It was 2016.
My first marketing job.
The ad agency I worked at consisted of four people and a tiny wooden office in the founder’s back yard.
I was still studying code at university, and had no idea what to do with my life. The first few months were rough: I managed Google Ad campaigns (”Adwords” at the time) for some catering clients, struggled to make sense of everything, and feared for my job more often than not.
Ten years later, I realized marketing is much simpler than I thought.
Here are the most important lessons I’ve learned:
- Direct beats creative - Direct ads cut through the noise online. Creative ads usually mean you risk being vague—unless you’re very skilled—and even then, the ads that work best for generating leads and appointments are direct ones.
- Call out your target client - This could be the make or break of an ad. Speak directly to your prospect and put their name (financial advisors, investors, etc.) either on your ad creative or in the first line of the copy.
- Great campaigns start with research- If you don’t know your target client, you’ll burn your budget. Your goal is to know your client like their therapist would—and empathize with them through the problem they experience, the reasons it happens, the negative consequences, and what they’ve tried before.
- Simple graphic ads sell just as well as videos - You don’t need fancy videos to sell online. Graphics ads sell. Articulate your client’s problem and desired outcomes in their language—and your ads will convert.
- Test small, then invest big - Running ads at $50-$80/day for a week lets you know if your message and offer resonate. Start with simple graphic ads, not videos, and don’t use a landing page just yet. Build those only after you successfully get traction with a lead form or a DM campaign.
- Marketing content must be refreshed over time - Even great ads get fatigued, and that’s natural. Your research should provide various marketing angles to rely on.
- If no one engages with your ad - either your message doesn’t resonate, or the prospect isn’t even on that platform to begin with. The answer is never something more complicated than that.
- People buy their way out of problems - Your ads shouldn’t talk about your product or your company. They should address your client’s problem and present a better way of solving it. What moves the economy is self-interest, not self-promotion.
- You can land a client with a small daily budget - The only downside is, it’s going to take more time. If money is tight, rely on research. Use the Meta Ad Library to see what works in your niche and build on that.
- Your message attracts a specific client - Your hook, video lighting and creativity won’t matter unless you’ve found a message-to-market fit. Otherwise, even if your ads get leads and appointments, prospects won’t be qualified and sales will be a struggle.
Technology will keep changing forever, but marketing psychology is based on human nature.
They key to great marketing is knowing your target audience like the back of your foot.
Take care :)