Achieving Online Advertising Greatness

(Part 3 of 4)

We’ve been running a series of blogs articulating why brands fail in the online advertising (paid search) arena – the idea of 10 main blockers.

These blockers inhibit client progress and get in the way of getting the most out of their online advertising, these aren’t tactical; they stem from executive-level decision-making and habits.

We have started the series with two blogs :

Advertising but not marketing, and not knowing your ROI

followed by …

Not watching the competition, lack of innovations and the wrong team.

We’re sharing the list to encourage you to read this list with an open mind and take appropriate action if you are inadvertently making any of these mistakes.

Hope you find the next three blocks useful as well.

Blocker #6  – You’re Micromanaging To Failure

As a leader, when something is not delivering the results you expect, then your natural tendency is to step in and micromanage the situation.

This is a double-pronged failure on your part because it means you’ve got the wrong team, and, when you have the wrong team you shouldn’t then attempt to do their job for them – you should replace them with the right team.

The only net result of your micromanaging will be a dissatisfied PPC team and poor results because there are no true experts at the helm of your campaigns.

I am not saying you should not help and enable your teams (training, direction, feedback), but that’s a very different thing from doing their job for them and dictating every detail.

If you catch yourself micromanaging, take a step back and consider whether it is because you have the wrong team and they will never be able to do what you need them to do.

Blocker #7 – You’ve Got The Wrong Strategy

PPC is a game of optimisation – testing and learning to reach peak performance by trial and error and process of elimination.

It is therefore likely, no matter how smart you are and how much research you’ve done, that your starting strategy will be ‘wrong’ in the sense that you optimise away from it over time. Accepting this is critical, not forcing the issue of sticking to your initial strategy.

It is not uncommon for a very successful PPC strategy and campaign to be unrecognisable from where it began.

A lot of strategies also lack balance and depth, focused on one audience doing one thing.

Are you creating demand as well as serving demand, or just doing one of these things?

Take a step back from the day-to-day details and regularly evaluate if your strategy is balanced, evolving and relevant.

Blocker #8 – You’re Scared

Perhaps the greatest and most tragic block to advertising greatness is fear.

Committing to a proper PPC strategy and seeing it through all of the testing and learning cycles requires courage and resolve.

Unfortunately, many businesses have been burned in the past with poor results or experiences, making them all the more reluctant to dive in and do it properly once again – and being too ready to abandon a campaign before it is really apparent if it is a success or a failure.

All I can tell you is that I believe PPC can help 95%+ of businesses out there to one degree or another if done properly, and that great things are always on the other side of fear.

Seek to learn your lessons from what went wrong in the past … and go again.

Find out more about WSI Paid Search at https://wsidigitaladvisors.uk/wsipaidsearch/