How to Set + Track Digital Marketing OKRs
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Pathlabs Marketing |
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April 18, 2023 |
In today's digital age, businesses need to keep up with the constantly evolving digital marketing landscape. That's where OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) come in. OKRs are a goal-setting framework that can help businesses set and achieve their digital marketing goals. But what exactly are digital marketing OKRs, and how do they differ from KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)?
In this article, we'll explore the different types of digital marketing OKRs and provide examples of how they are used to drive growth and success. We'll also discuss why businesses need to adopt this framework and provide tips on how to set and track digital marketing OKRs effectively.
What Are Digital Marketing OKRs?
OKR stands for objectives and key results. OKRs are a goal-setting framework that can help businesses set and achieve their digital marketing goals.
An objective is an overarching goal the business wants to meet, while key results are individual sub-goals and activities that, once complete, contribute to meeting the overall objective.
In marketing, we often use the OKR framework in campaign planning and execution. Say a team wants to increase the expansion of its social media presence. This is a general, tangible, objective – the reason the campaign exists.
The underlining key results for this objective may include the following:
Boost posts on Instagram and Facebook
Increase the overall social ad budget by 40%
Follow 300 new accounts
By completing these key components, they individually generate outcomes that compound and contribute to the larger campaign objective.
“OKRs are a necessary component of campaign management and partnership growth. As a result, we at Pathlabs heavily use them. OKRs are individually determined based on in-depth conversations both internally and with our partners on how to achieve sustainable, measurable business results for our clients and what those results mean. The key question here is ‘what does success look like and how will that be measured?’” - Emily Eicholtz, Account Director
How Are Digital Marketing OKRs Different From KPIs?
Digital marketing OKRs and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are both used to measure performance, but they serve different purposes. KPIs are metrics used to track how well a company is performing against its goals. KPIs are typically used to measure ongoing performance and are tracked regularly, such as weekly or monthly. For example, a business might set a KPI to measure the number of website visitors, the conversion rate, or the cost per acquisition.
“Key results are metrics by which you’ll measure the progress of your OKR. While the KPIs are quantifiable ways to measure your initiative against results.” - Emily Eicholtz, Account Direct
To increase brand awareness, a business sets OKRs such as one million web visitors, publishing one hundred social posts, and boosting followers by 20%. However, simply completing these tasks does not guarantee a completed objective. To measure the impact of each key result and determine if the objective is achieved, the team needs to use KPIs such as click-through rate for website visitors and likes, comments, and follows for social media engagement. By tracking these KPIs, the team can determine whether or not the campaign successfully meets the objective.
In summary, while KPIs are important for tracking ongoing performance, digital marketing OKRs provide a framework for setting and achieving specific objectives, driving progress toward meaningful outcomes for the business.
Why Do You Need OKRs in Digital Marketing?
Here are some reasons why businesses need to adopt OKRs in digital marketing:
Aligning efforts towards a common goal: One of the most significant benefits of OKRs is that they help to align the efforts of different teams and departments towards a common objective. By setting clear and measurable goals, everyone knows what they're working towards and can prioritize their actions accordingly.
Focusing on what matters: With so many different metrics and KPIs to track in digital marketing, it can be easy to lose sight of what really matters. OKRs help businesses to focus on the key outcomes that will drive growth and success, rather than getting bogged down in the details.
Driving accountability: OKRs provide a framework for accountability and ownership. When everyone knows what they're responsible for and what they're working towards, it's easier to track progress and hold team members accountable for their work.
Measuring progress: OKRs provide a way to measure progress towards specific goals and objectives. By setting measurable key results, businesses can track their progress over time and adjust as needed to ensure they stay on track.
Encouraging innovation: By setting ambitious but achievable goals, OKRs encourage teams to think outside the box and develop innovative solutions to achieve their objectives.
In summary, OKRs provide a structured approach to setting and achieving digital marketing goals, helping businesses align their efforts, focus on what matters, drive accountability, measure progress, and encourage innovation. By adopting OKRs, businesses can take their digital marketing efforts to the next level and achieve meaningful outcomes that drive growth and success.
Types of Marketing OKRs
Marketers commonly categorize OKRs as either aspirational or committed; aspirational means loftier and optimistic, while committed has a narrower, more realistic scope.
An extremely aspirational OKR may aim to double all marketing efforts with key results of boosting programmatic and direct ad budgets/efforts by 100%.
A conservative OKR may be more strict, with the objective to slightly boost audio ad presence, with key results being to raise the monthly audio campaign budget by 10%, and attain a 20% increase in the number of clicks on these audio ads.
The amount of aspiration or commitment a marketer uses in their OKRs is up to them – and there’s space for both. If somebody does take the aspirational route, however, they need to ensure these inspirational objectives are matched with specific, tangible objectives that support broader goals.” - Emily Eicholtz, Account Director
In addition to its’ gradient of specific to broad dimensions, there are many types of OKRs based on the specific activities and industries the business falls into. It is such a universal model, people use OKRs for social media, sales, products, content, SEO, operations, human resources, politics, and multiple other efforts.
See some specific marketing OKR types in the next section, accompanied by the KPIs marketers can use to measure the key results.
Digital Marketing OKR Examples
Social Media
Objective: Improve Q3 social media engagement from Q2
Key Result 1: Increase Instagram followers by 15%
Key Result 2: Increase Linkedin followers by 15%
Key Result 3: Increase positive social media interactions
KPIs may include Instagram and Linkedin follows, likes, comments, reshares
Product Sales
Objective: Increase overall sales for product C
Key Result 1: Boost digital ad spend for product C by 40%
Key Result 2: Increase mobile sales by 45%
Key Result 3: Increase the number of promotional coupons given to customers
KPIs may include mobile CPM and clicks, sales revenue, coupon applications
Content
Objective: Boost content creation efforts for
Key Result 1: Create 5 new podcast episodes
Key Result 2: Write 4 new blogs
Key Result 3: Highlight earned media content
KPIs may include impressions, click-through rates, saves, and archives
Engagement
Objective: Improve engagement for the membership program
Key Result 1: Send out 10 company newsletters over Q1
Key Result 2: Offer two prize raffles for free merchandise to members
Key Result 3: Boost membership registration by 10%
KPIs may include open rate, click-through rate, prize raffle engagement, new registrations, the attrition rate
Operations and Production
Objective: Waste fewer production materials
Key Result 1: Recycle and reuse 15% more waste inventory
Key Result 2: Hire two additional Quality Assurance Testers
Key Result 3: Require one additional week of training for production employees
KPIs may include a percentage of waste, number of quality incidences or defective items, employee performance reviews
Customer and Client Management
Objective: Expand current and potential customer base
Key Result 1: Attend three trade shows
Key Result 2: Acquire five new customers
Key Result 3: Generate ten quality leads
KPIs may include new leads, converted leads, new revenue generated, website visits, and number of follow ups
People and Team Focused
Objective: Boost team camaraderie and organization culture for Q1
Key Result 1: Host team luncheon every week
Key Result 2: Interview and write a blog about ten employees
Key Result 3: Provide quarterly bonus
KPIs may include employee satisfaction scores, employee retention, number of employee complaints
How to Set and Track Digital Marketing OKRs
Businesses should go about determining their OKRs in a sequential, hierarchical manner.
“First, nail down the broader portion of OKRs: the objective. Objectives should be based on in-depth conversations held both internally and with clients (if applicable). The team should hone in on the overarching goals and direction. This can be more general because the key results will detail the more specific sub-goals.” - Emily Eicholtz, Account Director
With the established objective, the team can move on to their key results. This requires considering what achievable, measurable results will positively impact the objective. This is a challenging portion because teams tend to come up with dozens of possible key results. However, it is best practice to stick with 2-4 key results with the highest probability of success.
Key results should align with the strengths of the team. If one team member has expertise in a specific field of marketing or advertising, the team should consider leaning into and weaving this strength into the key results.
Next, the team can think about how to measure their key results and objectives. This is where the KPI will help out and serve as the marketing metric for interpretation.
For simple KPIs, such as likes, follows, or page views, teams can track them within the hosting platform like Instagram, Facebook, or Squarespace.
If the KPI is more complex and difficult to track, like click-through rate, impressions, and ROI, the marketer may need to use a programmatic platform or perhaps a third-party data tracking device.
Lastly, the team must think about how long the OKR should last. Some teams may set and readdress their OKRs on a semi-annual or yearly basis; while others do it weekly to quarterly.
At Pathlabs, we suggest a happy medium – just long enough to track data and results, but not too long that the objective becomes outdated.
In Conclusion…
Setting and achieving digital marketing goals is critical to the success of any business in today's digital landscape. By adopting the OKR framework, businesses can set clear and measurable objectives, and align their marketing efforts toward achieving them. Some teams work well setting strict week-to-week OKRs, while others adhere to OKRs loosely. If the OKR usage makes the team meet their goals and indicates success, anything goes.
We've covered what digital marketing OKRs are, how they differ from KPIs, and the different types of marketing OKRs that businesses can use. We've also provided examples of how businesses can use OKRs to drive growth. By following these tips and best practices, businesses can set and track digital marketing OKRs effectively and take their digital marketing efforts to the next level.
