Paid advertising, whether on social media or search engines, can be an effective way to find new customers for your business, and encourage people to buy from you. However, it’s important to do it right.
We’ve seen many businesses dive into paid advertising on Facebook or paid display advertising, only to find their budget doesn’t last as long as they thought it would.
The key is taking the time to develop a thorough paid advertising strategy. By understanding the ad platform you’re using, your target audience, and your end game, you’re more likely to get the results you want.
Grab that notebook, get the giant Sports Direct mug from the kitchen and pour yourself the strongest coffee you’ve got. Let’s examine how you can create a paid advertising strategy that skyrockets your revenue.
1. Know which platform you want to use
The first thing you need to do when it comes to a paid advertising strategy is to work out which paid advertising platform you want to use.
There are a lot of different platforms out there, each with its pros and cons. There’s paid advertising on Instagram, LinkedIn paid advertising, paid advertising on Facebook… and let’s not forget the absolute behemoth that is Google Ads!
It might be tempting to focus on every paid advertising platform to amplify your reach. However, this can lead to you burning through your budget and spreading yourself too thin.
An excellent place to start is to consider your target audience and the social media platforms and websites they use. For example, if you want to focus on B2B businesses and decision-makers, LinkedIn paid advertising is your best bet. Want to find customers at the end of the sales funnel? Google Ads is a good choice.
Remember that if a paid advertising platform isn’t the right choice, you can move your budget to a new platform with no financial penalties.
Not sure whether paid search marketing or paid social ads are right for you? This guide will help.
2. Understand what your goals are
Bruce Lee famously said that a goal serves as something to aim at. Not just a martial arts legend, but a digital marketing guru too. We like.
When you’re setting up your paid advertising strategy, you need to have a goal to move towards. If this is in place, you can calibrate your ads to get the right outcome.
For example, let’s say you want to increase brand awareness. Facebook and Instagram ads will showcase your businesses to new customers. Integrating your paid ads with influencer campaigns means you can take advantage of an entirely new cohort of potential customers.
When you know what your goals are, it’s crucial to set up conversions on your website so you can see if your paid advertising strategy is working.
We’re not sure what Bruce’s thoughts were about conversion rates, but we’re sure they were very insightful.
3. Choose the right ad type for your needs
One of the great things about paid advertising is that you can capitalise on a wide range of different ads. You can showcase your latest company video, create an easy-to-complete lead form, and even let customers shop with you without leaving their favourite social media network!
It’s important to choose the right ad (or ads) for your business needs. This choice will hinge on the platform you opt for, your target audience, and your ultimate goal. Some ad types are also only available on mobile devices, for example, lead generation ads on Facebook and in-app advertising on Google Ads.
4. Set your budget
Whoever said ‘the best things in life are free’ wasn’t talking about paid advertising.
To get the right results, you need to know how much you’re willing to pay for the right clicks and engagement.
How much does paid advertising cost? It depends on the platform you use, what you want to achieve, and the business you’re in. Some industries are more competitive than others, which can drive the price of paid per click advertising up.
The good news is that paid advertising platforms give you an estimated cost per click before you commit, so you can get a rough idea of how much money you need.
The good news is that by following the advice in this article, you can ensure your cost per click stays as low as possible. Alternatively, scroll to the end of this article for a quick and free way to optimise your advertising budget.
5. Spend time creating the right copy and imagery
We’ve seen many businesses spend weeks choosing the perfect type of paid ad, only to rattle off ad copy in a couple of seconds!
Your wording, as well as the images, photos, and videos you use, can make the difference between someone clicking on your ad, and someone scrolling past it.
Images and videos are especially important with social media and paid display advertising, where your assets need to get people’s undivided attention.
Create content that aligns with your brand values and makes people think. It can often be better to design unique imagery than to upload the same stock photo that’s been used a million times before!
6. Target with precision
If you want to grow your revenue with paid advertising, you need to focus on the right people and make sure you don’t waste cash on unwanted clicks.
Paid advertising gives you many options when it comes to targeting prospective customers. You can show your ad to people who use a specific brand of phone, who live in a specific area… even people with specific hobbies!
Using the targeting options that come with your paid advertising platform of choice increases the chances of people who are interested in your products or services seeing your ads.
Top tip! If you’re using Google Ads, you can also apply ‘negative words’ to your campaigns, so anyone who uses a specific keyword or phrase doesn’t see your ads. It’s a real money-saver!
7. Provide something valuable
Let’s imagine that you have two ads for a pet store.
Advert A says: ‘Check out our range of dog and cat toys and see how amazing we are!’
Advert B says: ‘Got a bored pet at home? Here are ten top toys that will keep Fido and Fluffy entertained!’
Which ad are you more likely to pay attention to? Advert B suggests a problem pet owners might have, and offers them something to solve the issue. This means more clicks, more sales, and happier furry friends!
When you understand your target audience, you’ll know what pain points they experience on a daily basis. You can use this to create a paid advertising strategy that answers their questions.
8. Create landing pages that people want to check out
You’ve designed the perfect paid ad, and it’s driving clicks to your website. The hard work is over, right?
Sorry to break it to you; the hard work is just starting. You now have to convince your prospective customers to convert on your website, whether that’s buying a product, signing up for your webinar, or asking for a quote. It’s not a lot to ask, we know!
This is where a high-quality landing page comes in. A well-thought-out and planned landing page on your website will encourage visitors to click on your call to action.
Think about the user journey and what your prospective customer expects to see, and then give it to them!
Have you heard of ad scent? No, it’s not the latest fragrance by Gucci, but the consistency between your ad and the landing page it sends you to. By ensuring your ad and landing page share the same tone of voice, assets, and branding, your prospective customer is more likely to stay invested.
9. Test, test, and test again! (and then test some more)
Have you heard of conversion rate optimisation? This is when you tweak your digital marketing content slightly to ensure it performs as well as possible.
Let’s be honest; people are fickle. By changing something as small as whether you use an exclamation mark in your copy or not, you could dramatically alter your ad performance.
Put time aside to test your paid advertisements. Create two similar ads with one thing that’s different – like an image or call to action. Then roll them out and see which gets the best results. You’ll be one step closer to understanding what your target audience likes!
10. Keep on top of your analytics
Our final tip for creating the best paid advertising strategy around? Monitor your stats. Fanatically.
All the paid per click advertising platforms out there offer very detailed statistics. This means you can see which ads are seen the most, what they’re costing you, and how many clicks they’re driving to your site.
You can also combine this information with Google Analytics so you can track peoples’ journey through your website and what they get up to.
Review your analytics at least once a week – we recommend looking at short-term campaigns daily. See what’s working, what isn’t, and what tweaks you can make to improve your paid advertising campaigns moving forward.
Kickstart your new paid advertising strategy with our free ads review
We hope this guide has given you some inspiration when it comes to paid per click advertising. Whether you’re on Google Ads, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook – you’re one step closer to growing that all-important return on ad spend!
Want to learn more awesome ways to use paid advertising to increase your revenue? Of course you do!
When you take advantage of our free paid advertising audit, we’ll review your current advertising setup and suggest some quick wins to get the most out of your ads.
It’s fast, completely no obligation… and did we mention it won’t cost you anything?
Just tell us a little about your business, and we’ll get started!