Considering Online Ads? 4 Questions Every Beginner Needs to Ask First
There’s nothing like getting an ad campaign up and running, thinking that you’ll soon have leads emailing, calling, signing up for a webinar…
Only to wake up and feel frustrated — again — because the ad campaign, like the other marketing tactics you’ve spent money on, isn’t working. No forms filled out. No calls scheduled.
If you run ads, then you know exactly what this feels like.
According to statista, Facebook’s ad revenue was nearly 69.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. Google’s ad revenue was almost 134.81 billion U.S. dollars for the same year.
So ads must work — otherwise, why would so many continue paying for them?
Yet, your ad campaign isn’t delivering enough leads. In fact, at this rate you won’t get a return on the money you invested in ad spend or the cost of set up and management.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably feeling like the ads were completely useless.
And you’re wondering: Do we shut them down? Pay more? Or… you’re looking for someone else that will help you get leads through the system.
There are many options for ad optimization, but what do you need to know about ads first?
…Before you spend $$$$ on set up fees and a monthly ads management retainer.
You don’t want to be doing this all day long, but you also don’t want to get hosed by the next “expert.”
Let’s look at the three ad truths I wish I knew before launching my first campaigns — and one slightly underrated truth that saves a lot of money…
And frustration — when you’re not getting enough leads but don’t know what to expect or have the time to figure it out.
You’ll also discover why your ad campaign isn’t delivering digital leads to your doorstep, even if you’ve spent $$$$ — and what you can do instead.
Question 1: Is your objective traffic or leads?
Online ads that deliver traffic are different from ads that deliver leads.
The number of ways to increase traffic to a landing page or site, and the sheer amount of advice on how to use ads to increase traffic is overwhelming.
You’ll find no shortage of guidelines and tips.
And thousands of people are increasing traffic using ads on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube…
For some, these work. They’ll turn on their ads and immediately get traffic. They might even get leads.
But there’s no guarantee that an increase in traffic will also deliver more leads.
Take for example the first lead generation ad campaign I placed my hopes and dreams on back in 2016.
I was set up on my funnel platform, WuFoo, and Calendly. Then, clicked presto on the ads.
Did I get traffic? Yep. People clicked on my Facebook ad…
Did anyone sign up for a free consult? Nope.
If my KPI was ad clicks… I did pretty well for my first lead generation campaign. Even my ads invoice would reflect that.
But I quickly realized that just because people were clicking on an ad didn’t mean I’d be busy with discovery calls once my ads were live.
I’d achieved traffic… Quite quickly in fact.
But when traffic clicks on my ad but doesn’t take the next step (ie set up a call with me) does traffic really matter?
Ads can quickly increase traffic, but they don’t guarantee more leads.
Why is this important? I assumed traffic meant more leads which meant more clients. Not so.
I also realized that optimizing — a term I really didn’t understand back then — was actually about getting my ad campaign to be effective at doing what I wanted it to do: Deliver leads.
Question 2: Do you have realistic expectations?
Ad campaigns often don’t perform well on their first try.
Even with amazing ads, a kick ass landing page, a beautifully designed pdf… it’s not uncommon to only get a few leads or no leads. You’ll find that your first campaign doesn’t produce the results you were hoping for.
According to funnel expert, Samuel J. Woods, “Growth comes from process.”
This is why it’s critical to have a clear process from the beginning that focuses on the most important components of any campaign — which to my surprise in 2016 — had nothing to do with hiring a graphic designer to create a professional eBook.
Instead the clear process meant focusing on:
Understanding my lead. Her problems, wants, and desires.
Creating an offer that would solve my ideal lead’s problem and deliver the thing she desired.
Help my lead see it’s possible to solve her problem, achieve an outcome, and fulfill her desire.
And executing a proven and repeatable process for optimizing the ad campaign.
Why is this important? With a repeatable process, you know what to do when a campaign is not performing, sort of performing, and if it’s performing well… you know how to make it even better.
Question 3: Are you willing to dig into the numbers?
Math is a critical part of ad campaign success.
Peter Drucker has been credited with this commonly referenced quote:
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”
When you think about this insight, it becomes immediately apparent how true it is — especially when it comes to running ad campaigns… or improving your golf swing… or losing weight.
If you can’t measure something — and know the results of a specific action — how do you know you’ve improved?
To truly optimize my ad campaigns I had to realize that there were three important actions to take before the ads were live:
Determine My Goal: What did I want my campaign to produce? Then I could experiment and test my way to achieving that goal.
Determine My Key Performance Indicators: What’s the measure that would tell me how close or far I was from achieving my goal?
Determine Which Metrics To Pay Attention To: There’s a lot of data points when you run ads. I needed to determine which data was important (and when) and which data was ignorable.
Why is this important? Just like having an actionable weight loss plan, taking those three actions before launching an ad campaign was like creating my own roadmap to ad campaign optimization.
Question 4: Do you have a process?
You need a strategic process instead of random conversion tactics.
The problem with taking random ad optimization advice from the internet is that it’s just that… random.
The tips and strategies don’t address your specific data and campaign results. And just like the advice, the results are often random.
When I began working with Lisa, she had no idea where her traffic was coming from. She was pretty sure she was attracting leads from places she didn’t want, so while she was getting some interest, she wasn’t connecting with her ideal customers.
“After months of trying to convert leads into sales with no success, I’m so glad to have found Jessica! Jessica helped me figure out where my traffic was coming from. I now have a system that helps me to attract the right customers and lead my traffic to where I want it to go.”
You want an actionable process that delivers more leads every time.
Why is this important? You’ll know what action to take. Plus, you can measure the benefits of that specific action — assess the effectiveness.
You can essentially create your own ad optimization plan without having to rely on someone else.
And it can be created in less than 15 minutes.
To learn more about a specific ad campaign audit and optimization tool, email: support@writeandmain.com. And we’ll send you The Lightning Speed Ad Audit tool.
