In today’s marketplace, digital marketing needs to be a priority for businesses in every industry. While it can be less labor-intensive and more cost-effective than the primary advertising channels of 20 years ago, it comes with its own unique set of challenges.
If you aren’t seeing the results you were hoping for, it’s important to take action and not sit idly by as your dollars go to waste. I’ll outline a few of the mistakes digital marketers are making that hurt overall ROI and campaign effectiveness.
1. Not tracking results correctly
Calculating ROI is always important when evaluating advertising strategies and campaigns. Additionally, having the right systems in place to get an accurate picture is essential.
Before running any campaign, installing tracking pixels on pages where important consumer actions take place should be a priority. If you aren’t familiar with the term, a pixel is a piece of code that can help track conversions and user behavior. Additionally, the data generated from the pixel gives marketers the capability to re-target users who have previously interacted with a brand’s site.
The two most notable pixels that should be installed on your site are Google’s Pixel and Facebook’s Pixel. This is assuming you’re utilizing both platforms to run paid advertising (and you should be).
2. Changing ad creative too frequently
When an ad is running and the results are less-than-ideal, it might feel like the logical move to change up creative. It’s true that there may be some instances where updated copy or graphics will improve performance, but more often than not it will set you back.
Nearly all platforms undergo a learning period when the algorithms in place are working to find the right audience (this is especially true on Facebook). But this is only one of the reasons why constantly changing creative is problematic.
Imagine seeing a television commercial one time. It probably won’t get committed to memory at first, but it enters your mind at some level. Now when you see it the second, third, and fourth times, you will begin to increasingly know exactly what’s being sold and can determine if you’re interested.
If the goal of an advertising campaign is time-sensitive, focused on a specific event or sale, you won’t always have the luxury of maintaining the same creative. With that being said, if you like to keep a general ad running at all times, give your audience a chance to commit it to memory before changing jumping ship in hopes of finding something better.
3. Measuring the wrong KPIs
It’s easy to become enamored with all of the reporting metrics digital marketing offers. Impressions, clicks, bounce-rate, conversions…the list goes on. While you shouldn’t be ignoring any of these per se, it’s important to separate the KPIs (key performance indicators) from the regular PIs (yes, “regular PIs” a made-up term).
For example, some social media marketers, or business owners evaluating social media marketing results, have a tendency to focus on the wrong numbers. Likes, shares, follows, and clicks are all nice to have, but most experts would consider these “vanity metrics.” This means that they look nice, but don’t have a correlation to sales.
Another example would be a Google marketer who is concerned with being number one for a certain keyword, without necessarily finding out if it translates to sales.
The best way to evaluate which performance indicators matter the most on specific platforms is to make a chart or list. Let’s say you have social media, PPC, display, and email campaigns running. Each should have a “Primary KPI” – the primary KPI should almost always be sales/conversions/cost-per-acquisition (or something similar). Once you get past the primary KPI, you might go more platform-specific. Things like click-through-rate, content shares, or site visits can be utilized if you want to go past conversion-based metrics.
In any area of business, marketing or otherwise, improvements should be made based on past performance data. It’s critical to make sure you’re looking at the right numbers to know which areas need attention, additional budget, or a complete overhaul.
4. Not thinking mobile-first
By now this shouldn’t be news, but your website, marketing strategy, and content creation should be mobile-focused. But what exactly does that mean?
Mobile-focused advertising strategy tips
- Keep things simple by making your message clear, concise, and easy to process.
- Strip down your website to include only the essentials. This means that large image files, or anything that slows down mobile loading speed, can not only hurt the user experience but also lower your search ranking.
- Be interactive. If you have messaging features set up, or have users interacting with your social media content, make sure you’re engaging! Mobile devices are all about quick communication, so take advantage if your audience is taking the time to reach out.
5. Ignoring email marketing
In today’s world of social media and text messages, email can feel like a somewhat-dated form of communication. I mean, you don’t email friends when you want to get in touch, right?
While it might be true that the weekend plans aren’t going to be decided via email, that doesn’t mean you should overlook it when it comes to your marketing strategy. In fact, as email has shifted away from a primary form of person-to-person communication, it has started to take on a new role as a way for customers to get information from their favorite businesses.
Results vary greatly, but industry experts agree that open-rates for email marketing hover around 25%. If you’re offering attractive deals or providing information that customers might find valuable, then you can expect this number to be even higher.
Establishing a data set full of email addresses is a great way to reach your audience on a more personal level, so don’t let this valuable targeting option go to waste. Even just one monthly email newsletter or offer is enough to keep your brand top-of-mind.
Wrapping up
Don’t get discouraged if you’re guilty of committing one of these five digital marketing faux pas…most of these issues can be fixed quickly and inexpensively.
If you’re looking for a partner to help develop a digital marketing strategy tailored to fit your specific goals, get in touch today!
