‘Tis the season to give thanks – and around here, we’re pretty thankful this season (and every season) for the bread and butter of our agency, digital marketing.

In the past decade, digital marketing has gone from an emerging industry to the advertising method of choice for most brands. This shift has made sense as consumers become increasingly technology-focused, but there are more benefits to digital marketing than simply convenience. We’ve narrowed our massive list down to five reasons why we’re grateful for digital marketing, and why you should be, too.

It’s Segmented

For any business looking to reach a specific target audience (aka, every single business), digital marketing channels offer more options for audience segmentation than any other marketing method. When running paid ads online, you can choose the age, location, education level, and even interests of the consumers who see your messages. With this level of specification, every ad dollar you spend goes farther, because you’re only spending on the people who are interested in your product or service. If you were to spend the same amount of money on a billboard or television commercial, you’re completely at the mercy of whoever happens to pass by or tune in that day. However, with digital methods, you have complete control.

It’s Creative

Digital marketing platforms are designed to let marketers’ creativity flow. Sure, print ads can be eye-catching and interesting, too, but with a digital medium, the possibilities are endless. You can utilize video, audio, photos, gifs – anything and everything is on the table. Plus, with dozens of popular social media networks in existence now, there are a wide range of ad platforms available, each with their own unique strengths and offerings for marketers. With so many options, there is a platform available to help your vision come to life.

It’s Engaging

One of the biggest reasons we love digital is because it can be so captivating and engaging, while also making it simple for consumers to take immediate action. If a consumer is interested in any digital ad, they can instantly click on any linked page, like a landing page or the business’s social media profile. From there, the business can lead the consumer to other actions, such as completing a purchase or signing up for an email list. This level of engagement is so valuable for marketers, and there are very few other methods that can inspire these instant results.

It’s Trackable

You know how we know consumers are taking immediate action from digital marketing? It’s all trackable via analytics. That’s the real beauty of going digital. There’s no guess work involved in determining the success of your campaign or waiting for months to see whether you saw an uptick in sales that could possibly be attributed to your ad campaign. Instead, you can see in real time how long people spend watching your ads and how many people are clicking through to your website. When you have to report back to clients or company executives, these numbers play a huge role in proving the value of your marketing efforts.

It’s Easy to Adjust

Another great thing about the trackable results of digital marketing is that you can review them while your campaign is still ongoing and quickly make revisions. There’s no need to wait until the next ad to implement changes – you can immediately apply adjustments based on the early feedback and start improving the campaign. This strategy has also given way to A/B testing, allowing marketers to simultaneously run multiple ads to find out which messages are most effective. By making continuous improvements in their digital campaigns, marketers can save valuable ad dollar in the process – and that’s something we can all be thankful for.