How to measure media performance?

If you run marketing campaigns, return on investment is probably one of your main concerns. How can you be sure that the marketing levers you choose are effective? What are the indicators to take into account? In this article, we look at the principles of media performance measurement and the KPIs to track and analyse your impact. We also explore recommendations for campaign planning and the pillars of an effective media campaign.

A critical topic for brands

Having reliable and accurate data is essential to understand the effectiveness of actions carried out and refine tactics. A survey carried out by Alix Partners in 2018 with 1,100 consumer products executives across six countries showed more than half of digital advertising spend had either a negative return or its return was not even measured.

According to a more recent study conducted in France, 50% of brands consider that measuring the effectiveness of marketing budgets is a problem. And a third of brands believe they under-invest in measuring the effectiveness of marketing actions.

However, a consensus seems to be emerging on the best way to measure effectiveness as digital plays an increasingly important role and the buying journey becomes more complex. Many brands cite Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM), which aims to identify the contribution of each type of marketing investment to revenue.

Experts claim it is the best way to reconcile online and offline strategies and achieve powerful and actionable measurement. However, this method remains complex, requiring the collection and structuring of a large amount of data.

The three pillars of performance measurement

While Marketing Mix Modeling is a comprehensive approach, there are simpler ways to measure the effectiveness of a media campaign.

It is generally accepted that the buyer journey has three phases: awareness, consideration and decision. For brands, the objective is different at each phase: driving awareness during the awareness phase, creating interest during the consideration phase and driving purchase/preference during the decision phase.

For each of these phases, it is recommended to measure different aspects to evaluate the effectiveness of a media campaign:

– Reach for the impact on brand awareness and image with metrics such as the number of impressions/people reached or traffic generated on a website or a mobile app.

– Engagement for the interest generated with key indicators such as the number of clicks, the number of likes or shares, the number of mentions on social networks, the time spent reading or viewing a content, etc.

– Conversion for the result obtained with indicators such as participation in an offer, sales driven or any other desired action.

To measure the engagement rate, all that is required is calculating the number of people who interacted in some way with the campaign compared to those who were exposed to it. The conversion rate measures the number of people who completed the desired action. In some cases, it may be possible to measure these KPIs for each of your target segments, socio-demographic or geographic for example.

This data will allow you to have a detailed analysis of the impact of your marketing campaigns. As tracking is much easier online, digital campaigns offer a greater amount of data to measure media performance, in a precise manner.

7 recommendations for campaign planning

So, how to do effective campaign planning? The Data & Marketing Association (DMA), which brings together the UK’s data and marketing community, released a report in July 2021 on Meaningful Marketing Measurement.

Beyond campaign delivery measures, it recommends to consider response (conversions, footfall, etc.), brand (awareness, consideration, brand perceptions, etc.) and business (sales, penetration, loyalty, etc.) effects when designing a campaign. It offers the following advice for campaign planning:

• If you have a small budget, overall effectiveness may be lower in the short term, but a strong ROI figure should still be aimed for. The DMA recommends to plan for a medium-term (4-6 months) campaign to maximise your ROI.
• If you wish to maximise response, multi-channel is not always the best approach. Data analysis shows the same number of response effects can be driven with just one or two channels.
• However, if you want to maximise brand impact, multi-channel is key. At least three channels should be aimed for to maximise brand effects.
• If your priority is to maximise business impact, the DMA says a blend of response and brand objectives is vital. A focus solely on response or solely on brand will not drive the same number of business outcomes as the two combined.
• By running an acquisition campaign, you will likely drive more response effects than brand effects, although an acquisition campaign is twice as likely to drive brand effects as a retention campaign. Non-customers/prospects will have lower baseline brand metrics upon which larger shifts can be built.
• When it comes to channel selection, some channels (in particular digital) are more reliant on campaign delivery metrics to position their value to media owners. The DMA advices to aim for partners who can help focus on the metrics that matter.
• Some sectors are more focused on long-term campaign planning, and some on short-term. It is those sectors which have a healthy blend of both that tend to run the most effective campaigns.

Bonus: the 5 pillars of an effective campaign

Kantar looked at what makes media campaigns and ads effective, based on the ranking of its Creative Effectiveness Awards. These are the only advertising awards judged by consumers, celebrating winning ads that help drive sales in the short term and create meaningful impressions to build brands in the long term.

Based on this analysis, Kantar shares the following advice with brands for their advertising and activation campaigns, highlighting 5 good habits:

– Be distinctive to be noticed and remembered

– Have strong branding (brand intrinsically)

– Be meaningfully different, fulfilling consumer needs

– Trigger emotion to drive meaningfulness

– Talk with your consumers and test your ads

Measuring media performance is therefore critical for consumer brands, in particular as buyer journeys are increasingly omnichannel. A global approach such as Marketing Mix Modeling allows to understand in depth the impact of online and offline to optimise marketing investments. Nevertheless, to measure the effectiveness of a specific media campaign, reach, engagement and conversion remain reliable and accurate indicators.

At Shopmium, we offer innovative online couponing campaigns, amplified by offline marketing levers such as display and TV. A great way to boost your sales while increasing brand awareness and image! Our campaigns also offer a large amount of exclusive consumer data and insights. Do not hesitate to reach out to us to discuss your objectives and how to maximise the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns!