17 Insights from Planning & Managing Over 3 Million Euros in Paid Online Advertising in the Last 12 Months

“I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”― Winston S. Churchill

This quote inspired me to write a post sharing what our Media Buying Agency has learned over the past 12 months.

We always use checklists and SOPs…but at some point, those are not enough anymore. I'm a big Ray Dalio fan; I like to call this type of insight 'Media Buying Principles.'?

Before jumping into the 'Media Buying Principles' list, here is some context on what we did in the past year:?

Number of accounts managed: 6

We only work with a few clients to ensure we always have time for research, planning, and innovation.?Our purpose is to grow. But our growth should never affect the quality of our work, even if we must grow slower.

I feel lucky to have the opportunity to work with amazing people on both sides of the business. Great, inspiring business owners or CEOs and a dedicated, reliable team.?

Smallest budget planned and managed in ads: 4k in one month

Starting in 2024, we will only start working on projects that invest over $15,000–$20,000 per month in ads.

The largest budget planned and managed for one client was $300,000+ in one month, which may be more in Q4. Sometimes, it’s good not to give exact numbers :)?

We ‘annoyed’ over 100 million souls by interrupting their scrolling on social media. We also show our business partners' ads when they search on Google, which puts a lot of relevant ads in front of them.

Hmmm, this sounds a bit negative. Let’s rephrase:

We helped millions see their desired products and make better purchasing decisions.?

Whatever, we are in the advertising business, and we love it.

The budget was distributed to different geolocations as listed below:?

60% DACH Region—we always have almost the highest CPM in Europe here. The competition is insanely high.?

20% US—There is always high competition, but the market is larger than we can cover with the type of budgets we manage.

20% in all European Countries—I am preparing a post to compare countries. This one will be very helpful for you if you are running an international online D2C business.?

We work with: E-commerce & Info products B2C (some of them are listed on our website)

Core team: 3 Specialists?

• Strategist
• Project Manager with experience in managing creatives
• Media Buyer with high-level technical skills

Paid ads strategies take time and effort until they work. If you manage to get there...the feeling of being in control is gratifying.

So, let's start. Here are the so-called media buying principles learned in the past 12 months:

1. Even if the offer is good, with a low-quality product, it’s a matter of time until paid marketing stops working. When you have a good product, everything becomes easier. As long as you get a few sales, you can use the learnings & good feedback to test further and make paid ads work.
2. Customer support is essential. Respond fast, pay attention to comments, and fix issues after finding them. Constantly share feedback with the marketing team.
3. Invest in improving your marketing message. Read reviews, especially 3-4 stars. Rewrite copies to match user's expectations (also improve the product if the case)
4. Refrain from copying 1:1 what the competition does, even if it seems like the right approach. But always pay attention to the competitors. Continuously observe and test why, not their strategies.?
5. Once you find something that works, build systems. They will save you time to focus on other aspects that need more attention. Do not try to reinvent the wheel every time you publish ads.
6. Do not compete on price. Entering a battle of selling cheaper will put you in a position where ads become too expensive. You'll also fight against big players who can afford to lose a lot of money on an initial sale.?As Sun Tzu says in Art of War: "He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight."
7. Using only video ads is not the key to success - always use static, video, carousel, or dynamic ads. Try to change the creatives as often as possible. When running high budgets, you need to avoid ad fatigue. Don't fall in love with a visual. When one stops working, redo it and change only a few variables, like background or colors.?
8. Listen to the audience and use their words in ads, as long as they suit the product.?In his book Overdeliver, Bryan Kurtz asks a question that I challenge you to answer: “When did you invite this 18-time buyer to dinner?”
9. I insist. You are not your client. You can start listening to the clients instead of assuming you know what they want.?
10. Google and Facebook are still the most relevant advertising platforms. Testing TikTok, Pinterest, and other social media platforms is always good. Don't try different platforms if a campaign doesn't work on Meta or Google. Optimize until it works on Meta, then expand.
11. Organic posts help a lot, but does not provide stability. Relying only on organic means you are not in control of your business.?Buuut....you cannot ignore organic posts anymore. They help so much in lowering the ad costs, especially when having 1-2 viral relevant content.
12. Meta and Google support advice is useless in 90% of cases. 10% is good, but you already know that information if you have been in the game for a few years. When they reach out, we always talk to Meta & Google Ads Reps but always question their advice. When talking to them, I always feel their only purpose is to make us spend more. You can use common sense.
13. Chat GPT helps us use more headlines than before, test different angles, and save time. We use it to remain competitive and put more content out there.
14. Email marketing is essential for e-commerce stores to make a profit. When a business gets over 1,000 paying customers and starts sending emails, we can also see a difference in the ads.
15. Make sure tracking is set up accurately. Otherwise, you cannot compete with those with a proper setup.
16. Always be testing, but only test one thing at a time.?
17. Do not work to improve campaigns that already work. Instead, test different types of campaigns in parallel. Test offers, angles, or strategies and decide later if a change is needed.

We are at a point where paid ads are becoming more and more expensive. The attention span of social media users is less than a second. Did you notice people in public spaces scrolling on TikTok? Some of them are extraordinarily fast. ??

How do we solve this problem? This is a topic for another post. We constantly work on solving problems and collecting more 'media buying principles.'

Gloma Pro aims to help online business owners and CEOs save time and make better marketing decisions using the right systems.

We work daily to build the most reliable media buying systems for our business partners.

Have some learnings to share?

Or do you feel like disagreeing with something I shared?

Perfect! Feel free to comment or send me a message.