As your business grows, you'll likely start to think about how to increase your reach and brand awareness. This is the point where many brands turn to paid advertising.
While paid advertising is an amazing tool for helping to grow your brand, it's important to ask yourself a few questions before you start booking campaigns. The following questions will help you make the most of your advertising budget and spend your money wisely.
1. Is my business ready for increased traffic?
Before you start pushing traffic to your website, it's important to make sure you're ready for an uptick in purchases.
Ask yourself: is my website updated and user-friendly? Do I have enough inventory to advertise particular products? Will I be able to pack and ship additional orders in a timely fashion?
If the answer is "no" to any of those questions, if might be best to wait a little longer until you begin advertising. First impressions are incredibly important, and you'll want your new customers to have a seamless experience when they first make a purchase from your business.
2. What do I want to accomplish when I advertise?
From print ads to sponsored content to display ads, every form of advertising is used to accomplish something a little different. From brand awareness to conversions, your end goal will determine how, when and where you should place your advertisements.
Ask yourself: am I looking to grow my brand awareness and inform more potential consumers about my products and/or service? Am I looking to grow my social media accounts? Do I want to drive consumers to a particular in-person event or activity?
The answers to these questions will help you (or your agency) determine the best places to use your marketing budget.
3. What am I comfortable spending?
Advertising doesn't have to be expensive! Even if you only have $100, you can create an engaging and comprehensive advertising campaign.
It doesn't matter if you have a million dollar budget, but it does matter that you know what you're willing to spend. When working with an advertising agency or publication, one of the first questions they are going to ask is "what's your budget," so it's a good idea to have this question answered before you start thinking about advertising.
Another tip is to be honest with your budget. If you're only comfortable spending $5,000 and you tell your agency, magazine, website, etc. that you have a $25k budget, you're only going to be wasting your time. It's an agency's job to find placements that work for your budget and help accomplish your goals without breaking the bank, but we won't be able to do either of these things if we don't know what's comfortable for you.
It's always fun to dream and see what's in store for your brand once your advertising budget starts to grow, but it's the best idea to be upfront about your budget. This way, you'll get options that are realistic and really going to work for your brand.
4. How will I judge a successful campaign?
This is a question that's often overlooked by many of the brands we work with.
When they reach the end of a campaign, they're not sure how to evaluate if the advertising was successful or not because they're not sure what to look for. That's why it's important to ask this question before you even start thinking about booking ads.
Ask yourself: how will I judge a successful campaign? Is "success" a bump in followers on Instagram, or maybe a new list of leads for your business to contact? Or would the campaign by successful if you saw a 50% boost in sales? Determining what you consider a success will not only help determine the right placements for you, but will also help you evaluate your campaign at the end.
If you know what you're looking for, you'll be able to track your campaign much more effectively and determine if it's something you'd like to run again in the future, or if you need to try something different.