Too many agencies that run paid ads base their client success on whether or not the ads perform. On the front end. Are they getting seen. Are people clicking. That doesn’t mean jack shit if the ads aren’t producing revenue. Meaning, if your provider is getting excited about click-through rates and conversions but not tying it back to revenue, there’s a problem. That’s what we’re getting in to today.
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🧰 I love me a good digital marketing tool. This week’s recommended tool is Time Management Made Simple course by Amber De La Garza.
I’ve always wanted to get more organized with my calendar and tasks and have a clean inbox. When I have a clean inbox, oh baby. That’s a good day. This is a direct course, you can go at your own pace. If you’re looking to find more time, this course will help you find it.
🎧 This week’s recommended podcast episode is Matching Your Schedule with Your Circadian Rhythm on the Positively Living podcast.
It’s good info about how you don’t have to be a morning person to get shit done.
If you listen to the episode, let me know how you like it!
Find other recommended episodes here.
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tbdI’ve worked with a number of agencies and consultants that provide paid ad services. Unfortunately, a lot of them don’t have the business’ best interest at heart. I believe they think they do.
For some reason, they think if the ad performs, that’s the end success. They’ve done their job.
The ad can perform all day long and you can still not get leads or increase revenue. The ad HAS to perform all the way from being served [in the platform] to be seen by your audience all the way through to making a sale.
Then, and only then, is it a true success. And while you can do it yourself, I recommend not. Hire it out. There’s a lot less stress when someone gets to handle the day-to-day of paid ads management.
You’re job is knowing about it but not having to deal with it day-to-day.
Most platforms have the same or similar terminology.
Impressions = is how many times the ad is seen (one person can see it more than once, that’s multiple impressions.)
CPM = cost per thousand impressions. Some platforms will charge by impressions and this is the charging model.
CPC = cost per click (how much it costs from your budget when the person clicks your ad; higher CPCs obviously eat up more of your budget reducing the chance to show up more)
CTR = click through rate. The percentage of people that saw the ad and then clicked on the ad.
Results or Conversions – the goal of the ad. This is where it gets tricky. Unless you’re e-commerce, a lot of systems don’t have a way to match the person who saw the ad, who clicked the ad and then purchased.
Most systems, you have to select from a set of options, what you want your goal to be. If you select lead or that a form gets filled out, you need to ensure that the ad platform can see when that happens.
Usually this means putting some code on a thank you confirmation page.
So how do we get the ad to perform? to provide a return? Would you believe it’s not usually the ad itself that pulls the weight in this assembly line of actions? It’s the landing page. The page the visitor sees when they click the ad. It’s not hard to get eyeballs on your ads or to get people to click them.
The hard part is getting them to take the action you have the ads for in the first place.
The person visiting your landing page doesn’t know you so the page has to really SELL your offer. Convey trust in a matter of split seconds.
Let’s break some metrics into 3 thingeys… I don’t know what to call them. That doesn’t matter.
The first part is the stuff you get by default from the platform. These are impression numbers, clicks on the ad, CTR, CPC, all the acronyms.
These matter because they tell you whether or not people are interested in your ad. Low CTR rates for example can mean your message isn’t resonating enough with who they are being shown to.
The second part is… let’s call it interest. Landing page effectiveness. You can get high CTR rates all day long but if your landing page isn’t converting the visitors, then the ads strategy has failed.
And the last part is, what? That’s correct… the revenue. How many people bought your offer.
If you’ve ever said “ads don’t work for my business,” here’s what I want you to think about.
Reconsider from the perspective of everything we talked about. Especially the landing page.
The Takeaway
“ads don’t work” almost never means the ads didn’t actually not work. It means one or more of the parts weren’t properly optimized or the whole assembly line of actions weren’t aligned.
Want to know more about paid ads? I encourage you to bring your questions to a webinar I’m hosting on September 24th.
In this webinar, you’ll get straight answers so you can decide for yourself if running paid ads is worth it. A free replay is available for registered attendees. Link is in the show notes. Be there or be square!
This episode had a lot of good info but you can get more actionable info when you can ask questions specific to your situation. Take the opportunity to do this for your business.
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.
