Budgets are like fountains. They produce as much as you put into them, continuing to provide returns – unless there is a leak. A leaky marketing budget can result in big, unforeseen campaign problems.
Mismanaged, or unmanaged, marketing spend is one of the worst and most common offenses we catch in marketing department and campaign audits. This is often because most marketing department leaders only have a high level of access and/or knowledge of what campaigns are running, their budgets, and their goals. The result? A lot of wasted spend that goes unnoticed, unchecked, and worst of all unaddressed.
Have you ever done a call with your marketing department or vendor and heard, “everything is good this month, with 25 leads and 15 phone calls! See you next month!” This sounds great but in reality no one is realizing that there is money being wasted and leads being left on the table. There is potential to double or triple those numbers, which could turn into leads and sales, yet no one is aware.
To be fair, it isn’t always obvious that budget mismanagement is occurring. If you don’t see a report with a drop in performance, leads, or web sales, everything seems fine. Possibly even good. How do you unearth budget mismanagement? The devil is in the details.
Simple inexperience or poor settings in an ad campaign can actually have ads look like they are performing well, when that’s not the case. Ads may even be producing half the tangible results possible, because money just isn’t being carefully delegated.
Looking for signs of mismanagement? Here are a few common ways we see budget waste in digital advertising departments:
- No separation of spend on different objectives like branding, lead generation, audiences, etc.
- In paid search ads, untamed keyword match types serving ads to everyone. Broad match can be a problem if not used properly, or sometimes when used at all.
- Sneakily high CPCs and CPMs without caps.
- Campaigns that have been forgotten and continue to run. An example would be a 4th of July sale that appears to have extended into Thanksgiving.
- Display ads that are served everywhere. It’s a misconception that your ads need to be everywhere, really they just need to be in the right places to capture your audiences attention. Quality not quantity.
- Campaigns using outdated or shuttered settings.
These are just a few ways to create a crack in your marketing fountain.
How can you find most mismanagement mistakes? By allowing a professional ad manager to take a look in your accounts and review your data and settings.
With a little research and a handful of questions, you’ll be surprised what improvement possibilities can be uncovered – and more importantly the lead potential that can be unlocked.
