Digital Advertising Best Practices

Tactic level incrementality is very overlooked. Once you've established baseline platform incrementality, it's extremely important to drill in at a tactic or optimization level. Because of how different ad products optimize and find customers, they can have highly variable incrementality despite similar pixel or GA attributed ROAS. This is true across every major platform. We recently ran a tactic level lift study for an apparel brand on Meta. I don't think the results are terribly surprising if you have a deep understanding of the meta algorithm: - DABA - LEAST incremental - we see this somewhat frequently due to how DABA/DPA orients toward the highest intent shoppers - ASC - Middle of the pack - again, consistent with what we see and the benefit of ASC is usually huge scale. - Standard Campaign (1% Lookalike) - MOST incremental - but we know this tactic does not scale particularly well. In all cases, we have pretty tight customer and site visitor exclusions. So what do you do with a result like this? 1. Make adjustments and retest - my favorite real life comp for this is you got a blood panel, made some dietary/supplement/exercise adjustments and then re-test. Did the adjustments work? What changed? Rinse, repeat. 2. Revisit your bidding signal - if your exclusions are as tight as you can get via 1p and pixel data, consider passing back only new customer purchases or a conversion value more reflective of incrementality. 3. Bolster your audience match rates - with 3p append to improve your match rates. This is especially valuable on newer platforms with worse match rates, like TikTok (Liveramp, Hightouch come to mind) 4. Cut the obvious waste - while I put #1 above first for a reason, it's important not to ignore the areas you are wasting money. Adjust your investment strategy as necessary. From my POV, tactic level incrementality is an always-on best practice for most brands. Build a roadmap and start running monthly experiments. New Engen #Incrementality #Meta #Marketing

Signs It’s Time to Increase Your Ad Spend 1. Proven Winners - If your ad campaigns are making money, it’s time to invest more. - High returns mean you can scale up. - For example, if you earn three dollars for every dollar spent, increasing your budget can boost profits. 2. Missing Revenue Goals - If you’re not hitting your sales targets, more ad spend can help. - Good campaigns with high conversions can close the gap. - Calculate how much you need to spend to meet your goals. 3. Budget Room - Check your finances. - If you can afford to spend more without hurting other areas, it’s time to increase your ad budget. - The SBA suggests spending 7-8% of your revenue on ads if you’re under $5 million in sales. 4. Market Potential - If your audience is large and not fully tapped, it’s a good time to increase spending. - More budget can help you reach new customers. - Use peak seasons to maximize your impact. 5. Optimize and Test - Focus on your best ads. - If you’ve paused weak performers and improved your top campaigns, allocate more budget to them. - Use A/B testing to find the best ads and scale them. 6. Data Insights - Use analytics to guide your decisions. - Track which campaigns are working best. - If certain ads are winning, shift your budget to those areas. When NOT to Increase Ad Spend: - Avoid increasing spend if your campaigns are plateauing or if your audience is already saturated. More money may not lead to better results. - If your budget is tight or above recommended levels, wait until you can invest wisely. - In uncertain markets, focus on optimizing your current campaigns instead of expanding. Best Practices for Increasing Ad Spend - Increase Budget Gradually: Scale up by 20-30% per week to avoid disrupting campaign optimization and algorithm learning - Monitor Key Metrics Closely: Track ROI, CPA, conversion rates, and ad frequency to ensure increased spend remains efficient - Avoid Sudden, Large Increases: Abrupt budget jumps can reset learning phases and hurt performance; test and scale slowly - Diversify Channels and Audiences: Broaden reach and reduce risk of audience saturation by expanding to new segments or platforms - Continually Test and Optimize: Regularly rotate creatives, test new formats, and refine targeting to maintain engagement Increase your ad spend when your campaigns are profitable, your budget allows it, and there’s clear market opportunity. Scale gradually, rely on data and testing, and always monitor performance for continued success. How often do you scale your ads? Kindly repost ♻️ and share with your network Happy Friday

In the last 4 months, over 17.5 million people have seen my ads. One thing I know for sure: Facebook Ads aren’t that hard. But a lot of people end up messing them up mostly because they try to outsmart the system. Here are 5 common mistakes I see every day that are hurting your results: 1. Making your ad account too complex I checked one account recently. In just 6 months, they had: • 120 campaigns • 15 to 20 ad sets in each • And 5 to 10 ads per ad set This kind of structure makes it hard for Facebook to do its job. It can’t optimize properly, and you won’t get the results you want. Facebook actually recommends keeping things: • 2-3 campaigns • 3 to 5 ad sets per campaign • 3 to 5 ads per ad set Simple setup = better performance. 2. Ignoring attribution settings Most people just stick with the default settings — and that costs them money. Try testing different options like: • 1-day click • 7-day click Especially for smaller-ticket products, I’ve seen 1-day click with Advantage+ campaigns work really well. 3. Not testing thumbnails If you’re in beauty, skincare, or wellness, not using custom thumbnails is a missed opportunity. Here are a few thumbnail ideas you can try: • Before and after shots • A pain-point question • Close-up of a face • Clean product shots These small changes can improve click-through rates a lot. 4. Over-targeting your audience Some accounts go way too deep. I saw one where they were targeting: • Business owners • Who also like digital marketing • And also like SaaS products This kind of stacking narrows your audience too much and kills your reach. Instead, either: • Use just one strong interest or • Combine a few broad ones, but keep the total audience size large Just don’t filter too much. 5. Choosing the wrong campaign objective This is a big one, and it comes in two parts: Part 1: If you’re still using “Traffic” or “Engagement” campaigns hoping for sales you’re stuck in the past. And no, you don’t need to “warm up the pixel” with traffic. You need people who are ready to buy, and that comes with Conversion campaigns. Part 2: Some people choose the conversion objective but then optimize for Add to Cart instead of Purchase. Yes, you’ll get lots of ATCs. Your cost per ATC might even look great. But ask yourself is that what you really want? If your goal is sales, optimize for purchases. Let Facebook find buyers for you. That’s it for now. If this helped you, just hit the like or share.