So, you have spent lots of money paying a company to do marketing for your business, or, maybe you have spent your own precious time doing marketing. Either way, it costs time and money. The question is, have you ever tried to determine if that time or money is really having a return to your business? How do you know if a third party is really doing a good job? How can you evaluate a return from marketing? That's what I hope to help you with in this article. 

So, let's first explore the broad term of ‘marketing’. Investopedia defines marketing as:

“Marketing refers to activities a company undertakes to promote the buying or selling of a product or service. Marketing includes advertising, selling, and delivering products to consumers or other businesses”.

How Do You Evaluate a Marketing Campaign

This is a simple question, is the cost of marketing less than the profit you make when you sell products as a result of that marketing? If yes, then it is worth it. If not, then it is costing you more than it is making you. Simple!

Something to remember is that marketing can get you website traffic online, or foot traffic in-store, but what is important is how much of that additional traffic converts to sales. A 200% increase in website traffic is irrelevant if your sales percentage remains the same. In order to compare, you need to continuously monitor your sales so you can compare your numbers before, during and after your marketing campaigns. Remember, there are many products and services that are seasonal and fluctuate throughout the year. In order to accurately compare before and after, you need to have some data before and after a campaign so be vigilant in recording your sales data. 

Data Metrics

Some forms of advertising such as google ads, come with metrics which makes it easy to evaluate if your marketing investment is working for you. Using statistics of website traffic changes, ad clicks, conversion tracking and cost per click/conversion etc. From this point it is very simple mathematics. If each conversion is worth 10 dollars to your business, and each conversion costs 5, then your marketing is netting you a 50% return. 

Even if you can’t track from the digital media platform itself, you can track website traffic using webmaster tools. With the exception of those who hide their browsing history, webmaster tools allow you to see where your traffic is coming from. 

Facebook ads can also show a change in website traffic and clicks. Although not as easy to track an actual conversion, it still provides you with metrics to evaluate its effectiveness. 

Generally, digital advertising can have some sort of metric to help you determine if that form of advertising is working for you.

But what about other methods of advertising like billboards, radio ads, television ads, flyers, newspaper adverts, vehicle graphics etc.

Well let's start with the simplest technique, ask your client! When you get a call or meet to discuss work, you could simply ask how that person found your product or service. Most of the time people are happy to say. Accumulate their responses and see which means of advertising is working best and perhaps eliminate the least performing technique. 

You can also do this non-verbally. If you have a new client form or some type of administrative paperwork step in your business, simply list the forms of advertising you use and ask the client to select by which method they found you. This is common practice. I’m sure you have done it yourself many times and probably not paid any attention to it. 

Survey

Ok, let’s consider a scenario where you sell products and don’t meet your clients so you don’t get the opportunity to ask them how they found you. In this case, with the sale of each product, you can offer an incentive to reply to a survey asking questions related to advertising. Many retail stores offer a chance to win a prize if you ‘fill out a survey on the back of the receipt’. 

Discount Codes & Social Media

These days, many businesses engage with customers using a social media ‘influencer’. This is how many social media ‘celebrities’ earn an income. What you will notice is that they commonly have a unique discount code. A unique discount code is used to track how many products are sold as a result of that particular influencer. Again, the math is simple, how much did it cost to engage the influencer and how much did they sell. If the profit is more than the cost of the influencer, then it was worth it. 

Focus Groups

Focus groups are typically the most expensive option as participants are paid for their time, however, in that expense comes a deeper insight into the opinions of the consumer. You can take a deeper dive into how or why the advertising is, or isn’t, working which can be a big help in optimizing the performance of your marketing.

If needed, a focus group can be composed of a particular demographic such as teenagers, elderly, housewives, income range, students etc. Despite the cost, focus groups are a very powerful means of efficient marketing. 

Track Your Success

Every business owner should take a healthy interest in their marketing campaigns whether they are handled by a third party or by themselves. Data and tracking is key to ensuring your marketing bucks are used wisely and efficiently. 

If you need help optimizing your marketing campaigns, contact business coach David D’Silva today.