Marketers of the middle of 18th century used to face the same problem: they had that awkward feeling that half of the budget is simply running away like water from your hands. Marketing methods of that time were not so numerous, as they generally used TV, radio and newspapers. The problems of these means was that the effectivity was too difficult to calculate. People only had some understanding which type of audience may prefer a particular radio station or watch this or that film and publish their ads at seemingly the most suitable time. However, a lot of uninterested people were covered as well. When there was a burst of luck – it was also hard to understand what exactly was so good to implement it in other advertising activities.
The years passed, new technologies and tools for measuring appeared and were invented… But, the situation is not different at all. Half of the budgets are still used wrong – and this is the number in the ideal case.
As we started talking about such things, let’s be brave enough and face the truth till the end! Only 44% of the ads are shown to the users, while the rest of is likely never come to potential client. No surprise about popularity growth of adblocking software, but the point is that less than a percent really click on it.
Marketers all over the world certainly want to stop it, and we are here to discuss how to help and what are the most often cases to fail.
Dud pieces of advice how to waste your business
Don’t calculate your ROI
Key indicators:
- Your investments;
- The amount of leads you obtain;
- How many leads are turned into clients;
- Life value of each client;
- The cost of their maintenance.
These datapoint will give an immediate answer whether you spend wisely or simply throw your money in the dustbin. Huge amount of potential clients without turning them into regular customers can indicate that your sales department is overloaded or you are trying to attract somebody not for you.
One more method will help you to reveal an overall picture more.
Bots ignoring
Incapsula has released a report that more than a half of traffic was given by bots. It means that real amount of people who came to your website are two times less.
Advertising platforms, companies and websites, competitors hiring bot farms – they may do it. And the biggest problem about that it is you pay for it, it directly affects your budgets.
Another problem here is that you can’t totally escape from them. It is like fleas in dogs: you certainly don’t like it, but your Rex will bring them to one day.
The only cure for your marketing problem is to use anti-fraud programs to minimize the harm.
Get trapped into too broad keywords
It seems to be simple and obvious: the more keywords you have, the higher your chances for targeting right people. Unfortunately, it is not all like that.
What you should do immediately is to review the list of your keywords and cross out those that do not convert for passed six months without mercy.
Weak context targeting
The most valuable information is that given at the right place and at the right time. It will give you more results than static measures for audience “in whole”.
What can be used:
- location – show your ads to those who can be interested in you according to their current positioning and exclude those who can’t be at the necessary area;
- time – show offers according to the daytime or day in general to show your most relevant offers, like breakfasts at 10 a.m. or your work round-the-clock after 11 p.m.;
- weather – offer different products depending on the weather your audience is having at the moment;
- devices type – track what is more effective in your particular case and switch off lame ducks in your crowd.
Going to “glossy” places
Using popular places like The Times or so – seems to be a curious idea, however, it will turn out to be quite expensive. Besides, you will spend money to be adored “by everyone” and waste your time and efforts. It is better to find some niche, no matter how popular it is, where the amount of interested audience is bigger.
Skipping of alternative advertising networks
Yes, Google Adwords is a perfect solution, but there are social medias, other search engines like Bing and so on. The most popular network is not an omnipotent, while other sources will help you to complete the gaps.
The ideas we have shared with you are certainly not the only root causes, but even these points will help you to correct a lot. Good luck!
