Although we have slowly adjusted ourselves to the new normal of wearing masks, sanitizing ourselves regularly, and maintaining social distancing, but the fact remains that our lives have dramatically changed this year. The COVID-19 pandemic is a viral threat to our livelihoods and also our businesses, with everything locked down. Even today, there are so many businesses that are still locked down even after the slow unlocking of the restrictions. And even those that have opened up aren’t faring really well. While some businesses are merely trying to get their incomes meet their expenses, others have been more heavily affected. Moreover, every business is now trying to go online because of the social distancing norms and work-from-home preferences. This is why all businesses should re-evaluate their planned budgets for paid search and other paid digital campaigns, because no one knows how far this pandemic will go and when it will subside.
You may have had different priorities when you entered 2020, but all of that has changed now. Measure up on how significantly the pandemic has affected those priorities, and how you have shifted to different changes because of the crisis that we are going through. Also identify the most important business goals you want to achieve now in the midst of the crisis that we are in. Check up on all of this and you’ll be creating a more stable plan for your paid digital advertising campaigns. Above all, do you wish to drive sufficient sales volume even if that means lesser profits, or do you wish to maintain your profit margin even if that means losing out on sales volume? There’s only one option you can choose from the two.
If you want to focus on sales volume…
If your goal is to focus on sales volume rather than bigger profits, you’ll have to pay close attention to the last few months to identify things that have started returning to a more normal outlook with regards to businesses reopening. This may include your website traffic, bounce rate, sales, and conversions. There may be some things that can be seen on all the business verticals, while others may have increased or decreased in only certain channels. You also need to check how your ad spend volume has changed with these changes. Take into account all of this, and seasonality too, and plan out the number of sales and conversions you want to see, and the revenue you want to acquire every month from now on. Planning out on all of this, and accounting your cost per conversion and return on ad spend can help you identify the money you’re going to need to spend to meet these targets. Also, you can determine if this new budget can help you meet your ultimate goals. If the potential growth is too low, you’ll need to revise your sales volume targets. Then, your opportunity for growth will lie in high-funnel channels like digital video ads, media buying, and programmatic advertising, which can help you reach more potential new customers.
If you want to focus on profit margins…
If your goal is to focus on your profit margin rather than the sales volume, you’ll again have to pay close attention to the same last few months to identify things that have started returning to a more normal outlook. Then, taking all of this into account, along with seasonality, you need to forecast what your campaign budget should be by month or week, depending upon your desired return on investment and return on ad spend. Here, instead of adjusting your budget to hit desired sales volumes, you’ll have to in fact cut your budgets down, or keep on hold certain campaigns that aren’t profitable as of now, as changes in conversion costs and demand have negatively impacted your trends. Then, rake this cut down budget and reinvest any potential remaining funds into other channels or savings. This opportunity will likely result in less overall revenue and return for your business as a whole.
In spite of the advice we’ve given above, we are still in the early stages of uncertainty, where we don’t know how and where we’re going to land in the future, as the economic circumstances are still going to change further. You may have to do a lot of re-forecasting time and again this year and next year, depending upon the fluctuations in economic circumstances we’ll be experiencing from time to time. It is thus wise to invest in professional digital marketing services in Bangalore, who can help you will all sorts of re-forecastings you’ll require this year and the next. A one-time investment can help you save on lots of stress in the future!
