The 2020 Challenge for Content Marketing: Attribution and ROI
Data is the new oil, and we are guzzling it to the point of obesity. As consumers more than doubled the rate at which content is being consumed in 2019, mainly through mobile devices, content creators have scrambled to find new formats and platforms. Starting from blogs, we have moved to memes, infographics, audio podcasts, videos and even in-app advertising for games. Brands scent an opportunity with every new platform, from videos on Facebook / WhatsApp / Instagram / Snapchat / YouTube channels (TVF, Filter Copy), sponsored content on media apps and now TikTok and Firework short-format videos. Firework is, in fact, offering brand partnerships for content creators on their platform.
All of this and more is money coming out of the marketing budget. As content quantum grows, so will the associated costs as a percentage of the budget. On average, 26% of the marketing budget is being spent on content marketing :
- creating,
- posting,
- monitoring,
- promoting and
- paid advertising
Without the last, most of the content created wouldn’t even get viewed by a large segment of the target population. B2B marketers spend almost 40 percent of their marketing budgets on content marketing. But how are marketers measuring the ROI on what has become the single largest component of their marketing budgets?
The genie of digital marketing was uncorked with the promise that it would be now much easier to accurately determine the Marketing ROI for any brand. While a large segment of paid digital marketing spends (online/mobile ads, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing) are now traceable in terms of the return on advertising spend (ROAS), content marketing has put a significant challenge in front of marketers in this area. With marketing at anywhere between 6.5% to 12% of revenues, companies are now grappling with the problem of measuring the return on content marketing spends which make up as much as 5% of revenues at the upper end of the calculation. This can be a challenge in the age of hyper-competition and wafer-thin margins coupled with a slowing economic outlook.
At the same time, target audiences are accustomed to accessing multiple touch-points - both paid and unpaid - before making a final decision to purchase. So attributing the sale to a source can be extremely challenging. Multiple models are being tried and tested, including
- first touch
- last touch
- linear attribution
- time-decay
- customized distribution
However, determining the right one for your product or business is still a calculated risk.
Coming up with the right solution involves a deep dive into the business process, consumer behavior, marketing capabilities and evaluation of solutions that cause minimal disruption to the marketing ecosystem while delivering maximum auditable results. At the same time, it has to be flexible enough to accommodate future challenges. With the right blend of products and tools, content marketing ROI can be deciphered to a greater degree of reliability, irrespective of product/service and industry vertical.
Marketingmocha is a marketing strategy consultancy focused on new products and services, market and consumer fit, go-to-market strategy and more, across verticals like media, education, consumer products, B2B industrial products, and services. To know more how our digital marketing strategy solutions could help you, connect with us at [email protected]