After following all of the steps you learned in Parts 1 and 2, you are ready to launch your advertising campaign. Now it's time to determine how you'll know if it achieves its objectives. To do this, you will have to measure and analyze your campaign to understand its effectiveness.
How can I analyze my campaign's performance? What metrics can I use to assess campaign effectiveness??
In Part 3, we will cover these different points and give you new keys to success.
Use the AIDA Model
The AIDA model is a tool to help you create your performance indicators. It was initially used by advertisers to identify the four phases that the consumer will pass through before purchasing:
A for attention: Has your target audience become aware of your product or service?
I for interest: Have you aroused interest?
D for desire: Create and maintain a desire for the product.
A for action: Convince to purchase.
This model dates from 1898 and remains one of the cornerstones of advertising thinking. As you can see by the advice Google AdWords offers customers regarding the challenge of advertising overcrowding, standing out, and capturing consumer curiosity, it's still relevant today.
AIDA
Google AdWords.
Attention
With text or illustrated ads.
Interest
You ads appear on websites directly related to products and services. These match the interests of users visiting these websites.
Desire
By displaying what's unique about your product, your process, or your other competitive advantages, you could convert your target audience interested by your products and services.
Action
Ordering your products and getting 10% off could encourage a customer to purchase your product.
By using the AIDA method, you can more easily define your quantitative and qualitative key metrics.
The ideal scenario would be to focus on statistical (quantitative) metrics. It is easier to measure and compare such results as month-on-month or year-on-year.
With this type of metric, you can compare how many people saw your campaign compared to a similar one a year ago, then measure the impact on sales.
You can also use qualitative metrics, which are more subjective.
For example, you can survey people's opinions of your advertising campaign, which is a personal judgment (qualitative) and can't be quantified. However, you could use the percentage of people whose opinion was broadly positive, giving you a number for comparison purposes.
Determine Your Key Performance Indicators
What are key performance indicators?
Perhaps you are familiar with the abbreviation KPI (key performance indicators). The best KPIs for your project will be determined by the product, brand, or even advertising strategy. To define them, first think about the criteria and measurement factors.
A good KPI allows you to learn lessons, in particular, by comparing the cost/effectiveness impact of the different implemented methods that will further your advertising strategy.
To help you, here are some examples of key indicators for your print and digital campaigns; you need to define them well in advance and confirm their usability:
Impact: An indicator of what consumers remember about your advertising campaign. Some companies try to be provocative in their advertising messages to gain notoriety. Impact alone is not enough to measure your campaign's performance: you need to take other parameters into account.
Attribution: An indicator that measures your message's quality: is it unique to your product, or does it apply to similar products? You must be clear, consistent, and explicit in your advertisement so your competitors can't hijack your message.
Comprehension: Do potential purchasers grasp your advertising campaign? To ensure this, you must have a clear and understandable message that contains one key idea. Avoid the long list of additional product benefits, and go directly to what differentiates you from your competitors.
Demarcation: Is your advertising message unique and unlike any other in your market? This KPI measures consumers' reactions to your advertising.
Implementation: This indicator measures your communication campaign's versatility in several formats over the long term (online and offline) and its ability to translate into foreign markets.
Target audience: The idea is to make sure that your advertising campaign is designed for the previously defined target audience. This indicator ensures that your campaign is relevant to the audience's age, gender, habits, interests, socio-economic category, and location.
Longevity: Does your campaign go beyond a fad or short-lived trend to stand the test of time?
The Andrex puppy advertisements, first seen in 1972, have been synonymous with the brand for nearly 50 years, from the packaging to soft toys and countless millions of dollars of advertising budgets.
The Andrex puppy: 48 years and counting...
Credibility: Make sure that your advertisement is credible and that it shows your product according to its features. Avoid false advertising! It could destroy your efforts and set back your brand image.
Recall: An indicator that measures whether your target audience remembers your ad. It can be either prompted (do you recognize this ad/slogan/brand?) or spontaneous recall. Truly successful campaigns leave their mark on a generation.
Bounce rate: An indicator that allows you to calculate the number of users who visit a page of your website and immediately leave the site. The higher your bounce rate, the less effective your digital advertising campaign.
Number of unique visitors: How many different individuals have visited a site, part of it, or an application?
Time spent per unique visitor: The average number of minutes (or seconds) visitors spend on part of a site.
Conversion rate: An indicator that refers to the percentage of visitors who followed up on their site visit by purchasing the product, requesting a quote, or registering.
Measure Your ROI
Once you've set your KPIs, create a benchmark against which you can measure future campaigns. With these comparisons, you'll be able to measure the return on investment (ROI) on your advertising budget.
Calculate ROI by taking the gain in revenue and dividing it by the cost of the investment:
If your campaign cost $1,000,000, and your revenue increased by $6,000,000, then your ROI is ($6m - $1m)/$1m = 5x. Congratulations, you've made five times as much as you've spent.
Let's Recap!
Getting the measurement right for your advertising campaign can be as important as launching it in the first place.
The AIDA model (attention, interest, desire, action) helps you model the stages of consumers' decisions about whether to buy your product.
Defining the right KPIs allows you to create a benchmark to measure the future performance of your campaigns.
It is possible to define different indicators that will allow you to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns as a first step and to be able to improve it at a later time to increase your ROI.
Over the next three chapters, we'll examine how to measure effectiveness in print and online campaigns.
