In the age of digital marketing, there seems to be ten solutions out there for each problem we are facing. Unfortunately, most of those solutions are not really solutions, but rather ill-informed opinions masquerading as fact. Anyone who has been involved with digital marketing understands that various metrics and measurements can only get you so far: creativity and dedication are two variables that for obvious reasons remain hard to track. In order to avoid fumbling your next social media marketing campaign, we have selected four common misconceptions about marketing that almost always lead to failure when decoupled from a broader approach.

Measuring Success in Likes

Whether you are on Facebook, Twitter or Google+, understand that likes, tweets and +1s do not equate to a successful marketing campaign. You may be pinging services or offers to readers and they are being ‘liked’, but this does not mean that your marketing efforts are having the desired effect nor does it equate with the level of engagement most marketing campaigns should expect from their brands. While any social action will lead to more exposure, marketing campaigns are after targeted exposure. When this occurs, those likes and tweets become much more worthwhile. Emerging campaigns, however, should never feel complacent due just to a surge in social activity.

Relying on Page Views

Again, any campaign that bases it success off of how many page views a certain post or page has received will go nowhere. While an increased amount of traffic is vital and a by-product of a successful marketing campaign, it does not mean that the traffic you are receiving is targeted and valuable. Do you know who is arriving at your page or post? How long did they stay? What did they click on and what did they avoid? These questions help determine just how valuable the nominal amount of traffic you are receiving is, and should be used to calculate whether a surge in traffic is positive or just noise.

Trusting Consumer and Demographic Profiles Solely

It is baffling to see so many websites and blogs discuss the concept of demographics in their marketing strategies when they do not understand just how difficult it can be to adequately apply strategies to reach each audience. This is no more evident than in the click through rates of most major social media advertising platforms: on Facebook, for instance, you are lucky if 1 out of 200 people click on your ad – and that’s after you’ve used demographic and consumer analysis to pinpoint a specific audience.

Impressions Matter

Obviously, impressions do matter, but there is far more to consider than simple quantity. Many novice marketers feel as if a large number of impressions will yield a large number of conversions or leads, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. In many cases, you are wasting money by aiming for large exposure: successful marketing campaigns aim for niches in which their advertising efforts will be most successful. More than one marketer has been fired due to their negligence in this regard. You can avoid accruing large bills for marketing by aiming for impressions where they matter, rather than impressions all around.