Marketers, campaign success depends on actually identifying your goals – Marketing Land

Digital marketing is more accountable than ever, but results only matter if they map back to a specific goal. That may seem obvious, but the fact is that many marketers still aren’t sure what results they need from a campaign actually are. So how can they know if their campaigns are successful? The first step is to establish a goal, own it and stick to it, no shifting mid-stream.

It may seem silly to “own” your goals – but it’s so, so important to know what they are and understand their significance. The other, critically important factor to identify is your attribution model. There’s been much written about the many available attribution models, and it can be confusing, so here’s another opportunity to lean on your agency partners. Determine which attribution approach is best, supports your goals and use that to measure success.

Know your goal – and the relevant KPIs

Once you know where you want to go, it’s much easier to determine the KPIs to ensure you’re on the path to success. Is the campaign goal awareness, site traffic, engagement, online sales, lead generation or in-store traffic? In most situations, there will be more than one goal, and that means there will also be more than one KPI. Your agency partners should help you figure out if you’ve got them right and if you’re missing any. This collaborative approach also makes sure you’re on the same page, since you’ll be optimizing and monitoring these KPIs closely.

Here are some common campaign goals and some KPIs that might be associated with them:

Success that matters

Once you’ve decided what your campaign goals are and how you’re going to measure them, the next important step is to STICK TO THEM. If you’re getting great engagement on your sales-focused campaign, don’t change your goal to engagement! Figure out what’s working and what isn’t and adjust so you’re maximizing sales.

All this may seem fairly basic, but many marketers simply don’t do it. Too often, the problem is having or using data incorrectly. So, if we can take five steps back and from there move forward with a clear goal in mind then, we make sure we have the data need to determine success in the year ahead.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

Matt is a recognized leader in online advertising strategy and management, with almost 20 years of experience. He played a significant role in the development of MNI’s proprietary market-collection and media- performance analysis tool. His past experience includes online advertising director at Gannett and regional sales manager at tradeout.com. Matt is involved with numerous industry affiliates, including Media Buyers/Planners Network, Automotive Digital Marketing, Revedia Group, Online Advertising Professionals, ThoseIn Media and the IAB.

Popular Stories