How Paid Media Can be Used as a Driver for Business Development
When should organizations use paid media, and how do you get the most value out of paid ads? Host Tiffany Rafii is joined by UpSpring’s paid media strategists, Taylor Noffsinger and Maggie Austin, to discuss effective paid media strategies, how paid media and SEO work together, and why continuous monitoring is essential. Tune in to learn how to better understand and implement paid media for your business.
The Design Board, by UpSpring, is a proud member of SANDOW Design Group's SURROUND Podcast Network, home to the architecture and design industry’s premier shows.
Episode Transcript:
Tiffany Rafii:
Welcome, everyone. We're excited to kick off an episode of the Design Board today. The Design Board is a podcast by UpSpring that focuses on design, development, and everything in between. We host innovators in our industry and explore topics that support your growth in every way.
Today we're going to dive into learning all about paid media in the AEC industry and understanding how it can be applied as both a marketing and sales tool. We have with us today Taylor Noffsinger and Maggie Austin.
Taylor is a paid media strategist here at UpSpring, and Maggie is a paid media coordinator. The duo lead are paid media and digital strategy for ads. They handle our B2B and B2C clients within the architecture design, education, and technology industries.
Today we're going to chat about paid media and the AEC industry, and how that can be used as a sales and marketing tool. Before we get into the details, what is paid media or digital advertising?
Taylor Noffsinger:
Yeah. So paid media, digital advertising, it's in the name. You're just paying for it versus earning it. These are going to be the ads that you see when you Google something. It's the first top two promoted or the ads you're scrolling through your Instagram feed or even the annoying ads that seem to follow you around and you don't know where they came from or why they're there, and it's all a little bit creepy.
Tiffany Rafii:
What are the different platforms that should be considered for digital ads? Is there a difference between B2C and B2B ads?
Taylor Noffsinger:
Yeah, so there's a lot out there and it's going to be different across both industries, all different kinds of sectors. So some top platforms that we always consider are Google Ads. Some people even work with Microsoft Ads, Bing Ads, and then social media platforms, so Meta, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. They all have ads available.
The main differences we're looking at for B2B and B2C are they're just different audiences with different goals. B2C are often focusing on direct sales, while B2B might be focusing on leads, and even different hierarchies of leads. And that can also have a bit of a longer life cycle.
Tiffany Rafii:
That's really helpful, Taylor. So, product companies are more likely familiar with paid media. Should architecture and design and real estate firms also consider digital ads as part of their marketing or sales initiatives?
Taylor Noffsinger:
Yes, and that might be a surprising answer for a lot of architecture and design firms out there. I know it can have been seen as maybe taboo to run paid ads in the past. It may not align with the brands.
But at this point, more and more architects and designers are running ads. And those people are now your competition. They are getting in front of so many people every day and running these paid ads is just giving your company a chance at brand awareness and a chance to display your work as you want to.
You're totally in control of how your audience sees you.
Tiffany Rafii:
That totally makes sense. I think, also from my perspective, how often are you looking for things up on your phone and clicking on the first thing that comes up? And so, just making sure you're positioned.
And I also know, no secret Taylor and Maggie run paid media for UpSpring, of course, so even just being a client of theirs and having our UpSpring brand in their hands, I have seen just such an ability to hyper-target and be so specific about where we are and how we are perceived that it's something I might have never considered, but have seen incredible value in.
Speaking of value, what value do paid ads bring? How can they be viewed? How is that spend even assessed as being successful or not? Where is that ROI?
Taylor Noffsinger:
Yeah, so at the highest level, you're getting so much reach. It's kind of the equivalent of throwing up a billboard and you just get so many eyes on it. But like you said, you do have that control. So getting more into it, you can focus on your specific goals. Are you a new brand? Are you launching a new product and you just want brand awareness? Are you trying to bring in leads? Are you trying to drive sales? Are you just trying to drive higher engagement and website traffic?
You also have the ability to reach specific demographic and geographic locations so you can deliver your messages to a very targeted audience and deliver different ad types and different content to different people in your audience.
Tiffany Rafii:
So let's say we're convinced and it's time to run a paid ad strategy. How would an organization, whether it be a product manufacturing company, building products, B2C product, a firm, or even a prop tech or real estate company, go about developing a paid ad strategy?
Taylor Noffsinger:
Yes, so I think the first thing you want to look at before running ads is looking at your current marketing program. Are you ready to support that kind of growth? If you're bringing in leads, do you have organic social strategy? Do you have an email going out? Is your website going to be able to support leads that you're bringing in from ads?
The second thing is I think just really looking at your target audience. Who are they? How are you going to solve their problem? What platforms are they active on? So finding where your audience is and what message you want to send them.
Then strategizing based on your company goals. How much growth are you hoping to achieve?
And the lastly just what are your competitors doing? Are they doing it effectively? Are they doing it ineffectively? Where are they running ads? Where can you meet them and compete against them?
Tiffany Rafii:
How would someone assess that competitor set? How do you take the opportunity to know and understand what others in your orbit are doing so that you can develop a strategy that stays a step ahead and differentiates you?
Taylor Noffsinger:
Yeah, so there's a plethora of tools available. We use one called Semrush. We also use what these platforms have available on them. So Facebook has a page transparency tool, which is, of course, good for consumers to understand who's advertising. But it's also good for us because we're able to go into a competitor's Facebook page, see what ads they're running. We can do that on LinkedIn, as well.
And then for Google search, there's a tool within Google where you can see what the competition is for each individual keyword, or you could use Semrush to see what kind of keywords your competitors are putting money towards.
Tiffany Rafii:
No, that absolutely makes sense. Okay, so we decided we're going to run paid ads, and we've gone ahead and taken a look at the competitive set. We've developed our strategy.
Maggie, what are all the vital components of that effective ad? Because now we need to send something out into the world.
Maggie Austin:
Yeah, absolutely. There's definitely multiple different elements that feed into each other to make an effective ad. And the first of which would be to make sure that your ad has good branding. Ensuring not only are the visual elements and the overall appearance cohesive, but how, as Taylor mentioned, how can you make your brand stand out from the noise and really draw that attention?
Additionally, you always want to make sure you have great copy that is in alignment with your brand's voice and filled with specific value propositions that are catering directly to the audience that you're trying to speak to. And speaking right towards that as well. Knowing the right targeting... As Taylor mentioned, what is your audience's problem? So if you know their problems, you know how to become the solution. So really making sure that this is worked into the messaging.
And additionally, always making sure you have a solid call to action, whether it be for instance, shop now or learn more or requested a demo. Always try to give your viewers a clear path forwards.
And then lastly, I would say that landing page experience also plays a role in an effective ad, because you're sending these viewers who click on your ads to a certain page on your website. And does this page contain what they were looking for? And does it give them more information? So really, the summation of all these things can make a really effective top-notch ad that will set you apart from competition.
Taylor Noffsinger:
I think you also want to think about, you can have the best branding and the best copy, but making sure the ad just looks really good. I've seen so many ads on Instagram where it's clear that the sizing wasn't right and it's cut off. Or the image is so dark that you can't see the copy.
You are standing out from thousands of brands running ads for the same types of services on the same platform. So really, making sure that it just looks like you know what you're doing.
Tiffany Rafii:
No, that absolutely makes sense. From the perspective of budget, I think any company or person hears advertising and you're like, oh, no. That's really going to run deep.
How do you even begin to assess what a budget might look like?
Maggie Austin:
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of things that go into establishing that budget. And I know it can be a bit overwhelming, so I think just boiling it down to a few different elements.
For instance, first off, we always recommend to determine the value of a lead. How much are you willing to spend on your paid ads? And then what is the return that you want on your ad spend? So, calculating an informed target cost per lead, and then piggybacking off of that, ensuring that that level of ad spend makes that an attainable goal.
And also you want to think about your audience. How many people do you want to reach? Of course, if you are wanting to reach a much wider, cast of wider net, have high reach, of course you might have to go with a higher budget.
Also, understanding the typical costs per platform. For instance, LinkedIn tends to have higher costs per click and cost associated with the platform overall. But the B2B leads on LinkedIn can be more qualified just due to the nature of the platform, so really taking that into account, as well.
So just thinking about these high level factors, starting with a text budget, seeing how it goes, and then deciding how and when to expand from there.
Tiffany Rafii:
And then how do you maximize that spend? How can a company make sure, whether it be a firm or a manufacturer, et cetera, they're really maximizing that spend?
Maggie Austin:
I'll say that the most important aspect to make sure you're getting the most out of your paid ad spend would be to make sure that you have a dedicated specialist, whether it be in-house or using an agency, who has the time to go into the accounts, pour through those campaigns, and make the daily, weekly, and monthly optimizations.
This is key in making sure that you're maximizing your spend and improving and increasing performance. Because the ongoing upkeep in monitoring of these campaigns can be time-consuming.
Additionally, having a target cost in mind to know that you are getting a solid return on your investment, even if your campaign goal is just brand awareness, looking at metrics such as return on ad spend, target cost per action, cost per a thousand impressions and so on. Making sure to set KPI goals that are smart, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound to make sure that you're able to assess your paid ads success.
And then lastly, just doing a lot of testing and finding out what works best for your company, whether you're testing out different platforms, AB testing different audiences or creatives. It's kind of like a puzzle, and you want to try out a bunch of different things until you find that missing piece. So conducting a lot of testing as well can be very beneficial.
Tiffany Rafii:
Absolutely. As we know, search engine optimization is an important way to support organic traffic. How can paid ads and organic performance work together? Does paid even help with organic traffic?
Taylor Noffsinger:
First of all, organics insights are going to be the most important for informing paid ads. You're going to be able to see where you're already ranking, where you might need some supplemented help through paid, and where the most activity is.
You can also see what content resonates strongest with your users to promote that and get a better understanding of your target audience, which is therefore going to help inform the paid. I also think for social, especially the algorithms have changed so much, so maybe you have goals for organic social growth.
And the best way to improve followers is going to be by boosting posts. And that doesn't mean that, because you're paying for it, these are fake followers, whereas if you use a third party platform to buy followers, it's not going to help you at all.
Whereas if you're just boosting and people are resonating with that content, they're going to follow you because they like what you have to offer.
Maggie Austin:
Absolutely, and even piggybacking off of Taylor. Paid ads, sometimes we're driving traffic to websites primarily, but sometimes a user may click on that social media profile icon if, for instance, they see an ad say on Instagram.
And you always want to make sure that there is a strong amount of organic content there as well for those users to consume. Because of course, if a user is directed to a social media profile where it's essentially a blank slate, that's not giving them the information that they're seeking out.
So I think that's also another way that paid ads and organic performance can support and piggyback off of each other.
Tiffany Rafii:
Getting specific, how specific can you get with the targeting? And does the specificity of the ads differ by platform type? Are you able to get a little bit more granular on certain platforms versus others?
Maggie Austin:
Yeah, you can get extremely hyper-specific with your targeting parameters across all platforms, although of course, yes, the specific targeting options do vary and differ by platform. But generally you can target by different audience attributes, whether that be location, job title, company, industry, years of experience, age, et cetera.
You can also utilize specific audience, for instance, Google that populates in market segments. So you're able to use one of those pre-formulated audience options. You can also upload your company lists, contact lists, or re-target previous website visitors.
Additionally, Google, for instance, you can utilize keyword targeting to hone in on high intent folks who are using these search terms. So, there is a variety of targeting options and you can get extremely specific with that.
Tiffany Rafii:
That makes sense. I feel like sometimes I might be in a certain area and use sort of serves hyper local ads, so that definitely resonates.
How long does it take to see results from paid ads? How long do you need to test campaigns for and run them to see how they're doing?
Taylor Noffsinger:
And the answer is there is no straightforward answer. This is going to be different for everybody. It's going to be different for every sector. It's easy once those numbers of impressions and clicks start coming in to want those results immediately. But in reality, this is an algorithm based thing.
So first of all, the platforms need to learn who is clicking on your ads, who's interacting with it, who's filling out leads, and takes the time to learn and send your ads to more people like that. And then, of course, for B2B specifically, there's a longer life cycle for that. So someone may need to see your ad eight to 10 times over the course of a few weeks or a few months before they finally are ready to submit a form on your website.
So we recommend one to three months testing period before we start to see results. But of course there's tons of AB testing that can be done after that, to start getting the best performance and put your money towards the successful campaigns.
Tiffany Rafii:
What are some of the key metrics that actually measure that success?
Maggie Austin:
There are a variety of key metrics that can be used to measure your campaign success. And admittedly, sometimes there are so many numbers that it can be hard to figure out what to prioritize.
So in terms of measuring delivery, a few metrics that you'll want to look at are reach. How many people have you reached with your ads, impressions? How many times your ads have shown? Frequency, how many times your ads have shown to a user?
And then in terms of metrics that measure engagement. That would be the number of clicks on your ad, the click-through rate and the cost per click. And to measure conversions, you can look at metrics such as cost per lead, conversion rate, and cost per conversion to really measure that success.
And then on the other hand, sort of the other half of the picture, of course we're looking at all of these data and metrics from the platform. But you also want to be sure to monitor data on website traffic, whether that be using a tool such as Google Analytics or even insights from your CRM.
But also paid ads are sending traffic to the website. So what are they doing when they get there? So a few metrics you might want to look at would include number of users, bounce rate, average engagement time, pages per session, and so on.
Tiffany Rafii:
If any of our listeners want to further their education in paid media, where should they look? Are there any classes or certifications that might help?
Taylor Noffsinger:
Yeah, there's definitely, thankfully, a lot of free resources out there. So each of the platforms offer some kind of training. Google tends to have the most robust. They have tons of E-learning courses for each platform that they have where you can take the course and then take an assessment.
And then LinkedIn, of course, has a couple of guides. Meta has a range of guides. And then I think even just hearing from people who frequently do ads, there's podcasts such as this one, and then of course there are a ton of YouTube videos. I think there's such a lot of opportunity to learn.
And then, of course, if anybody needed some additional help or just wanted to explore ads a little bit, UpSpring is always here to help. So anyone is welcome to reach out to me directly. That's TaylorNoffsinger@UpSpringPR.
We frequently do competitive analysises to see where you're at, find out where you want to go, and make some ad recommendations ourselves.
Tiffany Rafii:
Great. Any advice for someone who might want to embark on this journey? Maybe things you wish you knew when you first started delving into the complicated world of paid media?
Taylor Noffsinger:
I think the biggest thing is just pay attention to what the platforms are doing. They're always adding new features.
Google actually frequently takes away features, so just making sure you're staying in the know. And then making sure that you know that results aren't always going to be immediate. And there's a lot of testing you can do to narrow down on things.
Make sure you're looking at the data and making sure that you know what to do with that data. So what are the next steps that are going to come out of? And impressions increasing, but clicks are decreasing. What does that tell you and where can you take it?
Maggie Austin:
Absolutely. And hard skills aside, too, something that I wish that I had told myself or heard from someone else when I was first starting out and embarking on my career in paid media, is that it's okay sometimes to be frustrated, but there's always a creative and interesting new audience to test or keywords to try out.
So just make sure to always stay creative. And as Taylor mentioned, just always being a student. The digital landscape is continuing to evolve, so just making sure that you have that confidence in yourself and feel free to unleash your creativity to start seeing these results.
Tiffany Rafii:
Awesome. Maggie, Taylor, thank you so much for your time today. It's been great to uncover the world of paid media with you. And we're super appreciative of everything that you've shared.
Thanks, again.
Taylor Noffsinger:
Thank you.
Maggie Austin:
Thanks for having us.
Tiffany Rafii:
Of course.