Introduction
Online advertising is a common form of promoting goods and services on the Internet. It encompasses a wide array of adverts, including display ads, search engine result pages, banners, and popups on social media platforms (Stokes, 2013). Such advertisements aim to raise brand awareness, attract potential customers, and increase sales of products or services. This essay will examine and discuss an online advert found on the social media platform Facebook.
Main body
Facebook offers companies and individual users to promote their products and services to prospective customers online. The advert selected for this paper is a sponsored post that appeared in the newsfeed due to previous engagement with the promoted company, Animals Asia. The sponsored ad relays the story of Bluebelle, a bear that was caged on a bile farm for over 15 years, and describes the injuries sustained by the bear during that time (Animals Aisa, 2021). The advert concludes on the note that many more bears are suffering in cages, with an emotional appeal to help “free them before time runs out” (Animals Aisa, 2021). The post is accompanied by pictures of Bluebelle in a cage and after being freed, depicting the damage the life in captivity caused the bear (Animals Aisa, 2021). In addition, a link to the Animals Asia donation page is provided.
The described Animals Asia ad can be considered an emotional one. It appeals to users’ emotions through expressive words and imagery, specifically anger and disgust towards people who mistreat animals and compassion towards bears. According to Edwards (2021), disgust and anger are among the emotions that drive clicks, engagement with the post, and conversion. In this case, conversion includes donations to Animals Asia or sharing the reviewed post. The target audience of the advert is people of all ages invested in fighting animal cruelty as well as persons unaware of the existence of bile farms and animals’ treatment there. Thus, it serves to drive engagement and conversion and spread awareness of the issue. In order to ensure the Animals Aisa campaign goes viral and is shared via email, social network platforms, and other hosting websites, the target audience should feel strongly about the presented problem. Thus, the discussed promoted post is an emotional ad focusing on spreading awareness and collecting donations for the cause.
The examined Animals Asia campaign is a call to action (CTA) advert. CTAs focus on motivating readers to take action, for example, donate to a charity (Stokes, 2013). As Animals Asia also sells merchandise to support the foundation, it can be construed as a business to consumers (B2C) company (Represent, 2021). As a social media platform whose users are primarily individuals with one or more accounts, Facebook is more suitable for B2C and CTA advertising. In addition, employee advocacy on social media can result in a higher potential customer conversion rate. Thus, prospective clients developed through employee social marketing are seven times more likely to convert than other customers (Sociabble, 2020). The tendency can be attributed to social media users being more inclined to trust “real people” who add credibility to the brand (Sociabble, 2020). Customer testimonials have a similar effect to employee social media marketing. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the most suitable for customer recommendations as other users can check their profiles and ensure the testimonial is not a paid promotion. In addition, such recommendations can be shared, reaching a broader target audience.
Conclusion
In summary, online advertising is a form of marketing that takes place on the Internet, including different hosting websites and social media platforms. It facilitates customer engagement with the company and raises brand awareness, introducing the business to new prospective clients. Moreover, various goods and services can be promoted online by the company’s employees and customers, translating into a higher conversion rate of potential customers.
References
Animals Aisa. (2021). Rescue tormented bears. Web.
Edwards, H. (2021). The 4 emotions that make the best emotional ads [DATA]. WordStream: Online Advertising Made Easy. Web.
Represent. (2021). Animals Asia Store. Represent: Official Merchandise. Web.
Sociabble. (2020). 10 stats that prove the impact of employee advocacy. Web.
Stokes, R. (2013). eMarketing: The essential guide to marketing in a digital world (5th ed.). Quirk eMarketing.