3 Tips for Effective Measurement in Digital Marketing

If you’re investing in digital marketing, then you want to be sure that it’s working, right?

Of course you do. But how can you tell whether or not your efforts are paying off?

 

There are the obvious things, like rankings. Are you showing up in a top spot for the common search terms your target audience is most likely to be searching? Then you’re doing something right, from an SEO perspective, at least. But effective measurement in digital marketing is about more than just that.

And the truth is that measuring the impact of your digital marketing efforts isn’t always a piece of cake. Sometimes, it can be downright difficult. That’s why I’m sharing three simple tips. These can make it easier for you to track your marketing campaigns effectively and accurately.

 

 

 

Here’s what I recommend:

 

1. Understand what success looks like to you

 

‘Success’ is a tricky word in the world of digital marketing. Why? Because marketing is a very broad topic. What one business considers to be a successful result won’t always be the same for another. Some organisations will determine marketing success by traffic statistics. Others will measure success by working out cost-per-lead. Some might consider success in terms of return on investment.

And so, my first tip for effective measurement in digital marketing is to know what success looks like to you and your business. Do you want to drive more traffic to your website? Do you want to increase sales of a particular product? Knowing what you want is essential. It’ll allow you to determine what metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) you’ll use to measure the overall impact of your marketing campaigns.

Figuring out your KPIs will not only dictate what you’re measuring but also when you measure it. For example, I’ve heard of some organisations trying to measure return on investment after just one month, which I can’t get my head around. I mean, some digital marketing tactics are massively powerful. But it’s not particularly realistic to expect a campaign to pay for itself – and go beyond that – within just a few weeks.

Another thing that’s definitely worth mentioning here is that it’s good to be specific. For example, I’ve worked with businesses who have said they’re going to measure conversions. What conversions? ‘Conversion’ is too broad an area for effective measurement. It could mean any sort of action, from newsletter signups to downloads to making a purchase. Effective measurement is specific measurement.

 

 

2. Identify an attribution model

 

If you’re using digital marketing automation tools, then you’re probably finding it quite easy to incorporate a number of different marketing methods into your strategy. You might be using SEO, PPC, email marketing, and social media marketing simultaneously for optimal impact. This means that measuring your marketing efforts as a whole won’t always tell you what’s working, and what’s not.

That’s why my second tip for effective measurement in digital marketing is to build an attribution model. This will help to break down all the different tactics that you’re using so that you can better see which of your efforts are driving results. Focusing on attribution can give you peace of mind, not only that your campaigns are working, but that you’re investing in the right sort of marketing activities.

Attribution can be a challenging area to navigate. However, it’s well worth getting to grips with it or partnering with someone who can. There’s a great research piece by McKinsey about marketing analytics that you may want to check out. The research estimates that businesses can reduce their digital marketing spend by as much as 20% by incorporating attribution into their measurement techniques.

How? It’s simple. When results are attributed to a specific marketing activity, it becomes much easier to see what tactics are driving results. You’ll also be able to see which tactics are costing more than they’re worth. This is a fantastic opportunity. It’s a chance for businesses to reallocate their spending. They can invest more in the marketing methods that are working for them, and drive fewer resources into tactics that are ‘just OK’.

 

 

3. Put everything into context

 

I once worked with a business owner who was very clear about what they wanted to measure. They knew exactly how they were going to do it, and had built a pretty solid attribution model. Which was great. And yet the measurement wasn’t effective or valuable to the organisation at all. Why? Because there was absolutely no context. The measurement didn’t give any indication of marketing campaign success.

What happened was this: a company wanted to see how much traffic their social media campaign was driving to a particular landing page. They were measuring unique views on that page. And they found that their social efforts had directly driven 100* (*not the actual figure!) unique visitors in X days. So what? Is 100 a good number or a bad number? The company didn’t know whether to be happy or not.

Without context, the facts and figures you’re going to get from your measurement activities are completely arbitrary. They’re just random numbers, and they mean very little. What this company should have done is to measure traffic share, instead of just traffic. This would have provided deeper insight into exactly how that social media campaign was performing.

What we had was a company that knew that social was driving 100 visits over X number of days. The business could also have measured page visits driven by other referral sources, like email marketing, or PPC, or guest posts. Then that 100 would have context; the business would have known if it was good or bad. If other sources were driving just 10 visits, for example, it would be safe to say social was doing pretty well.

 

It’s an art, not a science

 

Effective measurement in digital marketing is more likely to provide you with actionable insight into your marketing activities and efforts. But it’s important to remember that it’s not an exact science. Don’t build your entire digital marketing strategy around the results of campaign measurement. Instead, use these results to guide and direct your approach. That’s exactly what we do for our clients at myCloud.

Through our digital marketing support services, we work with you to determine the most effective and powerful marketing tactics for you and your business. We ensure you’re always getting the most bang for your buck. Book a call with me, Tim, to find out more about getting the most from your marketing efforts.