Before I begin, let me first clarify that something is not necessarily “free” just because you don’t pay money for it. If it takes up a lot of your time, then it is not free. Social media is not free. SEO is not free. They both take an incredible amount of time, and as they say…time is money.
For that reason, this list does not highlight activities which simply remove a financial cost by implementing a burden of time. What this list intends to provide are effective ways of getting for free the type of visibility that usually costs dollars and cents.
That being said, here are my top four premium advertising tactics that are free:
1. Ad Coupons
Keep an eye out for free advertising coupons from search engines and social platforms. Facebook and Google in particular are renowned for offering free advertising coupons to get users to test out their advertising platform.
In the last three months alone, I have made use of $200 of free Facebook advertising, $100 of free Google Adwords advertising and $100 of free LinkedIn advertising. These have provided me with new Facebook fans, site traffic and leads.
2. What can you offer other than money?
When some people think of advertising they think of money, but it doesn’t have to be like that. As long as both parties benefit from the transaction, it’s irrelevant what goods are exchanged.
What can you offer someone other than money? What services can you provide that the other party finds valuable? Brainstorm this and you’ll be surprised with the creative ideas you come up with.
3. Social Sharing
Before I hear of groan of “here comes the social media spiel”, consider this:
A Facebook page I administer has 14,000 fans. That page, through posting 5 times per week, received just shy of half a million impressions on Facebook last month. Half a million impressions – that’s a fantastic return on what I put in.
Additionally, the majority of these impressions were acquired through fans engaging with the content that was posted on the page. This means that it’s not simply the brand name and logo popping up in news feeds randomly, but impressions in the feeds of the friends of those engaging. This “social” advertising (basically brand advocacy) is what Facebook based Sponsored Stories - a key part of their advertising platform – on, and so should be perceived with the value it deserves.
Note: In my opinion, a Facebook news feed impression is more valuable than an impression on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ etc. I feel that users have closer ties to their connections on Facebook than other platforms, so the friend advocacy aspect is more powerful. However, this visibility if of course available on other networks too.
4. Review Websites
If not a restaurant, bar or physical location, many brands don’t consider being listed on a review website. For this reason, I feel they’re missing a great opportunity. If you offer a product and people use that product, you can (and should) be reviewed.
You have the obvious Yelp, Amazon and Trip Advisor to name a few - but think further afield. There’s JudysBook, Angie’s List, MerchantCircle, BBB.org, PowerReviews and SiteJabber (and many, many more). Those just listed, between them, provide reviews for almost all trades and services, from plumbing to travel brands to SEO consultancy. Do your research and find well-trafficked sites where you could list your business.
Those are my tactics for getting free, but premium, advertising visibility. Do you have any you could add?
All really great options for advertising, especially for small businesses. I might change “free” to “cheap” though
The time investment of any online marketing is usually somewhat high!
Completely agree Jonathon, time investment can indeed be high – particularly for the ad campaigns highlighted in #1.
My objective was to try and focus on tactics that are not simply free (in the sense that you do not have to pay for them monetarily), but that provide ways of getting for free the type of visibility that you would usually expect to pay for. Tried to make that clear in my introduction.
Point well taken though, thanks for commenting!
Will, these are good suggestions. And I had no problem with free, because you even made the comment that “time is money”.
It’s funny that you mentioned #2, because I want to advertise with a local charity in Philly. I don’t have the funds, yet I said I would help them with their social media for a year, which helps both of us. The director said good idea, but it’s been like pulling teeth to get her to finalize this.
In regards to # 3…. I understand your example, but don’t really follow what you are trying to say to do. Are you talking about sharing your own stuff? Sharing other people’s stuff? I’ll tll you what I have done with two local businesses. … that we have agreed to share, like, and comment on each other’s facebook fan pages a few times a week.
Overall, some good stuff here.
Thanks for your comment Jeff.
Love your agreement with the charity in Philly – I actually have something similar with a charity based in NY. Provides me a great platform for improving my own reputation, as well as good experience of using social media for good – something I’ve wanted to get involved in for a while.
For #3, the example I give relates to Facebook users engaging with content posted on a fan page, and the increased visibility that comes with that. People always talk about how important engagement is for EdgeRank, but I hear a lot less about the resulting brand visibility due to high EdgeRank. The news feed impressions gained through this are similar to word-of-mouth advertising from your friends, with the brand logo, name and content coming with that friend recommendation. However, I think what I’m trying to emphasize overall is the effect that social sharing can have in terms of visibility – regardless of where that visibility comes from. Few better ways to get advertising than advocacy between friends, in my opinion.
Great “free” tips here! I completely get that time is money and social media is not free but it can be less costly than traditional forms of advertising. Google Adwords is another one that will give you $75- $100 “free” advertising to get you on board!
Yep agreed Angela, social media can drive a high return if done correctly. I do think a lot of brands are still trying to work that puzzle out though!
I love the coupons that Google provide, and manage to stumble upon Facebook coupons quite regularly too. Both are certainly tactics I would suggest businesses consider making use of.
Love to hear more how you used the google or facebook coupons. Did you test ads? What did you find worked better for you when testing.
Hey Michele, thanks for the comment. I’m lucky to have a lot of experience with PPC advertising, so I have a pretty good idea of what works already. Nonetheless, I still definitely run tests every time I start a campaign.
With Facebook I usually run a few display ads with variations on copy/image and a few different Sponsored Stories. Facebook changes a lot, but currently I find Page Post Ads drive the most clicks at the cheapest rate.
For Google, when I have limited budget (as is the case with these free coupons), I tend to stick to advertising in Google’s search network (and avoid the display network). But again, yep a few tests. Usually start with broad targeting on most of my keywords and narrow down as I go, have at least five variations of ads for each Ad Group and set my bids high. With a limited time I want to get a good Quality Score as quickly as possible, and high bids often helps with that. Don’t usually have the chance to play around with landing pages too much with these free coupons, but my previous experience helps ensure my campaigns are optimized in that respect.
Do you run PPC ads? Any tactics that you’ve found work particularly well?