It is quite a reasonable doubt that arises for companies from all sectors that seek to have a decent presence on the Internet. Everyone knows that if you want to do business, both outside and inside the network, it is necessary to have a strategy that helps you achieve the objectives set.
But what happens when companies find themselves in the middle of a huge sea surrounded by online marketing companies? Whether they call themselves online marketing agencies, consultants or advertising offices, how do you know which of them is the right one to manage advertising budgets well without wasting them?
Less Daily leave here a series of recommendations of interest that can be of great help when it comes to clearing up this great doubt.
THE AGENCY MUST UNDERSTAND THE PURPOSE OF THE BUSINESS BEFORE TAKING ANY ACTION.
It may seem obvious, but the best way to achieve goals is to define and understand them perfectly. Online marketing agencies are specialists in that, knowing the operation of each company, each sector and what their objectives are.
Jostein Gaarder already said it in his work Sofia’s world: “If we don’t know where we are going at all times, it can be useful to know where we come from.”
For this reason, holding a meeting, in which the company can fully express its operations and activities, as well as its history, is vital when defining objectives.
THE IMPORTANCE OF DEFINING REAL OBJECTIVES AND KNOWING HOW TO MEASURE THEM (SMART OBJECTIVES).
All companies know what their main objective is: Sell. That is clear, whatever the sector or activity, the main objective is to get customers and sell.
But, how to transfer that enormous objective, similar more to an entity than to something real, to the online medium? And most importantly, how to achieve it?
There is a method that is very well known by all advertising agencies that speeds up and helps define objectives in the most intelligent and efficient way possible, it is called the SMART model.
Its acronyms (in English) define it perfectly:
- Specific: In order to achieve the objectives pursued, it is necessary to be rigorous in the data and in how they help to achieve them. Being specific and concrete is the first thing we should keep in mind.
- Measurable: If it can be measured, it can be achieved. It is necessary that the objectives are measurable, in this way we will know if they are being achieved.
- Attainable: At this point we already have the most controlled objectives, now we just need to know if we are going to be able to reach them with the means at our disposal. The top of a mountain is reached step by step, but if you want to climb Everest, you will surely need specialized equipment to help you achieve it.
- Realistic: Always with your feet on the ground. You don’t have to limit yourself when it comes to proposing new and exciting challenges, but you have to be objective and face reality as it is. It does not mean that, working with a good base and defining the objectives well, that reality cannot change for the better.
- Time Bound: The key to so many things, time. It is as important to define all of the above as to know how long it will take. Taking advantage of the opportune moment and defining the time it will take us to reach the top is very useful when we make preparations.
In other words, to achieve the great objective of selling more or getting more clients, the first thing we have to be clear about is that the agency must define a strategy based on this method or a similar one to know if what they are proposing can be fulfilled, to what extent and for how long.
INFORMATION TRANSPARENCY
A success campaign must be aligned with the image of the company, its customer target and of course its objectives.
Knowing from the beginning the configuration data of the campaigns always helps to become aware of where, when and how the ads that represent our brand are being shown and, in this way, have success in the results.
MONITOR THE RESULTS PERIODICALLY (REPORTS)
All of the above mentioned would be of no use if finally, we do not have a results report, but not just any report, we do not want to see a document full of illegible graphs and tables with data that we do not understand, we want to know what has happened to our budget and what we have achieved.
The data that contributes the most value to a PPC advertising results report is undoubtedly:
- CTR: This metric allows us to measure the quality of the campaigns, since its formula results in the relationship between impressions and clicks. It gives us an idea of the level of success of the targeting of the keywords and the interest that the ads produce to the user.
- Conversions: Achievement of the final objective. Number of goals met after ad interaction occurs. It is used to determine the conversion rate.
- Conversion Rate: Like CTR, conversion rate returns quality data that determines how often, on average, ad interactions lead to conversions. Having this information is very useful since it is giving us information about the campaign in addition to the website, which is where the conversion is usually carried out.
- Conversion Cost: This metric is one of the most important discussed, it indicates the average cost of a conversion, dividing the total cost by the conversions obtained. With this information we can determine if the campaign is being profitable or if the budget is really being wasted.
- Total cost: The total cost is the amount resulting from the activity of the campaigns and that should not exceed the initially set budget before being consulted by the agency and confirmed by the company.
- ROI: This metric determines if we have a positive return on investment, if we have recovered the investment and if we have obtained benefits. It is the relationship between income and investment.
All these metrics will be decisive to correctly analyse the results of the campaigns, depending on the objective or objectives set in each of them, we will value some data more than others.