Getting Started with Digital Advertising
Launching your first digital advertising campaign can feel overwhelming. This guide breaks down everything you need to know to get started successfully.
Before You Start
Before spending any money on ads, make sure you have:
- A clear business objective
- A target audience in mind
- A budget you can afford to test with
- Conversion tracking set up
- Landing pages optimized for your ads
Choosing Your First Platform
For beginners, we recommend starting with one platform:
- Meta (Facebook/Instagram): Great for visual products, B2C businesses
- Google Ads: Best for high-intent searches, B2B businesses
- TikTok: Ideal for younger audiences, creative products
See our Platform Comparison Guide for detailed recommendations.
Setting Your First Budget
Start small to learn:
- Minimum: $10-20/day per platform
- Recommended: $50-100/day for meaningful data
- Use our Daily Budget Calculator to plan
Essential Metrics to Track
Focus on these key metrics:
- ROAS: Revenue per dollar spent (Calculate ROAS)
- CPA: Cost per customer acquisition (Calculate CPA)
- CPM: Cost per thousand impressions (Calculate CPM)
Setting Up Tracking
Proper tracking is essential. Use our UTM Builder to create tracking URLs for all your campaigns.
Common First-Time Mistakes
- Setting budgets too high initially
- Not giving campaigns enough time to optimize
- Changing too many variables at once
- Ignoring conversion tracking setup
- Not testing different creatives
Your First Week Checklist
- Set up conversion tracking
- Create UTM parameters for all campaigns
- Launch with a conservative budget
- Monitor daily but don't make changes too quickly
- Review performance after 3-7 days
- Optimize based on data
Next Steps: Once you're comfortable with one platform, read our Campaign Planning Guide to expand to multiple platforms.