There are fundamentally three levers you can pull within your ad account:
🎯 Targets
🖼️ Creative
💰 Budget
Most search first marketers lean into targets first, budget second, and creative when they get around to it. Social first marketers almost always are the opposite (looking at creative first, targets second, and budget if they have to). This is in large part due to how the platforms work, but also due to how we've learned to structure tests.
Here are a few scenarios for search and social where I'd focus on one lever over the others:
Scenario #1: Brand is constantly going over budget. While the ROAS is "positive", the actual profit is in the black or in the red.
Search: 💰 + 🎯
Social: 💰 + 🎯
Rationale: If budget is the core issue, the brand needs to address this first, and then address the targets/exclusions. Search budgets need to account for averaging out the daily budget across 30.4 days and seeing daily budgets up to double. Social budgets can be either lifetime or based on a daily/monthly pace. Depending on your settings you may be happier with lifetime or an ongoing campaign.
Scenario #2: Ads get high CTR but the conversion rate is terrible. Conversions are coming through but they're junky.
Search: 🖼️, but if junk persists, address 🎯
Social: 🎯, but if junk persists, address 🖼️
Rationale: In search, it can be tempting to change the targets before addressing the creative, however if the creative isn't prequalifying leads or establishing who you want to help, the targeting work will be wasted. This is why I like to confirm the creative is doing the best job it can before adjusting targets (location, time, keywords, etc.). Exclusions would happen at the same time as creative tests. On the other hand, social ads with high CTR and low quality are almost always a targeting issue. When the ad is a problem in social, it doesn't get clicked.
Scenario #3: Brand is trying to scale, but every time they raise the budget they just increase the CPA.
Search: Expand into social
Social: Expand into search
Rationale: Sometimes you've captured the "gettable" market on a channel and need to be willing to expand to a new one. Sometimes this means borrowing budget to test, while tests might get net new budget. Video is a great way to expand (on both search and social).
Whatever the case might be, Optmyzr has you covered with Optmyzr Core, Pro, and Optmyzr for Social. Never watch a campaign over spend again, while getting the benefit of search and social thinking in one tool!
What's your default lever to pull when solving an account problem?