In order to see the ROI you want from your advertising efforts, you must create a strategic budget: one that has your goals and desired end results in mind. Without an effective advertising budget, you may find yourself unable to meet your advertising goals or failing to see the return you ultimately want on that investment. Small businesses, in particular, often struggle to create an advertising budget in line with their goals. With these tips, however, you can create a more effective advertising budget that will include your goals and deliver results.
Analyze Your Competition
The first step in creating an effective advertising budget is analyzing your competition. You want to know what they're doing and what kinds of results they get from their efforts. Carefully consider where they advertise: the platforms they use on a regular basis, whether they implement omnichannel marketing, and what keywords they focus on. Evaluate whether your competitors produce simple ads or have a substantial focus on producing ads of higher quality.
You want to be an industry leader. That means knowing the industry trends and using that knowledge to your advantage. When you know what your competitors do and how it influences their efforts, you can create an advertising budget that allows you to stand out from the crowd. Ignoring your competitors and what they do can leave you struggling to keep up with the latest advertising trends in your industry, which may lead to missing out on critical advertising opportunities.
Use an Objective-Based Method
In order to create an effective advertising budget, use an objective-based method. Consider your objective and goals for your ads before constructing your budget. Simply advertising seasonal sales and promotions, for example, may leave you with a different set of goals than if you want to advertise more consistently. Also consider whether you want to increase sales, drive traffic, or simply increase awareness about a specific deal or promotion, or awareness of your brand in general. Your goals will depend on the objectives and goals you have for your marketing.
When you set your budget with your goals in mind, you can allocate funds to make them happen. This objective-based approach can go a long way toward improving your ability to reach your marketing goals. Different goals require different marketing budgets, so going into your budget planning with set goals will help to allocate your funds properly for the most success.
Consider Your Target Audience and Their Habits
Your brand should have a solid understanding of your target audience. You need to know where they are, when they watch TV or go online, and what platforms they use most frequently. You should also evaluate the types of ads that do best with them. Consider whether you will need to invest more in long-form digital ads and commercials or if your target audience gets intrigued more easily by static social posts and email marketing. These simple factors can have a huge impact on the way you ultimately engage with consumers--and how you set your marketing budget.
Understand Your Timeline
Your timeline for your ads can make a big difference in the creation of your budget. The longer the campaigns run, the more you can expect it to cost. Consider whether it covers a single ad, if it's part of a campaign, or if you want to advertise year-round. Make sure you know how many times you want your ad to run, how often it will run, and when it will run. The frequency, time, and platform in which you run your ads will play a key role in the creation of your budget. During prime spots, you can expect to pay higher fees than you would during other periods. Make sure that you take these factors into account when deciding on how to allocate your budget.
Take Into Account the Cost and Potential ROI of Each Medium
Before setting your advertising budget, carefully consider what it will take to produce and execute a campaign on each specific medium, as well as the potential ROI for the platform. You may discover that you are better off allocating the money to another platform, depending on your goals and the outcome that you desire. Focusing on fewer platforms, especially the ones your audience uses most often, can help you make the most of your marketing dollars.
Instead of deciding what you have to spend on marketing, then using that budget to inform your marketing decisions, start by understanding your marketing goals and what you plan to accomplish with each campaign. Then, carefully study your available options and design a campaign accordingly. Make sure you know how much return you can expect on your investment ahead of time. With these simple steps, you can design a marketing budget that will incorporate your television commercials, digital marketing, and other elements of your marketing campaign without falling short of your goals and expectations.
