9 Ways to Shift Your Paid Media Strategy

With people confined to their homes, companies are turning toward digital marketing to keep brand awareness alive during the COVID-19 crisis. While it is challenging, companies that adapt to this new environment ensure their success in the future. It’s time to explore new digital channels, reallocate your budget and create new thoughtful messaging.

Creating a strong digital strategy is the best way to navigate these unprecedented times. Here are some top tips to guide you through:

• Don’t go dark! People are not expecting complete advertising silence from businesses in the media during the coming months. Instead, explore new ways to connect with your audience digitally or through new channels that are not yet part of your marketing strategy.

• What can you provide right now that is of value to the people you want to reach? Even if this means being a simple source of information they can turn to or sending an inspirational message of hope.

• Change your message, making it sensitive to current events and to what people are feeling and needing right now. Everyone is affected by this pandemic — while a fraction of the population might be relatively unscathed, many lives have been turned upside down. Know your audience, understand their situation and empathize to create emotional connections with them.

• Utilize contextual and behavioral targeting to digitally get in front of the right audience. Testing both strategies is a more holistic plan, which allows you to reach people in different ways. 

• Shift your audience focus. Adjust your targeting parameters to more local geography and markets. It is important to support your local community during this time of need.

• Add new digital platforms to your marketing mix that are seeing a rise in usage during this time. Connected TV, gaming apps, social media platforms and mobile executions are earning more hours of consumers' time. According to a study done by Kantar, web browsing has increased by 70% and social media engagement has increased 61% over normal usage rates.

• Work with your publishers to create blacklists and negative keyword lists to ensure you are not showing up next to COVID-19 news/info — especially if you are a travel brand. Protect your brand's safety by not allowing correlation to the pandemic.

• Stay updated on changing news and regulations from both your local government officials and the U.S. government. You may need to shift messaging at a moment’s notice, so prepare for creative changes. Be flexible, nimble and responsive to the situation as it evolves and to the developing needs of your audience.

• Secure media placements early. Everyone will be rushing to push advertising campaigns live after the pandemic scare has settled. You will likely not only be up against other companies, but also against U.S. presidential political campaigns for media placement spots.

While the initial reaction from businesses may be to stop all advertising campaigns, we encourage you to approach the situation differently. Develop a new strategy and appropriate funds to digital platforms while they are seeing such a generous increase in consumers’ attention. During these trying times, flexibility in your marketing strategy is essential and it allows you to find innovative ways to connect with your audience.