The art of selling a product, service or brand has been an integral part of man from inception. With time, man evolved and the majority of human activities and interaction started taking place on digital platforms (such as the internet), digital marketing inclusive. Thus, Digital marketing became the new oil.

At the moment, it (digital marketing) is to marketing what blood is to man. A lot of brands worldwide are taking advantage of the digital world in advertising their brand as everyone comes up with new strategies daily. However, for every successful digital marketing campaign, there are more failed ones. It doesn’t matter whether you’re Neil Patel or a newbie in the digital sphere, you must have asked yourself the question “Why is my ad still underperforming?” at some point in your career.

Many people settle for mediocrity in marketing because they feel they cannot get more than their current figures except they get in-depth training on the subject matter (digital marketing). The good news, however, is you don’t actually have to be proficient in the digital world to improve your KPIs. The best digital marketers (like the successful people in other spheres of life) differ from others based on just one fact. “The fact that they do what every other person can do but will not do”. But first, let’s talk about 5  reasons that cause your ads to underperform :

1. YOU APPEAR TOO SALESY

Most of the time, when you come across a marketing campaign on the internet (and other digital platforms) what you see is a picture (or set of pictures) with the caption “buy now”, as”Dm to place order ” caption or just any of those SALESY lines. Don’t get it mixed up, nobody is telling you not to advertise. However, what we are simply saying is that you should avoid appearing desperate to sell your product.
First, you need to understand that the human brain is wired (especially in this present generation) to naturally perceive anything that carries the message “buy” or “pay” as a scam. Therefore, you don’t want to risk your brand being perceived as such. Instead of going on digital platforms to tell people to purchase your product or service, why not tell them WHY THEY SHOULD PURCHASE YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE.

Put yourself in the shoes of your client, would you rather purchase a product from a brand that tells you to just buy or pay for their goods at the expense of one that tells you why you should purchase its product?
In other to get the best out of your marketing campaign, you need to master the art of “UTILITY MARKETING“.

2. WRONG TIMING

“Time is money“. This infamous saying is one that literally everyone in the world has heard of. Various scholars and experts have written many articles on the importance of timing. The importance of timing is one that cannot be overemphasized.
Imagine promoting a music festival campaign on a Monday morning (when everyone is struggling to get to work). Such a campaign will not generate as much impression as it ought to because most of the people you created it for being busy. You need to understand the time structure of your locality. For instance, in a country like Nigeria, people resonate best with content in the evening (precisely between the hours of 16:00 and 22:00) because, at that time, everyone is leaving work or getting ready to leave work. That means people are more likely to have less on their minds. For those of us that are still unconvinced about the importance of timing, here’s a simple experiment : Drop a content on your social media platform or social messaging platform (preferably Whatsapp) in the morning (preferably by 7:00 am) and get a screenshot of the number of views after the first hour and drop the same content (or something similar) in the evening (by 17:00) and screenshot the number of views after an hour and spot the gulf in impressions generated as a result of time.
Timing in the digital world does not only include your locality. This is because as a digital marketer, you should not expect to work only locally. You might be employed to work for an international brand, hence, you should be able to work in relation to the timezone of such a brand. You might even be a Nigerian brand with an American audience. For instance, a Nigerian digital marketer might be employed to work for an American brand. The timezone in Nigeria is different from the USA. You should not make the mistake of using Nigerian time to market for the American audience. You should learn to make the best use of timing. Remember, if digital marketing is the car that drives marketing to success, timing is the wheel.

3. YOU ARE TOO GENERIC

“Jack of all trade, master of none” is a saying that has been in existence since forever. Decade after decade, the importance of this infamous saying is still felt in all spheres of life.

The digital world is not left out of this.  One of the problems faced by many a marketer in marketing campaigns is the fact that they appear too GENERIC.

From the model of your business to your audience targeting, down to your marketing campaign, being generic cuts across every field in the digital world.

Instead of creating an Ad that is aimed at everyone, try as best as possible to aim at interested persons (or people who can resonate with your product).  As stated on digprom.net, it is better for your address to get to 2 interested people than to reach out to 2000 generic people.

4. YOUR AD IS TOO LENGTHY

You need to keep 2 things at the back of your mind every time you’re launching a marketing campaign(1-Nobody is online to view your Ads, 2- Our world is a distracted one).

When your ad is too lengthy, it can mar your marketing campaign as a whole.

This is because everyone on the internet is surrounded by distractions. Imagine missing out on potential clients because your client left your address to attend a snapchat notification.

When making use of advertisement content with the longer duration you are reducing the potency of such content.

Try as much as possible to make sure your contents are not too long and don’t forget to include the important rudiments of good content in the name of trying to shorten your content. Don’t just make your content short, make it short and concise.

5. Bad/poor content

“Great content is a pillar of digital marketing. A good content must be relevant and interesting” were the words of Ishola Kayode of digprom.net when quizzed on the importance of good content.

Most ads that underperform do so as a result of a deficiency in their content (bad content).  The need to learn and master the process of content strategies is as paramount as digital marketing itself.

How effective and efficient your content goes a long way in affecting your campaign success level.

Ads can perform very well if the following points are put in place.

• Think like your audience
• Ensure your content is interactive
• Your introduction is the most important part of your content
•  Make use of catchy titles
• Learn how to stir emotions with your content
• The art of storytelling is pivotal in making good contents
• Master the process of utility marketing

It is important to note that as a digital marketer, “good content is the heartbeat of all your activities“.

Conclusively, it is important to note that although advertising is an integral part of digital marketing, the above steps need to be followed in other to enhance advertisement success.