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With all the advances in digital media channels, advertisers can connect with potential customers by any demographic imaginable. Despite all the progress in objectively measuring the success of an advertising campaign, a couple of age-old questions remain. How much advertising is sufficient to gain a reasonable return on ad investment? What portion of advertising goes to waste, despite the increased certainty that data collection and evaluation brings via digital channels? Did my intended audience really get the message? The goal in advertising isn’t just making sure a potential customer hears or sees the message, but rather motivating the target consumer to take action and not just nod off to sleep.
To determine the answer to how much advertising is enough, marketing experts have settled on a calculation that a company’s advertising spend should be between 5% and 12% of a seller’s gross revenue, depending on the industry, marketplace specifics, and the business’s life cycle position. With a seven-point spread, there is a lot of margin for error and plenty of opportunities to squander a significant amount of ad spend. Usually, the total advertising budget is spread over various media channels, but Facebook is thought to be leading the digital pack when it comes to connecting marketers with potential consumers through personal conversations.
Facebook offers a lot of different types of methods for showcasing a message. Take time to learn and understand all the various methods and how they may determine campaign effectiveness. Select the objective of a campaign based on its ultimate goal. Hone in on a specific target audience and choose the medium best suited for the target, but remember that the more specific and refined the target, the more expensive a campaign can become. Facebook is a conversational platform, but quality and relevant images or videos will open thousands of conversations. Optimize videos and images to increase presentation speeds.
The placement of an advertisement always has an impact on its effectiveness. Select locations based on your product’s characteristics and your audience’s preferred devices and platforms. Knowing that different digital devices present a message or image differently is important to the placement decision. Take the time upfront to select the devices (mobile, laptop, or both) and the platforms that best fit the goal of your content. Understanding the mechanics of the various devices and platforms can be daunting, particularly for the inexperienced. Seeking out advice from experienced marketing professionals will be money well-spent when the unnecessary costs of poorly-placed marketing spend are avoided.
While a portion of any Facebook campaign needs to center around messages that are dedicated to brand education, engagement, and audience building, the majority of ad spend should focus on promoting an offer. Ultimately, no matter the quality and effectiveness of the message’s content, there comes a point where you have to ask for the sale. Regardless of the click rate, the most important question concerning the value of an ad becomes: How many of the conversations resulted in the listener making a purchase decision?
Schedule the amount of your advertising campaign based on what the budget can afford, and resist extending the level of ad spend by holding onto the original campaign’s goals and objectives. Be patient, as unreasonable expectations can result in unproductive costs that will erode profitability. Refer to Facebook’s Ads Manager to observe and measure the performance of the campaign, but be mindful that gaining credible results from a sampling of just one campaign ad is not sufficient to measure success or failure.
At Junction Creative Solutions (Junction), our experienced marketing professionals use powerful storytelling and impactful strategies to drive discovery and conversions between our clients and customers. Employing proven media management techniques and generating authentic content, we provide unique and affordable business strategies designed to increase sales, visibility, and engagement. Call 678-686-1125 today!