Five ways to eliminate wasted ad spend. You’re running tons of ad campaigns, but how many of them are actually getting you some kind of return on your investment? According to Next & Co digital media’s waste report, the numbers on wasted ad spend are simply staggering. In Q1 of 2022, an average of 40% of media spend was wasted. You’re talking about billions of dollars here. Google found that more than 56% of ad impressions are never seen by customers.
Proxima estimates $37 billion of worldwide marketing budgets are being wasted on poor digital performance. So what can you do to make sure that you stand out from the majority of other advertisers out there? This sounds tricky, but it’s possible to make sure that you’re not just blowing all your ad budget. Here are five ways that you can do to eliminate wasted ad spend and make sure your ads actually get seen.
Strategy one,
this one’s simple. Target your audience effectively.66% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. From looking at who your audience is doing look-a-like campaigns to uploading your email list to letting Facebook and Google learn based on where you’re getting conversions, this all helps you target the right people. The last thing you want to do is show your ad to the wrong customer. Think about your user persona. Who’s your ideal customer? Only show those people ads and remove everyone else. Once your ads become more and more profitable, and as you scale them up, then you can expand your audience. But first, have a laser focus on your ideal customer before you go broader.
Strategy two,
retarget users at different points and parts of your funnel. Consumers are 70% more likely to convert after clicking on a retargeting ad campaign. Here’s what I mean by this. Look, if someone comes to your website, let’s say you’re selling mattresses, they add that mattress to their checkout. They don’t buy, though. You’re devastated. You show them a remarketing ad for that mattress, so whenever they browse the web on different sites, they see ads for, guess what, your mattress that you’re selling. And you know what? That ad also showcases how it’s %5 or 10% off. They click, and they buy. That’s a great way to generate more sales because you’re targeting the right type of people. If someone added something to their cart but didn’t convert, you know they’re interested. Or if you’re in B2B, and someone went to one of your lead form pages, and filled it out partially or all the way, but they didn’t click the submit button because they changed their mind, remarketing them will increase your odds of converting them.
Strategy three,
leverage a cross-channel approach. Brands using three or more channels in a campaign enjoy a 287% higher purchase rate than those with a single-channel campaign. Plus, here’s the beautiful part. You can take all the learnings that you have from one channel, like Instagram or TikTok, and apply it to Facebook and Google, and other channels. That’s what we do. That’s how you can run so many more ad experiments at once. And then, figure out what’s working with your ideal audience, and then fine-tune your campaigns for all the other channels or platforms, and get the most ROI.
Strategy four,
use my ads grader tool. Go to neilpatel.com/blog.In the navigation, just click on tools. And then I want you to click on my ads grader. You know, go through the forms and the processes. It’s really easy, you have to click some buttons, and boom, you’re off into the race, and it’ll analyze all that you’re doing with your ads that are right and wrong and tell you what to fix. And best of all, it’s free.
Strategy five,
run ads at the right time. An ad run at the right time can help you generate sales. An ad run at the wrong time will just cost you money. Let’s say you’re in B2B and you’re trying to get more phone calls for your call center or your salespeople, and you show your ads Monday through Sunday, in essence, seven days a week. But if your people are only there o answer the phone calls from Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 5:00 p.m.,
well, the rest of the time, you’re paying money, and no one’s there to answer the phone call. Same with B2C. If you’re advertising for your store or your company and you’re not around 24/7, then you’re going to end up losing money. This is what’s called dayparting. It’s a simple way to save money if your business is not operating at all times, especially during times like the holidays when you should be turning off your ad if you have nothing to sell during those periods.