After a month in the digital trenches, you may reflect on how you definitely thought Facebook ads were the best, you had your demographic perfectly sized up, and you had even had a budget for a video that you ran as a web spot. The 30th comes and you are sitting in that meeting where you were going to be so proud to show the head of marketing your results, but you see in horror that there’s not too much to be proud of, and “The spend didn’t result in sales.”
You may not even be able to figure out if your marketing is effective or not if you are not using the correct metrics, and if there is revenue coming in you want to assure that it reflects the best results attainable. If you determine that a drastic change is needed in your strategy, here are some reasons why the not-so-stellar performance may have occurred.
Your ROI Has Not Been Maximized:
This all really comes down to making sure the cost per acquisition (CPA) is determined accurately: exactly how much you have to spend to see one new customer. The desired goal is to see as many new interested and purchase-ready customers for the lowest cost you can. Determining the true ROI is achieved by comparing the results across various campaigns and channels, paying close attention to what yields acceptable results. If the maximum ROI potential has not been reached, it could be time to consider a drastic overhaul and rethink your direction.
Social Campaigns Running Out of Gas?
One common method of social media marketing that brands definitely could all be guilty of is the “post and pray” approach – they just post content on a whim and pray that they will see the financial return and engagement their brand needs to thrive. In reality, brands need to have an intense focus on posting content that they know their audience will identify with based on collected data. Since every social media platform has its own version of analytics and in-depth ways to monitor performance, you can analyze the amount of shares, likes and clicks to see what is stoking true organic engagement. Whether you are investing just time or have sought out an agency to do the legwork for you, it is an investment that should be showing success in the return category.
The Traffic is There, But Conversions Remain Stubborn:
Generating traffic is the first important part of the process when it comes to a marketing campaign seeing ultimate success. There may be a large amount of people visiting your website and browsing for some time, but if they aren’t converting into paid customers your desired ROI simply hasn’t been attained yet. Tools such as Google Analytics can closely track the conversions, and aid you in seeing what went right or wrong. You can invest money in search engine optimization to drive organic traffic to your website, but this traffic needs careful assessment during targeting. One of the most difficult tasks when taking on digital marketing is making sure that the visitors that arrive at the website subscribe to updates, buy your products, or reach out in other ways to be vital to your success.
There’s No Traffic to Speak of:
One of the telltale bad signs in the digital realm, no traffic at all means that efforts for marketing just aren’t working to drive users to your website or social channels. In regards to Facebook, this means making sure that you are banking on an organic reach to get noticed by customers who are ready and willing to purchase. The right marketing strategies can help you to take advantage of the many features Google now offers to assure that you are displayed in organic search results. We understand the ins and outs of how complex this is; you have to have a great website that converts, a product
that people have a genuine need for, influencers to perhaps give you a boost, and the means to rank high on the search engine inquiry.
Paid Ads are Not Earning Their Keep:
Pay Per Click (PPC) ads can be an excellent means of solid lead generation, but if executed in the wrong fashion, they can get costly in a hurry. One of the reasons PPC campaigns sometimes don’t see results is that the targeting is off, users aren’t ready to be won over, and the cost per click is too high to yield positive results. No matter which kind of ad campaign is your predominant means of getting results, the campaigns have got to be hyper-focused on your ideal audience and displaying content that they feel is relevant to them, or “tells them your story.” Thorough testing of ad groups, copy, targeting, and more are how to obtain the lowest cost per click, and see maximization in your ending ROI.
The Challenge of Seeing Success on Multiple Channels:
If you’re relying on just one marketing channel to give you results, you may sometimes suffer the result of “putting all of your eggs in one basket.” If it seems to be performing well and then all of a sudden stops, you will experience a gap in profit while you scramble to find the next means of reaching the right audience. It is very rewarding to have a multi-channel approach that sees many different elements working for you, so you aren’t missing out on any opportunities. We can’t stress enough how much some younger users have their sights on channels such as Instagram, and the vitality of exploring every option for having presence across “much more than just the norm.”
