Once your advertising campaign has been launched, you must be able to evaluate whether it has produced the expected results. Performance indicators (KPIs) provide valuable information to measure the goals of a digital marketing strategy.
It is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. This makes it possible to avoid making the same mistakes or simply improve certain aspects of your public relations policy.
There are several ways to get information about a campaign: you can ask the advertising agency that produced it (most agencies have tools to evaluate campaigns) or consult the data recorded by the online tools yourself.
KPI
The objectives of a digital marketing strategy must be measured through performance indicators, commonly called "KPIs" (Key Performance Indicators).
The most important KPIs include:
- Traffic: which represents the total number of visits to the site over a given period. To achieve this, the company's site must be optimised for search engine optimisation. This is the famous ‘Search Engine Optimization’ process, often abbreviated to ‘SEO’.
- The number of views on social networks. On Instagram, for example, this data can be consulted via the ‘View statistics’ tab on each professional profile.
- The email open rate, which should generally be between 15% and 25%. E-mail marketing platforms such as Mailchimp, Brevo (ex-Sendinblue), HubSpot, ActiveCampaign and GetResponse offer detailed statistics.
- The number of leads, i.e. the number of Internet users who have shown an interest in a product by leaving their contact details.
- The bounce rate, i.e. the proportion of visitors who do not stay on the site and take no action.
- The engagement rate, which measures the proportion of visitors who have left a comment or ‘liked’ the content.
- The conversion rate, i.e. the ratio between the number of visitors and the number of registrations or purchases.
A numerical indicator matches each goal. A company seeking to make itself known must monitor its monthly traffic. A company seeking to convince of the relevance of its product will look at the average time spent on its site or even at the increase in sales and turnover. Finally, customer loyalty can be assessed through the online repurchase rate. For example, companies can use tools such as Google AdWords or Microsoft AdCenter to access this data.
If using social networks or other digital tools has not allowed you to reach the target clientele, you must address the situation by turning to traditional advertising channels such as newspapers, television, or traditional posters.
The Swiss out-of-home advertising company APG uses the “post-testing” method for its advertising posters, which means it can ascertain the impact of each of the posters it has been asked to produce. For example, 61% of passers-by remembered a Denner advertising campaign, which showed wide-eyed customers with the slogan “Amazing eye-opening prices”. Another example: 51% of passers-by remembered an ad for M-Budget that simply showed items on promotion.
Conventional indicators
Generally speaking, the objectives of a marketing campaign, whether traditional or digital, are not all measurable in themselves. However, there are indicators to determine the extent to which these are being met or not. Some of the most common ones include:
- Turnover;
- Market share (volume or value);
- Penetration of distribution channels;
- Overall profitability;
- Rate of return on investment;
- Retention rate;
- Rate of new customer acquisition;
- Increase in the average basket.
Sources: Hiam, A., Heilbrunn B. "Le Marketing pour les Nuls", John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2021; Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies, Barbara Findlay Schenck, John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2012 ; APG SGA, Google AdWords, Microsoft AdCenter, Facebook.
