You’re ready to launch your first Ad campaign, but you don’t know-how. You’ve thought about it for a long time and have been gathering data from research. You’ve checked Google campaigns for direct-to-consumer eCommerce brands. Now, you’re finally able to put together a compelling Ad message that will resonate with your audience. However, before you take the final step and launch your campaign, some mistakes might be holding you back from running a successful Ad campaign:
Not Taking the Time to Plan Out Your Campaign
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is not taking the time to plan out their campaigns. Your campaign will likely fall short without a clear strategy and understanding of what you want to accomplish.
Before you begin creating your ad, create a strategy and decide the purpose of your campaign. Let that be the guide for how to advertise. Your strategy will help you identify where your target audience is online and how to reach them.
Make sure to spend some time upfront thinking about who your target audience is, what kind of message you want to send them, and how much you’re willing to spend on ads.
Spending Too Much Money without Knowing Your ROI
Another mistake that businesses make is spending too much money on ads without understanding what their return on investment (ROI) will be. You need to measure your results to make adjustments and know if what you’re doing is working or not.
Look at the lifetime value of a customer and calculate how much you’re willing to spend on acquiring a new customer. This will help you determine your maximum budget for each campaign. Just because you have a limited budget doesn’t mean that you can’t run a successful Ad campaign – it just means that you need to be more strategic in how you allocate your funds.
Being Vague in Defining the Target Audience
When defining your target audience, it’s important to be as specific as possible. The more targeted you are, the better your results will be. For example, if you’re an eCommerce brand that sells various products, you might want to target people interested in a specific type of product. You can do this by using keywords and interests relevant to that product. When you’re more specific in defining your target audience, it’s easier to create messages that resonate with them and drive the results you want. Trying to appeal to everyone will only result in confusion and a waste of money. Make sure that you send them relevant messages that speak to their needs and interests.
Focusing Too Much on Likes or Followers Instead of Building Relationships with Other Businesses
One of the most effective ways to grow your business is building relationships with other businesses. When you collaborate with other businesses, you can share your customers and followers, which will help both of your businesses grow. When you focus too much on getting likes or followers, you’re not building the necessary relationships for long-term success. Instead, focus on providing valuable content and engaging with your customers. When you do this, it will be easier to build relationships online, leading to more opportunities for growth in the future. However, many businesses focus too much on getting likes or followers instead of engaging with others. Take the time to reach out to other businesses and see if there are any opportunities for collaboration.
Using Generic Photos and Videos That Don’t Resonate With Your Customers
There’s no question that the most effective way to get someone’s attention is through visuals. When you use generic stock photos or videos, it’s unlikely that your audience will respond. When you create visual ads in AdWords, make sure to use photos and videos that are relevant to your brand and resonate with your customers. This will help you connect with them deeper and increase your chances of getting a positive response. However, not all photos and videos are created equal. A generic photo or video might be nice (e.g., a landscape shot of your product), but if it doesn’t speak to your audience, then you’re going to fail at attracting their interest.
Not Tracking the Performance of Your Ad and Adjusting Accordingly
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is not tracking how well their ads are performing. Remember, you’re spending money on these campaigns, so it’s important to know if they’re working or not. If you’re not tracking the performance of your ad, then how can you know if it’s successful? This means for AdWords that there’s no way to determine how well your ad is performing without setting up tracking pixels in Google Analytics and AdWords. In some situations, it may be more effective to adjust your budget for certain goals (i.e., likes vs. leads), but at least you’ll have a clear idea about what works best for your business, which will help reduce waste when creating future campaigns!
The mistakes we’ve seen most often are not taking the time to plan out your campaign, spending too much on ads without a clear understanding of what you want to accomplish, being vague in defining the target audience and sending them irrelevant messages, and focusing too much on getting likes or followers instead of building relationships with other businesses. Not tracking how well your ad performs and adjusting accordingly can be costly because it may prevent you from reaching your desired goals. We hope this post has helped change that for you and your business.