You know that feeling when your paid ads need resuscitation? You’re not sure what to do, but you know you definitely need a change. We’ve got some ideas on how to breathe new life into your old campaigns and get them back in the game!
Read on for our top five tips to revive your ad performance.
Tip #1: Fresh eyes
The truth is, most businesses don’t know they need help with their paid ads. They may start out happy and confident at the beginning of an ad campaign or new marketing initiative, but as time goes on, their ad performance declines. Why does this happen?
The reason is simple: People have a hard time remembering what they’re selling after a while. They get too close to their own product/service and can’t look at it objectively. This is when you need a fresh pair of eyes to shed some light on your marketing angles, offers, and funnels and see where they can be improved.
Tip #2: Video killed the radio star…and the static image ads too
Thanks to TikTok, we’re seeing a resurgence of video ads in 2021. TikTok’s user base tripled in just one year. It has been one of the biggest contributors to the resurgence of videos – as their recent introduction of native video ads proves.
We’ve seen an increase in video ads popping up on our feeds and we’ll admit – it’s not really annoying us as much as we thought it would (in fact, some of them are kinda funny).
Instagram also announced this year that they are becoming a video platform and will no longer be just an image platform. This is how they’re competing against TikTok to maintain their market share.
You’re also seeing more videos and reels injected into Facebook news feeds too. So far this year, the number of people watching videos on Facebook has increased by 30%.
So if you happen to see more videos coming through your feed from brands, this is good news. If you want to get your message out there, you can do so without spending as much money on traditional advertising like TV commercials and billboards. It’s the perfect time to get into video advertising. It also gives your customers an opportunity to see what your company does before they make the decision to buy from you or not.
Tip #3: Take your retargeting skills up a notch by using tools within the platforms
You may have heard of retargeting. You may even know that it’s a powerful way to grow your business. But what you might not know is with the introduction of the Apple iOS 14 update for iPhone users, it’s now harder for marketers to remarket to recent website visitors.
Retargeting typically works by showing ads for products or services people were interested in but didn’t purchase on their recent website visit. It’s a great way to convert those who are just browsing into a sale for your business.
We are seeing that the Facebook page views in the events manager are now decreasing rapidly. We’ve seen it drop by 5-30% on average at this point in our client’s ad accounts.
This means that we need to utilize tools within the platforms to retarget cold audiences without missing anyone with increased Apple iPhone privacy settings including:
- People who have watched more than 50% of your video on Facebook/Instagram
- People who have engaged with your Facebook/Instagram post/ad in the past 7, 14, 30, 60 or 180 days (depending on the application)
- Visitors to your Facebook instant experience (a landing page built right into the Facebook platform)
These audiences will be larger than retargeting website visitors because Facebook will be able to see 100% of this in-platform user activity.
Tip #4: Stories are like tasty snacks for our brains
We recommend using the power of storytelling in your ads in order to resonate with who you’re trying to attract and to repel those who you want to disqualify. If you can do the upfront in an ad, then you’re paying for clicks of the people who already feel like you’re a good fit for them. And not for the ones who don’t.
Our brains are wired for stories. They help the prospect see themselves in the storyline and see themselves being your customer as a result. Video ads are the most effective way for users to consume a story.
Video ads can be leveraged on several platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and YouTube. If you’re able to record your story on video, this is what we’d recommend along with a transcription on the platform so people can watch it silently as well. This is helpful for people who are on the go or are in a place where they can’t listen to the audio from your video.
Tip #5: Don’t take your ad platform selection for granted
It’s important to avoid complacency on your ad platform selection. For example, what we’ve been observing across all of our client accounts is that the cost per million (CPM) has been increasing on Facebook. The platform is getting more expensive for businesses. This puts a lot more pressure on your website funnels to be at peak performance.
If your return on investment no longer makes sense on a platform, then it’s time to not only evaluate your ads and funnel(s) but to take a hard look at whether the ad platform is still a good fit for your business. There might be another platform that will get your message out to potential customers more effectively and inexpensively.
If you find the ad platform is still a good fit and you’re still getting a decent click-through rate, then a funnel review may be necessary. Perhaps there is a way to swap out a free lead magnet with a low-ticket paid offer that will help you recoup your lead generation costs right away so that those campaigns can pay for themselves. This means that you wouldn’t have to wait until you upsell free leads into a paid offer in order to earn revenues to offset the cost of ad spending.
If you think it’s time to bring in outside expertise, we can help. We will bring life back to a struggling paid ad campaign by finding the right marketing angles, creating effective campaigns on the right platform(s) and ensuring that your landing pages convert for your business. Nerding out on your data is our happy place. Contact us today for a consultation.
