Are you thinking about all the digital marketing platforms available for advertising?
What about when you decide on how to allocate budgets or test new platforms?
In this blog, Ignite Visibility’s Director of Paid Media, Logan Schiff, will walk you through his strategy to build a robust media mix to reach long-term goals.
The Importance of a Robust Media Mix
People interact with ads differently, based on where they see them.
For example, most users will act differently if they see an ad from Nike on Facebook versus seeing an ad from Nike on Google versus if a Nike ad shows up in their inbox.
Why is that?
Well, the user psychologically is doing something different in each one of these cases. Users may also be more likely to interact with ads, depending on the platform they see them on.
Now, why am I telling you all of this?
Well, one of the biggest mistakes I see in today’s world of digital marketing is brands, advertisers, and agencies all allocating their limited advertising dollars ineffectively by not understanding how users interact with ads based on where they see them.
Knowing how users interact with ads gives marketers a better understanding of two things:
- How they should spend their advertising dollars
- Where specific platforms excel, based on the type of ad platform
What do I mean by “what type of ad platform?”
In my opinion, at a “high level,” three specific types of ad platforms help drive conversions (purchases, leads, etc.): disruptive, intent, and nurturing.
1. Disruptive Ad Platforms for Your Media Mix
An example of a disruptive ad platform is Facebook or TikTok ads.
What makes these ads disruptive?
No one wants to see an ad or expects to buy something on these platforms. Users want to watch the next viral dance video or see what their friends are up to, etc.
Marketers are “disrupting” what users are doing online to show them an ad, believing users will be interested in it.
Disruptive advertising platforms like Facebook and TikTok are very good at prospecting because of this. Their bread and butter is filling the funnel with new users to help drive new prospects to your site and hopefully drive conversions down the line.
This strategy also helps users search more and sign up for your email lists.
In most cases, I recommend making sure you spend more on prospecting than remarketing when running ads on disruptive ad platforms.
Here at Ignite Visibility, we usually recommend the 70/30 rule (70% prospecting, 30% remarketing).
However, this rule will not work for everyone. Some businesses need to tweak this rule a bit, with the possibility of testing out 80/20 (80% prospecting, 20% remarketing) or 60/40 (60% prospecting, 40% remarketing).
2. Intent-Based Ad Platforms
An example of an intent ad platform is Google or Microsoft ads.
The bread and butter of both ad platforms are search ads.
Performance Max ad campaigns are also becoming a priority for a majority of advertisers spending in Google ads. This campaign type is where a majority of brands and agencies are looking to spend, in order to show up in Google ads shopping inventory. Microsoft ads still focus on Standard and Smart Shopping campaigns for the shopping inventory they provide.
Marketers can use search and shopping inventory to provide users with an answer to a question or a type of product they need or want.
When showing an ad on Google, Microsoft search, or shopping, ideally, marketers are showing an ad that speaks to users based on what they are searching for.
This is important because it shows the user has “intent” or a desire for something, before clicking on your ad.
If you are an ecommerce business, try launching branded search campaigns, non-branded search campaigns, dynamic search campaigns, and performance max/shopping campaigns to start.
If you are a business looking to get more leads, I would recommend trying branded, non-branded, and dynamic search campaigns to start.
This strategy allows the account to run efficiently, while disruptive ad platforms carry most of the prospecting load, which allows smaller accounts that aren’t spending millions or even $100,000+ to have a fighting chance.
3. Nurturing Advertising Platforms for Your Media Mix
Marketers often run nurturing advertising campaigns through email or SMS ad platforms.
The user has already signed up for or entered their email or phone number on your site.
You’re likely sending them information about your brand. This may include a new blog, a promotion you are running, or a new line you are launching for your brand.
This is a user you want to “nurture” and keep around. The longer you can keep your users around, the more your customer lifetime value will improve.
So how do you keep users around?
Start by setting up different flows, such as welcome sequences, add-to-cart messages, win-back series, etc.
These tactics are essential to add to your advertising strategy. They fall “below the funnel.”
This is where a lot of your conversions come from and how you can keep customers loyal, encouraging them to come back to purchase more.
Nurturing advertising strategies will aid disruptive and intent-based platforms in “closing” that conversion if it’s a purchase or a lead.
Keep Your Marketing Funnel Flowing
The biggest mistake I see brands make is testing multiple advertising channels and platforms while splitting their budgets too thin. They often run multiple campaigns that hit various levels of the funnel across platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Google, Microsoft, Email, and SMS all at once.
They tie their hands by focusing on short-term monthly, weekly, and daily goals, without looking at the bigger picture.
Brands spend time and money across various ad platforms using strategies that bring them immediate success, allowing them to reach their short-term goals.
But, once their top-of-funnel leads dry up, they inevitably decrease their top line revenue, negatively affecting long-term growth.
So, how do brands keep their marketing funnel flowing?
With a healthy media mix.
Your media mix should start by focusing on the platforms that put you in the best position to reach your short-term goals, while also allowing you to think about long-term growth.
Wrapping It Up
Set your business up for success with the proper media mix to start and then, once you see success, expand your efforts from there.
To start: Be sure to include prospecting ads that disrupt your audience’s native use on the most popular platforms.
Use search ads to target users’ intent and focus on the middle and bottom of your marketing funnel. If you are an ecommerce business, test Performance Max campaigns.
And include platforms and ads in your media mix that nurture your prospects and users who have converted previously, to hold on to your user’s attention and increase customer lifetime value.
And remember: how users interact with ads depends on where they experience them.
