Predicting and proving return on investment to the C-Suite with analytics
Return on Investment (ROI) is sometimes held up as the primary mark of a successful ad campaign. Yet, its calculation is often challenged at the C-suite level. The growth of online advertising over the last two decades has made it an easy convenience to measure ROI based on last customer touch. However, it’s still difficult to prove ROI across online and offline marketing channels. How do you know if your TV spot had any effect on sales versus a banner ad? Does finance agree with it?
Predicting and proving return on investment to the C-Suite with analytics
Integrated and predictive marketing analytics platforms that allow marketers and finance to understand the drivers of demand, enable cross-channel campaign planning and real time tactical course correction are the way forward. In an increasingly fragmented advertising landscape, brands need to holistically understand ROI across different channels, and only the combination of market level analytics and customer level attribution can deliver such promise.
Marketing analytics plays a critical role during campaign planning, as it helps brands understand what worked and what didn’t work in the past, and best predict what will effectively reach target audiences, both online and offline. Standard Life and Audi in the UK are two such examples. Both use marketing analytics to get a complete picture of their target audiences across different marketing channels during planning to understand how effective their investments are likely to be, and how they can engage with consumers help to deliver ROI back into the business.
Analytics are also essential during campaigns. By integrating real-time monitoring, marketing teams can see how effective a particular channel, publisher or tactic is and, if necessary, shift investments across the portfolio. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom is doing this across its digital platforms. By understanding how it’s engaging prospective and current customers, it can see where investments are most effective and adjust as required to maximise the impact of its campaigns to deliver an even greater ROI.
It’s also important to look past campaign data and examine the role of external factors. A fully enabled cross channel campaign that runs on TV, billboards and social may be compelling, but if a competitor’s campaign is more effective or economic factors become an issue to consumers, or even the time of year and weather impact consumer sentiment, it may not deliver expected results. John Lewis’ marketing team, for example, knows the best time to launch its award-winning Christmas campaigns, and uses Neustar MarketShare’s platform to prove to the C-suite, and especially finance, that it can deliver up to £8 in revenue for every £1 spent.
In a world of interconnectedness across people, places and things, marketing analytics solutions are only as good as the data they can access and the scale at which their software can exploit it. Partnerships with social media platforms can be particularly powerful due to the significant amount of available user data and trending patterns based on significant events. Twitter, for example, works with Neustar MarketShare in a number of countries, most recently in Spain to help marketers measure the impact of social media advertising on TV campaigns. By working with providers that have developed such partnerships, brands can get access to valuable information to understand how one platform affects views, engagement and ultimately ROI of another channel. It’s therefore important when looking for an analytics solution to also consider where the data comes from, if the technology that will handle it can scale, and how it will be used to provide the information brands need to make the best marketing decisions.
ROI is the common language across the C-Suite. Without having it as a reliable proof point, brands could effectively be throwing their investments into a black hole, hoping it works. If this article has triggered your interest, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you trust your current marketing analytics?
- Can you accurately explain your marketing mix performance, across online and offline?
- Can you predict future performance with confidence? Does your chief financial officer agree?
- To what extent are your various marketing analytics data, insights and platforms connected, as well as connected to execution?
Jean-Philippe Durrios, Managing director, international Neustar MarketShare.
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