There are a million ways you can go about saving money on paid advertising, but I want to focus on the most impactful strategies. While I strongly believe in executing daily optimizations on your accounts (more about this below), I want to focus more on the bigger picture.
I’ve been a paid search specialist for more than six years, and – using the tactics I’ll discuss in this blog — I’ve helped accounts improve their campaign cost per conversion by as much as 50%!
I’ve managed paid search marketing for accounts that spent crazy amounts of $$$. At times, it felt like I was dealing with Monopoly money, literally. Thankfully, I never had to use a get-out-of-jail-free card. 😅
While it was a lot to manage, I really learned about how a company should strategically spend its money — especially since I was the one managing it.
Although I’m currently in a B2B marketing role, these paid advertising strategies apply to B2C as well. Let’s get right into it.
6 Ways to Save on Paid Ads
The key to saving on paid advertising is spending strategically. Here’s how to do just that.
1. Get really good at targeting.
Don’t set it and forget it.
That may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at the state of some accounts I’ve come across.
It would be so nice to set up your campaign, launch it, and drive a million conversions without watching it. (Well, maybe not a million, but hey, why not shoot for the moon?)
This would be ideal, but unfortunately this is rarely the case.
You could say, “Well, we did a lot of initial research prior to launching the campaign and so we shouldn’t mess with our targeting,” but let me tell you why this can be a costly mistake.
One of the biggest reasons I love paid advertising is because I see immediate results. While other advertising channels can take weeks — or even months — to see results, data from paid advertising instantly shows you whether your ads work or not.
So, back to my previous point to not set it and forget it: Unless you have your buyer persona or ideal customer profile down to a “T,” I recommend seeing what you can learn from the data. You may be surprised at some of the demographic or buyer-intent info you come across.
After analyzing your data at whatever cadence works for you — weekly or monthly — I suggest identifying new audiences that have already converted and running a split test against your original targeting.
By targeting these new audiences that have already expressed interest in your ad, you’ll see an improvement in your cost per conversion.
2. Know your product.
If you don’t know the product you’re advertising — and I mean really know it — then your audience won’t either, especially when they come across an ad for it.
The more you understand your product, the better you’ll be able to advertise it to your potential customers.
So know it inside and out — not just what it does, but how it solves customers’ problems, the value it provides, and what sets it apart from the competition.
Simple as that.
3. Understand your customers.
Knowing your customers seems pretty straightforward, but it requires a lot of work.
The more that you understand your customers the more you’ll understand your audience’s wants and needs.
Some examples of things we can learn about our customers are:
- their specific use cases
- business goals they’re trying to achieve
- firmographics (industry, location, company size, etc.)
The list is endless.
All of this data can be used in messaging for ads, landing pages, and even demo conversations for your sales team. With more information on your customers, you can reach your target audiences even more easily.
4. Make regular observations and optimizations.
Whether you spend $100/month or $1 million/month, making daily observations and optimizations is crucial to driving quality leads — and saving money.
It’s so easy to let your ads run without making any adjustments, but you won’t get the most bang for your buck that way.
I threw in the term “observations” because it’s not always necessary to make changes (aka optimizations) on a daily basis.
Sometimes it’s just as important to observe and let your campaigns run. Taking notes of these observations ensures your account is in sync and will help you determine next steps.
5. Rely on reporting.
Please don’t just talk about reporting. You actually have to do it. Consistently.
I get it — reporting can be tedious and time-consuming, but it’s also extremely necessary and valuable.
One of the most important things about paid advertising is knowing what results you’re getting from your ad spend. This will help you know what’s working and not — and it’s better to know this immediately vs. months down the road.
Plus, the more data you provide, the happier your executives and managers will be.
It’s crucial to measure the whole journey from click to conversion. Full-funnel reporting is possible only if tracking is set up correctly.
Also, measurement and tracking should be one of the first things you look at when getting into paid advertising. While it’s not always easy to do, it’s essential, so find the time and figure it out.
Remember this blog next time you dread pulling a report for your manager.
6. Employee Social Networks
What do my colleagues have to do with saving money on paid advertising? Hear me out.
Paid advertising is a great way to push content out to your target audiences and increase brand awareness, but it comes at a cost.
But if you can leverage employees to organically distribute content to their networks, this wouldn’t only significantly increase your brand’s reach, but also its remarketing lists.
Why? Because 76% of people say they’re more likely to trust content shared by “normal” people than content shared by brands, which makes sense.
Who are you more likely to trust a product recommendation from: a friend, co-worker, or acquaintance? Or the company that makes that product?
When employees share company content with their networks, it means that each click their posts generate are higher quality. And the more qualified leads in your pipeline means better results with improved cost per conversion and a lower average cost-per-click.
That’s why I strongly recommend leveraging your employees’ social networks next time you want to save on paid advertising. And you can do so risk-free by trying EveryoneSocial today for free.
Are paid ads worth it?
The truth is, no. Not always.
If you don’t have the time and resources — or a paid search specialist to help manage your accounts — then paid advertising might not be a good option for you.
But, if you have the items above, then paid advertising can be a great addition to your overall marketing strategy.
I’ve worked in paid advertising for some time, and it’s clear to me now that a lot of spend is wasted if it’s not managed properly. So if you don’t have the resources or time to commit to a paid ad strategy, consider some alternatives to paid advertising.
Alternatives to Paid Ads
Paid advertising can cost a lot of money, especially if it’s not done right, so it’s smart to ask, “Are there any alternatives to paid ads?”
While this certainly isn’t a definitive list, here are a few that we utilize at EveryoneSocial.
Email marketing
This can be one of your strongest marketing platforms and can help you deliver very targeted messages to your audience.
Webinars
The year 2020 created a lot of webinar fatigue, but at EveryoneSocial we’re trying something a little different.
We launched a live webinar series called Employee Advocacy Hour, and registrants only have to sign up once to be able to attend every month.
Employee influencer platforms
Employee influencer programs empower employees to create and share company content to their social networks. It gives your employees the tools to improve their personal brands and to become influencers.
And as an added bonus, they can cost up to 90% less than paid ads!
How much does paid advertising cost?
I get this question all the time. The simple answer is that it varies.
There are some industry standard reports that are great to reference if you want to see how you compare, but even these can be misleading. Every company is different, which is why you need to do your research.
Many ad platforms will provide you with cost-per-click estimates, but here’s a secret from a paid advertising specialist: Not all of these are accurate, and you shouldn’t base your budgeting/planning on these estimates alone.
These estimates can be excellent guides to help you make best guesses, but I don’t recommend placing any bets based on them.
I’ll explain my reasoning.
An important thing to know about paid advertising cost-per-click estimates is that they’re just estimates in the vaguest sense of the word. You can get keyword estimates, but you’ll often notice that when you run your ad campaigns the cost-per-click estimates are way off.
Why? Because these cost estimates don’t take many factors into account.
These cost-per-click models won’t know your exact campaign strategy until you actually launch a campaign.
There are many variables that affect your actual cost-per-click or cost-per-impression such as competitor keyword bidding, landing page experience, and audience targeting to name a few.
Don’t get me wrong — I still use each ad platform’s cost estimates in my planning. But the best method is to take these estimates and build them into your campaigns. You can then test variations of your audience targeting, ads, and keyword bidding to get an idea of how much it costs to run paid advertising campaigns.
Paid Ads for the Win?
Saving money in paid advertising is achievable when you have the time, resources, and a specialist who knows the ins and outs of each platform.
It may take some time to optimize your paid ads for each channel, but it’ll be so worth it in the end.
However, while paid ads can be a winning strategy for many companies, it’s not for everyone.
With the rise of digital advertising costs, it may be worth exploring alternatives to paid ads that can help you target the same audiences *cough cough* such as an employee influencer platform.
