10 Common Marketing Budgeting Mistakes and How to Fix Them

How to Stop Wasting Millions on Digital Advertising?

According to the most recent Next & Co. Digital Media Wastage Report, advertisers continued to waste their digital ad spend in the April to June 2022 quarter, squandering more than $94.3 million despite increased advertising budgets post-pandemic.

The amount of digital ad waste, which averages 41% of audited spending, is a little less than the data from the previous quarter, which showed a $134.4 million amount of digital ad waste from January to March 2022. In its most recent research, Next & Co. examined 41 businesses with digital ad budgets ranging from $500,000 to $31 million, including ASX-listed, global, national, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

How much different industries waste on digital advertising?

When it comes to ad impressions, or the number of times an audience sees an online advertisement, the consumer-packaged goods industry performed the poorest, with only 42% of campaigns reaching the target demographic.

With only 45% of their intended audience being reached, automobile advertisements likewise performed poorly, falling behind those for computers and gadgets, shopping, and retail (both 49%). Travel is the industry that wasted the least on digital ads, with 65% of internet advertisements reaching the target audience.

How does audience age affect ad views?

54% of advertising from campaigns targeting persons between the ages of 35 and 64 were more likely to be seen by the target audience than those targeting younger people. They saw 44% of online advertising campaigns targeted at people between the ages of 18 and 34.

How to solve the problem of digital ad waste?

To stop wasting millions on digital advertising, it’s important to develop a strategy that’s based on market benchmarks. Here are some steps you can take:

1. Define your objectives
2. Identify your target audience
3. Analyze your competitors
4. Develop a budget
5. Set benchmarks
6. Monitor and adjust

By following these steps and implementing a strategy based on market benchmarks, you can optimize your digital advertising efforts and stop wasting millions of dollars on ineffective campaigns. There is also a possibility to build a go-to-market strategy with the help of CheckMedia automated service that assists with validating your go-to-market strategy. The service requires you to answer five questions about your go-to-market plan, and then provides an answer to the crucial question of whether you have sufficient marketing budget to execute your strategy.

Don’t rely on VCR (Video Completion Rate)

Internet advertising sector has significantly grown since the pandemic, and outstream video formats have received a lot of investment. The primary KPI that brands use to evaluate such campaign performance is the VCR, but it is a misleading KPI. For instance, when a user activates an ad on a mobile device, they can just keep scrolling down the page, which means that the video may be half or completely playing off-screen.

So, could a fully on-screen rate for a 50% timeframe be the answer? This metric displays the proportion of impressions where all visible pixels are visible for at least 50% of the video. The advantage is that third-party measurers make it readily accessible. As a result, the industry can use this statistic reliably and simply. It should become the industry standard for all players in online advertising, regardless of their partners or ad networks, as it is the only reliable means to assess the effectiveness of marketers’ video campaigns.

Viewable does not equate to seen

The question of whether consumers are genuinely viewing the advertisement that firms spend so much money on is the following issue. One of the earliest metrics in digital advertising, “viewability,” measures the likelihood that an advertisement would be noticed. The problem with this is that “viewable” does not necessarily imply “viewed,” therefore there is no way to know whether the advertisement was truly seen or whether it attracted the user’s attention.The answer here might be entirely on-screen ad formats. Brands should think about using ad formats that are 100% on-screen for the duration of the video ad to attract attention. Their lack of intrusion gives the user more power because they are simple to close if they are not appealing. If they continue to watch, research reveals that these formats have a 5x greater impact on mobile and produce 36% more brand memory.

Use an advanced marketing analytics tool

In addition to finding a reliable KPI to monitor the effectiveness of a certain digital channel, you might also want to look at a bigger picture and analyze the performance of all the channels in your media mix. With enough historical data and the right solution, you can find out what channels actually generate new paying customers and which are only wasting your marketing budget. The right tool will also tell you when to stop because spending more, even on a well performing channel, does not guarantee better results if it is already saturated with investments. To make sure your media budget is allocated in the most efficient way check out these three AI-based analytics tools and choose the one that is best for your needs.

Use ChatGPT to avoid budget waste

Here are a few tasks that GPT-4 can be useful at when the aim is to avoid wasting millions on digital advertising:

1. More accurate targeting: GPT-4 can analyze large amounts of data to give businesses a clearer view of their target audience interests and behaviors. As a result, companies can create more personalized and effective ads that resonate with their intended customers.
2. Improved ad copy: GPT-4 could be used to generate more effective ad copy that is both attention-grabbing and persuasive. It can generate ad copy that is more likely to convert potential customers.
3. Smarter bidding: By analyzing real-time data and identifying patterns, GPT-4 could help businesses make more informed decisions when it comes to bidding on ad space. This could help businesses optimize their spend and avoid wasting money on ineffective ads.
4. Better content creation: GPT-4 could be used to generate high-quality content that resonates with their clients. This could help businesses create more engaging content that attracts potential customers, rather than relying solely on paid advertising.

Overall, GPT-4 could help businesses avoid wasting millions on digital advertising by providing more personalized and effective ad campaigns, optimizing ad spend, and creating better content.