The Best Channels for Driving Brand Awareness

Today’s consumer spends nearly seven hours a day online. So, it should come as no surprise that seven of the ten most popular channels these users rely on for product discovery are digital. During this discovery stage, shoppers may organically end up on your website or social page — but it’s best not to leave it up to chance.

In today’s digitally saturated, hyper-competitive market, it can be tricky to nail down exactly which tactics help keep your brand top of mind with consumers versus which fall on deaf ears (or rather, distracted eyeballs). If you’ve found yourself confused or overwhelmed with which channels and tactics are best to create engaging and memorable brand awareness touchpoints, keep reading.

In this blog, we’ll outline exactly how to build a brand awareness campaign, what strategies are best to introduce your brand to consumers, and how to stay top of mind until they are ready to convert.

Quick Tip: Don’t Waste Brand Awareness Campaign Dollars on Existing Consumers

An easy step toward maximizing the ROI of your brand awareness campaigns is to suppress everyone you know who is an existing customer. While it’s essential to engage existing customers, general brand awareness campaigns are not the way to do this. The messaging and intention of these campaigns are to introduce your brand to potential customers and stay top of mind until they are ready to convert. Don’t waste precious media dollars targeting an audience you already know is familiar with or loyal to your brand (that’s what nurture campaigns are for!).

Stay Top of Mind, You Never Know When People Might Convert

It’s easy for advertisers to get into the weeds of picking the best data to target the right consumers with the right message, at just the right time. And don’t get us wrong, this strategy provides immense benefits and value. But, it’s best applied further down the funnel.

When it comes to brand awareness, take a step back. The key to a successful brand awareness campaign is just that, make people aware of your brand. Introduce consumers to your brand, familiarize them with your products and services, and build the framework for future interactions that ideally will move them down the funnel. While they might not be in the market for your product or service at this exact moment, if they are in the future, you want to ensure they’ll think of your brand.

Use strategic pop-ins here and there to remind consumers of your offerings. These ads don’t need to be overtly tailored or targeted, but frequent enough that when it does come time for a consumer to convert, they’ll recollect an interaction they had with your brand in the past.

This is most efficiently done with an omnichannel campaign, ensuring your message is reaching your audience across different channels and devices. As devices become more interactive, nearly any channel can be used at any stage of the funnel. Nevertheless, we do find certain channels lend themselves very well to brand awareness campaigns.

The 3 Best Channels for Brand Awareness Campaigns

Below we’ve outlined three of the top channels we recommend for brand awareness campaigns and how you can incorporate them into your digital media plan.

1. Advanced TV

This year, U.S. adults will spend nearly two hours watching connected TV (CTV) every day. Even better news for advertisers, about 73% of connected TV viewers prefer to watch free ad-supported content vs. paying for ad-free CTV content. As streamers tune into their favorite programs, advertisers should take advantage of pre-roll and in-stream ad placements.

These CTV ad placements provide a great opportunity to showcase more information about brand features or product attributes than a typical display ad. For that reason, use these ad spots to convey information or provide answers to common questions consumers have about your brand.

2. Digital Audio

While it is customary to reach consumers as they browse their phones or watch TV, digital audio provides ad opportunities even when consumers aren’t looking at their phones. Brands can integrate themselves into consumers’ everyday routines, reaching them when they are driving, cleaning the house, working out, or commuting to work.

The power of digital audio ads doesn’t stop there, however. Consumers are highly engaged with the content they are streaming which lends itself to a higher brand recall for digital audio ads. Digital Audio ads have a 24% higher brand recall than display ads and 67% of podcast listeners remember the ads they hear on podcasts.

3. Digital Out-of-Home

Over the last five years, digital billboard inventory in the U.S. has grown 37%, providing brands with more ways to reach their customers. These ad placements allow you to increase your brand’s visibility when consumers aren’t engaged with their devices. Brands can reach on-the-go consumers with impactful ads across various digital screens such as billboards, salons and gyms, taxis and gas stations, and everywhere in between.

Thinking down the path to purchase, using foot traffic and mobile location data, advertisers can utilize retargeting to reach users who have been exposed to a DOOH ad. So while DOOH holds great value in keeping your brand top of mind, the campaign data can be used in conjunction with other tactics to create customized cross-channel experiences. It’s a win-win.

Set Your Brand Up for Success with Strategic Brand Awareness Campaigns

While brand awareness campaigns are top of the funnel, consider them the building blocks or foundation of your digital advertising initiatives. You’re laying the groundwork and familiarizing consumers with your brand.

As such, these campaigns require a long-tail strategy using a variety of key channels to ensure you reach consumers with just the right frequency and consistency. Using just the right mix of channels and tactics, there’s a higher likelihood that consumers will recall your brand message when the time comes for them to make a purchase.

At Digilant, we understand it can be difficult to discern exactly which digital brand awareness strategies are right for your brand. We’re here to help build you a custom strategy designed specifically to reach your audience. Get started with a custom digital media strategy built to achieve your digital advertising goals. Contact us here to learn more.