e Steps to Establishing Campaign Goals and Digital Advertising KPIs //
Before you launch advertising campaigns, it is important to determine what makes them successful.
Advertisers can easily get lost in the maze of metrics that make up successful campaigns. But, the truth is that not all metrics are equal. To find the secret to a successful advertising campaign, you need to start by asking the right question: “What should we analyze and why?” This means that everything begins with your campaign goal, and ends with your KPIs.
This article will cover everything you need to know to measure the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns, including how to create SMART goals and how to measure it.
1. Set your campaign goal
Lead generation. Reputation. Customer acquisition. These are just a few examples of the campaign goals you want to achieve with your campaign.
The campaign goal is any action that you want the visitor to take. You’ll end up working towards vanity metrics that don’t help you reach your business goals.
To set clear intentions, the SMART mnemonic is a great tool to use when in doubt. The SMART goals are based on five criteria.
- Specific: Describe your desired outcome in exact terms.
- Measurable Determine metrics that will help determine if you have reached your goals.
- Possible: Choose an achievable goal. Do not set yourself up for failure by setting unrealistic goals.
- Relevant Your campaign goals should be aligned with your business goals.
- Time-bound You must set a date to reach your goal.
Take this example: Your brand has created a Valentine’s Day product. Your goal is precise and time-bound. You want to sell 250 units via your ecommerce site in the 10 days leading up to Valentine’s Day. This goal is also pertinent, since each item has a 50 percent profit margin and will therefore contribute significantly to your company’s bottom line. A similar product was sold 200 units last year. You believe that a 50-unit increase can be achieved by making some strategic changes to your marketing campaign (e.g., using social proof).
You will need to attract 5,000 people to your landing page, and convert them at a rate that is 5% to achieve your goal. This goal can be measured so you can measure success after your campaign is over.
It’s easy to measure the effectiveness of digital campaigns once you have established a SMART goal. The next step is to understand what you should track.
2. Select your key performance indicators (KPIs).
Setting a KPI involves deciding what to measure. This is the most important stage. It is important to assess the value metrics that will positively affect your company’s goals.
Track Maven’s report digital marketing shows that while 66.3% believe it is easy to demonstrate marketing impact, only 27.62% think they are very efficient at doing so internally.
Marketing can be difficult because many marketers use the terms interchangeably and confuse KPIs with metrics. It is crucial to understand the differences between them in order to measure and report on advertising campaigns.
Marketing expert Richard Hatheway explains
It is easiest to understand the differences between KPIs and metrics by first defining them as both a quantitative measurement of a tactical or strategic activity. At the highest level, metrics are tactical and KPIs strategic. Once you get that, it becomes easy to understand them.
KPIs can be quantifiable and measurable values that reflect a business’s strategic goal or objective, as well as how successful it is at achieving that goal. A metric, which is also quantifiable and measurable, is a measure of how effective the activities are (tactical), to support the achievement of the KPI.
Your return on ad spending is a standard KPI that can be used to gauge the effectiveness of your digital advertising campaigns. ROAS consists of three metrics: cost per click, conversion rate and average order value. This KPI allows you to see how well you communicate advertising messages to your target audience. Your ROAS will rise if your ads are more relevant to your target audience.
It is important to know what metrics you should be measuring. However, it is equally important to understand what metrics you should not ignore. Vanity metrics only measure the success or failure of a marketing activity, not the ultimate goal. A vanity metric can be used to track a keyword ranking that does not convert traffic.
Another example is increasing landing page traffic without optimising for conversions, with the long-term goal to increase customer acquisition. You can achieve your campaign goals by distinguishing between vanity metrics and value metrics.
Once you have defined your KPIs, and selected your priority metrics, you can consolidate all your data on one report or dashboard.
3. You can measure the effectiveness of your campaign
The best place to collect and analyze campaign data is a marketing dashboard. With your priority metrics and KPIs, you can create a dashboard to visualize your campaign performance.
It is important to check the dashboard at certain intervals. It’s best to review ongoing campaigns at specific intervals, such as monthly, quarterly, or annually. You might consider evaluating performance on a weekly basis for shorter-term campaigns.
You can prove the effectiveness of your marketing efforts by accurately measuring their effectiveness. You can also benchmark your performance to see how you can improve. It’s a good idea to evaluate the effectiveness of your digital advertising campaigns.
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