Debunking the Top 4 Myths About Ad Buying in Q4
The year is almost through and what a year it has been! We’ve seen huge growth through Q4 with massive successes throughout all verticals. From CBD to Real Estate, people are achieving marketing wins with FieldTest. It’s not all great news in the world of digital marketing, however, and Q4 does present some things that give us pause. Many brands seem to make the same mistakes this time of year, all ultimately affecting their bottom line. Here at FieldTest we want every brand to achieve advertising success so we’ve laid out the top 4 biggest mistakes we see brands making with their marketing in Q4, along with the ways we think those mistakes can be corrected! We hope this will help you make the most out of the holiday season and run your absolute best possible digital ad campaigns. So without further ado, let’s begin!
#4 - “It’s too late to plan my campaign”
As the year trucks on you’ve no doubt seen numerous holiday campaigns offering Black Friday or Christmas sales. It’s no secret that this is the biggest shopping season of the year and many smart marketers are taking advantage of that fact. If you haven’t started your holiday marketing efforts yet you may think it’s too late and that you missed the boat. This couldn’t be further from the truth! Many of our clients come to us with fast approaching deadlines, needing an advertising solution that is not only proven high-performing but is fast and intuitive to set up as well. The ability to quickly and effectively set up high-performing ad campaigns is where FieldTest advertising platform shines. In fact, one of our recent clients saw a Black Friday sales promotion result in almost 300% Return on Ad Spend, or “ROAS” during Black Friday Week, “BFW” alone. What’s more, they only started their campaign a week before November! When it comes to taking advantage of holiday advertising it’s never too late to get started with FieldTest.
#3 - “I don't need to spend on ads”
Another mistake we see marketers make in Q4 is assuming that they just don’t need to pay for advertising through the holiday season. Many brands will rely on a dedicated customer base and assume that this is where their holiday sales growth ends. While this may work for some brands for a while, it's rare that this effect is sustainable long-term. As dedicated as your customers are now, they likely won’t stick around forever and if you haven’t invested in a strong marketing stack you’ll be left at square one. Even if they do stick around you’re robbing yourself of your ability to scale by not presenting your brand to new customers at the awareness level. Here at FieldTest we recommend that all brands maintain an upper funnel campaign to keep a strong flow of traffic to their site. Whether you buy exclusively on social or you run a campaign through a platform like FieldTest, upper funnel marketing is essential to a successful long-term sales and growth strategy. What’s more, by opting for a FieldTest ad campaign you give yourself access to some of the most advanced data targeting technology available, with access to millions of intender groups and our lookalike audience predictor which creates new segments of highly qualified customers from only your most successful campaigns. These all add up to the one thing you miss by not investing in advertising: a continuous stream of new customers, qualified using the latest in cutting-edge data technology and ready to keep you selling your product for years to come.
#2 - Higher inventory prices make it too costly
Marketers hold off on running Q4 digital ads for a number of reasons, but one that makes us scratch our heads the most is the idea that with the increase in traffic there must be an increase in CPM (cost per 1000 views) and CPC (cost per click) and along with that a decrease in ROAS. While it may be true that there is a seasonal increase in holiday advertising which increases the cost per view for some smaller campaigns, this isn’t the whole picture. In our experience this CPM increase is more than offset by increases in purchase intent, leading to much lower CPA and increases in ROAS. In fact, one of our recent Black Friday campaigns saw the CPA decrease over 83% from $133 to a mere $22 over the holiday promotion. Take this into account when you read cautionary tales about supposed cost increases in Q4 ad campaigns, sometimes they simply do not tell the whole story.
#1 - Coupons and discounts destroy ROI
It’s not a far stretch to say that many brand marketers are often skating a thin line between the black and the red. For these brands, one successful promotion can be the line between growing their brand or going back to the drawing board. We want all of our clients to grow to the scale they deserve, so with this in mind we announce the biggest misconception about digital advertising in Q4 or any quarter: that offering discount codes or coupons hurt your ROI and decrease revenue. This is simply not the case! Over hundreds of campaigns we’ve seen this same line of reasoning rear its ugly head. The logic makes sense at first, by offering a 10% off coupon or free shipping you’re cutting a set amount right off the top of your precious revenue. That’s money you’re simply giving away that you’ll never get back. This fails to take into account one major consideration, that people are far more likely to make purchases when prompted with even modest discounts. A recent RetailMeNot study showed the following shocking facts:
75% of Americans say they have made a purchase they weren't originally planning to make solely based on finding a coupon or discount
80% of Americans said they feel encouraged to make a first-time purchase with a brand that is new to them if they found an offer or discount
74% of Americans say offers are a top factor when deciding where and what to buy online
These numbers should be enough to shake up anybody who is not currently offering a discount code at the bottom of their funnel, but that’s not where it ends. In our campaigns we’ve noticed massive jumps in sales and ROAS when discount codes are added to the action stage. In fact, in some extreme cases we’ve seen ROAS as high as 1000X in campaigns that smartly combined top of funnel awareness, holiday-themed landing pages and a retargeting campaign of smart discounts to drive the deal home. With numbers like these you begin to see why we say thi is the number one mistake clients make when advertising in Q4.
Final thoughts
Q4 is an exciting and busy time to run a DTC brand. The holidays are some of the strongest drivers of sales of the years and smart marketers know that the iron is hot to drive home their end of year sales with effective digital advertising. With FieldTest you can quickly and easily Make this holiday season the best ever for your brand’s return on ad spend!