How To Know When Marketing Spend is Wasted
There is a famous advertising quote often attributed to retail magnate John Wanamaker:
“half my advertising budget is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half…”
– Famous Advertising Quote Attributed to John Wanamaker
It speaks to a common question, or queasy feeling most advertisers have for professional marketers: How do I know when marketing spend is wasted? Asked another way, “How do I know when my advertising is really making me money?”
Professional Marketers Now Have a Better Answer Than in John Wannamaker’s Day
One of the greatest prospects of marketing in the digital era is that everything we do can be accountable for results and outcomes; ultimately responsible for marketing return on investment (ROI).
In the early days of department stores, John Wanamaker dominated retail in Philadelphia in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Wanamaker Building still stands as a tribute to his legacy.
Today, John Wanamaker would be amazed by his ability to know exactly which half of his marketing spend is wasted.
What Makes the Difference
Innovations attributed to the digital advertising era allow make a big difference:
Tracking metrics has been a game changer. We can now track and report the customer creation activity generated by every campaign, via every customer engagement channel (website, phone, text, e-mail, store front, etc.).
We are also able to attribute each conversion event. For the sake of this discussion let’s define a conversion event as anything that creates an actionable lead (new customer prospect). Since we can track each of these conversion events back to how it was generated, the marketing return on investment (ROI) of each campaign can subsequently be calculated.
The math for calculating marketing ROI can take many forms. However, in the simplest form we prefer immediate ROI. Here’s a link to how we calculate that.
We’re Here to Help
If you can’t shake the feeling that some or all of your marketing spend is wasted, let’s talk. We invest in our clients long before they invest in us. So we’re always willing to spend time to get to know you without being “on the clock.”
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