Have you ever hired or been interested in hiring an ad manager/media buyer?
It’s a big step for a lot of businesses. As I talk to people about it, they are usually nervous about the costs involved. When they get going, they have a scarcity mentality and want to pull the plug before getting any data.
Others have hired people in the past and haven’t had any success, likely because of what is written above.
So, the question is: what should you expect?
Hiring a professional is a good idea because the platforms are constantly changing.
Ad platform rules are changing, features, targeting options, and best practices.
Having said that, the basic principles of buying ads remain the same.
There are many details to a successful campaign that can be too much for a business owner to handle while running their business. You’re better off focusing on the more valuable tasks only you as the owner or operator can do.
What to expect
Advertising is not instant.
Sometimes you will get quick and great results; however, like most things, it will almost always take time and work.
Generally, we work in three phases
- Test – Start with our best assumptions driven by research and experience to find controls
- Validate – Make sure our new controls will hold over time
- Scale – Increase the budget and continue testing to find new controls
These stages are continuous. Usually, they will run for a month each.
So, when you are hiring someone to manage your ads, you should expect to stay with it for at least three months before starting to worry or question whether things are working.
It’s all about testing and tracking. Advertising is a scientific process. There’s even a great book titled Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins which I highly recommend.
Budget
The length of time in each phase is ultimately determined by the budget.
How much are you willing to spend in each phase to gather the data?
Spend = Data; Data = Results
Generally, for my clients. I recommend a minimum budget of $200/day. That’s inclusive of management fees
For a few reasons.
- The lower the budget, the more time it all takes. The more time, the more it will cost when factoring in the fixed fees. It’s in your best interest to gather data quickly so we can quickly get great results.
- …that may be the main and only reason
This assumes you are doing Direct Response advertising where you want someone to take an action that directly correlates with getting your prospects to pull out their cards and buy from you.
Which is what I specialize in.
We’ve managed over $2M in spend for our clients and have a lot of experience testing to winners. If you want some help with your ad campaigns, we can set up a time to chat — review what you are doing and your objectives. I may be able to help you take your business to the next level.