If you are using a multichannel advertising platform, you will be able to easily collect this data to conduct your evaluations. But which of these metrics are most useful? Obviously, what is most relevant for you will vary based on the overall business goals that you are working towards, but these marketing leader’s insights should provide you with helpful guidance for getting started.
CPA
“Data is the new oil. Today’s marketers need to dedicate themselves to understanding and utilizing their data. As a starting point, I suggest focusing on overall customer acquisition cost (CPA) as a benchmark for advertising efficacy. ”
Jalali Hartman (Director, A.I. La, Perfect Audience)
ROI
“Return on Investment (ROI) is definitely the most important metric for marketing leaders, especially at early-stage technology companies (startups) in their growth stage to $35M, and even more so if they’re backed by venture funding. Beyond ROI, it’s really about the cost of customer acquisition (CAC) How much did you invest to bring on a new customer, and what channel(s) did they come through? So for example, let’s say you launched an ad on social media. In addition to that cost per click (CPC), how else did marketing (or sales) impact that new lead? Did they convert on that ad’s landing page, or did they come back later to visit your website? Being able to calculate the CAC is so important for marketers to show their leadership team, as well as their investors, to demonstrate what channels are working the best to drive revenue.“
Lauren Patrick (VP of Marketing, Curricula)
“Return on Investment is the most important metric. What is marketing, after all? It means you invest a certain amount of money, and expect to make it back plus profit. If you’re paying attention to metrics that aren’t ROI, you might be making a mistake. If you have a campaign with an ROI under 1, you’re losing money. If you made a sale for $100, how much did you spend on your marketing to acquire this $100? If it was $20, your return on ad spend (ROAS) is 5. After you discount all the costs involved in the process, you get your ROI. When you can see the ROI of each ad, you know which ones stop running, which to keep going, and which to give another shot.”
Gabriel Siqueira (Marketing Director, Charlotte AI)
ROAS
“ROAS is the more important programmatic metric for any advertiser because it enables you to develop a big picture view of how effective overall your programmatic ads are, taking into account everything from your demographic targeting ads and every other element besides. While this broad overview itself is not necessarily enough to dictate programmatic spend or to make key decisions on curtailing or expanding a campaign, it does show you where to start. For instance, if you’re achieving a high ROAS from your programmatic ads, you’re doing something – or probably, lots of things – right, and should nurture and expand upon this. If your ROAS is poor or not within your projections, something has gone wrong, and you can drill down further into your data to identify what it is; like a specific element like poor targeting or placing the wrong type of content for the host sites your content is served on, or your whole campaign approach.“
Polly Kay (Senior Marketing Manager, English Blinds
“The most important metric you should track is ROAS. No matter how good your ads are and how on-point your targeting and messaging is, sometimes an ad just doesn’t do what it needs to do. Instead of taking a look at the bigger picture, ROAS is one metric that will immediately tell you that something needs to be changed ASAP.“
Petra Odak (SMO, BetterProposals)
Year-Over-Year Total Sales Value
“It’s the metric that best gives an answer to the question: Is your marketing driving sales that make the company money? So many other metrics can mask problems. You can have an increase in leads, but if they’re low quality and sales people can’t close them, then those extras aren’t serving the business. You can have an increase in the number of closed deals, but if the value of them is significantly lower, you’re still making less money.“
Catherine Byerly (Marketing Director, Station Four)
Again, everyone’s business is different, and every business needs its own unique set of advertising tactics. Hopefully these testimonials will help you hone in on what would be the best metric for you and your company to focus on!
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