Loading…

Why does everyone set their ad budget once and never look at it again? | Digital Marketing Strategy - Opinions Matter

Why does everyone set their ad budget once and never look at it again?

I run ads for a small chain of gyms around Columbus and I keep running into the same thing with other owners. They set a monthly budget 8 months ago, never touched it, then act shocked when their cost per lead has doubled. Here is the part that gets me. I checked one guy's account and 70 percent of his spend went to a single zip code that had maybe 5 percent of his actual signups. He had no clue because he never looked past the top line number. I started pulling my own data every Monday, just 15 minutes, and moving money toward the two areas that actually convert. My cost per lead dropped from $34 to $19 in about 6 weeks. It is not some big secret, it is just paying attention to where the money lands. Anyone else dealing with owners who treat ad spend like a set it and forget it bill?

1 comments

1 Comment

jennyb6716d ago

$34 to $19 is solid but I gotta be straight with you, 15 minutes every Monday is not the fix you think it is. I ran ads for a 4 location chain in Cleveland for two years and the zip code thing you found is just the tip. The real problem is the owners are not gonna log in every Monday no matter how easy you make it, so the answer is not telling them to pay more attention, it is putting a rule in place that moves the money for them. I set up automatic rules on the two campaigns that mattered, if cost per lead in an area goes over $25 for 7 days it drops the budget there and shifts it, and the owner never touches it. Your method still depends on a human remembering to look, and that is the exact habit that got the other guy into trouble in the first place. Rechecking your own numbers weekly works for you because you care, but most of these gym guys are running the front desk and fixing broken machines all day. The fix is less human attention, not more.