Purpose
This project was in response to a task given to me by my supervisor to explore new ways to gain clients for our creative agency. Previous attempts to acquire clients through advertising were lackluster. This project did not have the expected outcome that the initial report projected but gave insight into how the world of PPC and Lead Generation works, and how to use that knowledge to my advantage.
The Project
The platform of choice for this campaign was Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads allows you to get very specific with the interests and activities of the people that you are advertising to. The results were different than anticipated, or what Facebook projected initially, but they led to some insightful meetings with potential clients as well-qualified leads. Below is a screen capture of the campaign’s performance:
Since our ads were aimed at a highly specific audience, our cost per lead was high. Assuming there are other agencies out there doing similar campaigns in similar areas, this got me thinking about alternative methods and platforms that I could use for this kind of campaign in the future.
This is a preview of the Lead Generation ad that potential clients saw on Facebook.
Challenges
I encountered several challenges when designing and implementing this campaign. First, our company had not done much in the way of lead generation advertisements on Facebook, so the projection data was not accurate. Showing the projected numbers to my employer was great, but If I had to do it again, I would put more research into seeing what kind of factors go into those projections.
Luckily, my employer was happy with the leads that we did receive, they were well qualified and were more promising than the leads obtained by our contracted sales rep or call center.
I think another challenge was overcoming the stigma of a typical marketing agency. One lead from the campaign showed huge promise; we met several times with them, but they had bad experiences in the past with marketing agencies that they couldn’t shake.
Overall Experience
What a great learning experience. What started off as a “draft” campaign ended up being approved by my agency and became one of the more successful client acquisition tools we have used recently.
I’ve learned that Facebook, Google, Amazon, and others are great platforms to be able to put your name and product out there. Using them every day has given me a better understanding of their functionality and capability in influencing the everyday decisions of consumers. It has also given me additional real-world experience that helps me better understand the mind of the consumer, and how my own mind as an advertiser works differently on a foundational level.