Mistakes That Kill Ad Campaign ROI and Conversion Rate!

Increasing your conversions and your return on investment (ROI) is critical to any marketing campaign. But many marketers make basic mistakes that will cripple any chance of boosting these metrics. The solution to the problem? Understanding the mistakes.

Let’s run you through the top advertising mistakes that kill ad campaign ROI and conversion rate so that you can take your next campaign to the next level and blow through your KPIs.

– Incorrect Targeting

Picking the right audience to show your ads to is critical to your campaign’s success and the quality of the leads you attract. Look at your product or service and think about who your ideal user is.

Let’s say you’re selling anti-aging cream online. Showing ads to teenagers and people under 30 is likely a waste of budget as these people do not typically purchase this type of product.

Before you begin your campaign, think carefully about who will use your product, and focus on selling it to that group of people. You wouldn’t want this to become one of your pesky ad campaign issues! Furthermore, display ads networks give you access to incredibly in-depth targeting settings that make for pin-point conversions and detailed marketing strategy. 

– Ad frequency

Another one of the top paid advertising mistakes is incorrect ad frequency capping. Setting the correct ad frequency is an art form, but it’s not impossible. Show your ad too few times and people won’t remember your brand. Show the ad too many times and people will feel like you’re being pushy, which will eventually lead to ad fatigue.

The sweet spot differs between demographics and brand, so play around with it until you find the sweet spot for your ad campaign. Generally speaking, the golden mean is between 6 and 12 weekly views.

– Not optimizing your landing pages

If you’re running an ad campaign, but you’ve not fine-tuned your landing page, the effort that you put in to run the ad was all for nothing. Your landing pages are there to seal the deal. If these aren’t up to scratch, then you’re going to lose a potential customer for life.

Use keywords and clear CTAs to drive confidence and boost conversion optimization. Create high-performance sales funnels and consider A/B testing different CTAs, designs and text, optimizing as you go.

– Not buying ads from publishers

A lot of marketers believe that display advertising can only be done through Facebook or Google, and this is incorrect. You can buy ads directly from publishers, and it’s a wise idea to do this if you know the websites your direct clientele visits.

If your target audience is very specific and is in a particular niche, reach out to publishers that are popular in those niches. This will give you instant and direct access to traffic from those niches, supercharging your conversion potential! If you don’t know where to begin, display ads do a fantastic job of this.

– Not using remarketing/retargeting

If you’re not using remarketing, then you’re missing out on a world of conversions. These are potential customers who have already visited your website or landing page and are primed for the conversion.

You already know they’re interested in your brand, so make sure you’re serving them ads. They’ll be more likely to interact with the ad as they’re already aware of your brand, making them a highly cost-effective lead.

– Not optimizing your ads

If you want your ads to have a fighting chance, you need to optimize them to the hilt. Run A/B tests, fine tune on the fly and give your ads the tools they need to succeed.

Create engaging copy that drives action, mixed with subtle artwork that speaks to viewers. If you spend a bit of time optimizing your ads, they’ll return the favor and deliver high-quality leads.

– Using too many keywords in an ad group

You might think that using more keywords is better because you get more hits, but this in fact dilutes your ads potency. With PPC advertising, you pay for every click, so only include keywords that are hyper-relevant to your campaign.

Use keyword blacklists as well, to block out potentially unwanted and useless leads, such as people searching for “free” and “cheap”. These people don’t want to spend money, so don’t waste your budget finding out the hard way.

– Not using the right ad format

There are dozens of different ad formats available for you to choose from, which can make this a doozy of a mistake. If you know your customers are primarily mobile users, focus on ad formats that cater to these devices.

Analyze your audience and customer base to see how these people spend their lives. Then pick ad formats that cater to their needs, desires and technology. Like they say, if you can’t bring the horse to water, bring the water to the horse!

– Not defining a campaign end date

If you leave a campaign with an open end date, you’re not going to get any actionable intel. Even if you want the campaign to run indefinitely, set it to run in periods so you can analyze results and fine tune the ads.

Ad fatigue is also terrifyingly real. You need to set up end dates so that you can shake it up and show ads with new art or copy in order to maximize your chances at converting.

– Not tracking the right metrics or ROI

If you’re not tracking the right metrics, then you can’t analyze the campaign results to see if they were beneficial to your goal. Track the right metrics so you can make sure that you’re leveraging all the important conversion actions.

Some campaigns focus on brand awareness while others focus on sales. If you’re not tracking the metrics that matter, you won’t know if your campaign was successful.

– Strategize before you start

Invest in creating a solid strategy and plan before you run any ads. Spending time fine tuning and refining all of the aspects of your campaign will save you money and time later on.If you find any areas that are misaligned with your marketing strategy’s goal, you have the time to adjust them and hone your targets. This gives you the best chance to maximize ROI and boost your conversions!