7 Mistakes Business Owners Make With Online Advertising

Online advertising is one of the key ways businesses can get the word out quicker about their brand, products, and services. It goes a long way to build momentum for the business, especially within the digital space.

However, the people who are being targeted with online advertising are becoming weary of them, unresponsive, and most go out of their way to ensure they block off every form of online advertising, using any available Ad blocker software.

In that type of situation, what should a business do to ensure they reach the right audience, and actually get a good ROI?

Before we get into that, let me highlight the seven (7) mistakes business owners make with online advertising:

#1. No proper offer and funnel system in place

The first route a business owner should always take, prior to running any online campaign is to ensure his/her offers are valuable and solutions driven. That can be achieved based on the information he/she gathers from research (e.g. surveys).

Then the next step is to put a good funnel structure in place. If you’re jumping on online advertising without these elements in place, then you’re bound to see poor results. Without a good offer and a conversions driven funnel system, your online advertising efforts will be a waste. Do let that happen!

#2. Targeting the wrong audience

When it comes to conversions within online advertising, targeting is very crucial, otherwise it’ll be a flop. Find out what your target audience are interested in, and then use those keywords within your campaign. If you’re using Google Adwords or Bing Ads, then you know it’s a keyword game. The wrong keywords can ruin your entire campaign.

On the social media aspect, you’re looking at interests and behavioural patterns. Facebook has enough data when it comes to Ads, but a lot of businesses struggle to get their targeting right.

The best approach to targeting within Facebook Ads would be to start broad (wider audience), then build a custom audience from it, for remarketing purposes.

#3. Poor Ad and landing page copy

If you’re rushing to press the “publish” button for your Ads just because you want to meet up with a deadline or get people to sign up for something on time, then it’s possible to make mistakes. Review your copy before making it public.

I’ve seen too many Ads and landing page copies that are not congruent in any way. If your Ad is saying one thing, and your landing page is saying something different, then you’re not going to get conversions.

Your Ads and landing page copies need to be crisp, efficient, congruent with each other, and relevant to your target audience. The same goes for the images you use, and the calls to action.

#4. More sales driven than value driven

There’s nothing wrong in selling your services through online advertising, but if you’re looking to achieve better results, there has to be a few touch points for the prospect, in order to guide him/her towards making an informed decision.

If all your Ads are more sales driven, then you’re going to get trumped by your competition. Make it more value driven, which means, it’s engaging, and has the power to trigger the action you want from your target audience.

#5. More brand-centric than client-centric

If all you do within your Ads is talk about how amazing your brand is, then you’re going to hit a brick wall in no time. The truth is, no one really cares about brands, but what they care about is what they can get from the brands.

When doing online advertising, you have to understand that you’re reaching out to real people with real needs/wants. That means it’s all about them, not you. So make your Ads focus on solving their problems or giving them the information they need.

#6. Tracking the wrong metrics

If you’ve been running your business online for a while now, you know that tracking the activities around your business is very important. Sadly, some businesses are more inclined to track things that are not really necessary.

When it comes tracking within online advertising, it’s easy to get caught up with metrics such as “reach”, “website hits”, “CTR”, “likes”, or “page views.” These types of metrics do have their purpose in the general sense, but if you’re looking for high conversions, then it’s best to look deeper than that.

If you’re getting 1,000 visits to your landing page, and zero conversions, then there’s really no point bragging about the 1,000 visits. The purpose of setting up that landing page was to either generate leads or drive in sales; if that doesn’t happen, then something needs to be done (either a total redo of the page, or tweak the content).

#7. No proper Ad objective in place

Before you set out to run any online advertising campaign, be sure to outline your core objective. What do you want people to do when they see your Ad? Where are you going to send them to when they click your link? Are you going to apply remarketing (e.g. via Facebook pixels) in order to bring back visitors? Does the Ad content fit the purpose?

These are some of the questions I ask my clients, in order to know how best to approach the setup of their campaigns.

Business owners on a platform like Facebook are prone to hitting the “boost this post” button, just for the sake of it, without really taking time to review the post they are boosting. If your Ads are poorly setup, then you’re going to get poor results.

Let’s look at how to solve this…

If you’re looking to avoid getting poor or zero ROI, then it’s best to approach online advertising with a solid plan. It’s one thing to seek a good ROI, it’s another thing to have an offer that will appeal to your ideal audience, and your ability to close sales.

• Make your offer worth it (what’s in it for them?)
• Create and deploy effective conversion funnels
• Target broad (based on interests), then narrow down later (this is where custom audiences come to play on platforms like Facebook)
• Make both Ad and landing page copy congruent
• Track everything via the Ad platform and your landing page
• Deliver on the promise (this will go a long way to bring you referrals and possibly make you spend less on Ads)

The initial stage/process of online advertising is about testing. This will help you determine what’s working, based on the responses you receive. That’s why I often advice business owners to set aside what I call a “testing budget.”

If your budget is very low, then try using other means of getting clients (e.g. networking or WOM/referrals), build up your income a bit, before getting involved in online advertising.

Let’s talk Facebook Ads…

Facebook is currently the most effective platform for online advertising, and in order to “beat the crowd” one needs to know how to create Facebook Ads that convert. You have to look at…

• Targeting
• Ad copy and platform context
• Facebook’s Ad policies
• Pixels and custom audiences
• Remarketing approach
• Funnels
• Core offer (product/service)
• Call to action
• Follow up sequence

They all tie in… how you structure them will determine the results you get. Again, it’s all about testing!

If you’ve tried Facebook Ads and didn’t get good results, or you’re in the process of creating some campaigns, but don’t know how best to approach it, then let me help you setup things up, and also give you pointers on what to do to ensure you close sales based on the leads that come in.

Your turn

What online advertising mistakes have you been seeing within your industry? Leave a comment below and share this post to your social networks.

Thanks for reading… to your success!