Tackling 2022′ Marketing Challenges Head-on: How to prove return on investment

ROI or return on investment is something we see a lot in marketing, it is widely discussed and the best way to measure your marketing efforts. However, a recent report that surveyed more than 4,000 digital marketers worldwide found that most are struggling to calculate and share the impact they have. With only 37% describing themselves as ‘very’ confident in their ROI metrics. Here at GottaBe! we will be helping you tackle 2022’s marketing challenges head-on and look at the importance of measuring ROI and how to do so. 

Why do I need to prove ROI?

Return on investment (ROI) helps define the success of your campaigns and marketing efforts. However, it can be tricky to prove. Your brand will need to prove that your efforts are benefiting the company, and ROI gives you an accurate understanding of the impact your marketing has. It helps to prove that any budget or time you have spent on specific resources were justified. 

Proving ROI can help your brand grow as it provides invaluable data on conversion rates and consumer behaviours. Understanding this will help your brand plan campaigns more efficiently as they know which efforts will yield the highest ROI percentage.

How to measure ROI?

The best way to prove return on investment is to measure the investments you make. The formula to work out ROI percentage is below:

ROI (percent) = [(Revenue – Investment) / Investment] x 100

Unfortunately, proving ROI is not as simple as we would like to think. Many marketers struggle to understand what they need to look at when calculating the impact of their efforts or do not allow enough time for them to deliver. While 91% of B2B organisations invest in content marketing, only 35% measure its ROI. Among those who fail to measure, 27% claim it’s because “We don’t know how to do this.” This is common across the industry, but our digital experts are here to help break it down. 

To prove ROI, your brand must first know what you are looking to measure and how you will calculate it. Otherwise, it will be impossible to prove you are gaining anything from your investment. It can be challenging to measure results, but you can prove ROI by tracking your marketing efforts through the marketing funnel. 

There are many factors involved when you begin to measure return on investment, and it can be complicated depending on your industry. However, setting clear, measurable goals will make it easier for your brand to track. Without goals and previous data, your brand will not see any improvement. 

Tools such as Google Analytics will allow your brand to measure the impact of a campaign, as they will provide the data to look at the individual impact a campaign has had. Your brand will then be able to see which campaign performed the best and which strategies to change based on the goals you set before you ran a campaign.  

What should I be measuring when looking to prove ROI?

It can be easy to see that your brand is gaining a return on investment but proving it can be more complicated. You may see an increase in traffic and conversions but attributing that increase to a specific marketing activity or channel is powerful to enable brands to invest in marketing channels and activity that produces a return on investment.

Rather than looking at one key area, it is essential to combine the individual aspects to understand the overall return on investment. ROI is best measured through the following key areas:

Content performance 

Your brand can use the data on your content performance to see how well a campaign or piece of content has done. You can then look at the time, money, and investment you put into creating this piece of content to measure the ROI. Social media gives you a detailed view of the reach your post or ad has made, and other tools such as Google Analytics or Moz will provide you with an insight into your site content. 

ROI is not necessarily based on how many sales you make, so your brand can look at other metrics such as awareness and sentiment to prove return on investment. This will, of course, all be measured according to your campaign’s goals and objectives.  

Defining your content’s objectives will help you measure it against previous pieces and identify the key metric on the marketing funnel. For example, has this social media campaign performed better than the previous one created at a lower cost? Your brand can then look at the conversions after the campaign to see if the higher investment was worth it and increased overall sales or brand awareness. This will be measurable against your goals.  

Site traffic 

When a campaign has been run, one of the simplest ways to prove ROI is to look at traffic. You will be able to use tools such as google analytics to see where the traffic came from to get a better understanding of which campaign was most effective at engaging your audience and leading them onto your site. 

However, site traffic may not prove a positive return on investment. An increase in traffic is a good indication of a successful campaign, but your brand cannot prove ROI on this alone. If your goal were to raise brand awareness, high site traffic after a campaign would indicate a positive ROI. But if your brand looked to increase sales, site traffic would need to be accompanied by quality leads. 

Time on site/ consumer behaviour 

Looking at site traffic and consumer behaviour onsite will allow your brand to see if your campaign has effectively engaged audiences or if they are bouncing off-site. By understanding your customers’ behaviour, your brand can look at the time spent on a site and which pages they visited to alter the campaign’s to reach maximum effectiveness, whether that be a direct campaign or overall, for brand awareness. Looking at your campaign and seeing where in the marketing funnel it was directed will allow you to understand your audience and specifically target your campaigns where you know they are most influenced to convert within the funnel. This can help you enhance their impact for better results, allowing you to prove the ROI of a campaign.

Quality leads

Measuring lead quality will help prove ROI as a customer who converts after seeing your campaign will be high quality and most likely to return to your brand. If your brand sees an increase in high-quality leads after a campaign or ad has run, then you can link the two and prove ROI on these. Your brand should look to prove the return on investment after measuring lead quality. It will allow you to understand how you can best increase customer lifetime value and retention. Looking at brand purpose will also improve lead quality as paying customers to return to a brand they align with. 

Time – but give your campaign the time to run!

Give the investment time to work. The ad campaign your brand launched last week will not have had time to make the desired reach, so measure in stages. Look at the campaign and note the increase in conversions but give it time to be shared and seen before you expect customers to flood your site. Taking note of traffic before, during and after your campaign will provide you with a realistic figure on return on investment. Your brand can also compare the data collected to previous campaigns to see whether your campaign is doing well overall. Using previous data will also allow your brand to estimate the ROI. 

Look at the time and money spent on key parts of your marketing strategy and break it down to compare how much is going out compared to what it is returning. If the pros outweigh the cons, you will be able to prove ROI based on your measurements. 

Many other campaign metrics can be measured. To understand the effectiveness of your advertising, looking at awareness, intent and conversion rate will allow your brand to understand consumer behaviours to engage more effectively with customers. The team have been hard at work helping marketeers tackle the marketing challenges of 2022; find them here. 

Still, stuck? We can help!

GottaBe! has experts on hand who know how best to help you with your marketing needs. So if your brand needs help to understand your return on investment and need to prove this, we are here. Contact the team today to find out more about the services we offer +44 238 0634283.