Below-the-Line Advertising
Refers to the type of advertising in media other than mainstream forms
What Is Below-The-Line Advertising?
Below the line, the advertising sector refers to the type of advertising in media other than mainstream forms.
It can be effective but not as attention-grabbing as above-the-line advertising. Above, the line covers various city platforms, including radio, television, newspapers, magazines, and billboards.
Thus, the “line” separates specific and targeted advertising campaigns from the more general and broad-reach ones.
Below the line is a marketing strategy with smaller and more precisely targeted advertisements for specific individuals or demographic groups. It comes with returns to investment that are more easily understood and tracked and an ideal audience.
It can be measured in various ways, including website visits, click-through, conversion rates, and cost per click or acquisition.
The return on investment (or ROI) is another measure that can be used to study the effects of the advertising campaign. In addition, customer feedback is essential since below-the-line advertising usually revolves around more personalized and directed marketing and offers.
Social media likes, followers, and impressions can also be used to examine the effect of those advertisements, their outreach, and engagement with the target audience.
Both small and large businesses utilize below-the-line advertising. These techniques include paid search, social media, content marketing, search engine marketing or search engine optimization (SEO), and public relations.
Search engine marketing refers to broadcasting and promoting websites through paid advertisements. These online paid advertisements, like Google Ads, increase their visibility to users in search engine results.
Key Takeaways
- Below-the-line advertising refers to advertising about products or services through other techniques that do not involve mainstream media platforms, such as door-to-door, exterior location marketing, sponsorships, direct mail, and emails.
- Below-the-line advertising thus offers the ability to create more personalized content and advertisements. In addition, customer feedback is one part of the data collected to measure advertising and its effect on purchase decisions below the line.
- This advertising is less costly and more accessible to measure than above the line. Tracking click-through rates and social media impressions can do this.
- Above-the-line advertising occurs in mainstream media, such as radio, TV, newspapers, and billboards. It is considered more eye-catching, especially for advertising products to large audiences.
- Some companies integrate both above-the-line and below-the-line advertising approaches into their marketing campaigns to maximize the benefits of both strategies.
Examples of Below the Line Advertising
Below the line, advertising occurs through multiple channels and media techniques, such as trade marketing/sampling, door-to-door interactions, promotions, direct mail, emails, and flyers.
1. Targeted Search Engine Marketing
- Advertising campaigns that highlight specific keywords to explore groups of potential customers and attract others.
- It can get expensive, but some b2b (business to business) companies offer the option to pay for each customer click instead of upfront payment for print ads.
2. Trade shows and Exhibitions
- Space to identify and reach potential customers directly, especially when advertising events.
- It involves presenting exclusive offers and other incentives for people to join, possibly costlier than online and email advertisements.
3. Sponsorship
- Partnerships with other organizations or companies to expand brand awareness and introduce products to new audiences.
- It helps build a reputation and brand loyalty, especially in sports arenas.
4. Direct Mail
- Printing bulk promotional material (catalogs and brochures), making envelopes, and mailing them to customers.
Note
These are especially favorable in the eyes of the older generation. Since they involve engaging designs and compelling messages, it is easier for customers to pay attention to them.
5. Inbound Marketing
- Social Media: Choosing what to post and where (depending on design and product) to maximize the outreach and potential of brand awareness while enticing customers.
- Email Marketing: Prominent way of communicating with others, even customers.
- No cost and you can track how many recipients open and click. With tools like MailChimp, individuals can set up emails to be sent automatically.
6. In-Store Promotion
- They are often used in retail stores taking the shape of visual merchandising, pop-up stores, distributing samples, and other displays and promotions.
- Encourage consumers to purchase those products and increase the firm's ROIs.
7. Exterior Location Marketing
- They are having employees stand outside a location to represent a brand and promote an event or sale related to the product, often involving costumes to grab attention.
- Not a common strategy, but it benefits small companies, restaurants, and car dealerships.
8. Door-to-Door
- Sales representatives can visit households in a specific geographical region or neighborhood to promote and sell their products.
- This is often done for tangible and intangible products, like insurance policies.
- This can occur by knocking on doors and trying to be persuasive and persistent without being considered a nuisance or placing fliers on doors.
Measuring Below the Line and Costs
The effectiveness of below-the-line advertising can be measured using different tools and data from online sources.
In addition to lower costs, it is easier to monitor the budgets throughout the advertising campaign when using BTL techniques compared to others. Data to measure BTL includes:
- Number of website visits
- Number of clicks on ads and websites
- Cost per click or acquisition
- Cookies store a user's preferences and are used to customize the ads shown.
- Google Analytics analyzes site performance by looking at page views, click-through rates, and other pieces of data.
- E-commerce tracking, which looks at record sales and profitable marketing outlets.
- Goal tracking, which compares and aligns the marketing campaign to the objectives.
For example, a blog addressing the effect of blogs on consumers' decisions collected some statistics. One point they gathered was that 84% of online shoppers purchased products based on the captivating descriptions they read in a blog.
These are examples of quantifiable data, especially with tools like Google Analytics. So, they provide helpful insight into estimating the firm's return on investment from undertaking that marketing strategy.
In addition, customer feedback is essential since below-the-line advertising usually revolves around more personalized and directed marketing and offers.
Social media plays a significant role, so tracking likes, followers, and impressions is also helpful. They highlight those advertisements' effect and engagement with the target audience.
Note
Below-the-line advertisements usually require lower budgets, while above-the-line involve more significant investments. However, with the ever-evolving digital world, more money is spent on online advertising than in the past.
Below the Line vs. Through and Above the Line (TTL & ATL)
To understand the main difference between the below and above-the-line advertising approach, the table below will help you understand it clearly by outlining different characteristics.
| Head | Below The Line (BTL) | Above The Line (ATL) | Through The Line (TTL) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Definition |
Advertising targets certain customers and occurs in non-mainstream media forms. | Advertising with a broader reach typically occurs in mainstream media forms. | Advertising an integrated approach of both ATL and BTL. |
| Cost | Generally lower costs than other types of advertising. | Require greater investments. | More expensive than utilizing BTL or ATL alone. |
| Measurement | Easy to measure; using the statistics described above. | Difficult to measure, but we can look at how many viewers and how often. | Using the measurement tools of both BTL and ATL. |
| Target/Focus | More personalized engagement; most often used by small companies. | More eye-catching and captivates mass audiences; most often used by larger companies (who can afford it). | Integrates both to expand potential reach; used by large companies, but sometimes both. |
| Examples | Emails, direct mail, door-to-door, sponsorships, and more. | Billboards, TV (es, radio, the internet, and other print media. | Combination of both: creating TV campaigns with flyers or newspaper ads. |
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