Navigating Paid Advertising Analysis as a New Marketing Manager: Strategies for Success

Starting a new role as a marketing manager, especially at a young company or SaaS organization, can present a steep learning curve—particularly when it comes to paid advertising. If you’re tasked with evaluating and managing external ad campaigns, understanding how to approach this complex area is crucial to making informed decisions that drive results.

In this article, we’ll explore practical strategies for reviewing existing paid ad campaigns, assessing their performance, and determining the best course of action to optimize your ad spend.

Understanding the Challenge

When you’re newly responsible for paid advertising, it’s common to feel overwhelmed by the multitude of metrics, reports, and campaign data. You might see clicks and traffic numbers soaring but struggle to connect these metrics to actual lead generation or sales. Furthermore, working with external agencies adds another layer of complexity, as you need to validate whether their reported performance aligns with your business objectives.

Key Questions to Ask When Evaluating Paid Campaigns

Before making any decisions, consider posing the following questions:

• What are the campaign objectives? Are they focused on brand awareness, lead generation, conversions, or sales?
• Are the key metrics aligned with these objectives? For instance, if the goal is lead generation, are we tracking quality leads, not just clicks?
• What does “success” look like for our campaigns? Is it a target cost-per-lead, a certain conversion rate, or overall return on ad spend (ROAS)?
• How do current campaigns perform against industry benchmarks? This provides context for evaluating results.

Practical Approaches to Campaign Management

1. Conduct a Thorough Audit

Begin with a detailed review of existing campaigns:

• Analyze all relevant metrics, including click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, cost-per-acquisition (CPA), and ROAS.
• Examine the audience targeting parameters—are they aligned with your ideal customer profiles?
• Review ad creatives and messaging for relevance and clarity.
• Assess landing pages for performance and user experience.

2. Decide on the Next Steps

Based on your findings, consider these options:

• Optimize Existing Campaigns:
  If the campaigns are gaining clicks but not converting, iterative tweaks such as refining targeting, ad copy, or landing pages may improve results without starting from scratch.

• Build New Campaigns:
  If the current campaigns seem fundamentally misaligned or poorly structured, creating new campaigns based on