Do You Feel Like Your Advertising Doesn’t Work Anymore? It’s Time to Rethink

We’ve all been through hard times in 2020. The Coronavirus has affected us in ways that we can’t even fully grasp yet. However, aside from health issues, the biggest blow the virus gave humanity is probably a financial one. On one hand, lockdowns and restrictions forced businesses to make a harder effort to sell. On the other hand, consumers were left with a lot less free cash. The road from here to economic slowdown was pretty straight.

One method for businesses, freelancers and entrepreneurs to overcome this financial hardship was to increase marketing efforts. The online environment, in that sense, has played a key role since campaigning is much cheaper and more audience-targeted than other, more traditional means of advertising. However, many advertisers are reporting that recently, their campaigning efforts are not bearing the same fruit that they used to, just a few months ago. If you’re in this situation as well, let’s try and see what you can do to overcome.

New platform

User attention tends to shift fast, especially on the internet where practically everything is a click away. This means that what was trending yesterday may be history today (and possibly trending again tomorrow). As a marketer, you must always feel the pulse in order to know where the crowd is – and not just any crowd, your crowd.

Let’s take Facebook for example. It is still the social media with the most active users, by far. However, a closer look at the demographics shows that there’s a sharp rise in time spent on Facebook by people over 60, and a decrease in interest among teens. And that’s been going on for a few good months now, so if you advertise on Facebook and you weren’t aware of that, you need to wake up and smell the roses.

You must know where your message reaches when you advertise online today, and you must not settle for yesterday’s analysis. Try to find out not only which websites your target audience visits, but also how much time they spend there. For example, TikTok boasts 800 million monthly active users, with about two thirds of them being under the age of 30, but deeper analysis reveals that they spend an average of less than 5 minutes on TikTok every time they enter it. How many ads do you think they really pay attention to in that short period of time?

New strategy

Maybe it’s time for you to rethink the basics that drive your modus operandi when advertising online. Perhaps, for example, video ads are costing you too much and not reaping profits accordingly. Maybe you’re aiming for a target audience with high competition over attention. The only way to find out is to do some A-B testing, the sooner the better.

One thing you might need to change is your payment tactic. For example, if you’re on a CPC (cost per click) plan and get a lot of clicks, but most don’t translate to sales, you may need to do some rethinking. One model that has been gaining popularity is CPL (cost per lead), and if you haven’t heard of it by now, you’re missing out. We asked Johnathan Greenwood from the renowned digital marketing platform Crystalead to explain:

“CPL is based on the assumption that you need more than just a click on your ad, but also that you aren’t aiming for an immediate acquisition. A lead is a potential client, who has left contact information. That way, the sale is completed through a phone or an email, since the person who saw your ad has shown enough interest in what you have to offer.” Is this the right strategy for you? You won’t know if you don’t try.

New crew

If you do your own digital marketing, maybe it’s time for a change. Many business owners have realized that the time and energy they invest in it, without proper knowledge, is not worth the results reached – and would rather pay an expert to do it. You should also consider letting go of the handles and hiring someone to do the job, if you feel you’re not getting where you want to.

On the other hand, if you are paying a professional to do the job and are still not reaching desired results, maybe it’s time to part ways. It can be due to personal dynamics, a discord between your product and the campaigning strategy, or hundreds of other factors. It doesn’t matter. You shouldn’t feel uncomfortable to say goodbye and try working with someone else instead. After all, it’s your money we’re talking about here.