Tips to Get the Results You Want Through Data
Among the countless ads targeted on countless platforms, how do you get your unique business to stand out? Many companies are turning to performance marketing, and for good reason. Tune’s 2018 survey found that among brand and enterprise marketing, 62% was shifting to performance marketing. If you’re looking to jump on this bandwagon but don’t know how to get started, the performance marketing team at BorderX spills all their secrets to creating the perfect plan for success.
The Ingredients
As convoluted as it may seem, starting from careful analysis, planning, and understanding will go a long way. “Finding the most efficient advertising for your business within an advertising system operating on various platforms and sites around the world will require a lot of testing,” says Wonsang Kong, Performance Marketer at BorderX. “However, if you think through these items first, you’ll be able to narrow down your decisions.” Read on for some things you should factor into your performance marketing plan.
Determine what your budget looks like. And once you do, you should do your research on whether that budget is plausible for the platform you’re targeting. Keep in mind that if you’re seeing good results on your strategy down the road, it is always possible to “scale up on the media that’s working well,” says Phoebe Lam, Performance Marketer at BorderX.
Before deciding on a platform, consider the type of product or service you are advertising, and the demographics you are targeting. “You should set advertising objectives according to your objectives: consumer behavior or branding,” says Kong. When thinking about the audience, it’s necessary to think about the consumer decision journey in which “shoppers [are] taking advantage of technology to evaluate products and services more actively, adding and removing choices over time.” Using tools like Google Analytics 4 and Data Studio, you can analyze behaviors of consumers through purchase journey data. You should also take time to interview your consumers and gauge feedback from previous content if possible.
While a complete competitor analysis can be a lengthy process, it’s an unskippable step that directly affects the success of your end results. “It is essential to gather information from competitor analysis in order to grow your business,” says Kong. Starting from keyword research to figure out how your consumers are reaching your company is a good place to start. Studying competitors’ ads and social media content as well as customer reviews help provide a big picture of your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Do your research on related industries and collaboration with other organizations to understand the context.
What type of company are you? This will help determine your target audience. For example, it doesn’t make much sense to target the average consumer as a B2B company. Figuring out what stage you’re in is also helpful for figuring out where to go. Are you a new company looking to grow? Are you an established company looking for a boost? If you have any online assets already, these should factor into the marketing plan. Do you have any assets on Instagram? What about on Facebook or TikTok?
Consider your objectives. Setting clear goals will also help determine the right KPI to measure those goals. And these goals can include anything from a specific number of clicks, sales, to leads, as set by you. No need to stress though, most companies “have different goals in different stages, so that performance marketing goal can be changing,” says Lam. When choosing KPIs, you should think about the type of action that you expect, and the platform you’re using. For example, if you’re new to the scene with an app as your primary product, your KPI might be app installation or first open events rather than in-app purchase conversions.
In deciding on the type of ad you want to run, you’ll have to consider all the factors mentioned above, like target audience, goals, and product. If you are targeting specific behaviors, it’s crucial that you think about whether you are running the ad on the web or app, mobile, or PC.
As the creative is a chance to make lasting impressions on your audience, put your best face forward with an efficient and meaningful way to show off your brand. While the focus of performance marketing is data, do not forego the branding aspect that must be integrated into any carefully crafted plan. Lam describes the ideal type of marketing as one in which there is an “intersection between [branding and performance marketing].” It’s a good idea to keep your eyes peeled for new trends, as well as trends specific to the season or your industry.
Data Optimization
Some key benefits of performance marketing are that every dollar is meaningful and that all data is tracked. It’s through the data that companies can make adjustments right away if the campaign is not going the way they had planned. This optimization can take place as often as 3 times a day to every 48 hours. “Even just a little change in the price of every impression can change the cost per conversion really largely,” says Lam. A lack of optimization means time and budget wasted on ads that aren’t working to their full potential, so success requires constant care and attention to the data.
The Bottom Line
While performance marketing boasts a wide range of benefits, it is not without plenty of effort from the start. “While platform selection and target audience are the most important factors in advertising, research is also a really important factor,” says Kong. By doing the research before jumping in, you are more likely to achieve results that are clear, quick, and visible. With data as a solid rationale, you can make informed decisions that pave the path toward the goals you want to see.
If you’re looking for some help with your next performance marketing plan, you can say hello here.
