The Biggest Paid Ads Opportunities for Brands in 2024

Guest Post by Max Sinclair

As the owner of my own ad agency, Snowball Creations, I have seen firsthand how your brand can impact your paid advertising and vice versa. A solid brand makes it much easier to run profitable ads as you will likely have a good audience already, and a solid ad campaign will help your brand improve. 

Since it’s the start of a new year and everyone is still thinking about ways that they can improve their business profitability in the year ahead, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about some of the biggest paid ads opportunities for brands in 2024, so that you can make paid advertising work for you. 

1. Generative AI

Speaking of AI . . . there are countless ways that brands can use AI in their ad campaigns, especially when it comes to generative AI. We all know that ChatGPT has been making waves, and brands can use it to come up with unique copy for their ads. 

You can even use its image generator, DALL-E, to come up with the creative - although platforms like Midjourney and Microsoft are also capitalising on this. If you want to take it a step further, you can use AI to come up with audio for your ads by using ElevenLabs. 

2. Video ads are king

If you’re not using video ads yet, the chances are that you are missing out. Video ads have been increasing in popularity, so this is a great opportunity for your brand to jump on a trend while it’s hot! Video ads can be hard to master, though, so don’t hesitate to contact a creative studio if you need help with them. 

Note: while video ads are amazing, I would not recommend only relying on them for your ad campaigns. Instead, you should still test different ad formats such as single-image or carousel ads to ensure that you are getting a variety of ads out there. 

3. In-platform AI

Google, Meta, and TikTok are all major ad platforms that have their own AI systems and algorithms that aim to show your ads to people who are likely to be interested in your brand. The algorithms are getting more advanced and accurate by the day, and they essentially do a lot of the work for you. 

That being said, these built-in AI systems do have their limitations. If you don’t have a lot of conversions, for example, Google won’t know what to do with your ad. In this case, it’s best to get a Google Ads agency to do the work for you. 

4. Authenticity > celebrity 

For a long time, the best way to grow your brand was to have a famous celebrity endorse it, but that has changed in recent years. More and more consumers are looking for authentic ads. They want to see real people using things. Goodbye, airbrushed photos, and hello reality! Influencer marketing and user-generated content are both great opportunities to market your brand authentically.  

5. Amazon ads

Amazon continues to dominate the e-commerce industry, which means that if you are an e-commerce brand, you should at least consider running Amazon ads. Again, this isn’t a good option for all e-commerce businesses, but it is an opportunity to look into. 

6. LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is an interesting ad platform because it’s newer than many other ad giants like Google or Meta, but it’s already shown great results. That being said, LinkedIn is quite a niche advertising platform, as it is specifically aimed at B2B products and services. 

So, if you’re in the e-commerce space, Google or Meta might be better options for you, but if you’re a B2B brand, you need to be leveraging LinkedIn ads. If you’re not sure how to do this, you can always contact LinkedIn ads professionals to help. 

7. TikTok ads

TikTok is one of the fastest-growing platforms of our time, and if you are a brand trying to attract younger users, this can be a great way for you to reach your audience. TikTok went from barely having an ad platform to being super profitable within a short space of time, and while it hasn’t quite caught up with Meta as an ad platform yet, it’s a great place for brands to market themselves. 

8. Sound-off ads

An interesting trend when it comes to video ads is that many companies are now making their ads muted. Research has shown that consumers often get irritated when an ad automatically starts playing at full volume. Therefore, you should play around with silent ads, or at the very least, consider having your ads be silent until a user selects the sound to be on. 

9. Captions are a winner!

So, if your ads are muted, how do you effectively get your message across to consumers? The answer is simple: you use captions. Not only will this help you convey your ad to users without having to be annoyingly loud, but it also broadens your audience by making your ad inclusive of people who are hearing impaired. Of course, it also doesn’t hurt that algorithms love ads with captions!

10. Podcast advertising 

Podcasts have really risen in popularity lately, and they can help you reach a new audience via audio ads. If there’s a popular podcast that aligns with your brand, try to see if you can snag an ad spot. Give it a try - you won’t know if it will work otherwise!

11. Ads that push the limits

Finally, one of the best opportunities to grow your brand via paid ads is to push the limits with your ads. Nearly all businesses are running ads, and consumers are overwhelmed with hundreds of ads a day. The chances are that they’re going to forget your ads a few seconds after they see it . . . unless you give them a reason to remember it. 

Be unique and evocative. Use language creatively, have a bit of a tongue-in-cheek side to your ads; you need to do anything to stand out from the crowd and have a lasting impact.

Final words

The paid ads landscape is constantly changing, so if you want your brand to keep staying on top of trends, you need to make sure to also adapt and implement these trends. You need to keep up with what’s popular, and always keep an eye out for new opportunities.

That being said, each brand is different, so my advice will always be to test different things. If something is popular, you should try it out, but that doesn’t mean you should ditch all your other efforts. Instead, test the new idea versus something else to see what performs best.