Marketing Measurement Hacks for When You Need Fast Answers

All the talk about advances in marketing data analytics makes it seem like marketers today can access answers to any question at a keystroke. Reality, unfortunately, is more complicated. Although 16% of marketing budgets go toward marketing data analytics, it is often difficult to get fast answers to tactical questions. Analysis takes time and having the data, but even when data exists, it isn’t always accessible or organized to answer common questions.

“Even as marketing leaders continue to invest in marketing analytics they still don’t use them for most of their decisions, because their analytics don’t answer all the questions they have and the analysis can’t be done fast enough,” says Jason McNellis, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner. “Hacks offer quick, approximate answers to difficult questions without large investments of time and money.”

Common marketing measurement hacks help predict the impact of a campaign or technique before it happens, or estimate the results from campaigns after the fact. Below, we give an example of each. But first, a warning: Hacks provide rapid estimates that can inform decisions and prevent programs from stalling, but they’re not a substitute for thorough analysis — and shouldn’t be passed off as such.

The CMO of a financial services firm wanted to generate 1,000 new leads in the company’s target customer segment through a social ad campaign. The CMO approved $5 million for the effort, but would it be enough to produce the desired results? 

One helpful hack marketing teams can use before launching the campaign is to conduct a sanity check by forecasting impact forward and backward to assess whether the campaign can meet the CMO’s expectations with the budgeted resources. 

To forecast forward, start with the budget and sketch out the media plan. Estimate the likely response to the plan based on results from past campaigns. Forecast backward by starting with the desired outcome (the 1,000 leads) and moving backward through the steps of the customer journey to calculate the number of impressions, click-through rates and conversions the campaign would need to achieve 1,000 leads, given historical performance.

This method can apply to small single-channel campaigns, such as social ads, or to large efforts like a product launch. A complete set of customer steps and accurate conversion rates are necessary for useful results. Use historic benchmarks for conversion rates based on similar audiences, where available. Mature analytics teams that have conversion rates by audience type and channel can use those for added accuracy.

A marketing analyst at the financial services firm performed the forward and backward forecast, and found that the planned social ad campaign would need to generate about 2 billion impressions to produce 1,000 leads — twice as many as was likely given the budget. The analyst shared the results with the CMO, who set a more realistic goal.