 report, experts found 88% of marketers believe content is most effective at building brand awareness and trust. People are much  more likely to order from you again if they trust you. Your content must be stellar to show them you know your industry and understand their needs. 

Content based advertising has a proven track record. Adding it to your list of marketing options is a smart move in the modern digital age. Outside of hiring writers or videographers and editing the content, the cost to create articles and videos is minimal. 

What Is Content Based Advertising?

Content based advertising is anything that offers information or some type of help or tool to users. You must give them incentive to learn more and follow you. Options include videos, articles, infographics and ebooks. Some people delve into webinars and podcasts. 

How can you ensure your content based advertising efforts work? Here are our top tips for a successful use of your time and effort. Apply some of these or all of this to see a big shift in traffic to your pages. 

1. Know Your Goals

When it comes to content based advertising, it can be hard to know how to measure return on investment (ROI). Once you understand your goals for each piece of content or campaign, it becomes easier to see how well your efforts convert.

For example, if you want to increase website traffic by using content based advertising, you should create a separate landing page. You’ll be able to see how many people enter your site via the touch point and how effective it is at converting them into subscribers or customers. 

2. Consider Testimonials

All of your content based advertising doesn’t have to be teaching material. You can also include reviews of things people might be most interested in. Your content based advertising strategy should include some outside references either in text or video format. 

Around 97% of online shoppers read reviews before trying a new company. You can certainly even share testimonials on your social media pages or your website. Include a review in a video ad on Facebook or a blurb on Instagram. 

3. Study the Buyer’s Journey

Customers take a journey when they buy a product from you. It starts with the awareness stage where they first hear of you or your product. Often, the awareness stage is triggered through content based advertising. 

You should create content for the different phases of the journey. For example, someone who already is familiar with your brand needs different details than someone who’s never heard of you before. 

4. Solve Problems

Your target audience has pain points that send them your way in the first place or make them click on an ad. For example, someone looking to buy a dress shirt might have a wedding coming up and need a shirt for it (pain point). 

Not every problem is a deep, emotional one. Sometimes people just need a kitchen gadget to make cooking faster. Think through what pain points your customers have and solve them with your content. 

5. Write Quality Content

Spend time figuring out how your content can solve your audience’s problem and also looking at what your competitors offer. What other articles or videos are out there on this topic? Make sure yours is at least as good and preferably even better. Are there any unanswered questions you can cover?

Backlinko reports pages with high content grades outperforms lesser content. Make sure you create content fully covering a topic so users don’t go elsewhere for answers. The goal is to become the go-to source on anything related to your niche, so people turn to you first for answers. 

6. Update Content Frequently

Depending upon your industry, things change rapidly in the digital age. If you hope to compete with other brands, you must keep up-to-date and current information in your videos and articles. Revisit topics every three to six months and see if there is anything you need to add to keep the content current.

Remember you are utilizing content to drive traffic, so you may pay for placement or otherwise invest money. The last thing you want is to point people to outdated information. 

7. Watch Analytics

Most social media sites offer in-depth analysis for your campaigns. Pay attention to which types of content are most effective. If you advertise on Google or any other platform, set up separate landing pages so you can see which platforms bring the most converting traffic to your site.

Just driving traffic isn’t very helpful. You want a percentage of site visitors to convert to leads or customers. Dig into who your audience is so you can repeat the efforts most successful to attract the right people who are likely to buy your product. 

Create Consistently

Make sure you post new content consistently. People will come to rely on you for new information. Create a content marketing schedule. You may want to customize content for events and holidays that make the most sense for your brand. For example, if you sell jackets, you might schedule some content for the best jackets to wear in spring, fall and winter.