Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are making it easier than ever for businesses to launch their own digital marketing ads. Nowadays, more platforms are even adding AI-driven tools to support the creation of ad content like copy and images.
However, many businesses often run into this problem: even after doing all the steps “right” and launching their ads, they don’t see a lot of engagement, their click-through rate on the ad is abysmally low, and they don’t generate any leads.
Why is this the case? In our article, we share three reasons your digital marketing strategy isn’t working — and what you can do instead!
#1: Expecting Too Much Too Soon
So, you launched your new ad campaign, and two weeks in, you don’t have a single lead. The next step is to pause the ads, right?
Wrong!
While social media marketing can put your brand in front of more people, those who aren’t familiar with digital marketing often expect too much too soon. This stems from misconceptions about how social media advertising works. Just like with traditional marketing, digital marketing isn’t a magic bullet. These campaigns take time to be fully realized.
The truth is that once your ad is launched, the social media platform takes time to learn how to serve your ad to the appropriate audience. This process can take longer if an expert digital marketer isn’t the one managing the ads.
In our experience, we consider the first month or two to be the “learning” phase that helps us refine ad creatives to enhance campaign effectiveness over time.
#2: Not Having a Full Digital Marketing Funnel
Business owners or marketers who aren’t as familiar with digital strategies often skip several steps when it comes to digital marketing, expecting to get from A to Z in a single leap.
Social media marketing is more than just putting together an ad campaign, launching it, and waiting for customers. There’s an ecosystem that needs to be built around your social media ads in order to make the most out of your marketing dollars.
Consider the elements that create a full digital marketing funnel:
- Top-of-funnel marketing: Organic content, such as your Instagram feed, or ads that introduce your brand and product to the user. This is the brand awareness stage and will have its own dedicated ad campaign.
- Middle-of-funnel marketing: This is more promotional content as we go further down the marketing funnel. An example is an ad campaign linking to a case study on your website.
- Bottom-of-funnel marketing: Ads that focus on converting leads into customers. An example is a retargeting ad campaign that targets users who have interacted with your previous ads in some way.
#3: Gaps in Digital Marketing Expertise
A “DIY” approach can only take businesses so far. It’s not just about launching the social media ads, but checking them on a frequent basis, making adjustments, tracking KPIs (key performance indicators), and many other activities to optimize performance. The complexity, effort, and time needed to support a digital marketing program is often a huge barrier to success for businesses and traditional marketers that try to launch their own digital marketing programs.
While social media platforms make launching your own ad campaign easy, there’s no denying that digital marketing agencies and experts exist for a reason! When it comes to developing an ad campaign and ongoing management, they have the knowledge and experience to help steer a digital marketing program in the right direction.
Partnering with a third-party social media marketing agency allows businesses to tap into specialized skills, data analysis, and industry insights. Expert digital marketers know when the right time is to transition from top-of-funnel brand awareness ads to middle-of-funnel product-driven ads to bottom-of-funnel lead generation and conversion ads.
Take Your Digital Marketing to the Next Level
We outlined three of the most common reasons why your digital marketing strategy may not work, but there are certainly other factors as well, including:
- Not setting an appropriate digital marketing budget
- Not setting clear goals for your ads
- Lack of a clear strategy and ways to evaluate success
- Not understanding the audience
- Ignoring that different social media platforms have different demographics
- Inability to adapt to social media trends
If you’re ready to take your existing digital marketing program to the next level, click the button below to book a complimentary consultation and speak with one of our social media specialists!
href="#" data-color-override="false" data-hover-color-override="false" data-hover-text-color-override="#fff">Book a Consultation!