How to measure the value of my marketing?

Evaluating your marketing is a tricky thing. After all, there are so many things to track, and so many ways to define success. You might be asking questions like:

If your marketing seems like a convoluted mess, here are four methods for measuring (and increasing) the value of your marketing efforts.

The first step towards measuring the value of your marketing is understanding what’s important for your organization’s success, and then paying attention to those goals. Do you want to sell 10,000 units in the next 6 months? Do you want to reach 650 people with resources by the end of the year?

Once you know your overall business goals, what small, measurable steps (like website visitors) will get you to that goal? For example:

If we (have 500 site visitors a day, get 50 sales inquiries, etc.), it will help us reach our goal of (selling 1 million this year).

Those specific, measurable, ongoing objectives that show your progress towards larger goals are called KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators. By measuring the impact your marketing has on your KPIs, you can understand the value of your marketing in reaching your overall goals!

To learn more about marketing KPIs and why you want to track them, read our article on how to set up your KPIs.

Although they’re not the end-all be-all of marketing, conversions are still incredibly important to pay attention to. After all, your primary goal isn’t to get likes, but to generate sales, help people register, encourage them to sign up‌.‌.‌.you get the point.

Do you know where your conversions are coming from? Do people see a Facebook post that encourages them to buy? Was it a promotion from an ad you ran? Or did a customer find you through Google search?

If you don’t know the source of your conversions, it’s time to find out. Set up analytics and use trackable links to discover the origin of your customers so you can more effectively calculate the return on your marketing spend (and where you might want to change your strategy).

But not every customer will respond to your call right away. Sometimes, it takes weeks, months, or even years before a customer makes a purchase based on your marketing. But is it valuable when customers see your brand, even when they don’t take action? YES.

One example of delayed value in marketing is the automotive industry. The average individual purchases a different car only every 5 to 7 years. Yet in 2021, global industry advertising spend was between 40-50 billion dollars (yes, that’s 10 zeros). Very few of the people who see an ad at any given time are ready to purchase a car, let alone a car from a specific brand. But there’s value in staying at the forefront of people’s minds. Some estimates put the generalized average for ROI on automotive marketing somewhere between 150% and 300%.

So while you may not be able to pinpoint the specific value of your impressions immediately, follow your customers as they move through your marketing funnels. As you build trust and brand recognition, your returns and conversions will grow.

Tracking the value of your marketing is never the end of the road. Once you know the things that are bringing you the most returns, work on amplifying those! 

And not all conversions are created equal. By using trackable links to find conversion sources, you can even find out the value of the conversions you generate from your marketing. If you know what’s bringing the greatest returns for your investment, how can you take those “best of” strategies to make them better?

There’s so much involved in tracking and managing your data, so for more information about what to pay attention to, read about using analytics to improve your marketing strategy.

Now you may be asking yourself: but how do I know when I’ve done the best I can with my marketing? The short answer is this—there’s ALWAYS more you can do. There are always adjustments to be made, always new strategies to test out, always more creativity to push towards.

The better question is this—what’s the next thing I can do to improve my strategy and bring more value?  Whether that’s increasing your ad budget, starting a new campaign, or even finding a marketing partner, how can you move towards increasing value for your organization?