Marketing has been the heart and soul of any business enterprise along the ages and we are currently living in the age of digital marketing. While decades ago most ads and commercials were shared on the radio, TV and in newspapers, the internet is the public forum where companies are looking for new customers.
The Importance of Measuring Digital Marketing Results
The world of digital marketing comprises of Google AdWords campaigns, banner ads, social media ad campaigns, and other specific inbound marketing campaigns. All these cost money, and the amounts are quite significant for startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises.
For this reason, every entrepreneur and manager needs to make the right choices when it comes to digital marketing. It’s important to invest money into campaigns which yield the expected results (that is, the return on investment). However, the only way of knowing where and when to spend your money and whether you have hit or missed your target is to know how well your ad campaign has performed.
Today we will show you a step-by-step guide to help you understand how to measure the results of your digital marketing campaigns.
Set Your Goals
One of the most important steps in any successful marketing campaign is knowing what you want to get from it. Not all digital marketing campaigns have the end goal of getting a direct sale. Many companies want to expand their reach and make their brand image known to more people. These are branding campaigns, which have the purpose of familiarizing prospects with the company and its products.
Other campaigns have the goal of attracting qualified leads, by inviting them to subscribe to the newsletter, download a video or eBook, or take part in a contest. All in all, a successful campaign starts with a clearly defined goal.
Decide on the Key Performance Indicators
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are parameters used to evaluate how much you spend for various end results. These parameters refer to website traffic, conversion, lead generation and sales. The problem is that there are many KPIs to choose from. If you do not choose the relevant ones, you will not know for certain whether you are actually reaching your goals.
For example, if your key goal is to build a list of subscribers, but you use the click-through rate as your main KPI instead of completion of the call to action, you will only measure the number of people who clicked on your ad or email link. This is different from the number of actual subscribers you gained from the total number of people who saw the ad/email.
Define the Value Success Parameters
While the ideal result is a 100% ROI, it never actually happens – not even for the largest companies with huge marketing budgets and seasoned specialists available. The consumer market is extremely fragmented and people are more and more savvy and cautious when they are looking for products and services.
It is very important to identify and define realistic and attainable parameters. If you set your parameters too low, your perceived success is not really a success. If they are too high, your results will never match them.
Identify the Best Tools to Monitor Your Campaigns
Once you have decided on all of the above, it is time to select an online tool to keep track of your digital marketing campaigns and measure their results. There are many solutions available; some of them free, others with various payment plans available. Google Analytics, HubSpot, Hootsuite, and Moz are some of the most popular platforms for monitoring online and social media ad campaigns, each of them offering a comprehensive range of functionalities.
Monitor, Optimize and Improve Your Campaigns
Last but not least, you should not wait until the end of your campaign and lose money in case they do not work as they should. Based on daily results, you can step in and stop or change your campaigns according to the responses you get from your prospects. This helps mitigate your losses and turn around a campaign, making it reach its goals even though the initial reports were not promising.
