The success of every marketing campaign – or business, for that matter – is measured by a single thing: the bottom line. The “measurement” part, however, is where Marketing Analytics comes in. Data helps marketers analyze their performance, change their tactics, wisely allocate their budgets, and manage and maximize the effectiveness of their campaigns.
On digital channels, all of this translates to metrics like traffic, clicks, views, engagement, and so on. During last week’s #SEMrushchat, our guest Steve Hammer shined more light on how organic traffic and other metrics influence customer acquisition, business growth, and revenue. Steve is the founder of digital marketing agency RankHammer, winner of the Best Small Agency award in the U.S. Search Awards. Here is a summary of his opinions and what our other chat participants had to say:
Q1. What are the biggest drivers of growth within a business? Does it vary by business size?
The answer to that is obvious. Steve clarified that awareness is the need of the hour for small businesses, while bigger ones could directly focus on conversion. Data, however, is the key to understanding your most significant growth drivers. Online metrics give an indication of gaps in overall business milestones. For example, less direct traffic to your site is an indication of low brand awareness
Almost all of the #SEMrushchat participants agreed that growth drivers vary by size, but their opinions differed on what the most important ones are. These included:
A1: Conversions, of course. Can't grow a business without, well, business :) #semrushchat https://t.co/vgttioBhYy
— ThinkSEM (@ThinkSEM) July 25, 2018
A1: another thing that deeply impacts a biz's growth is process. even great products, marketing, tech can be improved or destroyed by process - i try to focus on that as much as other factors #SEMrushchat
— JP Sherman (@jpsherman) July 25, 2018
Dawn Anderson - @dawnieando, said that growth depends on a lot of different factors, including budget, team cohesion, focus, and leadership structure. Ekaterina Vasileva - @AskEkaterina also outlined a bunch of factors for consideration, including strategy, brand image, and customer relations. Most importantly, accurate data that helps you pinpoint what’s working and what’s not and pinpoint the best growth driver for your business is paramount to success.
A1) I'd also add this - Being able to quickly and accurately (good data) identify what's working and what's not and putting more into the former is also a huge factor #semrushchat https://t.co/sxmmanD4I4
— Dawn Anderson (@dawnieando) July 25, 2018
Of course, business fundamentals state that it all depends on your marketplace and how your business fits within it.
A1: Knowing & understanding your marketplace and how your business act/works within this. So yes size and your marketing budget will matter accordingly to performance, basic's of digital marketing #analytics #SEMrushchat @armondhammer @semrush
— Alexis Huddart (@Flexoid) July 25, 2018
There are also some growth drivers that don’t necessarily vary by size but are rather affected by the lifecycle phase where the business is at the moment. Innovation is one of these factors, especially in the startup marketplace.
A1: I think drivers of growth of a business vary not necessarily by business size, but also by where in the timeline you are. Look at those startups giving it all and striving to be successful and then look at some large companies just stalling their pace. #semrushchat
— Val Vesa | Social Media & Travel Photography (@adspedia) July 25, 2018
A1 innovative companies have a lot more headroom because they are opening up new markets (hence the huge number of startups) - if you are in a traditional market there is much less room for growth. #SEMRushChat
— Simon Cox (@simoncox) July 25, 2018
The depth of customer experience and the quality of your product or service is something that is invaluable to business growth. Once you recognize and identify your hustles and motivations, you can then build on your reputation and scale your business.
A1. First things that come to mind... - (perceived) quality of business offering/experience - scalability of business model - self awareness ... knowing what you need, whether it's awareness or better customer service, etc. So performance tracking, basically. #semrushchat https://t.co/vJwMUsmeJ7
— Kim Doughty (@Howdy_Doughty) July 25, 2018
A1. It sounds corny, but your reputation precedes you. This goes for marketers growing their client base, and biz that are trying to attract new clients. #semrushchat.
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 25, 2018
Q2. What are some ways that you can turn marketing analytics into effective marketing strategies?
Steve starts out by looking for gaps in strategy and then figures out how to fill those gaps. He also stresses on benchmarking and comparing with the competition, especially when it comes to strengths.
A2: I always start looking for the gaps, and try to be informed of the key drivers (see Q1) - Then it's a look to see how to fill in those gaps. Also strengths and how can they be doubled up. #SEMrushchat
— Steve Hammer (@armondhammer) July 25, 2018
A2-2: (I do this a lot sorry). There's a power in indexing. It's not raw numbers, but how it compares to the expectation. SM traffic might be 5% of overall, but if everyone else is getting 2% it's a strength to build on. #SEMrushchat
— Steve Hammer (@armondhammer) July 25, 2018
And when it comes to competitive analysis, SEMrush can help you a lot, especially when it comes to discovering competitors and tracking their search visibility using features like Position Tracking.
It is essential to understand the customer journey before you even begin formulating a strategy. Your analytics will help you to find customers’ pain points that you can then use to decide how to tweak your strategy and apply specific tactics like making relevant offers. Obviously, you need to tweak your budget and efforts as well to maximize ROI.
A2 Understanding the customer journey through a website can help you decide upon how best to market to them, and when to make offers (and change offers) #SEMRushChat
— Bill Slawski ⚓ (@bill_slawski) July 25, 2018
A2. Use your analytics to find the pain points - then design marketing programs to solve them! #SEMrushchat
— Reva Minkoff (@revaminkoff) July 25, 2018
A2 - By evaluating which strategy is working best and then accordingly tweak your effort/budget in the direction of generating maximum ROI #semrushchat https://t.co/omzRgGyTM5
— Vivek Ahlawat (@vivek_ahlawat07) July 25, 2018
Good analytics comes from good data. You need to ensure you are collecting accurate data by using the right tags and applying the right tracking parameters. And this data should come from all departments of your organization, especially feedback from support teams. Further, the availability of historical data is necessary to help you to form long-term graphs, so that you can identify patterns and trends, as well as react quickly to inconsistencies.
A2: developing marketing strategies from analytics relies on the data being accurate in the first place. A good first step is to ensure tracking links are tagged correctly & consistently, including campaign & content parameters, otherwise your conclusions may be off. #SEMrushchat
— Matt Rooney (@mjrooney9) July 25, 2018
A2 Service. You should have data on your support teams, help desks, engineers etc - including feedback on how they perform - this is key to building brand and that improves growth. #SEMRushChat
— Simon Cox (@simoncox) July 25, 2018
A2: Specifically, long-term graph patterns for parts of the marketing-sales funnel. If you have three years of consistent patterns for each step of your funnel and then two months of sudden inverse relationships, you know something's changed / gone wrong #semrushchat
— Chris Zook (@czook88) July 25, 2018
Understand that no business ever goes according to plan; this is where strategists need to go back to business goals, capitalize on strengths, and iron out weaknesses. A simple rule of thumb is to see where your best-performing traffic comes from and do whatever gives you more of it.
A2 There are hardly business plan goes like we planned in the first place. So there comes the role for the strategic people to use that input and modify strategies to get the best outcome #semrushchat pic.twitter.com/GthP66f999
— Ashish ☬ (@BeingPunjabi_) July 25, 2018
A2. goals, goals, goals bby. See what is working or not working. Then use that info to inform future strategies to: 1. capitalize on what you do great 2. improve on what you're lacking. #semrushchat https://t.co/9uJAsftoGn
— Kim Doughty (@Howdy_Doughty) July 25, 2018
A2. Look at where your best performing traffic is coming from and do more like it. #SEMrushchat
— Reva Minkoff (@revaminkoff) July 25, 2018
Understanding user behavior from past data is key to planning and forecasting. Data, such as who your audience is and what products they browse on your site helps you understand their thought process and buyer intent; this helps you identify growth opportunities and even new markets. While user segmentation is critical, don’t forget the speed and direction of your business.
A2) Loads of ways but we can begin to start predicting user behaviour based upon past data and plan well ahead. Again, we can look at what's working and scale that too for either acquisition or retention strategies #SEMrushchat
— Dawn Anderson (@dawnieando) July 25, 2018
A2 So many ways. Analytics help you understand your audience, what they do on your site, how they convert and you can improve/optimise all these. #SEMRushChat
— Simon Cox (@simoncox) July 25, 2018
A2: Use data to understand a customers thought process. For example, how many products did they look at on your site before buying? What pages did they spend the most time on? #semrushchat
— Netvantage Marketing (@netvantage) July 25, 2018
A2: you can use marketing analytics to improve user intent and identify opportunities for user growth. You can also use it to identify potential sub markets to roll out #semrushchat
— Danny Ray Lima (@dannyraylima) July 25, 2018
A2: i'd say it's standard that analytics giving insight on segment behaviors - but in the application of a strategy, a biz's vector (speed + direction) should also be considered #semrushchat
— JP Sherman (@jpsherman) July 25, 2018
With analytics, marketers no longer need to shoot in the dark. You can discover why and how your audience is converting, and use that data to optimize conversions. Test out different strategies and pinpoint the ones that give you better ROI. You can also tie those back to your company goals and determine if there is a need for a pivot.
A2: Oh, in so many ways in this day and age. One example, though, from something I'm currently working on, is knowing what marketing analytics data you can pull together to optimise conversions that are meaningful to your business. Before, marketers shot in the dark. #semrushchat
— Ekaterina K Vasileva ACIM (@AskEkaterina) July 25, 2018
A2: You should already be using the myriad data in your Analytics account to make informed business decisions about how/where your audience is converting (or not), how to make improvements, etc. It's a valuable tool! #semrushchat https://t.co/EjtbC6h872
— ThinkSEM (@ThinkSEM) July 25, 2018
A2: Analytics can be a valuable A/B testing tool, if you keep a close eye on what you do, how that measures and then what extra actions you performed resulted in a better ROI. #semrushchat
— Val Vesa | Social Media & Travel Photography (@adspedia) July 25, 2018
A2. The analytics should give insight on the marketing goals of the co. and the ability to determine if there is a need to pivot. #semrushchat pic.twitter.com/wLxNzt59Tj
— Nathan Driver (@natedriver) July 25, 2018
Finally, use your analytics wisely to produce relevant content that targets your customers better, as 20% of your content drives 80% of your visitors. For instance, Spotify regularly uses consumer data to create content that drives their marketing campaigns. Another great example where analytics influences content marketing is the #SEMrushchat itself!
A2: Marketing analytics can better help you understand and target your customer base, either through the production of content, the creation of remarketing ads, or in the case of Spotify (which I saw someone mention) their song metrics OOH ad campaign. #SEMRushChat
— Marccx Media (@marccxmedia) July 25, 2018
A2. Use the 80/20 rule (20% of your content drives 80% of your visitors) to help drive relevant and impactful editorial processes and content plans. #SEMrushchat
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 25, 2018
A2. Look at a company like @Spotify. They used consumer data and analytics of how users utilize their program, and pushed it toward one of the best marketing campaigns I've seen in quite a while. #SEMrushchat pic.twitter.com/W3a8KqFqTG
— Dale Griffen (@dalegriffen) July 25, 2018
A2: Easy peasy lemon squeezy #analytics show you how effective the #marketing your conducting is #SEMrushchat @armondhammer @semrush
— Alexis Huddart (@Flexoid) July 25, 2018
Q3. What are the most important metrics to measure when looking at your marketing analytics?
Never take your eyes off your goals! Steve gave the example of an inverted funnel when prioritizing metrics to measure: focus on sales first, then middle funnel activities, and then generic engagement. Sales matter most!
A3: Goals win every time. In a priority set as well that matches a filpped funnel. Sales over middle funnel over generic engagment.
You need them all, but sales is what keeps everyone employed. #semrushchat
— Steve Hammer (@armondhammer) July 25, 2018
Some participants echoed Steve’s thoughts in as many different words. Goals, conversions, results – they all point to the same thing: revenue.
A3: <insert broken record sounds> Conversions. Always start there, then work backwards to figure out supporting KPI involvement. #semrushchat https://t.co/vllouyX586
— ThinkSEM (@ThinkSEM) July 25, 2018
A3 (cont): Additionally, we also monitor goals (trial signups, etc.) to see if our organic efforts are turning out results for our clients who offer those services. #SEMRushChat
— Marccx Media (@marccxmedia) July 25, 2018
A3: The metrics you look at vary based on your marketing goals. At the end of the day, it comes down to conversions, which may be money/sales or something else, so that's one of the first metrics to look at in my opinion. #semrushchat
— Netvantage Marketing (@netvantage) July 25, 2018
Others’ opinions were that there is a much larger set of numbers to look at, depending on the business in question. It could be the number of unique visitors, the number of views, time on site, nature of content consumed, bounce rate, task completion, engagement, customer sentiment, cost per acquisition, customer lifetime value, and so on. Look at which of them correlate more with your campaign’s ROI.
A3: Impossible to answer without knowing the business in question. To some it would be conversions, to others time on site, or content consumed. #semrushchat
— Rob Weatherhead (@RobWeatherhead) July 25, 2018
A3 Metrics to look for include ones that may indicate customer happiness, task completion, a site meeting expectations. How well is your site meeting those goals, and what signals do you look at to measure them? #SEMRushChat
— Bill Slawski ⚓ (@bill_slawski) July 25, 2018
A3: Views, duration, conversions, cpa, roce, bounce, on-page metric's, re-marketing, trackers #marketing #analytics #SEMrushchat @armondhammer @semrush
— Alexis Huddart (@Flexoid) July 25, 2018
A3: • Exit pages • Bounce rates • Email open rates • Click through rates • And of course, conversions—whatever that means to the business. #SEMRushChat
— Narmadhaa (@s_narmadhaa) July 25, 2018
A3: It depends on the type of site (e-commerce, content, etc.), but: 1. New/unique visitors 2. Bounce rate 3. Exit pages - analyse them! 4. Calculate revenue per visit 5. Users' lifetime value #semrushchat pic.twitter.com/EAEoQWIeUU
— Ekaterina K Vasileva ACIM (@AskEkaterina) July 25, 2018
A3. It really should go back the begining when they set-up the goals. Is it time on site? Is it downloaded whitepaper? Is it filling out a form? Is it clicking on a phone number?
Bottom line: are there conversions happening - are you reaching your target market? #SEMrushchat
— Nathan Driver (@natedriver) July 25, 2018
A3: It's all about engagement. Engagement can almost always directly correlate to your campaigns ROI and it covers so many more bases than general viewership would. Proof is in the pudding, and a brand should love when they see their market engaged with their ads. #SEMrushchat
— Dale Griffen (@dalegriffen) July 25, 2018
At the end of the day, while every bit of data is important, you need to base your ‘whys’ on your KPIs.
A3 whatever part of the business isn’t performing - need to know why. Or the data thats going to find the headroom. All the data is important and it all depends on what question your priorities are making you ask. KPI normally kicks off your first set of questions #SEMRushChat
— Simon Cox (@simoncox) July 25, 2018
A3: This would depend on the business KPIs! There are many factors and variables that go into choosing the best metrics when looking at your analytics. There shouldn’t be a “one-size-fits-all” answer to this question. #SEO #SEM @semrush #SEMRushChat
— Kat Hammoud (@KatHammoud) July 25, 2018
Q4. Which digital channel has given you the hardest time to measure your success? Why?
Returns from social display ads are a big pain, according to Steve. Views are too broad a metric while clickthroughs are too narrow, so achieving a balance is more of an art. The key to success in measuring ROI of digital channels is experimentation.
A4: Display, and in particular social display, is often a real bear to measure. Click through conversions are too low a measure, and viewthroughs are too high. It's closer to the art of traditional marketing than the "science" of search. #semrushchat
— Steve Hammer (@armondhammer) July 25, 2018
A4-2 We've done some experiments with showing "blank" ads and still get viewthroughs. On off experiments have a proven overhang where conversions continue after the fact. We tend to apply an agreed factor and use that as an estimate #semrushchat
— Steve Hammer (@armondhammer) July 25, 2018
The #SEMrushchat participants recognized the subjectivity of the question and were quick to point out that results vary depending on the channel, industry, target group, campaign objectives, and budget. Moreover, it’s crucial to differentiate between and identify micro and macro conversions.
A4: It's hard to pinpoint an answer when we work with clients across a variety of industries. Some channels are easier to measure the success depending on the industry. #semrushchat
— Netvantage Marketing (@netvantage) July 25, 2018
A4. In all seriousness it usually depends on the campaign objectives - what might work for one might not work for another #semrushchat
— Nathan Driver (@natedriver) July 25, 2018
A4 This question is particular very broad. For some campaign Facebook deliver better results and For some other campaign Adwords, Youtube , Linkedin works. Depends on the industry, budget , target segment (Age, Profession) #semrushchat pic.twitter.com/Vny1f02bGK
— Ashish ☬ (@BeingPunjabi_) July 25, 2018
A4) Often people don't identify both micro and macro conversions. The micro conversions very much are steps as subtasks towards the larger goal achievements #semrushchat
— Dawn Anderson (@dawnieando) July 25, 2018
SEO is a very hard channel to measure for ROI, especially when the business isn’t selling much. It is trickier to measure results compared to PPC, especially for B2B businesses. What’s more, Google Analytics – the very tool meant to make web analytics simple – withholds keyword data.
A4: I've found that SEO is actually (one of) the hardest to measure for ROI, especially if the business doesn't sell online. We've to be creative in order to link SEO to brick and mortar businesses & service websites. #semrushchat
— Ekaterina K Vasileva ACIM (@AskEkaterina) July 25, 2018
A4: Most of our focus is on #SEO & #PPC, and while the latter can easily be tracked, the former can be trickier to measure, especially when it comes to some of our B2B clients. #SEMRushChat
— Marccx Media (@marccxmedia) July 25, 2018
A4: Ironically, Google Analytics has played the biggest part in that: <not provided>, anyone??? By taking away our ability to see ALL keyword data, they really made it more difficult to measure success. There are ways around it, of course. #semrushchat https://t.co/4GWOckBDfO
— ThinkSEM (@ThinkSEM) July 25, 2018
Thanks to tools like the SEMrush On Page SEO Checker, though, marketers not only have access to a ton of data about their website rankings and competitors’ content, backlinks and keyword strategy but also get actionable recommendations for using this data.
It is also extremely hard to figure out where your direct site visitors stand along the marketing funnel unless they take an action on your site. Once they do that, interactions like site search can be strong predictors of their purchase intent.
A4. Direct and organic because visitors are tracked as anonymous unless they self-identify (submit a form or click on an asset), So we don't know how much self education they did before we have a conversation. Impossible to attribute success #semrushchat
— Blas Giffuni (@BGiffuni) July 25, 2018
A4. Going off what @BGiffuni mentioned: direct traffic can be EXTREMELY difficult (if not impossible) to track #SEMrushchat
— Nathan Driver (@natedriver) July 25, 2018
A4: Also direct traffic in Google Analytics is the bane of my existance. It's so different from site to site and client to client. No magic formula to determine what it is and the success there. #yet #SEMrushchat
— Ashley P. (@ashpeterson14) July 25, 2018
A4: when it comes to conversions, few channels are as strong a predictor as onsite search - yet the metrics for that are rarely used, looked at or even considered #semrushchat
— JP Sherman (@jpsherman) July 25, 2018
As far as social media analytics is concerned, the general consensus is that Instagram is a tough nut to crack. Telling which posts induced clicks, managing a business profile, and exporting data are some common pain points. All that is improving, however, as Instagram continues to introduce new capabilities for businesses.
A4 for #Semrushchat: In the #socialmedia, Instagram can be one of the hardest to measure success from. The data is not easily pulled and you can't really tell which post caused someone to click on to your website. You can, however, track your brand mentions and follower growth.
— Knucklepuck (@KnucklepuckDC) July 25, 2018
A4: As much as I love @instagram I have to say, managing a business profile, it is not very easy, unless you do paid ads, to guide people to your order/subscribe/download page. Also, unless you are using an external tool, it is not very easy to see/export analytics. #semrushchat
— Val Vesa | Social Media & Travel Photography (@adspedia) July 25, 2018
A4: Otherwise, I think Instagram is quite hard to measure but it's getting better - with the new capabilities for businesses. #semrushchat
— Ekaterina K Vasileva ACIM (@AskEkaterina) July 25, 2018
The demands of your client also play a huge role in setting KPIs and measuring performance. It is easy to identify traffic sources, but optimizing your website to cater to the most profitable ones is not so simple. And it is not just your website – clients frequently confuse goals with metrics (like brand awareness with likes on social media) and ask for irrelevant or unclear metrics (such as audience learnings from display ads).
A4: I'd say website overall - attributing success to social, paid &organic can be easy, but they all eventually lead to the website so measuring the success of optimization work on website can be hard when so many sources may be increasing traffic that way. #SEMrushchat
— Ashley P. (@ashpeterson14) July 25, 2018
A4: While I enjoy #SMM , sometimes it is hard to discern the benefit of all of your engagement when the business is only interested in “likes” and “impressions”. Brand awareness is important, but I prefer paid search as we can better tell the user intent. #SEMRushChat
— Kat Hammoud (@KatHammoud) July 25, 2018
A4: Display. Although client expectations and KPI's are set, clients will still want to see "audience learnings" which aren't always clear or relevant. #semrushchat
— Jon Mark (@Lon_Jar) July 25, 2018
The diversity and depth of experience of the #SEMrushchat participants really showed when they discussed functionally limited platforms like YouTube, Quora, Reddit, Google My Business, and – wait for it – Google+!
A4. YouTube - hard to capture the halo effect. #SEMrushchat
— Reva Minkoff (@revaminkoff) July 25, 2018
A4 It will always be YouTube for me. Expanding the keywords sphere, increasing view and gaining relevant traffic is hard to tell. #SEMrushchat
— Krishna Rg? (@krishnarg22) July 25, 2018
A4: Quora, anyone? #SEMRushChat
— Narmadhaa (@s_narmadhaa) July 25, 2018
A4 - As a paid digital medium Quora was a highly targeted channel for the niche I am working into but it is still not as evolved as Facebook and Google ads as a paid platform #semrushchat https://t.co/mlw2vKi33j
— Vivek Ahlawat (@vivek_ahlawat07) July 25, 2018
A4 I'm amazed to see no one has mentioned Reddit or they haven't tried yet #semrushchat pic.twitter.com/ZOWlgfTDZI
— Ashish ☬ (@BeingPunjabi_) July 25, 2018
A4 How about Google My Business? I find it hard to trust the numbers (any of the insights really) but then again I kind of distrust GSC & GA too. Am I crazy? #semrushchat
— SEO Consultant (@JLFaverio) July 25, 2018
A4 Google+ seemed to have so much promise with authorship and communities and social affinities, but those seem to have transformed and evaporated. #SEMRushChat
— Bill Slawski ⚓ (@bill_slawski) July 25, 2018
Measuring results from a single channel is very simple; the real work lies in blending all the data together to get insights that help make decisions. APIs and software like Tableaux come to the rescue here. With a bit of an effort, it is also possible to pull data from sites that don’t allow tracking or charge a premium for data.
A4 Can’t think of a channel thats hard to get stats on - what is difficult is blending all the data together to get insights. That is getting easier with API’s and software like Tableaux or Qlik. #SEMRushChat
— Simon Cox (@simoncox) July 25, 2018
A4: Digital channels that charge a premium for their full suites or ones that don't allow tracking, bitly, utm_s, to measure performance but you can see the pull from these through sites & other sources data, just procrastinated #analytics #SEMrushchat @armondhammer @semrush
— Alexis Huddart (@Flexoid) July 25, 2018
Q5. How important do you think is it to assign dollar amounts to your activities, campaigns, and results?
Assigning dollar values to campaigns, customers, and even leads makes your processes much easier! Steve even dished out a timeless quote to emphasize that, “No one can take bounce rate improvements to buy groceries.” However, estimating the worth of online to offline conversions are challenging, especially in industries like auto.
A5: Do this right and everything gets much easier. Even leads can be quantified by an estimate of closing. We've done some systems to try and get an estimate of the quality as well and change the $$$ assigned. #semrushchat
— Steve Hammer (@armondhammer) July 25, 2018
A5-2: No one can take bounce rate improvements to buy groceries. #semrushchat
— Steve Hammer (@armondhammer) July 25, 2018
A5-3: I will say the online to offline conversion can make this tough. Some 80% of car buyers don't call or fill out an online form.
It might take a proxy, but even that can assign some reasonable $ #semrushchat
— Steve Hammer (@armondhammer) July 25, 2018
Ultimately, all digital marketing activities are tied to ROI. So assigning dollar values is essential to identifying and prioritizing successful activities. Profit is the number 1 goal for a majority of businesses, and the best visual indicator of progress and growth. Without money, there is no business. Associating a campaign or an action with real dollars helps you pinpoint the next steps in the execution of your strategy. Failing that, your marketing turns into a bottomless pit that swallows your budget whole.
A5 - It's must because ultimately you are doing any digital activity (even free one's) for ROI, it's the only way to know where to focus #semrushchat https://t.co/cJxJy5J0f8
— Vivek Ahlawat (@vivek_ahlawat07) July 25, 2018
A5 It's a huge visual benefit for clients, your team and yourself. A quick #goodjob measure if you will. Since the #1 goal for the majority of all businesses, dollars show the best progress. #semrushchat
— SEO Consultant (@JLFaverio) July 25, 2018
A5: Money's the bottom line, is it not? As much as people want to say "I only focus on branding" or whatever -- if there's no money, there's no business. Assigning $ to actions/campaigns/etc is a smart way to look at what's working (or not). #semrushchat https://t.co/NvgkMH5cec
— ThinkSEM (@ThinkSEM) July 25, 2018
A5 That’s what this is all about, right? Marketing is just a money pit if you aren’t netting more than you’re investing. When you drop the aspect of measurable results you lose out on the purpose of marketing and become a... hobbyist? #semrushchat https://t.co/EakylBORfO
— Timothy W. Harris (@TimWHarris) July 25, 2018
The primary benefit of assigning dollar amounts to marketing campaigns is to differentiate between what is (that may or may not include traffic sources, media, devices) working and what isn’t, and focus on activities that bring you the best ROI. Losing track of dollars will quickly vaporize your campaign!
A5: Very important! Every business needs to make money to survive so assigning dollar amounts helps you determine what is working and what isn't. #semrushchat
— Netvantage Marketing (@netvantage) July 25, 2018
A5: Assigning £'s to your cost activities, campaigns, and results is imperative as this shows how cost effective source, medium, device, pull is for ones work. #analytics #SEMrushchat @armondhammer @semrush
— Alexis Huddart (@Flexoid) July 25, 2018
A5. It's important to assign dollar amounts to campaigns and results, but not necessarily to activities. You have to know if what you're running is working/returning. #SEMrushchat
— Reva Minkoff (@revaminkoff) July 25, 2018
A5 It is a terrible idea - I always use Stirling - £££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££ Pounds Shillings and pence.
Actually monetising each aspect of your analytics is really good thing to do. You can see where focus will bring the best ROI. #SEMRushChat
— Simon Cox (@simoncox) July 25, 2018
A5. I don't think it's possible to measure the success of your campaign unless you are assigning dollar amounts and keeping a stern eye on the ROI. Losing track of that could turn what was a promising campaign, into nothing at all. #SEMrushchat pic.twitter.com/4l0KndMI6Y
— Dale Griffen (@dalegriffen) July 25, 2018
Having said that, money should be used as a goal rather than a raw value. Think about the impact your spend will have on your brand as opposed to the money it will bring back.
A5: I think it's always important. We should all have a positive relationship with money & it can be used as goals. Spend X on this ad, earn X amount. Don't get caught up on money, focus on the impact first of your brand, money will follow (hope this makes sense ha) #semrushchat
— Terry Schilling (@tschill86) July 25, 2018
Assigning a defined value to SEO is doubly important, given that the C-suite usually doesn’t understand its significance. Tying SEO dollars to major marketing goals helps digital marketers justify their work and makes it easier to get resources in the future. You can also go a step further and assign values to specific pages or traffic sources to demonstrate and clarify your efforts and results to clients.
A5: assigning a defined value is especially important for SEO given its abstract nature to many higher-ups. Being able to place a set $ amount (even an estimate) to a position increase, lead gained, etc. goes a long way to justifying work & earning future resources. #SEMrushchat
— Matt Rooney (@mjrooney9) July 25, 2018
A5: Assigning values to pages, goals, etc., is more something that our clients do in their Analytics (or something we hope they've already done), and said values would ideally help provide a better picture of our efforts for our clients. #SEMRushChat
— Marccx Media (@marccxmedia) July 25, 2018
Lastly, don’t go overboard with dollar associations – hard sales are what will bring in real money. Engagement or education don’t generate revenue by themselves. Attribution is a complicated process, and you need to be sure you are getting it right. Again, the attribution methods and approaches for B2B and B2C will differ, depending on the complexity and length of sales cycles. You need to be very sure you understand how to quantify campaign segments.
A5: Only if it makes sense. The bottom line is always hard sales - as mentioned before, likes and retweets can't feed you and pay salaries. #semrushchat
— Ekaterina K Vasileva ACIM (@AskEkaterina) July 25, 2018
A5. Very important, but depends of your approach. Sometimes we run educational campaigns, so dollar attribution becomes a multi-touch attribution goal over time. Engagement alone doesn't generate revenue. #semrushchat
— Blas Giffuni (@BGiffuni) July 25, 2018
A5. It's a different conversation for B2C than B2B. I think it's more complex for B2B as sales cycles are longer and more complex. #semrushchat
— Blas Giffuni (@BGiffuni) July 25, 2018
A5: I feel that it's important, before this is answered to understand how to quantify campaign segments as: - direct - funnel multipliers - conversion multipliers - reach/ impression multipliers
this kind of knowledge gives context to assigning dollar amounts #semrushchat https://t.co/t3ogQShoeg
— JP Sherman (@jpsherman) July 25, 2018
Remember, if you can’t gather accurate data, there is no sense in attributing value to actions based on that data.
A5: If you can do this with certainty, do it! Attribution can change your digital marketing game from decent to WOW! If you don’t have solid numbers to assign to specific activities, it may muddy your data and give you the impression the $ amounts are accurate. #SEMRushChat
— Kat Hammoud (@KatHammoud) July 25, 2018
That is all for today! If you have any insights to add, we’re all ears in the comments.
Hope to see you this Wednesday – we’ll be picking Craig Campbell’s brain on “How to score true social media automation!”
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