Everyone business knows that they need to invest time and money into their digital marketing budget, but alas, some companies go into the process “blind,” as it were. They throw money in any and all marketing directions, not realising that the money they’re spending isn’t helping to grow their business as much as they think it is. They are, in fact, simply wasting cash. The most damning estimate says that somewhere in the region 60-70% of a marketing budget will be wasted! That’s not an amount of money you can afford to lose. But if you do want to waste that amount, read on, as we take a look at some bona fide ways to waste your digital ad budget.

Spend the Bare Minimum

You really do have to spend money to make money. If you’re putting a token amount into your marketing budget because you know that you have to do, then forget it, it’ll be doomed to fail. You can’t expect to spend, say, a couple of hundred dollars on your marketing and expect it to have a significant impact. It’s one of those things that you need to commit to; you can’t just “tip your toe in the water,” so to speak.

Flog Dead Horses

You’re not going to have success story after success story when it comes to your marketing. There will be ads that you expected to work that failed (and also ads that take you by surprise and perform better than expected). The trick is not to get sucked into thinking that an ad will suddenly start performing well. It’ll just turn out to be a waste of money, so it’s better to learn what you can, and move on. If you have a number of ads, you’ll want to get some Google Ads scripts that just work; they’ll help you to identify and remove the ads that aren’t working. Don’t bemoan the initial launch of the ad, though – we can learn just as much from our failures as we can out successes.

Vague Objectives

You’re not going to be able to measure the success of an ad if you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve. For every ad that you launch, you should have a target that you’re hoping to achieve. This won’t always be about simply getting more sales; you might want more social media followers, or focus on lead generation, or get people to visit a specific webpage. Whatever it is, the important thing is that you have something to measure. Without that aspect, you won’t know if your ad has worked well or not.

No Call to Action

Let’s get down to the nitty and gritty of your marketing. What is it that you’re trying to achieve, exactly? Not results-wise, but more what is the ad actually for? What do you want a person who sees the ad to do? Sometimes, an advertisement can look and feel good, but it’s missing a call to action, and thus there’s no incentive for a person to do, well, anything. Somewhere in the ad you need to be pushing the viewer to do something, be it liking your page, visit your website, get in touch via the phone, or simply buy a product (for example, buying it quickly if it’s on sale).

Who You’re Targeting

You’re not going to be able to target all internet users. Even the most prominent companies can’t do that. As such, you’ll be well-served by figuring out who you’re actually trying to talk to. This will help in the development of your ad, and also help decide where you’re going to put it, and for how long. Without clarifying who you’re trying to market to, your ad will just get lost in the sea of ads. It could well be seen by thousands of people, but since the ad hasn’t been specifically targeted at those people, they don’t perform well.

All New Customers

The biggest marketing sin that companies make is arguably that they become too obsessed with bringing new customers on board. It is much cheaper, and also much easier, to make the customers you already have make another purchase rather than convince someone new to use your business. While you’ll of course want to get the word out to potential customers, it’s imperative that you don’t forget about the people who are already interested in your business!

Incorporate the tips above, and you’ll be on your way to developing smarter marketing campaigns that yield results.