As part of a marketing team for various businesses, we often find ourselves in situations where we need to plan, direct, and manage a limited advertising budget across one or more ad channels: Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc., with the understanding that every single euro is of value for the business.

Often, we might also encounter situations where the marketing team's clients have different expectations regarding the results and budget return, as well as the main campaign goals. However, the problem isn't always in the settings or the chosen platform.

If you have ever heard or reported unsatisfactory results from online advertising campaigns, the following few tips will be beneficial for you:

Think again: Do you want to pay for impressions and traffic?

These goals are completely justified when you want to build brand awareness for your business and reach the largest possible number of people who will learn about your offers.

The Problem: Very often, the client expects sales, but both parties have to settle for impressions and traffic as the only significant achievement from the campaigns.

Possible Reasons: In most cases, an increased advertising budget can bring you more traffic and impressions, but not necessarily sales. If you successfully bring users organically or from ads to the product page, but they don't convert, you should ask yourself:

• Is your value proposition convincing, and does it convey the right message?
• How does the landing page, where the conversion should happen, look and function?
• Is your advertising being correctly targeted and optimized over time, and is it suitable for the decision-making stage each user is in?

Don't get carried away with quantity at the expense of quality content

AI tools are indeed changing classic approaches in content marketing, but not always in a positive direction. It's remarkable how much content is flooding the web due to the ability of anyone to easily and quickly generate text, images, video, or podcasts.

The Problem: Nobody needs more and more content. The classic rule of fewer but higher-quality formats with real added value works even better today, when businesses are dedicating resources on daily content generation and publishing, even when they have nothing to say.

How to Change Your Approach: Create less, but in-depth and useful content that users, not search engines and algorithms, would appreciate and recognize. This will also positively impact the budget you invest in marketing and advertising activities.

Align marketing and sales goals in advance

"Marketing is not selling enough" and "salespeople are not closing their deals." If you have had these conversations in your company, or if within your business are competing rather than partnering, pay attention to this point.

The Problem: Without synergy and common goals, each of the two functions believes it has done what's necessary and blames the other for business results. Through a marketing campaign, you can provide enough visibility for your business and attract interest in your products and services. What happens, however, if you have attracted the wrong people or the sales team doesn't know how to work with them?

The Necessary Solution: The two teams must have a common, agreed-upon goal and scope of responsibilities. Define what a "qualified lead" means to draw a clear line: when marketing has truly done its job, and when the salesperson is responsible for closing the deal.

Don't chase all the "trends."

"Everyone is making reel videos, except for us."

"Let's try TikTok ads as soon as they are launched."

"How can we work with influencers?"

"Why aren't we writing even more content with ChatGPT?"

"Can we do without a designer now?"

"Let's publish every day, maybe even twice a day."

Have you had these conversations within your team or with clients? We have gone through many similar ones in just a few weeks over the past 2-3 years. And yes, exactly the companies that wanted to test everything without a clear strategy and focus wasted the largest part of their (un)planned budget for content, marketing, and advertising.

The Problem: The "next big thing" in digital marketing is different every few months. If the marketing team or the business loses focus on its strategy and budget, it is very likely that the results at the end of the period will be unsatisfactory.

Our Message: An influencer video is not "marketing." An Instagram reel is not "marketing." We don't have to do them just because many others do. Not if they aren't part of your strategy and you don't have an answer for how they make a product, service, or idea marketable, what their place is in the communication strategy and marketing plan, and how to measure their results. Test wisely and apply everything that is current, but can also bring measurable benefits with a better return for your business. This is digital marketing – meaningfully marketing your product with the help of digital tools and technologies.

We mentioned marketing strategy. Where is yours?

We are transparent enough with clients that, without a clear and documented action plan, many campaigns are simply "spending some money." Of course, we can help you spend it in the best way, but that's not the point if we aim for a sustainable approach.

The Problem: Businesses often turn to the marketing team when they already believe they have correctly defined what, to whom, and how they sell, with confidence that they are addressing the right market, with the right channel, and that there can be no objections to their offer. Then they delegate the execution of various campaigns to the marketing team. Sounds familiar? The business has performed 90% of the strategic role of the marketing function but holds it responsible for 100% of the final result.

Our Message: Turn to your marketing team or agency even when you are gathering ideas and planning your new offers, promotions, or products. Modern marketing tools are not just for advertising, but also for quickly validating and rejecting ideas, conducting research, and making data-driven decisions. And this can save you huge budgets, effort, and time.

Your marketing team knows the market; they can suggest whether something is in demand and, if so, how that demand can lead directly to you in the most effective way. If you work with a marketing strategy, you will have clarity and visibility, a distribution of responsibilities, as well as realistic performance metrics even before you start and spend serious budgets on tests and "feeling out" the market.

If you're reading these last lines, you probably already have an idea of the approach and way of working that DGTalents applies to all projects with a vision for long-term partnership. You can contact us if you recognize your own vision for the role and responsibilities of the marketing team in your business in the above mentioned questions, responses, and solutions.