Well-positioned online banners help companies find and reach the most desirable audience. Make no mistake, ad targeting is a difficult job. It’s not as simple as putting a billboard online and expecting users to click on a banner. But online banners continue to grow because they work.
And you can definitely use online banners to recruit drivers. Here’s how.
Know Your Target Well
Remember, your goal is to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time. Understanding the right people is extremely important. In your case, merely targeting all truck drivers can be hit-it-miss. What about their geographical location? Their online habits? Or channels and websites they frequently visit? More importantly, what type of content do they usually prefer and what device do they use to consume content? You’ll be surprised how many of them browse through their smartphones.
In sum, don’t forget to factor these in your display ads: device, location, and content.
You need relevant data to back up your banners. You just can’t assume that a particular banner ad will work for everyone. It won’t. That’s why advertising networks and companies spend a ton of resources on mining and making sense of data.
Create Different Ads for Different Targets
Making an effective ad banner starts with crafting a message based on where prospects are in the marketing funnel. In your case, you may want to create different ads and calls to action for different types of prospects.
Think of new prospects who may not have heard about your company. Target them in a separate ad banner to increase brand awareness. There’s more about this on the next section.
What about drivers already in your marketing funnel? These are prospects who have already signed up. Make an irresistible offer and instantly get new applicants. Remember, not every driver is ready to apply. If you can only reach to them through effective online banners, it won’t be long before they’re ready.
Expand Your Reach
The shrinking driving pool poses a real challenge to trucking companies. But that doesn’t mean you can’t increase your leads through online banners. It only means that you should get to them first before anyone else does. The idea is to expand your influence—which, of course, starts with brand awareness.
Here are some time-tested ways to broaden your prospects through effective online banners.
- Less is more. The nature of the banner ad itself limits you to a very short copy. Make it more effective by crafting a concise and clear copy with a single call to action. Having more than one will only weaken your copy.
- Use rich media. Online banners attract more eyeballs especially when they feature rich media, Flash or video-in-banner. In fact, study after study revealed that users are likely to click on a rich media banner than a traditional banner.
- Think outside the banner. What will users see once they click on a banner? Will they see a landing page where they can easily complete your call to action?
- Know what to measure. Think beyond clickthroughs. There are other relevant metrics like conversions and cost per lead or cost per conversion. Counting the numbers of prospects who signed up or provided their contact information is often a number to track.
- Test and optimize your results. This will help you find the most effective online banners. Start with a basic A/B testing to see which ad performs best or which landing page gets the best engagement. Do more of what works best. You may also want to optimize “good enough” online banners for better results.
The Hightower Agency is one of the best driver recruitment agencies. With over 25 years in the industry, we offer a wide variety of effective and affordable driver recruiting advertising solutions. Get in touch today for a free consultation!