Advertising your small business is the only surefire way to garner economic success. After all, if customers are never exposed to your brand, they’re incredibly unlikely to give you any of their hard-earned money. Many business owners appreciate the importance of advertising but nevertheless feel as if they’re wasting immense sums of money on it. This is because assessing your small business advertising spending is incredibly difficult – indeed, many business owners make the same small mistakes over and over again.
Here’s a review of how to assess your small business advertising spending, and what you should be spending on.
Advertising spending was going up
Before the global pandemic thrust our economy into disarray, there were good reasons to believe that advertising spending on the part of small businesses was going up. According to at least one report, approximately 90 percent of small businesses that were surveyed claimed that they intended to raise their levels of advertising spending in 2019. While the coronavirus has obviously upset most people’s economic planning, it’s clear beyond any dispute that small business owners recognize the importance of advertising and were actively trying to spend more money on it.
There’s an old story about the Philadelphian retailer John Wanamaker, who supposedly said something along the lines of “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Many small business owners will be familiar with this problem, but the truth of the matter is Wanamaker’s belief was largely mistaken. Half of business advertising money isn’t wasted – the majority of it is. Modern marketing experts have identified that the vast majority of advertising-driven spending comes from a few ads that really work, whereas most of them are largely fruitless.
When assessing your advertising spending, you should recall that the vast majority of your spending probably isn’t producing much. You should be focused on the limited advertisements you issue which yield the greatest results. The trouble is that this is much easier said than done. If you invest in custom business signs or better equipment for your workers, you know your company is getting its money’s worth with a tangible asset, but investing in digital ads is another thing entirely.
Know how to audit your digital ads
The only sure-fire way to guarantee marketing results is to regular audit your digital advertising. This is because digital ad spending is on the rise, so most small business owners looking to assess or reassess their levels of ad spending will want to pay particular attention to their online advertisements. Sometimes, auditing your digital marketing entails hiring a google or facebook ads agency, but this can be done by a savvy business owner who is familiar with the technology in question.
You should be asking yourself if your digital ads are really leading more consumers to your website, and whether they’re actually buying things once they’re there. Failing to regularly audit your digital ad spending is a great way to waste money that most entrepreneurs can’t afford to part ways with. Keep that in mind, and your business advertising spending will be in better hands in no time.
