There’s More Than One Way To Spend Ad Money.
You Should Consider Them All.
When it comes to advertising online, there’s probably at least five-dozen ways you could spend your money. Depending what your campaign goals are, deciding what to spend where can be a source of frustration. It’s easy to point to one service or another, but the honest truth is you should be maximizing your spend by running your advertisements on as many services as possible, at least in the beginning.
Why?
Well, no two target audiences are the same, so if you’re looking to reach someone in particular, it’s probably best that you build a source list based on data, performance metrics, and other success metrics. A lot of services and companies will promise results, promise performance on your key metrics, but as a marketer, you shouldn’t be trusting anyone, unless you have the evidence to support your decision.
When it comes to spending your advertisement dollars, try a bunch of services and then refine your spending where it makes the most sense. For us, at BuySellAds, we work with our advertising partners to ensure that their spends are broad enough — at least in the beginning — to test a variety of placements. We encourage our advertising partners to spend on newsletters, native and content sponsorship, display advertisements, CPA campaigns, and other alternatives before they focus in on one or two strategies.
By compiling data, making further decisions becomes easier, and the choice of where to place your campaigns in the future will become clear. Find partners that understand your needs, and that will work with you to maximize your spend across a variety of advertising mediums.
It’s Easy To Say Do Them All…
In the beginning, advertisers need to focus on maximizing reach and collecting data on performance. By doing as many placements as possible (within your budget, of course), it’s easier to avoid missed opportunities. Collect performance data, then adjust campaigns accordingly. If an advertiser never places campaigns in newsletters, how will they know that it’s not their core audience?
Results are always surprising, and more often than not, thinking outside the box and using a variety of placement strategies will often uncover insights that would have laid dormant if not for experimenting.
Some of the best performing campaigns at BuySellAds have been unexpected. Don’t hesitate to try new formats. You may be surprised what you uncover.
Taking risks is part of your job as a marketer. Try new mediums, be bold, and stop sticking to what you know.
Without experimenting, you’re just repeating strong campaigns quarter over quarter. You will end up outrunning your success, saturating the successful buys, and then have nowhere to turn next.
Try new things. Collect Data. Refine For Performance.
Here’s A Bunch Of Ways To Maximize Your Ad Spend
1. Publisher Directness.
The more people or companies between you and your target publishers, the more you stand to lose with your campaigns. Not only are you paying everyone’s overhead along the way, but you’re also risking the success of your campaigns.
Working directly with publishers and their preferred partners means getting access to first-hand customer data. It means guaranteeing that you’re reaching your target audience.
You never know what can come from a great relationship. Maybe it’s the first crack at new placements. Maybe it’s discounted inventory because you’re a loyal advertiser. Either way, the more you can interact directly with the publisher the better.
Take advantage of direct advertising opportunities. They cost less, and they provide better targets. The dividends can be huge.
Tip: This is not infinitely scalable. Leverage marketplaces like BuySellAds to help scale these opportunities once you validate your data.
2. Leverage Performance Data.
We can’t reiterate this one enough. Collecting data and then leveraging that data to make informed decisions can often be the difference between a successful campaign and a campaign that crashes and burns.
Know how your campaigns are preforming, and the real costs associated with your campaigns. Collecting data is an important first step, but analyzing that data and using it to inform future decisions will only ensure that your campaigns are successful in delivering on goals.
Take advantage of all the performance data you can.
Tip: Ask for feedback. When you’re buying in new places, you are often flying blind. A good seller will be honest and act as a consultant to get you the best results.
3. Stay On Top Of Trends.
The advertising industry evolves pretty quick. Knowing what’s available to you and what’s performing for other people is paramount to your campaign’s success.
Whether it’s platform algorithm updates, a shift in publishing partner’s strategies, knowing where the opportunities are or where campaigns are going to under perform as soon as possible.
Do everything you can to stay on top of trends in your market.
4. Rework, Revise, And Reinvent.
Obsessively monitor your progress. Don’t hesitate to rework your campaigns or make revisions to them based on the data and trends you’re seeing. Of course, don’t pull the trigger too soon, but if something isn’t performing, whether it’s creative, placements, or timelines, reinvent yourself.
Running A/B tests for creative is a great way to maximize your ad spend. Sometimes things as little as colors, phrasings, or even the location and style of a call to action button can be the difference between success and failure. It may seem small, but continuously reworking campaigns is a fantastic way to ensure success.
Make sure the partners you work with and the publishers where you’re running your campaigns can accommodate your need to rework, revise, and even reinvent your placements, especially if their audience is worth targeting.
Tip: Ask for examples of best performing creatives as a guideline.
5. Consider Short and Long Term Impact.
What’s the goal of your campaign? How will it impact the short and long-term viability of your product? Are looking to immediately close a few deals, or are you seeking to build brand recognition? Your campaigns will have both a short and long-term impact on your company. Defining what your goals are in both the long and short term will help you maximize your ad campaigns to reach those goals.
They will also give you the tools you need to recognize the right marketing strategies to employ and what messaging to focus on for
your campaigns.
Determine how you’re going to proceed by evaluating your marketing goals and determining whether or not those goals can be met in the short term, or if they require a more long-term approach to marketing.
Once you know that, picking what mediums to employ for your campaigns and what messaging you’re looking to spread should be pretty clear. It’ll cut out the stuff that doesn’t matter, and it’ll strengthen your campaign.
6. Influence Your Target Group: Work With Segmented Publications.
You don’t need to leverage trackers to segmenting your audiences.
Once you’ve managed to focus in on who comprises your ideal audience, you can then partner up with publications that already have your segmented audience locked up.
Trade publications and blogs focusing on your primary market will always provide the best opportunity to target your ideal audience.
The more specific the publication, the more likely it is that your marketing goals will be met. Generic publications (often called content farms these days) may provide a larger audience, but the varied nature of their content makes it difficult to ascertain their audiences’ interest in your products.
When possible, always work with segmented publications before the generic publications. Your campaign dollar will always spread just a little further there than at a publication with eclectic readers.
Tip: It’s equally important to know some audiences won’t be solely accessible, you’ll have to accept a portion of the audience fits your persona rather than being the whole audience.
7. Focus On Campaigns That Create A Halo Effect.
The ideal ad campaign will not only introduce people to your product or service, but it’ll also drive interest in other products for your company. Long term that means you’re not only buying one off advertisements for your product, but you’re also creative a halo effect for other products you’re selling to consumers. All things being equal, invest in campaigns that create the biggest halo effect for your brand.
8. Create Brand Awareness To Maximize Campaigns.
“Brand awareness” is one of those taboo phrases in advertising today. In a data-driven sales world, measuring awareness is almost impossible. But, creating an environment where your marketing team is creating a general awareness and building brand recognition is an important part of your advertising equation. It’s worth considering during campaign planning stages.
It’s easier to maximize a campaign spend if people already recognize your company and associate it with the solution you’re trying to sell. Strong brands don’t have to spend time telling people who they are or what they stand for; they can just go straight to selling their solutions.
9. Time Your Campaigns Perfectly.
Timing is everything for advertising campaigns. Keep an eye on what’s happening in your industry, and schedule your campaigns accordingly. It could be the difference between fantastic growth or a fizzled out campaign.
