This is something I see all the time online: “Advertising doesn’t work! Facebook is just greedy! Only companies with million dollar ad budgets can succeed!”
The problem isn’t with Facebook, Google Adwords or any other PPC advertising platform.
The Problem Is a Lack of Effort and Understanding
Let me explain.
I click on ads, a LOT of ads (sorry about your wasted ad dollars). Too many of these ad placements send me straight to the home page of the advertising the company.
If you are going to spend money for an advertising campaign, you should spend the extra time to create a specific landing page for it. Whether you do it yourself or hire a company to do it, you need to go to the extra mile because this is often the difference between generating a few sales and actually seeing a positive return on investment.
This technique would be the same as an auto dealer sending out a mailer for a sales promotion on Ford F150’s, and then demoing every car on the showroom floor. Does this sort of targeting make sense? No, they came for one thing, stop creating extra steps.
PPC advertising channels offer us some of the best targeting options in all of marketing, use it to your advantage!
[Tweet “As a general business philosophy, I am anti-wasting-money-on-marketing.”]
Many “marketers” try to convince businesses that the success of a campaign simply depends on reaching the most people and increased ad budgets.
We’re currently publishing a series for preparing a website to be featured on Shark Tank , and the basic conclusion is that most business owners don’t prepare for the flood of traffic. A few simple tweaks could change everything, this same principle applies to your online ad campaigns.
You might think this is a lot of work, but it’s not, especially if you hire a company to do it right.
Marketing should not be a black-pit money-suck.
Far too many marketers and advertisers will try and convince you otherwise, but that is because they don’t know what they’re doing. They just throw money at it thinking this will fix everything, but no amount of money will compensate for a horrible strategy.
How to Get a Return on Investment from Your PPC Campaigns
If you aren’t using landing pages, you are missing a huge number of possible sales.
A landing page helps customers know they are in the right place. You can use them for guest posts, PPC, Facebook campaigns, affiliate marketing, or pretty much any scenario where you need to talk to a specific group of people.
Landing pages can help you talk to people based on their certain interests or a certain customer within your target markets.
Here are some tips to make your landing pages do the hard work for you:
1. Make the Ad Headline Match the Landing Page Headline
If your ad is about your sale on your running shoes, but when they click they end up in your general shoe selection, they are likely to click off. They want to know more about the specific item your ad is about. Check out this awesome video from Unbounce (You should be using Unbounce to create your landing pages, it’s an incredible tool with an amazing team.)
2. Use ONE Call to Action
Too many sites have hundreds of options on a single page: “Like us on Facebook! Sign up for our newsletter! Follow us on Twitter! Buy now!”
The more options you present, the more they are bound to get distracted and not complete the intended action. If you’re selling something, present only the option to buy. If you want more newsletter subscribers or you’re giving away something in exchange for an e-mail address, only give them the form to fill in.
3. Live Up To Expectations
Does your ad offer a discount? Are you running a special promotion? Don’t make visitors search for hidden treasure. The promoted offer in your ad copy should be prominently displayed on your landing page. In fact, because we’ve already trimmed the copy down to a single call to action, the offer should BE the landing page.
4. Make It Mobile Friendly
Mobile browsing has surpassed desktop browsing, so having a website optimized for mobile should be a top priority with your sales funnel. It’s also important to understand the differences between mobile and desktop visitors. You should segment your ads and landing pages for the device type; this often leads to greatly improved conversions.
Hopefully these tips give you some motivation to revamp your PPC campaigns, we’d love to hear your success stories!