There are a few reasons why paid media doesn’t work. Finding out that your paid media isn’t working is never fun. Luckily, you can turn that ship around with some tweaking.
Consider these things when evaluating your paid ad.
● Is your ad targeted correctly?
● Are you knowledgeable about your customer and their persona?
● Did you run the right kind of ad considering your market online?
Here are the major issues with ad failure.
Missing the Target Audience
The target audience has to be spoken to, ideally in a very human tone. You must not guess when it comes to reaching your audience. Take the time to get to know them. Think of them as a group of imaginary friends. Every group is different. A large mistake people tend to make is not targeting one audience at a time. If you don’t segment your market, your audience will be confused when you are talking to them.
Misaligning Your Message
You have to deliver when it comes to online advertising. You have to carefully align your keywords and tone. If you’re selling expensive business shoes, you wouldn’t write an ultra-casual ad with a lot of gestures in the images. You would show a tailored, reserved, sharp-looking professional wearing your latest style. Missing on keyword alignment, tone, and product happens more often than people realize. The problem is that people remember when they feel like your ad is misleading or not informative enough. They will stop clicking. Take your time on those ads. Do thorough research.
The Ugh Factor
Your ad can never be boring, or even worse, ugly. If you want people’s attention in this busy world, you’ve got to earn it. They’ve got a million other ads to see and products to buy.
Sometimes ads turn out boring or ugly when the creatives can’t collaborate enough. The writing is separated from the image throughout the creative process to the point where things just don’t go together.
Prevent the ugh factor. Edit ruthlessly, and make sure everyone gets a few meetings with each other so they’re on the same page.
You’re Working Them Too Hard
People don’t want to work to understand your ad. It should feel like lounging in your favorite chair when they finally get your ad. And it can’t take very long.
This is a difficult task! You’ve got to do a lot of work so that your audience won’t have to. If your ad is confusing, misleading, or requires that people think too hard about their purchase, you won’t win them over.
Keep it very, very simple and funny where possible.
You Didn’t Test the Ad
Advertising is about surprises. But people are often surprised when they make the ads as well. You just don’t know what works on a certain audience until you A/B test that ad. Only change one thing at a time during this testing phase. You need to do serious analysis here.
Remember that if you think your ad is too complex for A/B testing, you’ve overdone it. Keep the ad simple for paid online media.