In the digital marketing space, paid advertising should still be a prominent puzzle piece. The problem for many advertisers is that they make a mistake in the way they approach their Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads. While you can still see a hike in conversion and page views, the most common (and silly) mistakes will cost you progress. Because of this, marketers will falsely assume that paid advertising itself doesn’t reap the best rewards for their business.
You might wonder which is better: SEO or PPC? The truth is that PPC ads can bring in an excellent conversion rate when you eliminate some of the errors you’re making in how you launch your campaigns, but bear in mind that they shouldn’t overshadow your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, either.
Before throwing in the towel on your paid advertising ventures, check out our list of the top five mistakes we see marketers making with their paid advertising campaigns. If some of these resonate with you, it might be time to readjust how you approach paid advertising.
1 – Jumping the Gun on Your Campaign with Little to No Research, Goal-Setting, or Strategizing
Do not begin paid digital advertising (or any advertising campaigns) without:
- Goals in mind. It’s best to try to make SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely).
- Start and end dates. This ensures your campaign has a focus so you can create milestones and celebrate when you hit your ideal launch dates.
- Research. You need to understand the market you’re entering and understand what your competitors are doing.
- Strategy. The right strategy will help you formulate the direction of your campaign, allocate your budget, and create proper copy, imagery, and messaging to hit your target audience at the right time and in the right places.
2 – Not Doing Research to See Which Platforms Are More Beneficial, AND Not Understanding What Each Platform Can Offer You
There are a seemingly endless number of online platforms out there these days. If you don’t look deeply enough into your target audience to understand where they hang out, you could be using platforms that don’t make sense for your business. You don’t want a lot of eyes on your ads – you want the right eyes, the ones that are likely to buy your products or services. That means you need to get your messages on platforms that put you in front of the right people. For example, if you’re a B2B company, LinkedIn may prove more beneficial than Facebook.
Overall, it’s never great to put all your eggs in one basket, so it’s best to research and figure out which platforms may be best suited for your company before diving in.
If you’re using Google Ads, try to understand the difference between search, display, and remarketing before diving in. Understanding all the intricacies of Google Ads isn’t easy, but this work is essential. Keep your sales funnel in mind and learn how your buyers’ journeys will then relate to your strategies regarding budgets, bidding, and keywords. For Facebook, make sure you understand when a “Like Ad” might be more valuable than “boosting your posts.”
Overall, try your best to understand the various platforms and how each can benefit your business.
3 – Not Starting Campaigns at the Correct Time or Giving Up on Campaigns Too Early
This is easier said than done, as there are limitations with budgets, but always try to start your campaigns weeks or months in advance, based on the products or services you’re offering to your target market. For example, if you’re a pool service company in the Northeast U.S., it’s best to prepare for pool-opening campaigns in late winter to start pushing ads out early to mid-spring. This helps ensure your brand and offerings are being seen just when your target audience is thinking about opening their pools for the warm weather.
Similarly, if you happened to start a campaign in the slow part of your year – or you’re simply not seeing success with your campaigns – do some research to understand why before you pack up and move on. Giving up on campaigns when they’ve only been running for a week or two is not a great idea. You need to analyze the data to make sound, analytical, and logical decisions.
If you aren’t pleased with your campaign results, you can always contact professional digital marketers to help consult with your paid campaigns.
4 – Not Using Optimized Landing Pages
Getting your audience to your page isn’t the goal – it’s converting them to paying customers once they reach your site. All of your efforts will be in vain if you can’t convert visitors, so you certainly don’t want to lose them now.
Here are some tips to help you:
- Make sure your landing page is mobile-friendly.
- Ensure your landing page is relevant to the ads you’re using.
- Be sure to have clear calls to action (CTAs) above the fold so visitors can reach you with ease.
- Employ ‘thank you’ pages after visitors submit their forms.
You can place tracking codes on your landing page to keep tabs on completed conversions.
5 – Not Optimizing Ads Continuously or Not A/B Testing
Your paid advertising efforts aren’t something you set and forget. You need to check the analytics and perform A/B testing to see which campaigns work best.
Continuously optimize ads on timeframes that make sense for your campaigns. For example, it’s usually best to allow sets of ads to run for a couple of months to gather enough data and decide whether or not you need to pivot.
You always need to perform A/B testing within your campaigns. Maybe you have a set of two image ads on Facebook that have the exact copy – test them to see which image resonates better for your audience. This type of testing during a campaign will allow you to determine which option will perform better in the long run.
Looking for Ways to Improve Your Paid Advertising Campaigns?
Contact Zero Gravity Marketing today if you’re not getting the best ROI from your paid advertising campaigns or are just looking for ways to improve your current digital marketing strategies. Our team of experienced marketing professionals can assess your current process and help to build better models for higher conversion.
