How much does a media report achieve? In order to measure the success of PR measures, a clear communication strategy is essential. The same applies to digital advertising. One of the most efficient methods of measuring the success of advertising is performance marketing. With these 6 tips, you will not only understand the jargon in this area, but also take your basic knowledge to the next level.
Tip no. 1: Set clear and measurable goals
What is the goal of your campaign? More leads? Or increase sales by 30 %? You can align and measure your measures using a variety of different KPIs (key performance indicators). The decisive factor here is which phase of the marketing funnel you are in. The marketing funnel is a tapered model that describes and optimizes the path from potential customer to first contact to purchase. It consists of several stages that create awareness, arouse interest and promote a purchase decision.
If you are at the very beginning of the funnel, it makes sense to focus the campaign goal on impressions and reach in order to be noticed. The most important KPIs are assigned to the different phases here:
- Awareness phase: Impressions, reach, views, followers, etc.
- Engagement phase: number of clicks, likes, engagement rate, number of comments, etc.
- Conversion phase: number of leads, lead score, turnover, cost per click, etc.
- Loyalty phase: number of testimonials, number of solved customer questions, etc.
Tip no. 2: Understand and address your target group
Do you know the behavior, preferences and interests of your target group? Demographic data such as age and place of residence are also important indicators to ensure that the advertising messages reach the right people and appeal to them. If your target group is not homogeneous, you can divide it into segments and create a different message for each. For example, it makes sense to address older people differently to younger people. For target group-specific targeting, you need to analyze your target persons in detail.
Creating personas can help here - example: Jonas from Zurich is 24 years old, likes to play football, has a girlfriend and goes to techno parties at the weekend. Does he wear glasses? What is his income? Also pick out a picture to get a better feel for Jonas.
Tip no. 3: Create content that triggers reactions
Whether video, image or graphic: The content should be appealing and convincing within your target group. And most importantly: attract attention and trigger emotions ! Because without attention and emotions, the advertising message won't stick. But how do I grab attention?
Firstly, with individual messages that your target group feels addressed by and can identify with. This could be a question, a controversial statement or an opinion that represents your target group. Secondly: with visually and graphically high-quality content. This includes eye-catching fonts, colors and, if necessary, effects, provided that moving images are involved. And thirdly: make sure you jump on current trends.
Tip no. 4: Use multi-cultural channels
Use different marketing channels to reach your target group on different platforms. Whether search engine marketing (SEM), social networks, email marketing, influencer cooperations or news portals - a multi-channel strategy, tailored to your target group, increases reach and leads to better results.
If, for example, search engine marketing is used in the awareness and engagement phase, such as Google Ads, more website visits and reach are generated. This involves defining industry-relevant keywords for which your website will be displayed in searches. A distinction is made between keywords for Google Ads, which should be precise, and brand keywords, which are terms tailored to the brand, such as the brand name. Website visits can be monitored using the KPIs "views" and "number of clicks" in a tool such as Google Analytics.
At the same time, you can create organic content around the same keywords on your social media channels. You can measure these activities using the KPIs "impressions", "reach", "engagement rate", "comments" and "number of followers".
At the conversion stage, where actual sales are the goal, you can use influencer cooperations. Suitable influencers generate a strong incentive for potential buyers to buy your product or service by offering discount codes. For a high level of interaction, the engagement rate of the influencer channel should be 3-4%. The engagement rate is made up of reach and interaction, i.e. how many users see your content and how they interact with it with comments, likes and shares. Don't be too blinded by the number of followers. You can measure the success of the influencer cooperation by the number of clicks and the click rate of the attached purchase link. A high click rate shows a high level of interest.
In order to measure the goal of increasing sales and therefore increasing turnover, you should check the ROI (return on investment). This KPI shows what profit the invested capital has generated. To do this, you need to compare the net profit with the invested capital, i.e. the payment to the influencer.
Tip no. 5: Trust is good, control is better
Performance marketing is a process over several weeks and therefore requires regular monitoring in order to be able to make ongoing optimizations. Depending on the size of your daily spend, check your campaign at least twice a week, or even several times a day for larger campaigns, evaluate performance and optimize where necessary to achieve your goals. Are potential customers dropping off after clicking on the online store? This would mean that the click rate and therefore interest is high, but the dwell time and sales are low. What could be the reason for this?
A/B testing allows you to find out how you can optimize dwell time and sales. A/B testing means that a variable, for example the call to action, remains the same in campaign A, while it is changed in campaign B and these two campaigns run parallel to each other. Which campaign is more successful according to your defined KPIs? The A/B test will show you. Be brave and experiment. Optimizations will make your campaign more successful.
Tip no. 6: Track and analyze it!
Use tracking tools and analysis software to analyze your activities and record them in a report. Recommended tools are Google Analyticsthe Meta Business Suite, Opteo, Madgicx and many more. You can compare all relevant key figures and determine whether you have achieved your goals. The conclusion and learnings in the reporting are useful for the next campaign and the optimization of your marketing measures.
Performance marketing is probably one of the most effective marketing strategies - with various tools, it is now easier than ever before. Thanks to technology and with a little know-how, the advertising budget can be used optimally to achieve or even exceed targets. Success comes to those who plan, monitor and analyze carefully, but above all are creative! Because despite smart technologies and measurable data, it is ultimately creativity that makes a campaign memorable for the target group.
And what is the difference between performance and brand marketing?
Our Svenja explains in her YouTube videowhat distinguishes performance marketing from brand marketing and how companies can use both strategies: