Relating success metrics to your marketing campaigns
https://wahab.eu/blog/q093
Having worked in major companies most of my working life, I have been exposed to the workings in different business units. One of my favourite areas is Marketing. My initial remits used to be campaign delivery but over time, this changed to campaign delivery with a positive return. Well what exactly does this mean? Put simply, it means that Marketing campaigns need to have clearly defined quantitative measures/KPIs that contribute to the P&L (or Profit).
However, we all know that in a perfect world, this is what we aim to do. But the reality is that for many campaigns, the purpose of the campaign plus lots of creative thinking, render this an uphill struggle. But my view is that you absolutely have to focus on your results. This most likely would have an impact on your creative input, but so be it (my view).
Now we have three types of campaigns - "Above the line" (ATL), "Below the line" (BTL), and "Through the line" (TTL). I will explain these to ensure we are all on the same page:
Above the line: This kind of marketing is the kind of marketing that has a very broad reach and is largely untargeted. An example would be a television campaign run by a national beauty company. The ad would be aired across the nation, with every viewer seeing the exact same message. This kind of marketing is mostly used for building brand awareness and goodwill.
Below the Line: This is the kind of marketing that targets specific groups of people with focus. An example is a leaflet drop in a specific area, a Google Adwords campaign targeting a certain group or a mailshot targeting specific businesses. This kind of marketing is best for conversions and direct response.
Through the Line: This kind of marketing is really an integrated approach, where a company would use both BTL and ATL marketing methods to reach their customer base and generate conversions. An example is a national clothing chain that launches a nationwide Youtube video campaign that would show different ads to different users according to where the users lived. They would incorporate a promotional code for a discount on purchases made at the local outlet. This kind of marketing delivers both a wide reach and a focus on conversions.
One of the key points that I have seen continuously is that, all the sales and revenue data is held by senior management and is restricted viewing. I understand this. But it means that the frontline teams building the campaigns, have to be very creative without effective pointers. They need to have regular follow up with leaders to get approvals and direction. There needs to be more empowerment to force the front line teams to be link their campaigns to the P&L (as is reasonably practical or possible). If they cannot make this link, the effectiveness of the campaign should be discussed.
So how do we convert metrics into quantitative measures that can be attributed to the bottom line? Well, we do need our big data/business intelligence folks to work with us. Depending on the type of campaign you launch, there will be different ways of measuring its success, as follows:
Measuring an Above-the-Line marketing campaign
As a strict ATL campaign is designed to reach a wide audience with brand building type content, you should consider these metrics:
- Frequency (number of times members of target audience see your ads)
- Reach (total number of people that see your ads)
- Number of impressions (how many times your ads have been displayed across various mediums)
- Number of online conversions (where this can be measured eg through a code)
- Uplift in Sales (allowing for other campaigns and impacts) during the period of the campaign
- Uplift in Revenues measured for this period.
- Of course there are others
Measuring a Below-the-Line marketing campaign
As a BTL campaign is much more targeted in nature and is much easier to track. :
- Conversion rates - from your websites/blog/direct mail campaigns/discount offers, etc
- Click through rates (CTR) - from digital ads
- Open rates - emails/marketing automation campaigns
- Referrals from targeted leaflets or telemarketing campaigns (you should be using come reference)
- Website/blog/landing page visits
- Followers and subscribers - on your blog, email lists and social media profiles, etc
- Uplift in sales during the period of the campaign
- Uplift in Revenues measured for this period.
Of course TTL will just be a combination of the above. But once you have completed your campaign and have results and learnings, what next?
In my humble opinion, there needs to be an innovation workshop. All the learnings of the campaign, the results, understanding what worked and what did not, need to be considered. This really needs participation from senior leaders as well as front line teams. Its up to you whether you invite agencies to this session. This should be the precursor to the next campaign. In a funny way, this is the waterfall project management framework.