How to Optimize Marketing Campaigns + Overcome Challenges
Advertisers strive to produce high-performing paid ad campaigns. To achieve the desired results, they must undergo a process of testing and refining their media strategy. They need to optimize.
Let's review a few marketing campaign optimization concepts and explore high-performance campaigns' characteristics.
What is Marketing Campaign Optimization?
“Marketing campaign optimization is the action of reviewing historical and in-flight data across multiple channels, audiences, creative, etc. Advertisers use this information to create informed decisions to improve campaign performance.”
- Cortland Fondon, VP of Media, Pathlabs
In short, it is the process of using data and tests to tweak paid ad campaigns and boost chances of success.
To optimize campaigns, marketers field ads and analyze the performance data. Advertisers then optimize campaigns based on this data.
If the ad is performing well, keep it running! Advertisers will change the ad content, field it at a different time or location, experiment with other channels, or stop using the ad altogether if it performs poorly.
By following this cycle of constant marketing optimization, marketers can:
Boost their conversion rate
Spread brand awareness
Maximize budget
Find the best channels
Discover a different strategy or market
Generate new leads
Explore automation tools & platforms
Identify new key performance indicators
Why is Marketing Campaign Optimization Important?
Increased chance of success
“Marketers cannot meet campaign goals if they do not optimize after initial data comes in. There is no reason not to optimize.”
- Tyler Christiansen, Campaign Analyst, Pathlabs
Marketers rarely hit the perfect audience on their first try. It is essential to move toward the optimal point of performance; it pays off in the long run.
Saves money
Campaign optimization pinpoints the best place to field ads and provides data on what is and isn't working. By identifying this, marketers know where to invest advertising funds and which channels to remove.
Exploration of the target audience
Marketers experiment with multiple channels during the campaign optimization process. The goal is to find better places to field ads and reach a new segment of target customers.
How to Optimize Marketing Campaigns
"At Pathlabs, we craft our optimization processes similar to The Scientific Method. First, we analyze a situation, ask ourselves questions, establish a hypothesis based on the data, and test. Next, we observe the test results, analyze them, then present our findings.”
- Cortland Fondon, VP of Media, Pathlabs
Want to dive into marketing campaign optimization? We recommend you follow this process:
Analyze the situation
Which campaign are we optimizing?
Why does it need to be optimized? Is it not working?
What are current elements of the campaign that could be tested and tweaked? Are there any elements of the campaign that are under or overperforming?
What are our current KPIs and data metrics that are guiding this campaign?
Who is our target audience?
Hypothesize & plan
What element of the campaign are we testing? In which channel will this ad be fielded? What type of media? What language or call to action will be used?
How should the test be performed? A/B Tests? Heat Maps? Run an ad in a new channel and record performance?
How will we determine the ad strength? Which metrics do we need to observe?
How long will the new campaign or ad be tested?
Which software are we going to use to track data?
Is additional research about the channel or ad method needed?
Run the experiment
Field the campaign and monitor it while data comes in.
Observe test results and analyze data
Based on the newly recorded data, what performed well? What didn't?
Are there any external or confounding variables that may have impacted the data?
Is this data replicable? Can it be validated?
Are there any trends?
Modify the campaign accordingly
Are all the changes made, and is the new campaign ready to be fielded?
How long until optimization is needed again?
Repeat
Continue to hypothesize, test, and improve the campaign.
Things to remember
You may never hit the perfect 'sweet spot.'
Although the goal of optimizing a campaign is to make it the best it can be, marketers should be realistic and recognize that their campaigns will never be perfect, and it isn't their fault.
"You have to adapt to the digital world continuously. Things are always changing. It's exciting. Marketers learn with the curve to find out what works and doesn't."
- Jensen Lewis, Campaign Analyst, Pathlabs
Avoid becoming hyper-focused on optimization. Work toward tangible objectives. Tremendous growth overnight is unusual. Optimization is gradual.
Know which metrics to use and check them often
Data serves as a guide for optimization. Marketers track various metrics, such as conversions, engagement rate, or return on ad spend.
Look at your data often. We'd recommend monitoring data no less than every three days. Setting up a campaign, waiting a month to check it, and hoping to hit all campaign goals doesn't make sense.
Be clear on what you're testing and the validity of the insights.
When running ad tests, marketers should focus on internal validity. There may be errors or external variables found in the data. Set up your campaigns to run multiple data sets, and remember that tests take a few days to complete.
Keep in mind what variables you are testing. If a marketer changes an ad's text and color scheme, it may be challenging to determine which impacted test results.
Best Ways to Track Marketing Campaign Progress
Utilize these three elements to track your campaign progress:
Have a control or baseline:
Record past performance data to compare with new performance data
Field the original and optimized ads to determine what factors work.
Use a few of the following metrics:
Conversions
Website visitors
Bounce rate
Open rate
Search engine keywords
Click through rate
Return on ad spend
Ad engagement duration (depending on media used)
Heat map and customer behavior reports
Channel attribution
Use reporting software to analyze data:
Google Analytics
The Trade Desk
Tableau
Nielsen
Joinr
How to Overcome Optimization Challenges
According to Jensen Lewis, a campaign analyst at Pathlabs, these are the three most prominent challenges marketers may face when optimizing campaigns:
Challenge 1: Making the time to optimize
How to Overcome it: It can be difficult to continuously optimize marketing efforts. However, it doesn't always have to be this strenuous. As long as marketers take a few hours a week to run and test campaigns, analyze the results, and pivot in a better direction, they are optimizing!
Challenge 2: Satisfying the goals of the client and marketing team
How to Overcome It: It can be challenging for marketers in the agency world to communicate campaign nuances to clients. It is essential to be transparent about why optimization is taking place and how these changes will improve performance. Be sure to have compelling data to back up your argument.
Challenge 3: Navigating data and metrics
How to Overcome It: At the end of the day, marketers and advertisers aren't data scientists. It may be helpful to use a media planning or programmatic advertising tool. These can provide insights and accurate data that are boiled down and easy to understand.
How Does Pathlabs Use Marketing Campaign Optimization?
According to our VP of Media, Cortland Fondon, we apply this marketing campaign optimization method twofold. First, we leverage our proprietary campaign management and reporting tool (LumenAd) to organize and normalize campaign data across active channels. LumenAd allows us to create reports to glean insights quickly around cross-channel variables; audiences, creative, day-parts, you name it.
Second, our teams have a standard practice to document ongoing changes within a campaign (change logs). Our change Logs create a source of reference for all changes in active campaigns and provide a format to report on changes, why the software made the change, and the anticipated outcome of the difference.
Are you ready to explore the benefits of working with a digital media agency partner? Get in touch with Pathlabs to see how we can become an extension of your team.
