Using social media ads is an awesome way that we have been able to help clients implement creative lead generation strategies that are outsmarting the competition.
Now, starting a paid ad campaign is not something you want to dive into overnight. We don't even recommend that you hire someone to do it for you until you have thought of these extremely important things.
1. What's the goal of your paid ads campaign?
We have seen so many businesses coming to us, guns-a-blazing, ready to taste the sweet sweet ROI of a paid ads campaign.
They often just watched some video by a Youtuber who claimed to double their business with one simple ad hack.
That's simply just not how it works. The truth is that you need to set a very realistic goal before you start thinking about starting paid ads.
Advertising on Google, Facebook, YouTube, or LinkedIn can be an amazing tool. However, like any other tool, there are certain tools to get each specific job done.
This means that before you start thinking about paid ads, you have to think about your goal. Do you want to sell directly to your clients? Do you want to generate new leads? Do you need to get the word out about a new product? Hopefully, you have a specific idea of what you want to accomplish.
TAKE ACTION:
To set your goal you need to do 2 things:
- Think of the ultimate goal of your ad campaign. If you're just starting, we recommend crafting your campaign around lead generation.
- Plan out the steps you need to build before launching your ads. For example, a lead generation campaign is going to need a landing page, follow up email, nurturing workflow, and a piece of premium content to deliver.
After you know the WHY you have to lock down the WHO. Creating audiences for your paid ads takes a lot of practice.
Once you become an expert in paid ads, you will be able to lock down what offers will fit on what platform.
For example:
We found that ads targeted at getting people into an upcoming webcast perform way better on LinkedIn. Where awareness campaigns seem to get a much better ROI on Facebook.
But guess what?
We likely won't have the same audience! Therefore, you need to be ready to explore what media outlet is going to work the best for your goal.
TAKE ACTION:
While you're in the planning stages of your next ad campaign take a step back and look at your buyer personas. If you don't have your personas set in stone then you MUST spend some time to set these up before you even think of launching a social ad campaign. Here is a great place to start crafting great buyer personas.
3. Do you have the patience for paid ads?
The final thing to ask is, "How is your patience?"
You need to be patient when you're starting paid ads. Everyone's business and buyers are so different. You can always look at similar data to identify the best place to start advertising. But remember that the first month or so of doing ads you're paying for data.
This data, however, is going to be very powerful for future campaigns. Don't give up!
We know the task ahead seems daunting and you might consider finding an agency to help you run ads.
There is nothing wrong with that, but remember THEY DON'T KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. They might be able to implement a strategy that worked with similar clients. However, they will need to learn where your buyers are, just like you would have to learn.
TAKE ACTION:
If you just launched a social ad campaign we encourage you to take some time to look at your metrics. The easiest place to start testing is by looking at how many people are clicking vs converting on your landing page.
- If you have a lot of traffic on your landing page, that means your ads are doing great and you just need to re-work your landing page.
- Now, if you're not getting traffic to your landing page it might be worth exploring how you set up your ads. Likely you need to change your creative, audience or spend.
In summary, just be patient! Once you learn the power of paid ads, you will certainly be glad you put in the work!
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