It’s the Strategy, uh . . . Never Mind
I’ve been spending a lot of time in SL lately, but let’s go back to RL for a moment.
Lately, Centric was asked to comment on a couple of online advertising and keyword campaigns produced by other agencies. In both cases, it took our online strategists about 60 seconds to find a glaring flaw in the campaigns.
This isn’t self-congratulatory. Any marketer should have been able to see the same thing, in the same amount of time.
The flaw? The strategy.
In one case, there was a keyword campaign pulling great numbers for clickthrough and cost per click—but it was targeted at the wrong audience. For this B2B company, the campaign was sending lots of people to the site. Unfortunately, they were the wrong people. This was painfully evident from the site engagement numbers, and from the site traffic patterns. But anyone who looked at what the business did, and the keywords selected, would have said, “Hey, wait a minute.”
In another case, it was online advertising. Again, great clickthrough rates and cost per click numbers. The problem was, this wasn’t for an online retailer. This was for a B2C company with a site that was all about branding. So delivering 50,000 eyeballs, even at a great CPC, isn’t really going to move the needle. The planner, in this case, simply blew it. They should have been looking at more impressions or even a viral contest to drive 100x the number of visits to the site.
Again, this doesn’t mean that Centric is infallible. We’ve learned some valuable lessons from applying knowledge gained in online campaigns for large brands to small brands. They simply don’t work for lesser-known brands. Of course, we noticed this in one week, at our first (human) review of the numbers.
What it does mean is that the strategy matters. Not just the numbers. Wrong strategy and great numbers won’t get you the results you need. Right strategy, right numbers–that’s where it’s at.
So, what are we saying? Forget the rush to online for a moment. Sit back and relax. And take a few moments to think. Who are you trying to reach? Why? What other audiences might be in conflict with that same audience? What are you trying to get them to do? How? What metrics are significant?
Then plan the campaign. Then measure it. And optimize it.
So, what’s your strategy?
