Have you been pondering Messenger advertising vs. traditional advertising methods and wondering which one is better? Or perhaps, you’ve heard of Messenger advertising but don’t know what it’s all about. If so, you are not alone. Let’s take a look at both advertising channels so you can determine which one is the best option for your business promotion and advertising needs.

The Importance of Advertising in Business

Advertising is important because that’s what builds consumer awareness of your business. Advertising helps build your brand, brand authority, and brand reputation in your industry. Advertising also communicates information about your business to gain more customers and increase sales and income.

Messenger Advertising vs. Traditional Advertising

Here is a quick overview of Messenger advertising vs. traditional advertising. We’ll go over each in a little more detail in the next section.

Messenger is a product of Facebook. Facebook Messenger ads are a paid option. They work by automatically delivering your ads to the audience that’s most likely to drive more traffic to your website. More about that in a moment.

Traditional advertising, on the other hand, is not digital. Traditional advertising uses offline media to reach an audience. It uses things like newspaper ads, other types of print ads, radio spots, billboards, direct mail pieces, and TV ads to promote your business. We’ll talk about the pros and cons of traditional advertising in a moment.

Understanding Messenger Advertising

Facebook Messenger advertising is a digital marketing channel that is based on delivering relevant ads to targeted audiences on the Messenger, Facebook, or Instagram platforms. When clicked, the Messenger ad will send people into a Messenger conversation with your brand.

The features of Facebook Messenger enable you to use the following formats:

• Videos
• Images
• Story ads
• Carousels
• Texts

Additionally, you can use a combination of those elements to build an ad format that fits your brand.

The Benefits and Advantages of Messenger Advertising

These are just some of the benefits and advantages you will get when using Messenger as one of your advertising channels.

• Reach consumers at scale while using enhanced targeting and segmentation options.
• Receive higher engagement and click-through rates.
• Direct and personalized communication by allowing users who see your ads to initiate a text conversation with you instantly.
• Interact with the connected party individually on Messenger.
• Messenger is interactive, making it conversational, so it’s a more natural form of engagement.
• Messenger allows you to reach people faster and on their preferred medium.
• Messenger ads offer better local targeting options for your business promotion.
• Messenger makes it easy to build customer relationships and loyalty.

Exploring Traditional Advertising

Now let’s talk about traditional advertising for a moment. Traditional advertising is still relevant. Therefore, you can use traditional advertising as part of your overall business promotion plan. Here are some of the pros and cons of traditional advertising.

The Pros of Traditional Advertising

• It’s hard to ignore because you can’t just delete it. You have to physically touch it and look at it.
• It has a wide reach and more diverse brand exposure.
• It can be perceived as being more credible and not just deleted as spam.
• It’s familiar, making it more comfortable for some users.
• It connects to your local audience on a more personal level.

The Cons of Traditional Advertising

• It’s more expensive and has lower engagement than digital advertising.
• It’s harder to customize.
• It has limited space and fewer options to get your message across.
• It’s gradually losing its audience.
• It’s harder to reach a hyper-targeted audience.
• It’s harder to track and measure your ROI.
• It takes longer to execute and refine than digital advertising channels.

Factors to Consider in Choosing the Right Advertising Approach

When trying to determine whether to go with digital advertising channels or traditional advertising channels for your business promotion, ask yourself the following questions.

• What are your goals and objectives?
• What are the characteristics of your audience? What are their likes, dislikes, wants, and needs?
• How much do you have in your budget for advertising and what resources do you have allocated for your overall business promotion?
• What is your brand positioning and message delivery? Does it work better with digital or traditional marketing avenues?
• What are the measurement and performance tracking capabilities of your chosen advertising channels?

Making an Informed Decision

Now it’s time to evaluate Messenger advertising vs. traditional advertising for different business scenarios. Doing so will help you decide which option is best for your business promotion.

Messenger Advertising Evaluation for Different Business Scenarios

1. E-Commerce Businesses

Using Messenger advertising for an e-commerce business has a natural connection because you have an audience that is already online and, in many cases, already using Messenger, which makes it easier for them to engage with you.

2. Service-Based Businesses

Service-based businesses frequently use both traditional advertising and digital advertising, like Messenger. However, Messenger ads make it easier for consumers to find the information they need online, schedule an appointment online, and use Messenger to request more information or have their questions answered more quickly.

3. Local Businesses

Local businesses frequently use Messenger to capture the attention of a local audience using location targeting. This helps your brand because once the consumer sees your Messenger ad, they are more inclined to visit your local business location. Additionally, if the consumer has a question or needs more information, Messenger is the quickest way for them to get a response.

Traditional Advertising for Different Business Scenarios

1. Large Corporations

Large corporations have the money to use a percentage of their marketing spend on both traditional advertising and digital advertising like Messenger. If you look in your mailbox, you will probably see everything from print ads for car dealerships, to fast food coupons, to product and service advertisements. You will also probably see ads from those same large corporations on Messenger as well.

2. Brick-and-Mortar Establishments

Traditional advertising works well for brick-and-mortar establishments, mainly because they are local. Frequently, brick-and-mortar businesses send direct mail pieces and other types of traditional advertising to people within their local area because local people are their target demographic.

3. Events and Conferences

Events and conferences also use traditional advertising more often than digital marketing. This is because events and conferences generally target a local audience. Therefore, traditional marketing is more effective in this scenario.

Summary of Messenger Advertising vs. Traditional Advertising

It’s always best practice to split-test everything. Try Messenger advertising alone. Then try traditional marketing alone. Then try Messenger advertising and traditional advertising together. Think outside of the box to find unique ways to use them both together whenever possible.

For example, in your traditional direct mail advertising, you could include a QR code that leads the audience to your digital marketing which will then, hopefully, encourage them to message you on Messenger. This is what we call a win-win and that means more traffic and more money in your pocket.

If you are pondering Messenger advertising vs. traditional advertising channels for your business promotion, then this information should give you some direction about which options are best for your Cleveland, OH business.

What’s Next?

We hope you enjoyed this article about Messenger Advertising vs. Traditional Advertising. If you want help with your digital marketing campaigns, please Contact Marketing Done Right (MDR) today. We look forward to hearing from you.