After weeks of planning, creating, strategizing, and putting all your online advertising contents together, you simply discovered that it failed within its first launch. The next question that may come to your mind is, what do you do now? Throw in the towel? Is this the right business for me? Should I look for a new career or business to venture into? What if the product is no longer in demand? This and many others questions begin to rush through your mind. One thing you should have in mind is that failure in business is inevitable especially for beginners.
Also, failure is a reality of content marketing and at some point, we’re all bound to experience it even if you are a beginner or a guru. The most important thing is how you respond to it. When your business or online advertising strategy is not going as planned, you need to first figure out what might probably be going wrong. Once this is discovered, you can be able to make necessary adjustments for better results.
But just in case you are struggling with exactly where to start from in figuring things out, we’ve compiled a list of the Top 5 reasons why your online advertising strategy is failing and how to fix it. This list will help you avoid these mistakes the next time you run your ads.
Lack of Strategy/ Insufficient Research
No business makes it through without good and proper research and strategy for success. Whether you are a guru or a total beginner, you should understand that you need proper planning before you execute your online advertising. Bear in mind that when running online ads, you will spend money, and if you are spending this money and getting nothing in return, then you are seriously losing a lot. So, ensure to do your due diligence and carry out proper research of your market and the best strategy that will help you win.
You don’t just carry out some marketing activities or run your online ads without any thought about how it fits with your overall business goals and how it may also benefit your target audience. This usually happens when a business gets caught up in shiny object syndrome or the money hook; they forget all about good research and strategy and they keep chasing the next big thing looking to hit it big.
Solution: Ample research is crucial to the success of your online advertising. You should devote the time (if possible, hire someone good in this area that knows about your business/services/products). It is very important to learn about your consumers and the market space you’re venturing into before you run your online ads. You should take time to look at external and internal data. You can also conduct your research through surveys and consumer panels if possible. Research your competitors too, know their strong points and weak point, then use those data to make better decisions on your business or marketing plan.
The absolute best way to achieve marketing success is first; determine your business goals, do proper research and build a marketing strategy that will help you get to where you want to be.
Read Also:. Display Advertising | Top 5 best practices
No Proper Customer Persona
So, you just started your business and the next thing you are thinking of – is how to run online advertising to drive traffic to your business without know who your customers are or who they will be. This is totally wrong. Let me ask you a question. Who are you advertising to? Are they men, women, or both? What age range will like your product? Etc. If you can’t answer these few questions; then there is no need to run an online ad. One of the most important questions you should always ask yourself throughout any marketing campaign is, “Who is your target audience?” If you get this answer wrong, the success of your business is nowhere near possible. Identifying the proper persona takes a lot of research but you need to do this for the success of your business or online advertising.
Solution: Your customer persona should include things such as (age range, gender, location, likes and dislikes, their interests, etc). to do this effectively, you’ll need to consider factors such as who your product appeals to, what solution your product is offering, and who are the competitors your audience is already engaging with. Once you have a general idea of your audience, you need to get more engagement from them to get more details. Create a story, or persona, around your target audience and get to know their interests, challenges, habits, and purchasing decisions. Knowing your persona will help you better target your marketing campaign.
Trust me, once you get to know your customers better, your marketing campaign will improve.
No Calls-to-Action.
Every person running ads online has one thing in mind; to get people to take action, thereby generating leads that convert. Once you are ready to start your online advertising, the next thing that should come to mind is; how do we convert this ad and generate leads? Lots of people run ads without giving a proper thought on the best way to use a call to action for lead generation and some even run ads without a call to action. When it comes to digital marketing, it’s easy to get caught up in simply “doing” social media or content marketing without a thought as to how it will help you drive leads and sales. This is usually a bad practice.
It’s amazing to me how many businesses I see without clear, obvious calls-to-action on their online ads.
Solution: if you are going to spend tens of thousands, hundreds, or even millions of naira on an advertisement, you should always use that investment to drive good leads by allowing your audience to take some sort of action on your ad. You should make your call to action very inviting that your audience will always want to give you their details. In your advertising content, use a clear bold, call to action to ensure that everyone who sees your ads sees the call to action.
Low Budget
Yes! I said low budget. With a low budget on your side, your online advertising will lack so many things. This will also cause you to leave a lot of things out of your campaign and this in turn will generally reduce your chances of generating good leads that will convert to sales. Online advertising is way beyond the text and banner or even video ads you see out there. To run an effective and successful ad online that will generate sales, there are so many things that you must put in place, aside from putting those things in place, you also need to get everything right. These things include SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threat) analysis, Planning, designing your creative materials, organizing and mapping out your strategies, and running/managing your online advertising. You should understand that there are 6 components of digital marketing to factor into your online ads such as online display advertising, mobile marketing, social medial marketing, influencer marketing, and search engine marketing. Also, all the internet platforms will be paid during your ads campaign plus there will be online advertising professionals to work round the clock managing your advertisement. This is why a low budget may harm your online advertising generally.
Solution: If you are not getting the desired results from your online advertising, you should try increasing your budget. This will raise your game, especially if you have competitors.
Read Also:. The Differences Between Search Ads, Display Ads, and Social Media Advertising
Poor Offer
A lot of people run their marketing campaign with a very poor offer that can’t even entice their most loyal customers. All forms of marketing target some interaction or feedback as an end goal. Whether that’s buying a product or visiting a website or filling a form. Your customers will always want something in exchange for the time and action they take on your ads. To take that action, your customers need something valuable in return. Some people place a very poor offer and expect great results. It won’t work.
Solution: If you have been running your ads for some time now and not getting enough interactions or conversions from your campaign, it may be a sign to increase the value of your offer. Give your customers or target audience an irresistible offer. You can consider offering a discount on your main product, adding more gifts, or sometimes incentivizing your users to take your desired action with a free downloadable eBook that solves their problem.
So yes, haven’t tried your first online advertising and failed, you should go through the strategies listed here. Experiment with these approaches when modifying your existing campaign or creating a new one, and eventually, you’ll be able to generate more leads and get better conversion. There’s always something new to learn, and always more ways to get better, don’t just stick to what you already know. Keep yourself updated and learn new things at all times.
