Definition of KPIs and campaign optimisation

Achievement of a client's business objectives relies on correct identification of the KPIs to be monitored and careful evaluation of the interactions that have taken place between the various communication channels used in a performance marketing strategy.

IDENTIFICATION OF KPIs

KPIs are the tools that enable us to monitor the extent to which we have achieved a client's business objectives, offering the possibility of intervening where there is significant discrepancy between the results achieved and what was expected.

The indicators reflect the performance that a communication plan is achieving based on various perspectives, such as coverage of the target audience, traffic to the website or the ability of the media mix to generate conversions.

For each project and campaign, Like Reply identifies the correct KPIs in line with the objective the client set out in the assessment phase.

One example is a client who states in the brief that their objective is sales on their website. In this situation, it would be wrong to evaluate the profit of the activity according to metrics such as coverage, frequency or viewability rate. It is better to focus on conversion indicators such as the number of leads, the cost per lead and the conversion rate. The Like Reply Team uses a set of indicators that represent the lead generation capacity of the communication strategy implemented, thereby ensuring the results from the media remain aligned with the expectations of the business.

Another request Like Reply receives frequently is to evaluate a campaign, analysing the impact of each single channel in the conversion and in the user's journey towards making a purchase.

In order to try and give a response, let's analyse the customer journey of Alex who, following advice from his dentist, decides to purchase an electric toothbrush.

Alex opens the browser of his smartphone and begins his navigation by googling "electric toothbrush". The carousel of Google Shopping takes him to the website of a well-known brand of electric toothbrush, where he finds all the information he needs to choose the model that interests him.

Since it is not an urgent purchase, Alex does not complete the transaction and in the days that follow he is the subject of retargeting campaigns by the manufacturer, which continue to show him the model that he seemed most interested in on the internet and on social media.

Once he is convinced, Alex returns to Google and modifies his search, entering the name of the model directly and clicking on the first paid result, which again takes him to the website of the manufacturer to complete the purchase.

In this short customer journey, you can identify at least four different types of paid activity that have guided Alex to his final purchase:

  1. Google Ads (shopping)
  2. Web retargeting
  3. Social media retargeting
  4. Google Ads (search)

ATTRIBUTION MODELS

With a last-click attribution model, the conversion would be attributed entirely to search advertising. Through an evaluation of the effectiveness of a communication plan with this model, an operator could be convinced to reduce or even completely suspend the investments allocated to other channels in order to funnel the greatest amount possible towards the one that is generating the greatest number of conversions.

Who can say, however, whether Alex would still have bought the electric toothbrush on the manufacturer's website without the initial assist from Google Shopping and the recontact activity manifested through the retargeting campaign?

The focus on the conversions and on the channels that directly generate the highest number of them is important. However, to fully evaluate the impact of the various activities, within a communication strategy, Like Reply adopts a model that is detached from using the "last-click" logic and is oriented towards different attribution models.

If you evaluate the same customer journey with a first-click attribution model, you would attribute the conversion to Google Shopping and would therefore probably suggest a different choice of optimisation for the operator.

The mantra of Like Reply is therefore to evaluate a communication plan based on a number of different perspectives in order to understand how individual channels contribute to the final conversion.