Why most marketing campaigns fail and 3 things you need to get them right

To create a winning campaign, you have to get three elements correct: the offer, the creative?(ad creative, ad copy, landing page, etc.), and the audience. If just one of these three elements is wrong, the entire campaign falls apart. We've experienced running a lot of campaigns across industries over the years but last week was a prime example.

Two weeks ago, we launched the workshop "Podcasting for Brands." We started by targeting podcasters and CMOs with a quick 45-second clip on Facebook ads to drive them to the landing page where we would capture their email and phone number for the sign-up. $300 later... we had zero sign-ups.?Zero sign-ups for a free workshop.

We went back to the drawing board and ultimately decided to promote the workshop organically to our email list and on social media. Through the email blast and social posts, we gained 45 sign-ups!?This proved the offer and the landing page were valid.

Due to the first workshop's success, we decided to add an additional one. We again tried to run Facebook ads; using the same 45-second clip but this time with some added b-roll, screenshots, and captions; and we also tested some photo ads. We acquired 55 sign-ups at a $5.60 cost per acquisition (well inside our $10 goal), and the photo ads even outperformed the video.

Altogether, we spent about $550 on ads (including the first $300 with no results), gained over 100 subscribers, and brought in about $6k in revenue through our podcasting beta group program.

Though this was a small campaign, it is a good example of how a lot of campaigns go. Here are my main takeaways to run better campaigns for your business:

• Test and tweak before you give up. It would have been easy to give up after getting no immediate results. After testing organically and getting sign-ups, we knew it was a valid offer and landing page, and it was an issue with our paid ads. Then after tweaking the creative and the targeting, we performed well within our acquisition cost KPI.
• Go in with clear goals. Our goal was to acquire sign-ups for under $10 to build our database with targeted prospects and add value to them on the workshop. When we were outside of that, we adjusted and got inside.
• Have a test budget. This can be small. How much are you willing to spend with no results? We recommend $100 per day, then adjusting after a few days if you are outside of your KPIs.
• If you are running any direct response campaign, it boils down to presenting an irresistible offer, nailing the creative (ad, copy, landing page, etc.), and getting that creative in front of a specific target audience that would benefit from your offer. All three need to be on point. If one is off, the whole thing falls apart.

PS: This was initially published to our email list in November but is still 100% relevant today

PPS: Our rebrand won't be announced for a few more weeks but if you are interested in our new offers and how we can help grow your brand feel free to shoot me a direct message!