Forget the traditional marketing tactics. While TV marketing has had a lot of dollars pulled from budgets in recent years, advertisers’ money is seeing better results with the sharp rise in digital ads. Due to the increasing use of mobile, video and social sharing, brands are realizing advertising dollars are better spent on digital formats. According to digital marketing research company eMarketer, digital is overtaking TV ad spending for the first time ever, and mobile ad spending will cover one-third of total ad costs in the U.S by 2019. What does this mean for your brand and how can you cash in on the trend?

New advertising opportunities

With the rise of social media has come unprecedented local and national level advertising opportunities that businesses have never had access to before. With so many people scrolling through newsfeeds on social media platforms, it’s as easy as ever to create a targeted ad to plop right down in user’s feeds. All social platforms have targeting available within ads. Whether by age, location, or interests, brands can make sure the people most likely to act on their call-to-action are seeing their ads.

Mobile, mobile, mobile

Oh, did we happen to mention mobile? If you’re looking to reach the masses, it’s smart to allocate a big chunk of your advertising budget to ads optimized for mobile viewing. If you are creating a Facebook ad, make sure your copy is visible on smaller screens, with bold images and easy to understand language. You want users to be compelled to click on your ad, so image and wording is everything. For Instagram, it’s all about the visuals: create on-brand campaigns with creative images and don’t forget to use hashtags.

Video ads rule the roost

According to eMarketer, about 66% of marketers use Facebook for their video social marketing, with 73% of them planning on increasing their use in the future. The progress Facebook has seen in video over the last year with ads and the introduction of Facebook Live is promising for markers wanting to utilize this service. Video advertising on social networks has seen success primarily due to the shareability of content on social media.

With well-targeted videos, marketers have the ability to reach just the right people. And those people are willing to share. This is why video ads are paramount to brands’ advertising game. Create compelling content that’s attention grabbing and that cuts through all the noise of newsfeeds, and you’re likely to get that coveted “share.”

So whether you’re looking to get the word out on your business, direct users to a product, or get attention for an upcoming event, digital ads are the way to go. How will you utilize this new era in advertising?