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Marketing is a highly competitive and expensive business to be in these days. A critical component of success in the current environment is effective targeting and the elimination of wasteful spending. The problem of wasteful spending has been around since the dawn of marketing. One of marketing’s pioneers, John Wanamaker, famously summed it up.
[testimonial author=”John Wanamaker”]“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”[/testimonial]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBe0raZh0-s
As time goes on, the competition becomes fiercer, and the tools available grow in sophistication. That’s why more and more marketing professionals are trying to step away from the old “spray and pray” tactics and move towards a more cost-effective and targeted approach.
The technological advancements have opened up a whole new way to approach how marketers reach out to consumers.
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Outcomes Drive Revenue
The first step to any successful marketing strategy is knowing exactly where you want to go. What is your ultimate goal? This is a simple yet critical step that far too many overlook. Knowing what you want to achieve allows you to take the necessary steps to build towards that outcome.
For instance, maybe you’ve got a great call center but they aren’t being fully utilized so you want to generate more inbound phone calls. With performance marketing you can design your campaign around that goal. Working with an experienced partner like Randall-Reilly you can design a campaign, set the budget, and monitor your results – adjusting the campaign as you go to reach your goals.
And the best part? Unlike traditional campaigns where you pay just to get the advertising out there and hope it’s seen by the right people, with performance marketing you only pay for what you get. Meaning you only pay when your goal, in this case an incoming phone call, is achieved via the campaign.
When utilizing performance marketing you set goals, whatever they may be. Instead of just pouring money into a campaign hoping to reach an audience, the campaign is built around your specific needs. You only pay for performance of the campaign based on the goals you set. Those goals can be whatever outcome you are after, whether it be phone calls, clicks, conversions, etc.
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Other Common Performance Marketing Campaign Goals
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- Online Sales
- Form Conversions
- Website Traffic
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- Content Downloads
- Video Views
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Reaching the Right Audience
Once you’ve made the decision to pursue performance marketing the next step is deciding who you want to reach with your messaging. No matter how great your product is or how much effort you put into your content or advertising, it won’t help you if you don’t reach the right people.
Traditional marketing is all about getting your advertising in front of as many people as possible. But you have a specific audience you find valuable. Those are the people you want to reach. Why waste time bombarding people with ads for something they don’t need or care about?
This is what really takes performance marketing to the next level. You can become extremely targeted in your approach to the campaign. Whether you use your own created audience (such as a current or former client list), a new custom audience built with data from a 3rd party provider, or use options like lookalike audiences available through platforms like Facebook, you can narrow down the scope of your advertising to go after only the people you’re after. And again…you only pay for the results you’re after.
Other Ways to Minimize Waste
Performance marketing campaigns are a fantastic tool to cut down on your wasted marketing spend. Here are a few more ways you can try to get the most bang for your buck. Try out some of these techniques on their own or use them within a performance marketing campaign to trim the fat on your spending and make sure you get the most out of your marketing dollars.
Use Negative Keywords
Keywords also allow you to prevent bidding on or showing your ad to a prospect based on negative keywords. When someone’s search includes a negative keyword or phrase you have chosen Google knows not to show them your ad and thus saves you money by not wasting spend and displaying your ad to someone you know will not result in business.
How would this work?
Here’s a quick example of exactly how utilizing negative keywords can help save you money. Let’s say your company specializes in film cameras. In this case you could use negative keywords and phrases like digital cameras, digital photography, etc. to limit who sees your ads. Film cameras and digital cameras are completely different.
That means someone searching for digital cameras would not find your product useful. Negative keywords give you the ability effectively sort through prospects before wasting time, effort, and money by serving an ad to someone who ultimately will not buy your product.
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Geo-Targeting
Why waste money by putting your ads and messaging in front of people you know you won’t be able to convert. If your product or service is limited to a geographical area, consider implementing geographic targeting to ensure that your messaging is only shown to those in the areas you want to target.
Facebook Exclusion Lists
Use exclusion lists to avoid showing ads to those on Facebook who have already purchased the item you want to market. These can be created using custom audiences or an audience list from your website.
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Moving Forward with Performance Marketing
The problem with marketing has always been the inherent wasted spending. The idea of getting your messaging in front of as many people as possible and hoping people respond is no longer a practical marketing option.
Performance marketing allows you to reach the right people while only paying for achieving the outcomes and goals you set. This realignment of your marketing strategy will help drive you forward to reach your desired outcome.
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