Sports advertising is not as easy as it used to be. In some aspects, it?s never really been easy. True, we still see Nike and Adidas commercials on our TV, but sports marketing in general has evolved far past the point of a simple commercial.
Sports advertising, much like many other advertising campaigns, is all about finding the right audience. For a TV commercial, you can be sure that at least a few people that see it will be avid sports fans, but TV production is expensive, and honestly not the most effective advertising platform anymore.
Now, it?s all about getting the best bang for your buck. It?s about not only finding the right audience, but making sure that they?re quality leads. How is that done? That?s why we?re here today.
Sports advertising campaigns
When we say sports advertising, we?re referring to both equipment and the actual sport itself. For the sake of this article, both are an effective subject for sports advertising campaigns on major advertising platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google, and even LinkedIn.
With all that being said, there are a few ways to get the most out of your sports advertising campaigns:
1. Influencer marketing
If you?ve been in the marketing industry for any lengthy period of time, you?ve certainly seen the popularity of hiring influencers in marketing grow. All-in-all, influencer marketing has been reported to give an 89% increase in ROI.
For your sports advertising campaign, whether it be equipment, apparel, or a team, hiring an influencer can prove to be beneficial, especially if you choose to use social media channels for your advertising efforts.
2. Use more social media
Speaking of social media, you should definitely maximize your efforts across the board by using more of it. It?s really no secret at this point that social media marketing can be highly effective.
Since there are very helpful tools out there like Facebook Lead Ads, Facebook Custom audiences, and LeadsBridge, finding the right target audience for your sports advertising is now as headache-free as ever.
For example, let?s say that you want to advertise sports apparel for a specific team. With Facebook Lead Ads, you can select a specific age range, specific interests, and even people who live in the hometown of the team jerseys being advertised.
With Facebook Custom Audiences, you can target audiences that already exist within the Facebook database. This allows you to specifically target people that may already know about your business, and are therefore pre-qualified.
Using LeadsBridge, you can integrate these lead generation platforms into your other marketing tools like your CRM. Doing this allows you to keep track of your data, and really make the most of the conversion process.
3. Get the timing right
With any campaign, but especially for sports advertising, timing is essential to getting those conversions. If you catch the lead or prospect at the wrong time, not only will they not buy, but they?ll probably forget about you completely.
The key is to use a tool like LeadsBridge to make sure you get the best overview of the entire conversion process. With LeadsBridge, you can get a detailed overview of the entire conversion funnel, and get a good idea of when your leads need nurturing.
Of course, understanding real world events and trends helps sports advertising campaigns, too. For example, advertising a sporting event a decent amount of time before it actually begins, selling merchandise from a specific team right after a big win, or advertising merchandise right before the season begins are all very important elements of a successful sports advertising campaign.
All around, getting the timing right for sports advertising is essential, and can make or break you if you?re not careful. Keep up-to-date with trends, do plenty of testing, and of course make sure that you have the right tools in your arsenal to get the job done.
Will companies be spending more for sports advertising?
At the beginning of 2020, sports advertising was projected to reach an all-time high by reaching nearly $50 billion. Despite this projection, and for obvious reasons, advertising in general world-wide is sort of all over the place as of the last quarter of 2020.
That being said, there is a noticeable trend in sports advertising year-to-year. Typically, we can see massive increases across the board when it comes to spending in the sports advertising industry.
Spending on a seasonal scale goes up around major sporting events like the Super Bowl, World Cup, and NBA Finals. This makes sense if you think about it from a marketing standpoint. These are some of the most premiere sporting leagues on the planet. Around the time of these events, a lot more people are online, diving into sport-related topics than usual.
To answer the question bluntly: Yes, advertisers will be spending more for sports advertising. This fact doesn?t change no matter how you look at it. Whether it?s yearly, seasonally, or based around sporting events, all trends lead to a steady increase in sports advertising.
Sports marketing ads example
To put all this information into a visual, let?s take a look at some sports marketing ads on Facebook. We?ll take a look at 2 different categories for these examples.
Sport product advertising
As you can see here, Academy Sports is advertising with an eye-catching visual for a new Adidas cleat release. This is the sort of Facebook ad that is perfect for audience targeting.
Sport team advertising
With this carousel-style Facebook Ad, you can see that the Bengals are advertising tickets to a game. Carousel-style ads are perfect for this sort of sports advertising since you can market each game individually.
Ads for sports
What?s important to remember in this case is that typically any sort of ads for sports can easily be formatted for any major advertising platform. In this case with Facebook, all it really takes is mobile optimization, image formatting, and of course, a way to painlessly track conversions.
This is why tools like LeadsBridge are so important to the integrity of your sports advertising campaigns. Not only will you be able to accurately track your marketing data, but it?s a fairly painless process.
Sport advertising statistics
In the world of sports advertising, there are quite a few insightful and interesting statistics to keep in mind. Here?s a quick rundown of some of those statistics:
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The total amount of spending within the sports industry in the US is estimated to be around $540 billion as of 2018, and continues to rise each year.
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The total amount of spending within the world-wide sports industry is estimated to be nearly $1.3 trillion.
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Annually, sports advertising spending is estimated to be nearly $40 billion.
As you can see by sheer numbers alone, the sports advertising industry is one of the largest in the world. Billions upon billions of dollars are spent each year in a variety of ways, but all those ways lead back to sports.
Sports advertising is an incredible opportunity for anyone looking to increase inbound marketing in their sports related business simply because there are so many people out there that are interested.
Ads in sports: Conclusions and takeaways
Ads in sports are some of the most adaptable, versatile, and varied in the business. The reason for this is that anywhere you go, no matter the city, state, or country, there is a sports team, and there is some sort of interest that follows said team.
Advertisers use this to their advantage when it comes to sports advertising, using things like Facebook Lead Ads and other advertising platforms to really target the right audience, and get conversions. Whether it be sport apparel, a sporting event, or anything else to do with sports, you can rest assured that there is an audience.
All of that being said, sports advertising is quite a competitive market. For sports teams, maybe not so much, but any company that sells physical products have a lot of competitors.
The key to a successful sports advertising campaign is to know your audience, and hit them where it counts: their wallets. The easy way to do this is to utilize platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google to really expand your reach to a pre-qualified audience.
Once you?ve found your audience, the best way to keep track of all your marketing data is to use LeadsBridge to integrate your favorite marketing platforms together. For example, you can connect Facebook Lead Ads with your favorite CRM to get a complete overview of your marketing funnel, and get real-time and updated lead data.
