Nothing gets me more infuriated than hearing that another small business has been swindled by the smoke and mirrors of a large digital marketing agency.
Nothing.
So today I present to you a case study on what NOT to do when hiring a digital marketing agency to run “pay-per-click” ads on Google Ads or Facebook. This is based on a recent consultation I did with a medium-sized business looking for a PPC Ad partner to replace the “impressive” digital marketing agency that did not deliver results.
(This can also serve as your checklist of questions to ask an agency prior to signing the contract.)
DON’T create your ads for Facebook and Google without factoring in the most important piece: Conversions. You will get traffic to your website, but that traffic doesn’t do anything without remembering your bottom line. You need the visitor to buy from you.
DON’T skip the most important part of your ad: The landing page. Your ad is just a short teaser of what is to come. Create a visually appealing and informative landing page that captures the information for each visitor.
DON’T be impressed solely by the number of impressions and clicks your ad gets. Make sure your entire process is leading the visitor from Point A of getting to know you to Point B of buying from you.
DON’T solely rely on ads to do all the heavy lifting. Ads should be one part of your promotional campaign but don’t just set it and forget it. Continue to promote your offer in a variety of other ways to increase your conversions.
DON’T create an ad campaign to just drive traffic to your website. Get a clear and specific goal in mind. This will help your ads clearly relate to the people who are seeing them.
DON’T forget to set up tracking along the way. You want to know where people stop interacting with your content so that you can plug that hole and improve the buying process! Facebook Ad Manager has a conversion pixel tool set up so you can measure which pages people visit and where they drop off. So if your targeted landing page has multiple pages in the funnel that they can visit, and if you have Google Analytics set up on your website, you can analyze the data for your visitors and see if you need to improve anything along the way to increase sales.
Pay per click ads are fantastic for getting in front of your audience, increasing quality traffic to your website, improving your SEO, and increasing awareness. But when done incorrectly, you can literally waste a thousand dollars per month. Because that is what it takes to play the game. A minimum of $500 ad budget is needed to get results on either Google or Facebook.
Do this ? Not that ?
Here is your checklist when contracting with a digital marketing agency for PPC ads:
- Create a landing page for each ad that is set up for collecting information from each visitor. This way you can email them to nurture the lead and convert a cold prospect into a buyer.
- Use ads that are highly targeted to a specific audience so they will relate to the ad text and graphic specifically.
- Run a retargeting ad on Facebook that targets all those that visited the landing page. Get in front of them a couple of times to close the sale!
- Have an email nurture campaign plan set up to reach out to all leads or develop a plan in which you will be reaching out individually to all leads to provide valuable information.
- Develop a few other ways you will market to people including promotion and outreach. Again, don’t rely on the ads to do all of the heavy lifting!
Don’t fall into the trap of ‘shiny objects syndrome’ when looking for assistance with ads or marketing. The best things you can do to protect your bottom line and get the best ROI possible are 1) do your homework, 2) set up a chat with me, and 3) have a real conversation about how PPC ads might play an integral role in your promotion or campaign.
Lisa M Gale Digital Marketing helps service professional business owners improve their online presence and visibility to attract new clients. We develop systems and processes to improve digital marketing efforts and help entrepreneurs reach their business goals. Download your Digital Marketing Made Simple for free here >>
