In order to move forwards, sometimes you have to work backwards. Sure this might sound like some of Yoda’s Jedi mind bending, but looking back at your business objectives and clearly defining them sets a clear path for your digital marketing campaign. Like multiple north stars, each campaign can then have a different purpose, goal, metric and conversion that targets a respective objective.
In this two-part series, we’ll first dive into what these conversion points might look like – and how they form the key components of a measurement plan.
MEASUREMENT PLANS: WHAT ARE THEY, AND WHY DO WE NEED THEM?
It may sound complex, but a measurement plan is simply a document that details the key points for your digital campaigns. Packing your plan with KPIs helps your team evaluate campaign performance in relation to the outcomes you’re hoping to achieve. And remember, this plan is a living breathing document. It’s used constantly to compare your actual metrics with your KPIs, helping you pinpoint important adjustments that might need to be made. Test. Learn. Optimise.
THE KEY COMPONENTS OF A TIGHT MEASUREMENT PLAN
Begin your measurement plan with a high-level rhetorical question: “What do I want to achieve with my campaign?” As mentioned earlier, if you’ve already articulated your business outcomes, you’re set up for success. The big action gives way to the smaller actions, with campaign goals stemming directly from these outcomes. For instance, if your business outcome is to improve online purchases by X% that year, the campaign goal might be to get more users to interact with your website. Once you’ve got these down, work out whether there’s a certain logical order or if the events are isolated – and you’ll have the basis of your conversion funnel.
MACRO VS MICRO CONVERSIONS
A macro conversion is the main action determining campaign success, while micro conversions are the actions along the way leading to that. A bulletproof measurement plan includes both, as they each give important insights into your customer behaviour that can be reviewed for future campaigns. At the end of the conversion planning process, it’s also a good idea to benchmark them against your competitors.
EVERY CONVERSION HAS A VALUE
By now, your funnel is almost mapped out. But to measure the success of your conversion touchpoints, you need to know their value. Whether it’s a monetary value like purchases, or a value defined by a softer conversion, there are countless conversion value formulas out there. If the conversion value accurately represents the importance of the action and the size of its impact, your campaigns have the potential to be analysed in terms of ROI and revenue against advertising spend.
You’ve got your measurement plan, next you’ll need to action it. Analytics can get messy easily, but this can be mitigated when you have all the tracking organised and tested before you start running your campaigns.
In Part 2 of this series, we’ll explore the nitty gritty of the reporting process using this measurement plan.
