5 Tips to Maximize Return on Ad Spend

Making every penny count has never been more important for businesses of all sizes. Many companies are finding themselves having to decide if advertising is worth the expense right now. Regardless of what may be going in the news or across the world, we believe paid marketing can always be effective. The key mindset in PPC advertising is to remain actively in tune with the ebbs and flows of not only your campaign, but the bigger picture as well. Here are our top five tips for getting more return on ad spend during an uncertain market:

1. Be Vigilant

Avoid irrelevant (or tone deaf) messaging in your ads by staying on top of global events, seasons, holidays, economic cycles, and other factors that affect the marketplace. To optimize your return on ad spend, you must always be in-line with and sensitive to what’s on your customers’ minds in that moment.

2. Change with the Times

Your campaigns should be treated as a living, breathing entity—not a set it and forget it effort. When there are changes and swings in the environments mentioned above, be prepared to change along with it. We can’t control the weather, but we can react to it. Major events aren’t distractions; they’re opportunities!

3. Monitor and Pivot

While you should be ready and willing to modify your ad copy, offers, visuals, and strategy to stay relevant with the times, there is such as thing as too much tinkering. It’s a delicate balance between gathering data and wasting money. Give your marketing adequate time to reach a large enough audience before making any drastic changes. Use the wealth of analytics provided in almost all ad platforms to execute smart, informed tweaks when necessary. Being certain of what isn’t working will help guide you to what will.

4. Optimize for Success

Whether you’re employing banner display ads, video ads, or search result ads, content is critical. First and foremost, the sentiment of the link a user clicks needs to be prominently reiterated in the page they land on. It seems like common sense that the messaging someone engages with matches what their interest is in that moment. However, you’d be surprised how often this detail is overlooked by advertisers. Therefore, if you are running several different ads, you may want to consider several different landing pages. Meet your visitors’ expectations and increase your conversions!

5. Understand Your Audience

Well, we’ve covered optimizing your messaging and user experience. Of course it’s time to discuss optimizing who sees your ads to begin with. Targeting too broad of an audience is one of the quickest way to burn through your budget without yielding results. No matter if you’re utilizing Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Reddit for PPC advertising, selecting the location, interests, and traits of your ideal customer is a critical step in setting up your campaign. Who are you really trying to reach? What do they do for a living? How do they spend their time? What are they looking for? Defining and understanding your customer avatar will help you answer these questions—thus minimizing irrelevant (and expensive) impressions and clicks.

Especially in an uncertain market, you’ll need to maintain control of how specific ads are and that people get what they expect. Remember that just because it’s working now doesn’t mean it will always work.