Setting Expectations for Paid Media Projects

Expectation-setting is absolutely crucial for a successful partnership. This is especially true for Paid Media projects, as people are not only paying for your time/expertise, but also ad service.

Below are some common scenarios for setting expectations with your client, bosses, and other stakeholders.

New Projects

The most important time to set expectations is at the very beginning of a project – and not just in the kick-off call.

During the business development and proposal phase, the first question you should ask your prospect is: what exactly are you hoping to achieve?

• From there, you can hone in on the best strategy, make it clear what your specialties are, and determine whether or not the project can be successful for both parties.

After the teams agree there is a mutual fit for the project, it’s time to kick off and onboard.

The initial focus should be on the client’s goals and communicating how you can accomplish them with the available tools (similar to the BD phase). You should also note any nuances of those approaches, like learning periods or platform limitations.

• For example: if a client is interested in advertising through Facebook Ads, the first thing I note is the tracking limitations caused by Apple’s iOS 14.5 update.
  • The goal is not to discourage anyone from doing what they want, but to be transparent and realistic. This helps prevent people being surprised by any issues we may run into in the future.

Ask for feedback throughout your calls as well. Make sure your client feels heard, and set the tone that this is a partnership. You can get a lot of good information from simply opening the conversation up to people. Don’t just power through the usual talking points.

Key Performance Indicators

Once you are all on the same page with the preferred strategy, it’s crucial to align on the metrics that determine success. These KPIs can vary based on the industry, campaign objective, tracking capabilities, and more.

• For lead generation campaigns, Knucklepuck typically focuses on conversions, cost per conversion, and conversion rate.
• For sales-focused campaigns, we prioritize revenue and return on ad spend, in addition to the lead gen campaign goals.
• For awareness campaigns, we have a heavier emphasis on engagement, reach, and efficiency metrics. This includes cost per 1000 impressions, clickthrough rate, average cost per click, and shares/likes.

Timelines

A common question we get at the start of a new initiative is something along the lines of “how soon can campaigns launch?” or “what’s the turnaround time?”

This is a great time to set expectations, which will ensure the other person is satisfied but you aren’t burning yourself out.

• For example: if someone wants to launch campaigns on a specific date, make it clear that the build has to be requested at least 1-2 weeks ahead of the launch date.
• This prevents you from having to work late, deprioritize other work, and feel stressed/overwhelmed about creating ads at the last minute. It also ensures that you can deliver high-quality work to get the best results possible.

Project plans are another great tool to set expectations for longer-term partnerships. Provide an outline of what you plan to do over the next 3-6 months, which re-emphasizes timelines and ensures alignment on strategy.

Also, stress the fact that it takes time to judge results. There is a lot more that goes into a successful PPC account management strategy than what meets the eye.

• Yes, Paid Media is faster paced than SEO (which has more of a long term focus). However, it still takes time to collect data, optimize campaigns with negatives/exclusions, have algorithms learn how to serve your ads, tweak ad copy and landing pages to be the best they can, and more.

Testing

Whenever you are trying out a new initiative, whether it’s a campaign, platform, bidding strategy, etc., set expectations that it is a test.

• For example: you are testing a new automated bidding strategy. Try approaching it with a mindset of, “We’re going to test automatedbidding to see how it impacts performance, with the goal of more leads and lower CPA.” This is slightly different from phrasing it as “We’re switching to automated bidding to increase leads.”
  • It’s only a minor change in language, but if you see worse performance after implementing the test, it’s much easier to discuss.
  • Instead of walking away from the initiative thinking “We failed to increase leads,” the takeaway becomes “That test wasn’t as successful as we hoped it would be. It was still important to learn, so here’s what we can do next.”

You should also be clear about the goal of your tests and when you plan to judge results. This ensures everyone stays aligned on KPIs and timelines.

• For example: Google Ads’ automated bidding strategies require a 2-4 week learning period, and during this time performance can fluctuate. In this case, we would review initial results after 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and then make a more informed decision after 6-8 weeks.

Additionally, if you are testing a new platform or campaign-type, make sure to discuss any nuances ahead of time. Extending performance benchmarks can be useful in setting expectations, and some specific examples to consider are related to user intent:

• Search campaigns tend to capture users that have a higher intent to convert. People are explicitly searching for terms related to your product or service.
  • Because of this, the KPIs should heavily focus on conversions, sales, revenue, etc.
• Users reached through Display and Video campaigns typically have lower intent to convert. An ad is disrupting someone as they browse other websites/videos.
  • Conversions are always important, but KPIs should focus more on awareness, efficiency, and engagement (like CPM and CTR).
• On Social, ads interrupt users as they scroll through their feeds (similar to Display or Video).
  • KPIs may vary based on the objective of each campaign. Be aware that metrics like CTR, CPC, and CPM will likely be much different than what you see for Search campaigns.

Lastly, a helpful tactic during any project is to keep a paper trail. Written documentation helps keep everyone on the same page on what to expect moving forward.

• An easy option is to provide an agenda and recap for all meetings. This holds people accountable to specific next steps, and you can refer back to them if any questions arise.

Summary

Start setting expectations in your very first meeting, and then continue to do so throughout the project. Make sure everyone is aligned on objectives, KPIs, and timelines. You might sound like a broken record at times. But it’s way better than the alternative: unrealistic expectations and a feeling/perception that you “failed.”

Have any other tactics or thoughts on expectation-setting? Feel free to reach out on Twitter!