Reaching the masses has never been easier – or has it? Nothing in life stays stagnant, including marketing. For this reason, the path to your goals may be more twisted and winding than a straight line from point A to point B. This is why your marketing partner should keep a close eye on your campaigns. Read on to see how and why the strategy team at Citro adjusts our marketing tactics throughout the digital advertising process.

Why You Should Never “Set it and Forget it” 

Ad monitoring isn’t just a light suggestion, it’s paramount to the success of your campaigns. By monitoring your campaigns, you’ll gain advanced insight into understanding your audience’s behaviors and create higher effectiveness on various ad platforms. If you publish your ads and never blink an eye at them for months, you’re risking losing the retention of your audience against competitors who are on top of their ad monitoring game. Think of marketing as a science, similar to baking. Incorrect measurements of ingredients, even slightly, can negatively affect the outcome of any tasty dessert. The same can be said for campaigns. Desserts don’t bake themselves, and campaigns can’t control their success without the consideration of important key factors.

Four Factors for a Successful Campaign

Simply put, a successful campaign is one which helps effectively advertise your brand and reach defined goals over time. Your ROI includes not only the obvious (sales, click-throughs, etc.) but also brand recognition, retention, and results which meet or exceed your originally outlined objectives. The main factors which impact the success of your campaign are:

• Timing
• Creativity
• Budget
• Platform

Timing is a two-part factor for your digital campaigns. The first part of timing refers to the seasonal effects and trends in the digital landscape. Timing which may work well for a Facebook ad may not be the best for advertising on AdWords, and vice versa. Some advertisers will also pause campaigns during slow seasons, but according to various sources, consistent marketing will help yield the best results.

The second part of timing refers to the length of your campaign and how often you analyze and optimize. Significant optimizations are best after six month periods so you give your creative enough time to run and develop predicted trends. This takes patience and the ability to trust the process, as successful campaigns don’t happen overnight (though we wish they did).


Creativity may very well be considered the “meat” of your campaign (or cake, if we’re still using the baking comparison). Regardless of the platform you’re advertising on, the creative is what catches the attention of users – nothing else. The user doesn’t know your budget, your goals, and may very well not even know your brand (yet). What they do know is the message and visuals you’ve chosen to show them as a first impression. You wouldn’t try to catch a fish by offering it a gummy worm, and in a similar sense, you need to know the correct creative “bait” to lure in as many users as possible.


 

Budget is a beast we all must conquer, and deciding on an appropriate budget is easier said than done. Unfortunately, there is no “one size fits all” budget in the world of advertising. Instead, you should make an informed decision when allocating cross-channel. A bigger budget in a short amount of time does not necessarily mean peak performance. Instead, we recommend aiming for the longevity of the campaign, similar to how you take care of your body early in life for a healthier, happier future in old age. There are also multiple pricing models and targeting goals you can consider investing in, and we’re here to help you decipher which would be the most effective based on your end goals.

It’s key not only to set your budget based on your priorities in the beginning of your campaign, but also knowing when to raise or lower your budget. Some examples of times which may benefit from a budget change include:

• New products or service offerings
• Time-sensitive and promotions
• Holiday sales periods

Platforms How does one decide when there are so many? There is a rapidly growing plethora of digital advertising platforms out there. It’s vital that you choose the best ones for your business and not waste unnecessary time or budget. Some of the most popular platforms right now include:

• Google AdWords
• Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Ads
• LinkedIn Ads
• YouTube Ads
• Amazon Ads
• TikTok Ads

The main factor which should influence your platform preferences is the type of ad you’d like to run. If you want to increase relationships with your existing, interested audience, retargeting ads will be your best friend. If you’d prefer to go with a PPC (pay-per-click) approach and reach a new audience, you may want to rely on social media channels and search page results.

The effectiveness of digital campaigns depends on a variety of moving factors. If you take each of these factors into deep consideration and work together with your marketing team, you can develop the best recipe for success and reach your digital marketing goals. If you want to increase your visibility, sales, brand awareness, or if you just need a boost in ad creativity, contact Citro today – we’re here and happy to help!