Almost any marketer or online business owner should know how to run online ads like a pro. (Or learn how to run Facebook ads, Twitter Ads, Google Ads, or Reddit Ads like a pro.) Unfortunately, many do not know the most important factors that determine the success of an ad.
In other words, many marketers or online business owners do not know what to give the most attention to.
The truth is that there are so many factors that influence a successful ad campaign, so it is very easy to get carried away.
But never mind. This post is meant to guide you on how to run online ads like a pro even if you have zero experience. In essence, you will get to discover the most important factors to prioritize when running online ads. These factors will be highlighted in order of their percentage impact on success.
Before going further, you should know a little about me. My name is Stephen and I’ve been running ads professionally since 2017.
I’ve had the privilege of working with 2 multinational companies.
Enough said. Let’s find out how to run online ads like a pro.
Please understand that these methods are very much applicable to Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, Reddit Ads, Google Ads, Quora Ads, LinkedIn Ads, or any other type of online advertisement.
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Contents
Factors That Determine Success of an Ad vs Their % Contribution to Success
| Factors that determine the success of an ad | % Contribution to Success |
|---|---|
| Understanding The Platform and Its Algorithm | 15% |
| Targeting | 45% |
| Budget | 12% |
| Optimization | 18% |
| Measuring and Interpreting ROI | 5% |
| Copy | 3% |
| Creatives (media) | 2% |
Understanding The Platform and Its Algorithm
The first (but not the most important) factor that can influence the success or failure of your digital ad campaign is your understanding of the platform where you want to run the ad.
There are two sides to this:
1. Front End: How people engage and interact on the platform
Before running ads on any platform, you should understand how people use the platform in the first place.
For example, before running ads on Facebook you should be using Facebook.
You’ll have a better understanding of what content people engage with the most. The same principle should apply to other platforms like Twitter, Quora, LinkedIn, Google Ad, etc.
Hint: For Google ads, how you interact with ads when surfing a webpage or app is the important factor here.
2. Backend: How The Ad Manager or Algorithm of the platform works
If you do not understand how to use the Ad software of a platform, you can’t really expect a successful ad campaign. You need to understand at least the basics of how to do things.
For example, if you do not know how to create Ad sets on the Facebook Ads manager, you can’t really have a successful ad campaign.
Another important thing here is the Algorithm. Listen, you need to really understand the basics of how the Ad Algorithm works to create an effective ad that the Algorithm would love. It will save you a lot of money.
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Targeting (Audience)
The most important factor that influences the success or failure of an ad campaign is targeting. Yes, you read that right – TARGETING.
While other factors are important but let’s assume you got everything right and you are targeting the wrong people, your ad campaign will never be successful.
Or if you are targeting a very broad audience with no specific intent, Ad campaigns would still fall flat.
The success of an ad campaign is when the right message is getting to the right people who need it badly.
If you are on road to knowing how to run online ads like a pro, you need to keep this in mind.
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Copy
Depending on the platform you are advertising on, sometimes the copy comes before the creatives (Like on Facebook), while on other platforms (like Instagram), the creative gets your attention first.
Whatever the case, your copy is very important.
Sometimes, even when your creatives are not so attractive, your copy could convince someone to click on an Ad.
Read Also: How To Write Seo Friendly Article With Google Docs [Beginners’ Guide]
Hint: Copies are the written texts in an Ad that sells a product or service.
Budget
The budget you are allocating to your Ad campaign is one of the most crucial factors that determine the success of an Ad. At the testing stage of your ad campaign, allocating a small budget is usually the wise thing to do.
However, if your budget is too small, you are limiting the algorithm from working optimally and thereby leading to a non-profitable ad campaign.
Also, it is important to mention that your budget average determines the proportion of your ROI. Top professionals who know how to run online ads set ad budgets with wisdom at the campaign level and Ad set level.
Hint: ROI means Return on Investment on your ads – how much profit you are making from your Ad. In some cases, it is referred to as ROAS: Return On Ads Spent.
Media (Creatives)
To be honest, the creatives or media of an ad can either turn you off or grab your attention. So, it is always wise to invest a token in an attention-grabbing creative.
It doesn’t even have to be too attractive or expensive. As long the creatives are very clear without being disruptive, you are good to go.
The creatives could be in form of static banners, GIFs, or videos. It is always a good practice to test each of these types of creatives at the ad set or ads level.
If you want to run online ads like a pro, use varieties of creatives.
Hint: Although creatives are important, they are not the most important. I’ve seen some not-too-beautiful creatives on some very profitable ads. If the content of your product or service is exactly what I need, I’ll likely click the link in the ad. Creatives are meant to create the first attraction but your offer or product will eventually be the killer.
Measuring and Interpreting ROI
This may sound straightforward but it is not. It is beyond just knowing the number of Impressions or Reach.
For every Campaign, there should be a goal. Although there are so many metrics available to you, make judgments with the ones closest to the set goal.
If you have an e-commerce store for example and your set goal is to sell. Your most important metric in an Ad is not Reach or Impression.
The Ad or Ad Set that sells more with the lowest CPS (Cost per Sale) is the most profitable ad.
If your Ad Campaign goal is to get leads, your best metric is which Ad gets you the highest numbers of leads at the cheapest rate.
Whatever your goal is, you need to know how to interpret and measure them well so you can optimize them appropriately. That brings us to the next point…
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Optimization
What is optimization or in this case Ads optimization or scaling? It simply means the process of improving your ads over time for better profitability.
Let’s say you start your Ad campaign with an overall campaign budget of $50 per day.
Over time, you may need to turn off non-profitable ad sets, gradually increase your budget, add more creatives, etc. All of these are ways to optimize or scale your ads.
To better understand optimization, I suggest that you read about ABO and CBO in Facebook Ads.
Hint: Top professionals don’t do “set it and forget it” for Ads Campaign. This is why optimization is very important for the success of any Ad campaign, especially long-term or recurrent ones.
