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Unbeatable Tactics to Drive Exceptional Marketing Returns
In today’s fast-paced economy, achieving and maintaining a decent marketing return on investment (ROI) isn’t always a smooth process. Yet, like a hot knife cutting through butter, the best marketers and entrepreneurs always seem to navigate the toughest of odds with ease.
Regardless of the circumstances, the skillful marketer isn’t easily hindered, whether its ever-increasing revenue targets, market fluctuations or heavy competition. But what makes successful marketers a cut above the rest?
As a results-driven digital marketing agency, Rogue Digital has worked with numerous marketers from varying organisations. And in our pursuit of achieving and surpassing our clients’ marketing goals, we’ve learnt that change is the only constant, yet skills such as strategic planning and adaptability aren’t peripheral.
Collectively, our most experienced and brightest minds collated 10 tested and proven strategies to improve marketing ROI. Given proper execution, any business can apply these strategies to proliferate their marketing returns, regardless of industry or organisational structure.
But first, what is Marketing ROI?
Marketing ROI Definition
Marketing ROI is the returns generated through marketing efforts. In other words, marketing ROI measures the effectiveness of an organisation’s marketing campaign against expenses incurred.
Marketing ROI Formula
Marketing Revenue / Marketing Costs = Marketing ROI
For example, if you spent $100,000 on marketing and managed to generate $1,000,000 in sales, your marketing ROI is 10 times.
Achieving a Higher Marketing ROI: The Rundown
1. Establish Goals by Defining Clear Objectives
ROI has a broad definition. From the perspective of a brand marketer, true ROI comes from having built a successful brand over the years. And as a digital marketing agency, we don’t disagree with this either, having seen first hand the effects of strong branding positively correlated to both short and long-term marketing success.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, brand and performance marketing aren’t mutually exclusive. We’ve found that applying a holistic marketing strategy that combines both branding and ROI-driven strategies almost always leads to an improvement in returns. Take this case study by Google for example, by not holding the traditional view of branding and performance marketing as siloed efforts, greater returns were generated.
Regardless if your objectives are centred around long-term branding or performance marketing, understanding your business goals is the first step in formulating an effective strategy.
2. Sharpen your Edge with Quality Research
If your campaign isn’t working as well as you’d like, perhaps it isn’t resonating with your audience. Before you dive in to make changes to your marketing campaign, consider conducting thorough research. Understand what your audience wants, the language they speak, the benefits that resonate with them and the media they consume.
Your competitors’ websites and social media pages are rich in information with regards to their marketing activities. And that’s only scratching the surface. Leverage the power of Facebook’s Ad Library or the TikTok Creative Centre for deeper insights into your competitors’ social media ads and any promotions they offer.
Don’t just search on Google for your competitor’s ads. Harness the power of the Google Keyword Planner to better understand the demand for your brand and products, in comparison to your competitors’. Moreover, understanding the search landscape for your keywords, empowers you to invest your marketing dollars more effectively.
Between Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), which channel works best? The answer varies depending on the average monthly search volume and the advertising cost per click (CPC). For low search volume and low CPC keywords, SEM would be the better option. Conversely, SEO would be better suited for high search volume and high CPC keywords. Both SEM and SEO could work if search volume is high and CPCs are acceptable.
A well-researched campaign works wonders in driving down costs and improving results. Speak to your clients to understand their needs. Don’t forget that market fluctuations could cause changes in consumer behaviour as well.
Essentially, proper research enables you to make informed decisions. Coupled with strategic execution and you should expect to improve your marketing returns.
3. Un-muddy the Waters by Quantifying Marketing Returns
Moving towards an improved marketing ROI requires breaking down your collective marketing efforts. Scrutinise every marketing strategy, tactic and channel: Which marketing channels have delivered a positive return? From a broader perspective, consider each marketing channel you’ve invested in, its effectiveness, and more importantly, its ROI.
Is it possible to track results for all my marketing channels?
The short answer, no. The long answer? Also no. Measuring all your marketing channels isn’t possible because not all marketing mediums are quantifiable. In general, digital marketing channels (SEM, SEO, SMA etc) are measurable and traditional marketing channels (billboards, flyers, mrt banners etc) aren’t, however, there are always exceptions.
While not all marketing channels are measurable, it isn’t all gloom and doom since the savvy marketer knows in advance which channels are ideal for meeting their goals. Measurability is also why digital marketing has become immensely popular in recent years, since making marketing decisions based on data has proven to be optimal for growth.
Measuring ROI and identifying your most effective marketing channels requires your marketing efforts to be measurable.
For new businesses or brands that haven’t been measuring results, the most important course of action would be to start quantifying all measurable marketing mediums.
How many leads, purchases or store visits has each marketing channel generated? Which marketing channels are the most cost-efficient? Reallocating your budget to the most efficient channels would almost certainly improve your marketing returns.
4. Account for Customer Lifetime Value
The customer lifetime value measures the total amount a customer spends. Over the course of the customer’s lifetime, they may make more than one purchase. This means that the true value of each new customer acquisition shouldn’t be perceived at face value and true ROI is only unveiled over time.
Customer Lifetime Value = Customer Value x Customer Lifespan
Additionally, by taking the average value of each customer purchase multiplied by the average number of times a customer buys over their lifetime, you’ll be able to understand the average lifetime value of each customer.
There are distinct advantages to measuring customer lifetime value. For one, it provides you a more accurate assessment of your marketing returns, as opposed to only attributing the initial customer purchase.
Two, understanding the value of each customer allows you to tailor campaigns to reach customers with higher budgets through targeted campaigns.
Three, also known as lifetime value lookalike audiences, this strategy allows you to target potential customers who haven’t bought from you but exhibit similar online behaviours similar to your highest spending customers.
5. Identify Loopholes and Opportunities with a Marketing Audit
A proper marketing audit is paramount to effective strategic formulation. Analysing the nuts and bolts of what makes your marketing strategy tick requires in-depth expertise and analytical precision, something that is only accumulated after years of experience in this field. However, experience alone isn’t enough. The best marketers possess vital capabilities such as strategic know-how, and this is only acquired through the practical, hands-on experience of having achieved countless successful marketing campaigns themselves.
For the entrepreneur or marketer that aims to improve their marketing ROI, a professional marketing audit conducted by an experienced digital strategist is fundamental for success.
An effective marketing audit identifies gaps between you and your competitors, cost-inefficiencies within your marketing strategy and growth opportunities that may have been previously overlooked.
6. Set Accurate Benchmarks and Aim for Realistic Targets
Once you’ve understood the effectiveness of your marketing efforts via an audit, you are now ready to set benchmarks. The key metrics to focus on would likely change depending on your business model and marketing goals.
For instance, if you’re an e-commerce business, the marketing metrics that matter the most would likely include the following:
Primary Metrics
- Purchases
- Cost per Purchase
- Purchase Conversion Value
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
- Conversion Rate (Purchases)
Secondary Metrics
- Add Payment Info
- Checkout
- Add to Cart
- Content / Product View
- Website Engagement (e.g. Bounce Rate, Average time spent on website, number of web pages visited etc)
- Click-through Rate
- Clicks
- Reach
- Impressions
On the other hand, if your main marketing goal is generating leads, the ideal metrics to focus on would look drastically different:
Primary Metrics
- Enquiries (Online Form Submissions, Phone Calls, Message Submission etc)
- Cost per Enquiry
- Conversion Rate (Enquiries)
Secondary Metrics
- Email Button Clicks
- Chat Button Clicks (e.g. WhatsApp)
- Website Engagement (e.g. Bounce Rate, Average time spent on website, number of web pages visited etc)
- Click-through Rate
- Clicks
- Reach
- Impressions
A retail business aiming to increase store visits might favour a different approach:
Primary Metrics
- Store Visits (e.g. POS sales)
- Enquiries (Online Form Submissions, Phone Calls, Message Submission etc)
- Cost per Enquiry
- Conversion Rate (Enquiries & engagement)
Secondary Metrics
- Local Actions (e.g. Clicking on the “Get directions” button)
- Email Button Clicks
- Chat Button Clicks (e.g. WhatsApp)
- Content / Product Views
- Website Engagement (e.g. Bounce Rate, Average time spent on website, number of web pages visited etc)
- Click-through Rate
- Clicks
- Reach
- Impressions
While the key metrics for each brand is unique, the fundamental approach to setting benchmarks is similar. If the goal of an e-commerce business is to drive sales and the primary metric they’ve selected is ROAS, the first step would be to identify the average ROAS that they are currently generating.
For instance, if their ROAS in the last 6 months averages at 3 times, that would be their current benchmark. Having identified the current benchmark, the brand could set a target to achieve a ROAS of 7 times within the next 6 months. This of course requires optimising its current campaigns, adjusting its marketing strategy and switching to more cost-efficient marketing platforms.
7. Experiment with Split Testing to Uncover Gold
An important component in performance marketing, split testing has been proven to effectively improve marketing results when implemented correctly. While marketers can twiddle endless dials to figure out what’s going on, split testing effectively identifies the variables responsible for driving results.
What is Split Testing?
Split testing or A/B Testing is a controlled experiment used to test the effectiveness of different variables within your campaign. The most common form of a split test would be an A/B Test, ceteris paribus. This means that only 1 variable is different while everything else stays the same allowing the marketer to identify the most effective variant.
Examples of split test variables include:
- Target Audiences
- Keywords
- Keyword Match Types
- Search Terms
- Demographics (e.g. Age, Gender, Income Levels etc)
- Location
- Bidding Strategies (e.g Maximise Clicks, Maximise Conversions, Maximise Conversion Leads, Target Impression Share etc)
- Ads (e.g. Ad Copy, Headlines, Call-to-actions (CTAs), Ad Creatives etc)
- Landing Pages
How does Split Testing Work?
Take a hypothetical lead generation campaign for example. Let’s say that we have two audiences that we’d like to test. A split test would work by keeping all other variables constant while setting up a test campaign to target both audiences simultaneously. With the goal of achieving the maximum number of leads in mind, the audience that delivers the highest lead count would prove to be the most effective—within the confines of this experiment at least.
By continuously running structured, disciplined and consistent split tests, your marketing data would be more refined. And making sense of that refined data would allow your ROI to improve over time.
8. Avoid the Pitfalls of Data Fallacies
When dealing with huge amounts of data, data fallacies could sneak in and stump one’s interpretation. The results? Catastrophic. Especially since the wrong interpretation of your data could lead to disastrous outcomes.
What are Data Fallacies?
Data fallacies are errors in interpretation and analysis that result in inaccurate assumptions, incorrect conclusions and erroneous decision making.
Examples of Data Fallacies
The most common examples of data fallacies include cherry picking, sampling bias, the gambler’s fallacy, false casualties and false dilemmas. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Cherry picking (or the fallacy of incomplete evidence) results from coming to a conclusion through selective data while ignoring contradicting evidence. On the other hand, sampling bias occurs in marketing when the dataset that we’re analysing doesn’t completely represent our target audience. The gambler’s fallacy is derived from assuming the probability of a certain outcome based on historical data.
False casualties are common in marketing with the assumption that when two events occur, one of these events must have influenced the other. False dilemmas, on the other hand, limit the full range of options available to decision makers by presenting an incomplete list.
Are any of the above scenarios familiar? If you’re a marketer or entrepreneur, chances are, you likely have encountered reports or insights plagued by fallacious data. On the bright side, being aware of their existence is helpful in helping you steer away from making uninformed decisions that could lead to cataclysmic consequences.
9. Captivate Audiences Endlessly with Refreshing Allure
An important aspect of any marketing strategy would be keeping your campaigns, promotions, messaging and creatives fresh. Without a doubt, your target audience will eventually get tired of your brand if they keep seeing the same ad or promotion over and over. Evading the death knell of marketing fatigue is indispensable for any marketer that wants to maintain cost-effective results. And we can’t emphasise the importance of this enough, having run countless digital marketing campaigns in the course of our careers.
10. Cultivate Loyalty
Increasing purchases through discounts have proven to be effective in driving higher sales volumes. However, this comes at an expense to the brand in the form of a reduced ROI. While we are not saying that promotions are guaranteed to drive lower returns, in most cases, profitability would likely take a hit if your products aren’t priced correctly.
The solution? Implement a loyalty program that rewards returning customers instead. While this usually comes in the form of discounts and rebates, a well-implemented loyalty program is able to increase ROI as compared to one-off promotions. Offer discounts to incentivise returning purchases or memberships. Host exclusive sales or events for loyalty customers. Build a mailing list to remind customers of your presence.
And it doesn’t simply stop there, since a brand is ultimately made up of its customers. And brand loyalty is honed through creating relationships that make customers feel valued.
Seeking a Digital Agency to Help Improve your Marketing ROI?
We’ve got you covered. Our team of experienced digital marketing agency strategists are well-versed in turning non-performing digital campaigns into cost-efficient revenue drivers.
Reach out to us for a non-obligatory digital marketing audit today.
