4 Common Ad Serving Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

By advertising online, you can gain immense traction for your business. A barrier-less world, the digital era presents today’s marketers with a sea of opportunities and channels to promote their goods, services or experiences globally and locally, at affordable costs. From websites to social media posts, from business blogs to influencer marketing, the online world has a gamut of ways that marketers can leverage to enhance their brand, promote their business and finally get conversions rolling in.

Advertising online requires one to leverage the right mix of creativity and analytics. By taking business wise decisions in terms of content, targeting, segmentation, tools, etc., you can reap the benefits of a holistic marketing strategy, allowing you to churn more sales, profits and higher return on investment. But creating an effective online marketing strategy is no child’s play. Let’s take a look at some common mistakes online marketers make and these are best avoided:

Mistakes you must avoid by all means when advertising online…

1. Targeted ads for targeted audience

One of the most common but dangerous mistakes that online marketers make is not targeting their audience effectively. Let’s take an example. Suppose you have a business that runs only in California. You put up an advert at a global level, so that every user in the USA can view the ad. Is that a wise decision? Failure to target your audience effectively can lead to unnecessary costs. Also, in the online world, as it is, ads are seen as a nuisance. Relevance is what counts. Showing your ads to users who are not your target audience can lead to consumer annoyance, which can further erode your brand name. So, the long and short of it is that you need to clearly define your target audience and consider the best channels to reach them. Today, thanks to rich analytical technologies, companies can reach out easily to even extremely niche groups.

2. Mix of online ad channels

The online world offers marketers a number of channels to promote their business. Many companies make the mistake of using only one channel to reach out to consumers. This is not exactly the right approach. It’s a better idea to spread your marketing investment across a number of modes. Invest in a mix of online ad channels such as social media posts, PPC, email marketing, influencer marketing. You can create forums, communities and blogs to create organic content that will further increase your SEO ranking. So, all in all, distribute the risk by spreading your dollars in different online channels.

3. Engaging content

Marketers many a time make the mistake of not focusing on creating content that will engage the readers. Online users are bombarded with content so it is of utmost importance to let the consumers easily and clearly know how your brand can add value to their lifestyle. Many a times, ads contain information about features and specifications of the product/service. More than describing features, marketers need to aptly project the USP of the brand, product or service. If you have clear and precise calls to action, half the battle is won.

4. It boils down to numbers

In another mistake, marketers put up adverts, posts and other promotional content, but fail to keep a track of how these pieces of content are performing. In order to get a real picture of how well your content is doing online, you need to have a strong set up that allows you to track, measure and follow up your online efforts. For this, and any campaign management solution for that matter, you need to have a clearly defined objective. You need to keep a track of various metrics such as views, likes, shares, conversions, etc. These figures are the ultimate yardstick of your online investments.