The proliferation of the Internet has changed the way people search for products and purchase them. We live in the era of humongous data that can be leveraged to generate valuable insights for businesses. It has invariably replaced marketing with performance-based marketing reaffirming the adage- ‘what you can’t measure, doesn’t count.’It isn’t enough to conceptualize campaigns that fetch you awards on several platforms; what is also needed is a marketing strategy that translates into conversions and conversations for businesses. While several metrics such as Cost per Click (CPC), Click Through Rate (CTR), Cost per Impressions (CPM), etc., can be used to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, identifying the appropriate mix and optimizing the campaign is the key to boosting business outcomes. Here are some of the tips to optimize the performance of a marketing campaign.
- Know the campaign’s objective: Broadly, marketing campaigns can have three major goals i) awareness and recall, ii) consideration iii) sales. It is imperative to determine the objective of your marketing campaign at the outset. Additionally, divide this objective into SMART goals to be achieved over a predefined timeframe. These goals and objectives will determine a combination of metrics that need to be tracked to measure the campaign performance. For instance, the objective of your campaign may be to build brand awareness. The goal can be to target one lakh impressions per month.
- Map your metrics to goals: It isn’t necessary to track all metrics. Only those metrics that tie to your objective and channels should be mapped to get accurate results. For instance, if you aim to build brand awareness, impressions, earned mentions and social media sentiments are suitable metrics to be tracked.
- Integrate data from multiple channels: A marketing campaign generates data from various channels and platforms like CRM data, Facebook analytics, Google analytics. Data from each platform serves as valuable insight for the next step of your marketing campaign. It is essential to integrate this data to get a bigger picture of your campaign’s performance. Various third-party tools and applications are available to integrate this data across platforms seamlessly. Most of these tools work in real-time, requiring planning and setting metrics much ahead of the campaign implementation.
- Compare them over timeline: Compare your metrics to a different timeframe. Have the metrics improved over time or remain almost the same? Reports serve as handy tools for comparing metrics over a defined timeline. Hence, upon assimilating enough data for benchmarking, it is essential to record and store data using monthly, quarterly or annual reports based on your requirements. Do consider the macroeconomic factors in your campaign results. For instance, 2019 has been a better year for brands than 2020 due to the COVID-19 lockdown that had an evident impact across sectors.
- Adjust your performance based on metrics: Make course corrections consistently. For instance, if a Google ad consistently shows low CTR for weeks, determine what changes you can make to improve its performance—simply changing ‘call to action’ such as ‘Order before stocks last! Or changing the image can work wonders for your campaign. While it may sound tempting to make several changes in one instance, changing one variable will be prudent to pinpoint the one that has dramatic effects on campaign results.
It is noteworthy that precise audience targeting and segmentation is also the key to optimizing your marketing campaign in addition to the above factors. While the significance of performance-driven marketing cannot be underestimated, securing customer loyalty and building long-term relationships is also vital to achieving high customer retention and reduce customer acquisition costs. A recent IBM study highlights that 50% of customers buy from brands they trust, reaffirming the importance of brand marketing efforts. Emerging technologies, the focus on customer experience and new trends in the data analytics space imply the continuous evolution of the marketing landscape.
Authored article by Khushboo Solanki Sharma, Founder of Zero Gravity Communications.
