Online Marketing Vs Curbside Marketing? Which One Makes More Revenue

Are you wondering whether to invest in online marketing vs curbside marketing?

According to research from Google, businesses that deploy digital marketing experience 2.8x higher growth and have a 3.3x higher probability of increasing their revenue.

Of course, Google is the big daddy of display and search ads, so they’re not likely to shout the benefits of physical and curbside advertising from the rooftops.

If you want to make the most of your marketing budget, you need to look beyond broad statistics and analyze what methods will drive the most revenue for your specific business model.

In this article, we break down the pros and cons of both curbside and online marketing methods. Keep reading to find out which one is likely to generate the best return for your business in this marketing guide.

Online Marketing Is More Cost Effective

If implemented correctly, digital marketing methods can generate an impressive ROI. One of the reasons for this is that online marketing is usually far cheaper than traditional marketing.

Social media and PPC ads typically have affordable CPMs. Currently, the average CPM for Instagram and Facebook ads is less than $9. The average CPM for Twitter and LinkedIn ads is roughly $6.50. Paid search and display ads are even more cost-effective, with standard CPMs of around $2.

The costs of traditional advertising can vary widely. For instance, an ad on a small local radio station is going to be a lot cheaper than a commercial on a major television network or radio station.

To give you an example, the average cost for a 30-second ad on a national television network comes in at around $104,700. Besides this, you will also need to factor in production costs, which can easily run you a few thousand dollars.

In contrast, an ad on a small local television station typically costs $5 per 1,000 viewers, which works out to a CPM of $5.

CPMs for network television ads usually range between $20-$30 on average.

When it comes to curbside advertising, it’s almost impossible to accurately work out a “CPM”.

For instance, placing an advertisement on a cab will cost you anywhere between $30-$2000 per month. Although you can make some rough estimates, there is no way to measure the number of actual impressions your ad will receive, or how many conversions these will trigger.

This lack of metrics robs you of the chance to optimize and tweak your ads for the best ROI.

Online Marketing Allows for Better Targeting

Online marketing tends to be cheaper than physical advertising, but where the big difference comes in is around targeting.

Online marketing allows you to precisely target your ads to specific markets and demographics.

With paid search, display, and social media ads you can select from a variety of targeting parameters, including:

• Keywords
• Location
• Age
• Interests
• Income level

By correctly targeting your ads you can maximize your ad spend by only showing ads to people who have a high chance of converting.

Although you can still target certain market segments with traditional marketing methods, the process isn’t nearly as straightforward as with online marketing. Thanks to this, we’d advise that you enlist professional help before deploying traditional marketing methods.

Roadside marketing has probably the least targeting potential of almost all advertising methods. The only thing that’s in your control is where you place your ad.

Online Marketing Has a Wider Reach

Another reason why online marketing can drive more revenue is it has a far wider reach than curbside marketing, which is entirely confined to a local audience.

This might be a good thing in some cases. For instance, if you run a car wash, displaying roadside ads close to your location can trigger more business. People at nearby restaurants and shops may see your ads and decide on the spur of the moment to drop their vehicle off to get washed.

But if you want to expand your reach, online marketing is the way to go.

Digital marketing can allow you to target a local audience through geographical targeting, but you can also use it to market yourself on a global level.

Online Marketing Offers Better Metrics

As we said above, it’s very difficult to track your results with curbside marketing. There’s no way to accurately measure your CPM, conversion rate, or CPC.

Without accurate metrics, you aren’t able to carry out ad optimization or A/B testing.

Online marketing, on the other hand, enables you to easily analyze your ad performance. Ad performance metrics allow you to evaluate what is and isn’t working with your campaigns, and make changes to optimize them.

Continually optimizing your ads and overall strategies is one of the most important online marketing tips, as it allows you to drive better results with the same budget, supercharging your ROI and revenue.

It’s Harder to Tweak Curbside Ads

Not only are curbside ads devoid of metrics, but they’re also more complicated to change. If you do want to optimize or tweak an online ad, you can do so almost instantly.

Thanks to their physical nature, static curbside ads are more expensive and difficult to change. For instance, making a very minor change to a billboard ad is probably not worth the expense. With an online ad, you can tinker with your ad copy, CTA, buttons, and media assets any time you want.

The one exception to this is digital curbside advertising. If your ad is displayed on a digital billboard or a digital sign on a taxi, it’s easier to action changes.

Curbside Marketing Can Be Beneficial for Brand Awareness

One of the issues with curbside marketing methods, such as billboards, is the barrier to conversion. Unlike digital advertisements, consumers can’t “click” on a billboard or curbside ad.

Instead, they have to make the effort to write down the contact details, address, or website, or take a photo of the ad. If they want to look you up online or contact your business, they then have to find the piece of paper or photo and manually type your telephone number or website into their device.

Nowadays, someone who’s driving past a billboard isn’t likely to scramble to write down the brand name or contact details. Because of this, you’re unlikely to get as many direct conversions from curbside advertisements.

However, curbside advertising can still be a powerful brand awareness driver. Seeing a brand’s name advertised on a billboard or physical ad might not trigger as many instant sales, but it will help to cement your brand in consumers’ minds.

Roadside Marketing Is Static

Another drawback to curbside marketing is its static nature. As we just outlined, consumers can’t engage with your ad by clicking on it to find out more about your brand.

In contrast, digital marketing methods can instantly draw consumers into your sales funnel. Within moments of seeing your ad, they can be on your landing page, checking out your offerings, reading your blog, or interacting with you on social media.

Thanks to this, online marketing tends to drive faster results. It’s also better at capturing leads and keeping them in your sales funnel.

For instance, let’s say you’ve begun to invest in content marketing and SEO and your site is appearing in relevant searches. After landing on your website via a blog post, a new lead might not make an immediate purchase, but they may sign up for your newsletter.

If they do, you can continue to lead them down your sales funnel via a drip campaign. Even if they don’t join your email list, you can still nurture them via retargeted ads.

Through techniques like this, you can retain and maximize your leads, and drive more revenue in a shorter space of time.

Billboard Advertising Still Brings a Decent ROI

Overall, online marketing has the potential to generate more revenue for less money spent. But, this doesn’t mean you should ignore curbside and traditional ads entirely.

For instance, billboard advertising still commands a decent ROI, averaging $5.97 in revenue for every dollar spent.

What’s more, curbside marketing can be very effective for specific situations. For instance, billboards announcing the opening of a new outlet can prime consumers in the area for your launch.

Posters and fliers advertising special events and discounts can help to draw passersby into your business. Advertising via traditional channels can also help trigger brand awareness and credibility.

Do You Want to Supercharge Your Marketing Strategies?

Thanks to its low costs, detailed metrics, and targeting opportunities, online marketing can generate a better ROI and more revenue than traditional methods such as curbside marketing.

But, curbside marketing still has a place in the modern landscape.

The secret to maximizing your marketing efforts doesn’t lie in blindly choosing one strategy and sticking to it. Taking an omnichannel approach that’s based on research and targets the right channels is the way to go.

Do you need help creating an omnichannel marketing strategy that’s fine-tuned to drive results? We can help.

Here at 46Mile, we bring you media reach and research-focused strategies usually reserved for only the big players, as well as top-notch SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing.

Contact us today to discuss your marketing needs.