For a small business, every somoni of the advertising budget counts. Here are seven slip-ups that crop up most often in small companies’ media plans, and how to avoid them.
Mistakes in budget allocation and frequency
1. Splitting the budget evenly
A little on TV, radio, outdoor and digital — “to be everywhere”. As a result, no single channel gets enough weight. It is better to start from the goal and the cost per contact: if you need leads, most of the money should go to digital; if you need to reach a lot of people quickly, focus on video and radio. Compare two or three mix options.
2. Forgetting about target frequency
The plan only accounts for reach, and nobody has calculated frequency. One contact is usually not enough. Decide in advance how many touches the core audience should get within a wave, otherwise some of the impressions will be wasted.
Website and analytics mistakes
3. Sending traffic to the wrong page
Visitors are sent to the home page or to an unfinished landing page where it is hard to find what they need. Each campaign needs its own page: an offer that matches the ad, a fast-loading first screen, supporting arguments and one clear call to action.
4. Branded and cold traffic in the same report
People searching for you by name are cheap to reach. If you lump them together with a new audience, the cost per lead looks deceptively low. Report on them separately and set separate KPIs for each.
5. Not testing creatives
The same video or banner runs for months, and the audience stops noticing it. Test hypotheses regularly — the message, the visual, the video length — and keep a small part of the budget for experiments.
Timing mistakes
6. Ignoring seasonality and airtime availability
The plan is drawn up on gut feeling, without regard to demand peaks or how busy the advertising schedules are. Build in seasonal adjustments and book placements in advance.
7. No shared calendar
Channels start and stop at random, and the effect of them working together is lost. Bring everything into a single media calendar: waves, frequencies, creatives, production deadlines. If you need a framework for such a strategy for the quarter, see our media strategy section.
Check before you launch
- The wave’s goal and KPIs are written down: reach and frequency, CPL or CAC.
- The channel mix matches the goal.
- Frequency and placement availability have been calculated.
- Landing pages are ready, and forms and chats respond quickly.
- There are at least two versions of the creative for testing.
- UTM tags and conversions are set up, and attribution windows have been agreed.
- The placement and production calendar has been approved.
Weekly monitoring
Track reach and frequency among the key audience; CPM, CPC, CPL and conversion broken down by channel and creative; the share of branded traffic; landing page speed and scroll depth; and lead quality in the CRM along the path from MQL to SQL to sale. Keep a hypothesis log: what you tested, the outcome, the decision.
Frequently asked questions
How many creatives should run at the same time? A couple of main ones, plus one test creative for each hypothesis.
How can you tell that frequency is too low? Reach is growing, but awareness, CTR and direct visits are flat.
Does a small business need television? Not necessarily. On a modest budget it makes more sense to start with controllable digital and radio, and add video formats as you grow.
Would you like a fresh pair of eyes on your media plan? The SKY Central Asia team handles media planning and buying — get in touch via the form.
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