Want to measure your creative success? Don't know how? We do.

In the creative world (and indeed in the marketing world as a whole), we’re taught from our first baby steps to measure, measure again, and then iterate.

That’s fine…in principle. But what if you don’t know how to measure? Or worse, what to measure? There is SO much data out there that it’s pretty overwhelming, especially if you’re just starting out.

And what makes it worse is that a lack of data, or the wrong data, can bring about lack of confidence in creative outputs. If there’s no clear way to measure success, you’re shooting in the dark because you don’t know if you’re hitting the desired objectives.

You need confidence in your creative outputs because, for a start, you’ve already invested resources into producing them.

Take virality for example. If your creative has gone viral, you need to know how and why. If you haven’t gone viral, you need to know why not. But equally – you need to know if you even need to go viral in the first place. It often fools gold, and becomes a misleading target when compared to your objective. Just remember, data is the key to unlocking this knowledge.

Data is the king, KPIs are the Queen

Okay, so the obvious thing to say here is that you need to measure the performance of your creative output. Good, great, we’ve got that established.

But you need to know what you’re measuring against. So while data is king, the KPIs you set for performance are critical in shaping your understanding of success.

If you want to go viral, then a KPI might be views, shares, and engagement. If it’s conversions and sales you’re after, you’ll need to look at click-through-rate and the source of your sales.

Using a solid analytics tool is key here, as the native platform analytics aren’t always as detailed as we need them to be. Find a preferred provider and stick with it – some of the independent providers that integrate into platforms can be incredibly granular, so it’s worth doing your homework and finding the one that’s right for you.

When I say right for you, it could be that price sways your mind, the interface, or the integrations available.

You should be regularly reviewing these metrics though – it’s not a one and done scenario. Consistently monitoring performance will allow you to have a finger on the pulse at all times, which in turn allows you to make the necessary adjustments to optimise performance.

Why does any of this matter?

Sure, you could just set your campaign or creative on its way and say “Laters, good luck!” – but that’s not going to help you. At all.

Measuring performance against clear benchmarks agreed with the main stakeholders in your business provides a tangible way to evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts – and align them with business goals and objectives.

You might think that you’ve got the best creative going, and you may well do, but you won’t know that for sure until you measure it. What seems incredible to you could land awfully for someone else.

It’s also about making data-driven decisions – you can’t iterate and improve on what you’ve already done unless you know for a fact that it’s performed well or not.

You won’t know which tweaks to make, whether to pull the creative, or whether or not you need to double down.

Confidence breeds confidence

Ultimately, businesses that measure the success of their creative efforts are better placed to produce more effective content and increase their overall confidence in their creative strategy.

And confidence is key.

The more you measure, the better you’ll get. You’ll understand the market in more detail, your audience will appreciate you understanding them, and you’ll be able to be more targeted when you’re going through the planning and creation process.

So don’t create and publish blind. Pick an analytics tool that works for you, and measure what matters to you.

There’s no point measuring the amount of comments on a video if what you’re after is a solid CTR.

Don’t operate blind. You’ll run into trouble – and that hurts.