If you are yet to see the ROI (return on investment) you were hoping for from your ads, it’s likely you’ll feel hesitant to increase your ad spend budget. However, it’s not uncommon for businesses to need to invest more in their ad spend in order to reach their objectives. Whether you need to expand your audience reach or retarget your keywords, sometimes, all your ad spend needs is that extra push to generate the results you want to see.
To help determine whether your ad spend is high enough to get results, we’ve put together a list of key factors that you need to consider when setting and reviewing your ad spend budget.
What to consider when setting your ad spend
Platform
The first step to any ad spend budget is choosing a platform. As there is no set cost for advertising on a platform, your ad spend budget will vary depending on the platform you choose and the format of ad you use.
If your brand is advertising on multiple platforms, we’d recommend reviewing your budget against your results. For example, if you were advertising on Facebook and Instagram, but your Facebook ads were performing significantly better than your Instagram ads, you may want to increase your ad spend on Facebook. By assessing how you divide your ad spend budget across platforms, you’ll be able to refocus and increase your ad spend on the platforms that are generating the best results.
Audience
Once you’ve reviewed the platforms you’re using, it can be useful to evaluate the audiences you’re targeting. Most businesses will have relatively niche target audiences, including specific ages, locations and interests. The more niche your target audience is, the cheaper your ad spend is likely to be. This is because, when audiences become more highly sought after, you effectively have to compete with other businesses to reach them, which makes them more expensive to target.
If your ad spend isn’t delivering the results you want to see, it may be that you need to review who your ads are targeting. Simply, adjusting the demographics of your target audience can have an impact on how your ads perform.
Location and population size
Similar to reviewing your audience demographics, the location and population size that you choose to target can affect the cost of your ad spend. For example, a location like London would require a higher ad spend due to the dense population and number of users you would reach. Whereas, targeting users in a location like Cardiff would require a much lower overall ad spend.
When deciding on your ad spend, take the time to consider where you want to target your ads. After all, there’s no point in targeting the entirety of the UK if most of your users are located in one specific area. Refining the location and population size you target is an effective method to use if your ad spend hasn’t yet delivered the results you expected.
Popularity of keywords
While mostly relevant to those using Google Ads, keywords can impact both your ad spend budget and the success of your ad campaigns. In Google Ads, keywords all have different levels of competition, meaning some are a lot more expensive than others.
When choosing keywords for your Google Ads, it’s important you explore the terms and phrases available. Ideally, you’ll want to use keywords that have high-traffic and low competition. By using Google’s free Keyword Planner tool, you can view keywords and their suggested bid price. This will enable you to find keywords that work with your business’s ad spend budget to deliver results.
Expert Spindogs advice – What are your ad campaign objectives?
Objectives make a difference. Keep in mind that money spent on social campaigns which have objectives, such as traffic or brand awareness, may not bring in sales/leads, but these objectives should not be ignored. They’re great to reach more people, who may not have known you before, and let them know more about your business and what you have to offer. If you purely want sales from your ad spend, then best to try conversion campaigns.
Need help reviewing your ad spend budget?
If you’re still not sure if your ad spend is high enough and would like further advice on reviewing your ad spend budget, feel free to get in touch below. While we’ve outlined the key factors to consider when setting your ad spend budget, our team can help to align your ad spend budget with your business’s objectives.