Successful digital marketing involves constant review of search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, and the website’s user experience, which can lead to a feeling similar to fear of missing out (FOMO) for marketers interested in getting the best possible return on marketing investment (ROMI).
Phil Turner from Bespoke explains how to judge the success of your marketing, and how to strike a balance between staying on top of the digital marketing game, without confusing your customers by over-adapting.
In 2023, digital advertising spending in the UK is set to surpass 30 billion poundsBut the research he conducted On demand Data shows that 31% of this figure is wasted. That’s £9.3 billion a year spent on digital tactics that generate little or no return.
We conducted our research by analyzing the results we found. Digital Strategy Workshops The project was run over five years with companies from across the North West and South East of England, two of the UK’s most important hotspots for digital marketing as a whole.
The workshops, aimed at in-house digital marketers, begin with a comprehensive review of current spend across all areas of digital marketing. After analyzing the results over five years, we were shocked to realize how much of our average digital marketing spend is currently being wasted. According to our findings, the main culprits are:
Spend PPC on platforms that don’t fit your industry
PPC is not like playing the lottery. It’s not a case of winning. To avoid wasting money, PPC campaigns should be aligned with the buying behavior in that industry. If you have a niche product that consumers are searching for, Google is the natural choice. If it’s a consumer product that’s disrupting the market in some way, Facebook is a good choice. If it’s a B2B product, LinkedIn is probably the best. But you rarely get good returns from all three. Yes, it can be a case of trial and error. But if the error is more common, the best step companies can take to improve these digital tactics is to simply turn them off. The money saved can be put into meaningful investments like UX, which will actually help convert more customers who landed on the site through the right clicks.
Paid ads left to run
Sometimes, when a PPC plan is in place and can be seen to be working, companies leave it running. This “if it’s not broken” attitude can lead to huge losses of campaigns that could actually be improved through ongoing management, maintenance, and development. In the worst-case scenario, we’ve seen far more companies than you can imagine who simply created campaigns and then forgot about them. In the meantime, they updated their products and services, rendering those old ads meaningless, and every click they get, just a waste of money.
Again, the advice here is to review your campaigns regularly and strive to continually improve them. If they aren’t working, stop them or change them.
jumping too early
The third most common way digital ad spend is wasted is when companies start spending before they have mastered the basics. If you haven’t carefully studied your product or service’s position in the market before you start spending on ads, you’re almost certainly wasting a significant portion of your budget.
The lesson is simple: Look before you leap. Taking the time, before you start spending your money, to align your digital strategy with the unique advantages of your products in the context of the market you are entering will save you huge amounts of budget in the long run.
Businesses can avoid waste by investing money and time in getting their digital strategy right before they start handing their money over to Google or social media platforms.
Being aware of potential areas of digital waste can be the difference between huge success or complete failure as an online marketer.
Strategy
As a simple question, does your web strategy make your business stand out in your industry? A well-thought-out strategy is essential to successful online lead generation. To perform well, your websites and campaigns must be designed around a well-thought-out strategy. For example, a strategy that includes a deep definition of your ideal customer, consistent marketing messages that have been proven to resonate with your customer, and an understanding of the expected return on investment across each of the digital channels available to you.
Website
Do you have a high-performing website with a great conversion rate? Many businesses continue to use an outdated or underperforming website for far too long. A high-performing website is designed based on data and built using advanced lead generation tools. For example, a high-performing website may convert 1 in 20 of its visitors into leads while an average website may only convert 1 in 200.
A brand refresh and website redesign by top professionals in your sector can improve performance overnight (on average, we see an immediate 15% increase in performance when we relaunch a website – the equivalent of £100k of new business in some cases).
marketing
Are your campaigns generating more high-quality leads than your competitors? When a company has a good strategy and website, it makes sense to invest in online marketing campaigns to attract targeted leads to your lead magnets.
However, we often see budgets wasted on campaigns that are not well targeted or whose key messages do not resonate with the target customer. When it comes to marketing campaigns, there is competition for the best value for traffic across digital channels, so it is best to have your campaigns in the best shape possible.
When these three essential elements are fully developed and working in harmony, a company gets the best possible flow of high-quality leads from its website and other online marketing outlets. But if any of the three elements are not as they should be, the entire marketing process will fail to perform as intended. Weakness in one of these elements weakens the others as well.
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