QuantifiedNation #1: Apples, Oranges and Marketing Measurement
Quantified Nation brings you Marketing Measurement Magic through the fingertips of Jesús Martín and Pablo Pérez. Subscribe to the newsletter so you do not miss future editions.
Food for thought
Every marketing professional will ensure to speak up about the importance of measurement and demonstrate marketing effectiveness when they have a chance. Results need to be measurable so there is a clear pulse of business results from the marketing activities.
However, the methodologies in which these results are measured have been traditionally designed with different approaches, making very hard to make sense of them altogether. We will end up having different metrics to prove effectiveness on increasing awareness, prove that an ad was seen or prove that a concrete number of conversions are attributed to a channel, to name a few of examples. Moreover, we will try to compare performance from different sources so you will end up looking at oranges from a marketing channel and apples from another one.
Measurement tools and technologies provide an additional layer of complexity, which can weigh down your ability to make better decisions if not in the right hands. Also, innovation in this field require us to be updated on new tech, methodologies and trends which needs evaluation and analysis to understand the implications of choosing one or another. All of it in a scenario where business sense is the most important yet forgotten skill, specially when we find ourselves caught up in legacy solutions, tech debt or professionals stuck in old-fashioned measurement.
Navigating the sea of measurement will allow you to plan and execute your marketing achieving greater business impact. By mastering measurement, you will be able to optimize your media mix, ensuring your budget is spent where it better serve your goals. Discover which strategies resonate most with your audience and which campaigns are likely to generate incremental sales. You will gain a deeper understanding of consumer behavior, developing stronger relationships that go beyond mere transactions and generate loyalty. With each insight from your measurement capabilities, your marketing journey becomes not just a sailing experience but a tailored expedition.
To achieve a forward-looking solution for our measurement, we need a combination of methodologies. There is no silver bullet or easy solution. Changes in the ecosystem regarding user privacy, media consumption fragmentation and larger diversification of budgets are making it even more difficult. Attempting to simplify your measurement will inevitably simplify your marketing strategy, leading to the choice of options that are easily measured but may not have the greatest impact on your business. That is, limited measurement capabilities prevent you from realizing your full potential as a marketer.
There is no single source of truth in marketing and we love that.
Embrace the journey of marketing measurement with us.
Hot Takes
Three steps to developing a marketing effectiveness framework that lands with the C-suite. Article by Kantar and Google in Marketing Week. “Improving marketing effectiveness” tuned out to be the #1 priority in a recent survey to 900 marketers. The article shares three recommendations to improve. 1) Integration of methodologies. 2) ROI as one of the metrics but not the only one. 3) Effectiveness as a x-org priority not a specialization.
Kantar’s Ignite 2023 just happened in October. You can now revisit the presentations, including a very cool piece on brand differentiation led by Mark Ritson and featuring BrandZ data.
Mark Ritson discusses in a recent column on why the USA is behind in the marketing effectiveness conversation. Mostly agree with the idea, no need to reiterate as Ritson is much better in summarizing in an engaging manner. As marketers working in Spain for an American company, we totally recognize that these days the game is played in the UK (Les Binet, Peter Field, Felipe Thomaz1…), Australia (Ehrenberg Bass Institute, The Attention Council…) with the occasional flash from the USA (Koen Pauwels…).
Chart of the day
Cold weather is coming to the northern hemisphere. With that, there’s the associated rise of seasonal queries such as rain boots or motorbike gloves. Our favorite? This one with the searches for dryers, where if we select UK and Australia, we can see a very nice pattern of the seasons in two different parts of the world. Also note the messiness on the last 2-3 years, where the underlying pattern persists but the volatility increases.
Source: Google Trends
Measurement industry updates and upcoming events
“Making the right impression”. December 13th virtual event by the ARF and Nielsen on TV metrics.
“AudiencexScience 2024”. Call for papers is closed, mark your agenda for March 20-21st in New York.
Classics revisited
Measuring effectiveness: Three grand challenges. A 2019 classic from Google effectiveness experts, rabidly current. Very valid reflections and solutions into today’s measurement challenges including long term measurement and complementarity of methodologies.
Who by the way visited Spain recently.