All marketing campaigns need to be measured. Businesses invest time and money into their marketing campaigns; hence they need to know whether their efforts are paying off. It can help businesses not only track their ROI but also optimize their marketing campaigns. There are many platforms available that can help marketers collect data and analyze it. However, the vast amount of data available can make the process overwhelming and complex. Many marketers end up making mistakes that can cost them missing out on valuable insights or collecting the wrong information. This can lead them to make wrong decisions that affect the overall performance of their campaigns.
Marketers may have the analytics tools to track data, however, they might end up measuring metrics that would not show any significant results. Or they might exclude certain metrics and steps that can help them measure their results successfully. In this article, we will discuss the common errors marketers make while measuring their campaigns which will help you learn from their mistakes. You can also look at them as best practices that you can adopt to avoid making these mistakes.
If you want to get a headstart on creating a marketing measurement plan then you can use our analytics measurement model template and reach out to us if you want us to help you personalize it according to your business practices.
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Here are common mistakes marketers make when measuring marketing success.
Not measuring at all
One of the biggest mistakes marketers can make is not tracking their marketing success at all. This will result in them missing out on any valuable insights about their marketing campaigns. Measuring your marketing efforts is an important aspect of creating successful marketing campaigns. Data can show you how your campaign is contributing to the overall revenue of your business. Based on this data you can see what is or is not working in your campaign. It can show you which areas need improvement and optimization. Also, with data, you can identify which channel is working better so that you can only focus on that. This can allow you to be more efficient with your resources and invest in campaigns that bring you results.
Tracking Vanity Metrics
Tracking metrics that don’t matter is another mistake that can negatively impact your marketing measurement. Vanity metrics consist of data like the number of social media followers, subscribers, page views, and other flashy metrics that look significant on paper but do not help your business goals. They can provide positive reporting but are not useful for making any future marketing decisions. Tracking actionable metrics can allow you to make positive changes in your campaigns as they provide significant insights.
For example, tracking page views for your blog posts is a good start for your content marketing plan. However, page views don’t determine where these views are coming for or how long a visitor spent on your page. Instead, you can track the bounce rate which is the percentage of visitors who visit a page on your website and then exit without any further engagement. If you see you have a high bounce rate you can make improvements to the landing pages by adding CTAs or links that can allow the visitors to engage further. This metric shows you if your visitors are engaging with your site or not. Based on this metric you can take further action. You should track actionable metrics that give you valuable insights so you can further optimize your marketing campaigns.
Not measuring Cost Per Acquisition
Cost Per Acquisition or CPA is an important metric that allows you to measure the total cost to acquire a single customer through a campaign or channel. This metric is crucial in determining how much you need to spend on a single customer considering the value of that customer to your business. Many marketers and advertisers leave out this metric in their data analysis which is a mistake. If you are using any paid advertisements, you need to include this metric in your data analysis.
For many marketers, the most common measurement metric for paid advertisements is Cost Per Click or CPC. This metric shows you the amount you are paying for a click. It is another example of a vanity metric that seems significant, but it does not give you much insight into your budget. Your ads might get many clicks, but it might not convert the visitors. It’s good to monitor this metric but this should not be the main focus. For example, if your CPC is $1 and you get 100 clicks, but only 1 visitor has converted. This means you paid $100 for a single customer. If that customer invests less than $100 in your company, then you have overpaid. Tracking CPA can give you more control over your budget. Without CPA you risk overpaying to acquire customers that do not contribute much to your company.
Allocating resources on non-performing channels
With the help of data analytics, you can determine which channels are performing well and which are not. If you continue to invest in channels that are not bringing results that means you are not measuring your marketing efforts effectively. Focus your resources, money, and time on the channels that contribute to your overall revenue. Along with the budget, you should also track the engagement of each channel. Look at how your potential customers are engaging with different marketing or advertising campaigns, and which campaign is driving more conversions. This can show you the effectiveness of each of your marketing campaigns. With these insights, you can focus on channels that have more potential to serve your business.
Lack of A/B testing
The testing of various elements of your marketing or advertising campaign is important to the overall success. A/B testing allows you to compare and measure different elements of your campaign so that you can decide which works better for you. With experimenting, you can find out the preferences of your target audience and accordingly modify your campaigns. If you don’t run testing, you might miss out on valuable opportunities. Along with testing, you must compare the results which can help you in your final decision making. You can run tests for many different elements. For example, if you are doing paid ads, you can make two similar ad copies with different CTAs to test which copy gets the most impressions, clicks, or conversions. This way you can determine which CTA performed the best and continue using that throughout the campaign.
Similarly, you can also run A/B testing for landing pages. The landing page is the page your visitor comes in contact with your website. For paid ads, you can create two different landing pages with different elements like layout, CTAs, images, or color story. You can see which of them had more conversions and then continue using it. Testing allows you to improve your marketing or advertising campaigns and make them more engaging to your target audience.
Not having a measurement plan
A measurement plan allows you to organize your marketing objectives and track the metrics to measure its success. This plan lets you outline your goals, lets you plan how you will implement these goals, and then track your results. It is a great way to plan and measure your marketing campaigns. It gives you a bird’s eye view of all your campaigns, so you don’t miss out on important data. Having a measurement plan in place is a good practice to make your marketing campaigns successful. Along with tracking your campaign’s progress, it can also help you with planning other important aspects of it.
Want to know more about the importance of a measurement plan? Read our blog on Why Does Your Marketing Need A Measurement Plan.
These mistakes can make a big difference in how you see and analyze your data. Data analytics is important for any digital marketing efforts. Measuring data correctly can help you make profitable business decisions that can increase your revenue. Now that you know about these mistakes you can pay close attention to how you are measuring your marketing efforts. You can avoid these mistakes and adopt practices that can make your marketing campaigns successful.
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