Much to the dismay of marketers everywhere, it turns out there is no exact formula for calculating how much profit you’ll gain for each dollar you invest in advertising. What we do know is that the results you get from your ads are dependent on the quality of the advertisement and the message it sends. Knowing this, we’ve broken down exactly what is a worthy investment and what’s simply a waste of time and money.
Investment: Referrals
Often the best form of advertising is overlooked. With numbers as high as 92% of people trusting a recommendation from someone they know, not taking advantage of this information is simply foolish. Offer discounts to your customers for each person they refer back to you. The money they save will turn into money in your own pocket in no time.
Waste of Money: “Getting your name out there”
You want people to know your name. That’s a given. What you don’t want is to slap together a sloppy ad simply for the sake of making yourself known. If anything, poorly designed ads can actually have a negative effect. Get your name out there by constructing thoughtful and meaningful ads that leave a positive impression on people, don’t settle for mere exposure.
Investment: Social media ads
Facebook and Twitter ads let you set your own price so that you never pay more than you can or want to. You can decide exactly when your ads run, who they are targeted towards and how much you pay for them. Even 1$ per day for two weeks can expand your audience exponentially. In fact, about 15$ is all you really need to get going. Running these ads helps generate more leads back to both your social media pages and your website, both of which will turn into dollar signs and earn back the little money you spent on these ads in the first place. You can even take it a step further by investing in retargeting, in turn getting twice the mileage from the same ads.
Waste of Money: Extravagance
Spending a lot of money on an extreme form of advertising might not get you as far as you’d think. Whether it’s a billboard, TV commercial or skywriting, you might grab someone’s attention for a moment, but as we discussed before, quality comes first. Those forms of advertising are great if you have a great message, but if the message is great to begin with, you probably didn’t need to spend the extra money in the first place. You’re better off going for pay-per-click ads or doubling your social media ad budget where you’re more likely to see more conversions and overall results.
Investment: Gratitude
Identify who your best customers are and print up some thank you cards or special rewards. For around $100, you can ensure that your loyalists will not only keep coming back, but also recommend you to their friends. But be sure to make this expression of gratitude personal, you’re wasting your time and effort if it seems like a generic ploy to get their attention. If you do it right, though, you’re simultaneously advertising your business and making someone’s day. Win-win!
Waste of Money: Giving up
Keep advertising on social media. Retarget your ads. Always continue to grow and expand as a business. It’s okay to cut costs and space out your ads so they don’t get too expensive, but don’t give up entirely. In fact, it may even work in your favor to not advertise so often that you start to go overboard and people grow tired of you, but it’s foolish to think that you can put in $100 once and be done. You’ve done a lot of great work on your ads, don’t let it all go to waste.
