I’ve had the pleasure of working with nearly a hundred companies
so far on advertising and marketing initiatives. My client base ranges from
Fortune 500 to cool new startups ready to take on the world. While marketing
and advertising for these companies I’ve started to notice many common
questions and actions that have had negative effects on the bottom line.
When we are evaluating
whether or not our services are the right fit for our clients, here are the
questions that we ask to make sure that we can deliver, and are on the same
page when campaigns go live.
1. Not
Knowing Your (CPA) Rate
Often I’m asked how much
money a certain marketing method will make for a client. The best way to answer
this is to know their current CPA, and back into how many “acquisitions” seem
appropriate for a certain campaign.
Often early stage
companies haven’t had the opportunity to test different methods of acquiring
customers or users, so they are not sure. Until you are sure, don’t put all of
your eggs in one basket. Use small test budgets and test many different tactics
(but still large enough to have an accurate sample size) until you find what
works for you.
2. Not Knowing Your Conversion
Rate
This is another question
that you need to be able to answer. If I can bring you X amount of qualified
site visits, how should that convert for you? If your conversion rate is
currently low, is it because of the quality of traffic you are receiving, your
product, or your web design?
You can narrow down if
it’s the quality of traffic you are receiving by looking at conversion rates by
site or advertisement. Are your retargeting ads receiving higher conversions
than your amplification? Or are your Facebook advertisements receiving fewer
conversions than influencer marketing?
3. Undecided on Funnel
Approach
A top funnel approach is
sending new people to your site. You want to invest in top funnel approaches
(such as PR and influencer marketing) once you know that your product sells and
you know what your conversion rate is. Top funnel approaches are best for those
who have already optimized the bottom of the funnel (getting people to become
customers or users).
Investing in a bottom of
the funnel approach would be trying to increase your renewal rate or repeat
customers. There are very different tactics for bottom of the funnel and top of
the funnel, so before you invest your money in a certain area make sure that
they can address your needs appropriately. Once your bottom funnel is optimized
(people are buying!) you know that you can scale out your top of the funnel
approach and start hitting your goals.
4. Not
Pricing The Value of Long Term Advertisements Correctly
Everyone is used to
display advertisements. You pay X amount, you get X impressions, and from
there, you know how many conversions you receive. It’s cut and dry. The ad goes
up. The ad goes down.
Other marketing methods,
such as PR and influencer marketing are not cut and dry. Its not an ad that is
served for a couple seconds and disappears forever. PR and influencer marketing
(as well as other content strategies such as blogging) are long-term
advertisements. You can’t price long-term advertisements and short-term
advertisements the same way.
Long-term advertisements
have additional value besides the initial impression (that you receive with
display ads), with a few examples being:
·
Social shares (to Twitter, Facebook, g+….)
·
Discussion
·
SEO
·
Forever accessible
·
Increased brand recognition (reading is a much higher level of
engagement than an ad that may or may not have been viewed)
When you are pricing out
whether or not a long-term marketing or advertising method is a good value, you
can’t look solely at impressions. Calculating total media value is a much
better way of determining if your budget will go to good use. To do this, put a
price tag on each piece of media or action, such as a Facebook share being
valued at $5, and an organic site visit through the SEO of that content as $10.
5. Not A/B Testing
Perhaps one of the most
simple, yet often overlooked is A/B testing. If you are investing in any top of
the funnel approach (like PR, influencer marketing, or even behavioral display
buys) A/B testing the page you are directing visitors to will help you optimize
the layout for future initiatives.
Make slight changes in the
page, such as language, colors and pictures and see which one yields the best
conversion rate. If you invest in top of the funnel without A/B testing you are
missing out on valuable data that will help your business GROW.
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