Maybe you’ve tried an IG boosted post or a Google campaign once and it didn’t do much. Or maybe you’ve never run any paid ads because you don’t know what it should cost or where to start.
This episode is the first in a series of 3 episodes where you’re going to get straight answers on what paid ads cost, where to run them, and what has to be done for them to pay off, so you can make the call with real information instead of relying on a vendor’s pitch.
Paid advertising is a fast track option to more revenue when you have the right messaging, goals and tracking in place.
Enjoy the episode!
🧰 I love me a good digital marketing tool. This week’s recommended tool is Luma.
Create events with Luma! I used to create them with Zoom and still do but Luma has a super simple set up and interface. And notifications for the event are automatically sent. I can even send an email following with the replay. It’s a free tool. It let’s you link your zoom or YouTube or whatever platform you’re hosting the event from
🎧 This week’s recommended podcast episode is “Sandra Bullock” on the SmartLess podcast.
I just love her.
If you listen to the episode, let me know how you like it!
Find other recommended episodes here.
Other Resource Links
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tbdMaybe you’ve tried an IG boosted post or a Google campaign once and it didn’t do much. Or maybe you’ve never run any paid ads because you don’t know what it should cost or where to start.
This episode is the first in a series of 3 episodes where you’re going to get straight answers on what paid ads cost, where to run them, and what has to be done for them to pay off, so you can make the call with real information instead of relying on a vendor’s pitch.
Paid advertising is a fast track option to more revenue when you have the right messaging, goals and tracking in place.
The best thing you can do before starting any paid advertising is educate yourself of what’s possible. Because then if you want to hire it out, you can speak the language and better push back or communicate what your needs are.
Most marketers are scared to spend the money because there is no guarantee of a return on the spend. Sure there’s forecasting with the estimates platforms provide, but those are estimates. And in my experience, quite inflated most of the time. What was it I heard it called one time? Optimistic math. LOL
Generally speaking, online paid advertising can start with as little as $500, however, it’s super important to know that it will depend on your industry and everything between the ad conversion all the way through to a sale.
Let’s hear from my resident Google Ads Expert Dewan Chapman of Trevally Marketing…
Barb: So I am going to ask you the most common question that probably anybody asks. I’m I’m assuming you can tell me if I’m wrong, but how much do I have to spend to get any traction on Google ads?
Dewan: Yeah, 100 percent the most common question or the most unanswered question, should I say I like to reply back to, to potentials when they asked me this question with how long is a piece of string, because that’s honestly how it is your budget depends on quite a few different components of Google ads depending on how much you want to reach, how many different formats you want to run, how big your website or product or service offering is, So it really just depends on, on what you’re trying to achieve.
A good way to answer it is by asking, like, what is your goal? If you understand what your goal is, if your goal is to sell 10 different service offerings, and we know how much those kinds of services kind of cost you from like an end perspective, we can kind of reverse engineer that.
And here’s an excerpt from a podcast in the queue to be published later this year, from Harp & Oaks Founder, Allison Harpole-Coley on Meta Ads budget.
All right, I’m gonna give you the big question.
Okay. What is the minimum amount I have to spend per month to make it be effective? Okay. This is probably the number one question I get- Yes. … which I bet you could guess. ── Well, ─ this is dependent on how fast you wanna go. Because the more ad spend that you have, of course, the faster results you’re going to get.
But I tell business owners, if you’re brand new to ads and you want to learn how to run them yourself, and you’re okay going at a steady pace, if you spend $1,000 a month on ads, you can absolutely see results. You need to be strategic, but I, I feel like that is a very reasonable budget, and that is the majority of the budget that the business owners that I teach, that’s what they spend, and some spend less than that.
You might be thinking, “Barb, what’s the best paid ads platform for a small business on a tight budget?” And I’ll tell you dear listener, after I initially answer with it depends (because it does, I don’t know this second what your business is), generally, it’s going to be Google Ads for something closer to bottom of the funnel. And it’s Meta ads when you want to tie in increased brand awareness and if you want more control over who your targeting.
Frankly, you shouldn’t be deciding which platform to try based on budget. I get it. But try really hard to first ask, WHERE should I spend my tight budget? Because you want your strategy to be based on return and conversions, not where you can spend the least amount of money.
So costs… you have your ad spend. But that’s not all Monty, what else do we have for the listener today? Other costs can include but are not limited to management agency or platform fees, your time to concept the campaign, creating the copy for the creatives, creating the ads themselves, whether that’s you or someone you outsource to and last but not least, future optimizations.
No ad program is set it and forget. They must be continuously analyzed and optimized for effectiveness. Doesn’t mean you have to do something every single day, but at least once a week to keep an eye on numbers and every 1-2 weeks consider what optimizations to do.
Once you start to see a minimum of 2X your ad spend, the ROAS, start increasing the budget. That number is dependent on your margins and expenses. Some people need to see at least a 5X return. We never ever settle for break even. Ever. Because of the costs outside of the ROAS, it’s not really break even.
Let’s pivot to some other paid advertising options for small businesses, what can they run in terms of cost? A close relative to online digital is Out of Home Advertising, OOH for short. These are channels like digital billboards, the commercials you see in movie theaters, those are OOH, bus stops and benches, and buses and taxis.
I think billboards are all taken by attorneys though. LOL
Generally OOH ranges from $250 – $5000. The main variables are reach and run time. How many people the channel can reach and for how long do you want to run them.
After OOH, we have print and broadcast of course. The traditional methods. And another possibility is sponsorships. We’ve all seen them in a stadium or arena, wrapped around the ice or plastered along the score boards. Sometimes those come with perks like tickets to the shows or games.
Here’s The Takeaway
Paid advertising is a solid tactic for a website marketing strategy. The costs are depending on your goals. The more specific you get, the better you can target and optimize for increased revenue.
Knowing what it costs doesn’t tell you where to spend it. Next episode is covering more details around how to decide where to do paid advertising.
And if you’re interested, I’m hosting a free webinar titled How to Increase Revenue with Paid Ads. It’ll be on September 24. You’ll leave with a clear answer on whether paid ads make sense for your business right now, and what running them well would look like. Be there or be square.
About This Show
The Get More Website Traffic Podcast covers the strategies, tools, and tactics that help small business owners get more people to their website and turn that traffic into leads. Host Barb Davids breaks it down in plain language every week, with bonus episodes featuring other business owners sharing their expertise on topics that matter to running a small business. Produced by Compass Digital Strategies.
