we’re ready to spill the beans on a major marketing tactic: digital advertising. we’re sharing the do’s & dont’s of launching social media ads. how to avoid creative fatigue. how we decide if an ad is working or not and what to do next. this is JUICY stuff that obviously stays between us squirrelfriends. 😉
digital advertising (read: social media ads) is EASY. yep - we said it. knowing what content to use. how to know when it’s working (or when it’s not). and understanding the value of a great landing page doesn’t have to feel like an expensive black hole.
soona’s resident digital ad expert - Jay Druba - gives his best tips:
if you’re a newbie to digital ads: variety is your friend.
when first starting out: it’s hard to know what’s going to work and what won’t when you don’t have any historic data to influence your approach. Jay’s best advice is to put yourself in the customer’s shoes to start. create a variety of ads and see what the data tells you.
“sometimes beautiful product shots perform better than lifestyle images and sometimes they don’t. sometimes an audience you think will respond well to an ad totally flops.” he said. “it’s best to start with a variety of content and see what performs best and then make more content like that.”
regularly checking in on your ads is vital for success
keeping a pulse on your ads is important for one major reason: make sure your budget is going toward ads that are actually working. Jay recommends establishing a daily & weekly check-in schedule:
daily = to make sure your ads are working correctly.
weekly = to pause low-performing ads and boost high performers.
monthly = do a deeper dive into the data to understand what worked and what can be applied to future ads & strategies.
“keep in mind that your audience is often as important (or even more so) than the creative itself.” he said. “one ad might perform really well with one audience and poorly with another. it’s important to look at the full picture before judging whether an ad is successful.”
combat creative fatigue with ad options
Facebook has a feature that shows you the average amount of times someone has seen your ad. Jay recommends getting your next ad launched once that average number reaches 4.
“you should always mix up your ad format: videos. photos. illustrations. and GIFs are all good options.” Jay said.
short on visual content? try switching up the copy. changing the copy and context of your ad is a great way to get more miles out of one image or video.
{{studio-ad="/external-components"}}
click-through-rate is important but there's more to determine success
figuring out if your ad was successful depends on the goal you set when launching the ad. the metrics you’ll want to look at will depend heavily on the goal you set when you launched your ads. click-through-rate (CTR - the rate at which your target audience is clicking on your ad) is usually a good indicator of whether or not an ad is doing well. but it may not the only indicator.
“if your goal is sales: an ad with a great click-through rate that drives tons of traffic is worthless if that traffic doesn’t convert on your site.” he said. “while click-through rate is usually a good indicator of the strength of your creative - it shouldn’t be the only metric you consider.”
think past the ad
consider your entire customer journey once someone has clicked your ad. where are you directing your audience? is your landing page effective? were users surprised or disappointed by your website’s content? considering the user’s entire journey is a key step to creating effective and efficient ads.
we’re ready to spill the beans on a major marketing tactic: digital advertising. we’re sharing the do’s & dont’s of launching social media ads. how to avoid creative fatigue. how we decide if an ad is working or not and what to do next. this is JUICY stuff that obviously stays between us squirrelfriends. 😉
digital advertising (read: social media ads) is EASY. yep - we said it. knowing what content to use. how to know when it’s working (or when it’s not). and understanding the value of a great landing page doesn’t have to feel like an expensive black hole.
soona’s resident digital ad expert - Jay Druba - gives his best tips:
if you’re a newbie to digital ads: variety is your friend.
when first starting out: it’s hard to know what’s going to work and what won’t when you don’t have any historic data to influence your approach. Jay’s best advice is to put yourself in the customer’s shoes to start. create a variety of ads and see what the data tells you.
“sometimes beautiful product shots perform better than lifestyle images and sometimes they don’t. sometimes an audience you think will respond well to an ad totally flops.” he said. “it’s best to start with a variety of content and see what performs best and then make more content like that.”
regularly checking in on your ads is vital for success
keeping a pulse on your ads is important for one major reason: make sure your budget is going toward ads that are actually working. Jay recommends establishing a daily & weekly check-in schedule:
daily = to make sure your ads are working correctly.
weekly = to pause low-performing ads and boost high performers.
monthly = do a deeper dive into the data to understand what worked and what can be applied to future ads & strategies.
“keep in mind that your audience is often as important (or even more so) than the creative itself.” he said. “one ad might perform really well with one audience and poorly with another. it’s important to look at the full picture before judging whether an ad is successful.”
combat creative fatigue with ad options
Facebook has a feature that shows you the average amount of times someone has seen your ad. Jay recommends getting your next ad launched once that average number reaches 4.
“you should always mix up your ad format: videos. photos. illustrations. and GIFs are all good options.” Jay said.
short on visual content? try switching up the copy. changing the copy and context of your ad is a great way to get more miles out of one image or video.
{{studio-ad="/external-components"}}
click-through-rate is important but there's more to determine success
figuring out if your ad was successful depends on the goal you set when launching the ad. the metrics you’ll want to look at will depend heavily on the goal you set when you launched your ads. click-through-rate (CTR - the rate at which your target audience is clicking on your ad) is usually a good indicator of whether or not an ad is doing well. but it may not the only indicator.
“if your goal is sales: an ad with a great click-through rate that drives tons of traffic is worthless if that traffic doesn’t convert on your site.” he said. “while click-through rate is usually a good indicator of the strength of your creative - it shouldn’t be the only metric you consider.”
think past the ad
consider your entire customer journey once someone has clicked your ad. where are you directing your audience? is your landing page effective? were users surprised or disappointed by your website’s content? considering the user’s entire journey is a key step to creating effective and efficient ads.
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