3 Alternatives to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads

For businesses to increase sales, there are currently two commonly used Digital Marketing strategies. They are search engine optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click advertising (PPC), with PPC being used the most. In addition to running PPC ads directly from Google Ads, some marketers use alternative PPC advertising platforms to save time and increase efficiency. Here are 3 alternatives to PPC ads for you to consider with your marketing budget.

PropellerAds

Propellerads is a very popular and prestigious advertising network based in the UK that serves the world. They provide and distribute advertising services optimally for online marketers with website publishers.

To date, ads from Propellerads have more than 650 million views per day on both desktop and mobile. Although this does not compare to Google Adsense results, it is still a very large number of views

Types of ads offered by Propellerads:

  • Popunder Ads
  • Original advertisement
  • Interstitial ads
  • Dialogue Ads
  • Mobile advertising
  • Promotional banners in standard sizes
  • Push Notification Ads

 Pros and Cons of Propellerads

Pros

  • CPM price is at the top and only behind Google Adsense
  • Highly rated by users and experts in the field
  • Local advertising is allowed and supported in Vietnam
  • Many ad formats such as mobile, banner, video
  • Support a variety of payment methods
  • No cheating cases and always up to date
  • The interface is very intuitive and easy to manage
  • Dedicated customer support team

Cons

  • The minimum payout is quite high (100USD)
  • Have to wait for approval every time a new ad is posted
  • Does not support ads running in parallel with the same context as Google Adsense.
  • The CPM rate of Vietnamese sites is quite low, but still acceptable

Quora

Quora is a social network specializing in Q&A with more than 200 million users. Quora Ads are a great promotional tool to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website.

With  Quora, advertisers can create, text-based ads, targeting users by interest, geography, or platform (mobile, desktop, or both).  Similar to PPC, Quora Ads are available on a bidding basis. Marketers will spend based on each click. Quora Ads does not have a minimum budget requirement

How are Quora Ads displayed?

Quora Ads appear to follow the principle of the Quora social network - question and answer text. Your ad copy will display a regular post line, consisting of a question (title) and an answer (the content inside)

Pros and Cons of Quora Ads

Pros:

  • May appear on Google search results - If you use Quora Asia properly, you can drive more traffic to your website and this number can even increase sustainably.
  • Quora Ads are highly focused on user intent.  The Q&A Quora Ads appear when a question is asked about a topic that relates to your brand.  This concept drives the audience to your brand.
  • Low cost - Compared to Google or Facebook, Quora Ads has a lower cost. Quora Ads are quite suitable for businesses with a small budget.

 Cons:

  • You cannot promote videos on Quora Ads
  • You also cannot customize the parameters dynamically like Google Ads

Snapchat Ads

Snapchat currently has more than 150 million daily users and is growing faster than both Twitter and Instagram. With that many users, Snapchat is fast becoming an attractive advertising market for businesses.

Snapchat sells ads in two different ways.  The first way they sell ads is on a bidding system that determines how much you pay for each ad with factors like your industry and target audience determining the price. The second way they ads allows you to buy ads directly from Snapchat (if you are a large business). This feature gives you more edge in the Snapchat Ads market.

Types of Snapchat Ads

  • Snapchat offers advertisers many different types of campaigns. This helps the message conveyed to the target audience be more optimized. Here are 6 types of Snapchat ads:
  • Single video ad image or video: A full-screen image or video ad that shows up in people's stories.
  • Collection ads: four touchable tiles that let you showcase your product collection.
  • Story Ads: Help marketers reach users between assets or with a branded tile in Snapchat's Explore section.
  • Lens AR Experience: An augmented reality experience to wow your target audience.
  • Commercial: non-skippable ads for the first 6s, ensuring minimal engagement.
  • Filters: An overlay that people can add to their snapshot.

Pros and Cons of Snapchat Ads

Pros:

  • With Snapchat Ads, you can reach your customers personally. This is perfect if your target audience is Gen Z - users who like to show off and enjoy self-care.
  • 36% of users on Snapchat are 18-34 years old. If your business's potential customers are in this age group, then Snapchat is a direct line to your audience.
  • Snapchat Ads help powerfully increase brand awareness. This social network has a Discover feature that helps your company's videos reach more users.

Cons:

  • Limitations in report analysis. When using Snapchat Ads, you can't tell if users are watching, or skipping your videos. You also cannot measure how many people watched the video in the first 5 seconds. This makes it difficult for you to accurately judge whether the ad campaign is effective or not.
  • The ad content requirements are quite strict. A promotional video on Snapchat has an average length of 10 seconds which means the content production team must work meticulously to deliver a stellar message in seconds.