Dollars & Sense: A Budget Optimization e-Book

T Table of Contents

Preface: Staying Ahead
pg. 1

Part 1: Internal Affairs: Increasing Team Member Efficiency
pg. 3

Part 2: Crunching the Numbers: Determining your Budget
pg. 5

Part 3: Where The Money Goes: Budget Allocation Tips
pg. 7

Part 4: A Helping Hand: Budget Management Tools
pg. 9

Part 5: Time is Money: Improving Time Management
pg. 11

Part 6: From Data to Dollars: Operational Change through
Social Research
pg. 13

Part 7: Leveraging Multiple Data Sources for
Demand-Driven Marketing
pg. 15

Part 8: The Buck Doesn’t Stop Here: ROI Analysis
pg. 17

AskingSmarterQuestions.com

Preface Staying Ahead
By Steve Parker, Jr. How many times have you been hard at work and then some outside force –
something unexpected – derails all your effort? It’s painful and it’s frustrating. It
takes a lot of effort to get re-focused, fix the issue, or work around it. It’s even
harder when the force that derails you is from the inside, something you or your
company could have prevented; that can be a near-devastating feeling.

Many times the issues that derail us are solved with proper measurement and
accountability. It never ceases to amaze me that companies will spend tens-of-
thousands, hundreds-of-thousands or millions of dollars on a new tool, service
or campaign without the proper resources to hold dollars accountable and
measure the true impact beyond standard convenience metrics.

After all, it is not that difficult to hold items and people accountable and measure
what we do. Yet, we are human beings so we often fail to do this and instead
we suffer. Don’t for a minute pretend you don’t do this – we do this in our
“Many times the personal lives and professional settings too. Yes, you chose that half-pound
issues that derail slice of chocolate cake instead of the small slice. Yes, you chose for your PR
us are solved with firm to assign a value of $30K to your quote in Business Week, yes you chose
proper measurement to measure clicks and page views instead of sales and profit margin. Yes, you
and accountability” are the inside problem, and your co-workers and friends are too. This series,
Dollars & Sense, is dedicated to bringing accountability into not only your
marketing plan, but your entire business. Finding efficiencies within your staff
and operations, as well as appropriately managing your budget are essential to
maximizing dollars. Think of it as a helping hand toward finding a better path for
your business, allowing you to stay ahead of the curve.

So how do you get on a better track?

You become accountable, put the right people in charge, report on outcomes all
need to be highlighted somehow. Make a plan. Establish a process that is clear
and measurable and has substance to it. Don’t take the easy route and do what
all the others are doing – stretch and make true goals that will have big impact
and question the soft goals.

Put the right people in charge. Yep, create a team, partner(s) or peers that will
be critical, hold you accountable and allow themselves to be judged by the
same criteria. You want responsible, skilled and analytical thinkers that will
make you uncomfortable in establishing a new direction, setting goals and also
measuring the right ones. That’s called growth.

Report on the outcomes. Seems simple right? I’m not talking about weighing
yourself in your bathroom where no one can see, or keeping the reporting of
what you determine to be success contained to your department or division
– I’m talking about clearly and transparently reporting so that true growth and
accountability can occur. Be clear and honest on your SWOT analysis. Heck,

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AskingSmarterQuestions.com 1

Preface Staying Ahead
(continued)

By Steve Parker, Jr. post that weight gain or loss on twitter. Let the CEO know where you have
succeeded and failed. Wait, you want me to report failure? Yes, that too – that
way s/he can help you overcome those challenges and put you on a better path
to success.

Making money is great, but having sense about re-investing that money into
your business is paramount for growth and success. Whether you are working
with a small or large budget, this series will help you on your way.

“Making money is great, but
having sense about re-investing
that money into your business is
paramount for success”

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Part

1
By Steve Parker, Jr.
Internal Affairs: Increasing Team
Member Efficiency
“Dollars and Sense” is all about increasing efficiency in all aspects of your
business. This is not just specific to marketing; we mean improving your
business across the board. Things that you may not even consider affect your
bottom line on a daily basis. To begin with, we’re not starting with your budgets
or revenue, but your high-cost, high-value human capital. What can your team
do in order to bring in more business? Well, it’s time for you to consider how you
can encourage and challenge your team members to perform better on the job.

First, let’s consider the individuals that comprise the teams you presently have.
Ask yourself the following questions about the individuals you employ:

1. Does this employee seem happy?

2. What are this employee’s strengths?
“Things that you
may not even 3. In what aspects is this employee weak?
consider affect your
bottom line on 4. How can I play up to his/her strengths?
a daily basis”
5. Will changing this person’s role negatively or positively affect them?

These questions are important because in order to play up a person’s strengths,
you must first know what they are. You can begin by asking the teammate, but
oftentimes, they’re not entirely sure of what they’re good at. Asking the person
he/she directly reports to will also give you some insight. Perhaps this person
loves Aspect A of the job, but not Aspects B and C. Is there a role that requires
more of Aspect A and less of B and C? Emphasizing this person’s strengths
and managing weaknesses can help him or her work more happily, and more
efficiently, thus improving their team and your business.

Secondly, let’s consider the teams in your company. Use these simple tips to
maximize efficiency in everyday tasks as well as big initiatives:

1. Team up. Put individuals with varying strengths, weaknesses and personalities
on a team together. This will challenge them to think critically and from different
perspectives when presenting new ideas or strategies. For meetings, certain
team members can be responsible for “poking holes” in ideas and this can
rotate. This ensures that meetings are constructive and reach solutions sooner.
The team members responsible for “poking holes” can be rotated so that
everyone has a chance to improve ideas and strategies. Putting individuals with
similar strengths, weaknesses and personalities in a group may lead to a “group
think,” or blind agreement, and the team will produce fewer impactful ideas.

You can try giving your team members personality tests like this truncated
version of the Myers-Briggs, or workplace-specific tests in order to determine

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Part

1
Internal Affairs: Increasing Team
Member Efficiency
(continued)

who would comprise the best teams. Though this analysis may take a bit of
time, having your teams working efficiently together can save each of them (and
you) a significant amount of time in the long-run.

2. Emphasize communication. If you have done your job when building teams
in your company, you should have a generally dysfunctional-looking group of
individuals comprising each team. By this I just mean that they’re all different
in their working styles and personalities. Kathy is an ENFP and she thrives on
conversation, while Joe is an ISTJ and prefers email. Therefore, communication
is paramount. Emphasize the importance of communication in teams, but also
let them choose what forms of communication is best. Educate teams on how
many different types of communication there are. Perhaps they need off-site
regroups to get away from their hectic schedules and desks, perhaps they need
to meet early in the morning for coffee in the office kitchen. Tell team members
“If you have that you (the boss) are going to ask individuals about what other team members
done your job are working on from time to time. If the members of a team are aware of what
when building others are doing, it will also make them more cognizant of deadlines and more
teams, you should considerate in general.
have a generally
dysfunctional- Here’s an example: Jim is up to his neck in spreadsheets, but he knows that
looking group Diane has a client meeting early the following day, so he needs to get them
in this afternoon in order to allow her the time to review before her meeting.
of individuals
Likewise, Amy has just wrapped up a report and knows that Jim is on a tight
comprising each deadline, so she is able to offer her assistance.
team”
3. Never stop educating. Employee continuing education does not always have
to be related to your company’s offerings today. Encouraging your employees
to challenge the status quo and educate themselves about developing trends
and services could impact your business greatly in the future. Employees who
are able to extend their realm of knowledge will undoubtedly want to take on
more responsibility and are more likely to become leaders in the company.
Find unique ways to reward people who go out of their way to attend webinars,
networking events or local classes to improve their depth of knowledge in their
respective fields.

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Part

2
By Jeff Adelson-Yan
Crunching the Numbers:
Determining your Budget
There are many factors that go into determining a holistic budget for digital
solutions. These initiatives can include marketing, business intelligence and
analytics designed to help grow your business. Here are a few things to consider
when setting budgets for your digital initiatives:

Goals

What are the ultimate goals for your business next year? If you are a start-
up, brand development costs might need to be allocated. This can include
developing sales and marketing assets for promotion, or a website, blog and
social channels. For more established businesses who already possess these,
perhaps the focus is increasing efficiency throughout the business with data
enrichment or investing in competitive analysis to better compete in the digital
space. Setting these goals will allow you to make the best decisions on where
“There are plenty budgets should be allocated (more on that next week).
of ways to put
your brand ahead Here’s an example: Last year, a B2C spent $100,000 on pay-per-click ads
of the competition and management. When assessing their success, they were able to attribute
without blowing $220,000 worth of revenue to these campaigns. Therefore, they made $120,000.
out your budget” Simple, right? But this business wants more. So for the next year, they will
increase their budget for SEM, but also invest in data analytics that will help
them determine more about their customers. In turn, they will be able to analyze
captured data about their consumers’ behaviors and make informed decisions
about inventory, staffing and marketing budgets accordingly. They can project to
perform better in SEM, but also cut costs in day-to-day operations.

Ideally, data enrichment and analysis happens in conjunction with all running
PPC campaigns, but if it is not something that your business is currently doing,
it can greatly improve your bottom line across the board.

Competitive analysis

Being competitive in the digital landscape can prove difficult depending on
your industry. It is important to educate yourself about what your competitors
are spending, which can be achieved with competitive analysis. This does not
mean you have to match this number to compete, however. There are plenty
of ways to put your brand ahead of the competition without blowing out your
budget. Finding out what they spend versus what they make (public companies
often release this information quarterly or annually) can be very important for
determining the marketing-to-sales ratio for your industry.

Volume and margins

Is your business built on a volume or margins structure? If your products are
low-margin (as in, the revenue generated from the sale of the product is not
much more than the cost it takes to acquire and maintain the product), you
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Part

2
By Jeff Adelson-Yan
Crunching the Numbers:
Determining your Budget
(continued)
need to sell large volumes of the product to generate healthy revenue. If your
products are high-margin (the revenue generated from the sale of the product is
much more than it takes to acquire and maintain the product), the volume can
be less. Though successful businesses can run on both of these structures, it is
important to know which you are so that you may determine budget accordingly.
Generally speaking, those that operate with high profit margins spend fewer
dollars on marketing and sales. This is because they do not need to sell large
quantities of the product to make money. On the other hand, if you need to
move large volumes of products, more marketing initiatives are needed.

Explore new avenues for maximizing budgets

The wonderful thing about the digital lanscape is that it is ever-changing. There
are always new avenues to be explored (such as the aforementioned intelligence
“The wonderful solutions like data enrichment and analytics technologies). Explore the newest
thing about the fields to find out if they are the right fit for your business. Visual social media
digital landscape marketing platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and Viddy can all be
is that it is ever- leveraged in new ways to maximize your marketing budget. Budgets can also
be maximized by integrating online and offline campaigns and continuing
changing; there are
optimization tests.
always new avenues
to be explored” Determining next year’s budget can be a little intimidating at first, but once
you understand the basics, you can make informed decisions. The most
important factor is thinking critically about what your business intelligence and
analytics solutions can offer you. Improving efficiency–not just your marketing
campaigns–is the ultimate goal. Allocating budgets to these efforts is paramount
for your success in the coming year.

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Part

3
Where The Money Goes:
Budget Allocation Tips
You have now decided what your overall marketing budget is for the upcoming
period. But where should you invest these dollars? It can be difficult to decide
what to allocate for tools, technology, analysis and the media spend itself
including agency fees. First, we’ll discuss current trends in marketing budget
allocation and then we’ll give you some tips on how to divvy up the money you
have at your disposal.

Current Trends

According to Forrester Research, 38% of B2B marketers (in all industries) are
expecting to increase their digital marketing budgets between 1-9%. 27%
expect to increase it between 10-19% and roughly 16% are increasing more
than 20% in the coming year. The numbers for B2C marketers are similar with
“Good digital the majority planning to increase SEO and paid search efforts.
marketing pays
This positive trend is encouraging for digital marketers, as it appears that
for itself – marketers are benefiting from new attribution tools as they are made available.
and then some” For instance, 80% of B2C marketers report having generated sales from social
channels, while 90% of B2B marketers attribute leads or sales to social. ROI and
digital attribution is becoming more of a deciding factor to allocating budgets to
the digital marketing arena; this is something we’ve been emphasizing forever.
Good digital marketing pays for itself (and then some). Now that you know what
other marketers and companies are doing, let’s talk strategy:
Involve Other Departments

Marketing budgets can be tight, so it’s important to try and marry your initiatives.
Some examples: utilizing budgets allocated to R&D is prudent for something
like social research, the act of listening to unsolicited consumer conversation in
order to gain insights about your business. HR hiring initiatives can be put into
place via social or paid media and additional funds can be allotted from that
department as well. Thinking about various “marketing” initiatives as a holistic
approach to improving your company can open up the doors to combine forces
with other departments.

Allocate by Media Spend

1. By media type

Begin by assessing the different types of digital media you are running. How
did your social, search or display efforts pay off in the last year? Where did
you see growth potential and where do you think your budget can be slightly
more restricted? If your KPIs (key performance indicators) are being properly
measured in each of these media types, it should be simple to assess what is
working and what needs to be manipulated.

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Part

3
Where The Money Goes:
Budget Allocation Tips
(continued)
2. By publisher/platform
Now you can go even more granular. Assess your performance by platform and
publisher in the digital sphere. Notice the trends in your digital media initiatives.
Did you see an increase in audience engagement for display ads on specific
publishers? In respect to social, maybe you’ve discovered that your audience
is more active on LinkedIn than Twitter. Study up to see if the trends you are
finding are similar across the board in your industry. If it seems to be consistent,
shifting your budget to reflect these findings may be the best way to utilize your
funds.

Allocate Budget for Technology

1. Analytics tools

“What good is all What good is all this data if you can’t analyze it, find trends and enact
this data if you operational change? That question was rhetorical, by the way; we all know that
can’t analyze it, find data by itself is not helpful. You need to have the tools to track and measure
trends and enact successful campaigns. Analytics solutions, like Google Analytics for instance,
operational change?” can be free. But you need to assess how much data you’re generating and how
you’re going to aggregate and decipher it all. If it’s going to require a customized
solution, there needs to be budget allocated to this.

2. Agency tools

Some agencies can offer technology solutions in order to help with the analysis
part of the data. Customized databases are just one instance of solutions that
can be tailored to your business. In order to maximize this budget allocation, an
agency must base every decision around the business’s specific goals. If lead
attribution is paramount, but there are several sources of disjointed data, it may
be necessary to build a solution that will aggregate this data and match it to
various digital initiatives, thereby rendering a specific ROI number.

The good news is that digital marketing initiatives are just that–digital. This
means they can be altered at any time. Many of these digital campaigns can
be adjusted daily in order to maximize your budget. The most important factor
is tracking performance in order to make the best decisions about where to go
next. Budget allocation is great for planning the coming months – and remember
that you are not completely locked in like with traditional media. Take advantage
of the opportunity that digital affords to shift funds between initiatives in order to
better reach your targeted audience and improve bottom line conversions.

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Part

4
By Jeff Adelson-Yan
A Helping Hand: Budget
Management Tools
Today, we will be discussing budget management tools. If you’re not quite to
this step, you can check out our articles on determining your budget and budget
allocation. Budget management tools can range from free and easy to expensive
and complex. Here are a few of our favorite tools and tips to ensure your budget
stays on track throughout the year.

Paid Media

Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter both offer budget management
solutions for paid search campaigns. You can set your budgets per day, per
month or per campaign. You can also choose whether or not you’d like to
spend the money quickly or over the course of a given timeline. These tools in
AdWords are:

“Management of 1. Automatic bidding: This essentially sets your budget and lets Google manage
the campaigns it for you. This is the easiest tool to use, as the budget will never be exceeded
should still happen and will automatically adjust CPC bids based upon the money you wish to
on a daily basis in spend.
order to optimize
appropriately 2. Ad scheduling: With this tool, you can adjust the time of day your ads will
show or what days they will show. This is especially helpful if you have a call
and maximize
center, for instance, and do not want ads to appear with the number when the
your budget”
center is closed.

3. Conversion optimizer*: You can use this in addition to other tools. Essentially,
Google will go through its data and optimize your ad placement to receive the
most profitable clicks.

*adCenter does not have this particular feature, so beware when transferring
your campaigns from AdWords.

Facebook Ad Manager also offers ways in which you can set your budget by
daily or campaign. You can also optimize Facebook ads for likes (CPM) or for
clicks (CPC), which is an important feature when managing your budget. With
CPM, the cost per click is significantly decreased and your ad shows to those
most likely to like your page. It is important, however, that you do not rely solely
upon the platform. Management of the campaigns should still happen on a
daily (perhaps weekly) basis in order to optimize campaigns appropriately and
maximize your budget.

Sales Integration

Budget management tools can also come in the form of CRMs or customer
relationship managers. Companies like SalesForce make it easy to see your
completed or in-queue tasks and keep up with how much revenue your sales
initiatives are generating. This can be the perfect budget management solution
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Part

4
By Jeff Adelson-Yan
A Helping Hand:
Budget Management Tools
(continued)

if your company is focused on lead generation, as many of your marketing
initiatives lead to sales initiatives. Monitoring the success of one can usually
inform the other. Overlaying a strategic roadmap for when marketing is most
successful can help the sales team know when to follow-up on warm leads or
begin cold calling and networking.

“Aligning your Data Enrichment
digital strategies, as
well as your sales Data enrichment and analysis can ultimately help you decide how to maximize
initiatives, during budgets at times when business is projected to be most prolific by using
these “up” times consumer behavior data and trends as well as how your business has operated
can be incredibly in the past. Aligning your digital strategies, as well as your sales initiatives during
these “up” times can be incredibly useful and efficient when managing your
useful and efficient
budget throughout the year.
when managing
your budget” Managing your budget does not have to be filled with question marks. There are
tons of tools that can aid you in the process and can be mismatched in order
to inform other areas of your business as well. What are your favorite budget
management tools? Have I missed any?

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Part

5
Time is Money: Improving Time
Management
Time management skills. They’ve no doubt been mentioned in every interview
of which you’ve ever been a part. Employers are always wanting to know how
employees manage their time and multi-task. Why? Because this skill can make
the difference between being highly effective and just mediocre. The reality is
that improving time management skills throughout your company can improve
your bottom line. Finding more time in the work day can essentially mean faster
project turnaround and more completed projects, which means happier clients
and more time to devote to finding potential clients. When team members can
maximize their time in the office, the ripples can be felt in every aspect of your
business. Here are a few tips for improving time management:

1. Use outside tools to monitor tasks.

Free software can be extremely helpful for taking stock of time management
“When team skills. Firstly, cataloging exactly how much time a project takes can keep you
members can aware. Also keeping track of these things can allow you to optimize time spent.
maximize their For example, if, when beginning a new project, you see that it took you 2 hours
time in the office, to complete, you can try to find efficiencies to cut down on that time. Perhaps
the ripples can be much of it was research. Bookmarking information sites can cut down on the
felt in every aspect time you spend Googling next time. Also, if you lack Internet self-control, you
can use tools to block your most time-wasting sites (like Facebook, Pinterest,
of your business”
YouTube).

Tools we like:
Time Tracker
Toggl
StayFocusd

2. Make a to-do list – and stick to it.

There is almost nothing that compares to the satisfaction of a completed to-do
task list. Try creating one each morning upon arrival in order of priority. If a new
task is presented to you during the day, add it to the list. Also listen to the old
adage, “do not put off to tomorrow what you can get done today.” This can also
help you get into a groove. If you know that each Wednesday morning you have
to review a weekly report, then put that at the top of the list. Get it done first-
thing in the morning so you’re not shuffling through slides and data at 3pm.

3. Only attend meetings with agendas.

Agenda-less meetings struggle to be productive. Encourage team members
to send an itemized list of things to discuss in every meeting so that time can
be used wisely. If you receive a meeting request without an agenda (or one
with a meager one), try suggesting another form of internal communication or
discussing the topic at lunch.

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Part

5
Time is Money:
Improving Time Management
(continued)

4. Block time on your calendar for focused tasks.

Blocking time on your calendar will not only help keep you on task, but will
also signify to other employees that you are focused on a project. This can also
preclude them from scheduling impromptu meetings or stopping by to chat.

5. Turn off the email notification sound.

If you are like me, then you receive 500 emails every day. During the work
day, it can be extremely distracting to see them popping up and can even feel
overwhelming. Try turning off the sound so that you do not lose focus every time
it goes off. You can also encourage fellow teammates to utilize the priority flag if
the email needs immediate attention. Otherwise, you can take a break each hour
to check emails (if that is sufficient).

Utilizing these tips and passing them along to your team members can, over
time, save you hours in the day (ie: money). If your team is able to use time
more efficiently, you are open to take on more work, more clients and make your
existing services richer.

“If your team is able to use time more
efficiently, you are open to take on more work
and more clients, and make your
existing services richer”

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Part

6
From Data to Dollars: Operational
Change through Social Research
There are plenty of data sources out there that can help you create efficiencies
and improvements in your brand or business. One commonly overlooked source
is social research. We have written about the importance of social research
many times, with its opportunities for proactive customer service and online
reputation management. However, the most lucrative aspect of social research
is its ability to convert data into dollars. Here are some key operational changes
you are able to make based on intelligence gleaned from social listening.

Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis is imperative for staying ahead in the digital world.
Therefore, social listening does not have to be restricted to your business,
brands, product lines, etc. It can also encompass your competitors’ brand
and products. You are not only able to assess how customers respond to
“The most lucrative your deals, customer service, website and more, but what your competition’s
aspect of social new and most successful initiatives are through the eyes of the consumer. For
research is its ability example, perhaps you and your competition both offer price matching, but your
to convert data competition also offers free shipping. Therefore, the customer is saving even
into dollars” more money. Social research can tell you if people choose that brand over yours
for this reason.

Inventory

In addition to staying competitive, social research can tell you how many people
successfully and unsuccessfully search for your products and brands on your
site or elsewhere online. If there is a large spike in customers tweeting that
they wanted to buy a product on your site that was either not available or not
in stock, you may be able to predict–based on trended data over time–what
products will sell best at certain times of the year. You will also be able to assess
whether or not you should expand brand and product line offerings based upon
demand.

Opportunities for Product Improvement

Unsolicited consumer opinion about your product or service is a gold mine.
With social research, you are able to analyze what consumers like most and
least about your product or service and find opportunities for improvement.
Let’s say, for example, that you are a shampoo company that just switched over
to all natural ingredients in an effort to be more environmentally-friendly. While
some loyal customers think the new ingredients smell funny, the eco-friendly
community has lauded your efforts and promoted you on every imaginable
channel, which has increased sales. With the help of social research, you are
able to calculate the profitability of adding natural ingredients to more of your
products.

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Part

6
From Data to Dollars: Operational
Change through Social Research
(continued)

Opportunities for Expanding Markets

Social research does not have to be restricted to certain languages, countries
or continents. Therefore, it is possible to ascertain what other markets in which
your product or service might do well. By listening to consumer conversation
in other potential markets, your company can assess whether or not there is
enough demand for your product in other regions of the globe and expand.

Price Sensitivity Analysis

Prices are a very popular subject on social media. People do not hesitate to
tweet about a great deal, especially when there is incentive to share. Likewise,
they are not afraid to share when they feel a product is not worth its price tag.
Therefore, social research is a great place to conduct a price sensitivity analysis
(e.g. how much people are willing to pay for a particular product or service).

“People do not hesitate to tweet about a great deal,
especially when there is incentive to share”

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Part

7
By Jeff Adelson-Yan
Leveraging Multiple Data Sources for
Demand-driven marketing is the most cost-efficient (and budget saving) way to
market your business. Based on several sources of in-market consumer data,
as well as your internal sales data, you can create more efficient campaigns
that will maximize your dollars and visibility to those consumers who are most
likely to purchase from you at any given time. However, some people go about
this in the wrong way. Capturing existing demand first is the most important key
to success. By using existing forms of data, we can create a predictive model
about future demand. By taking the available industry data (trends over time)
and marrying it with your consumer-specific data, you can create campaigns
that are customized to your target audience. Some sources of data to
consider are:

Industry data

“Capturing existing This can be found with simple online research. Finding out trends according to
demand first is the time of year, season and purchase cycle can all be a great place to begin when
most important executing your demand-driven marketing campaigns. Especially if you are new
key to success” to your industry, it’s important to get a feel for the seasonal and year-over-year
trends.

Platform usage

Finding out where your customers are, and where they want to see you,
is imperative to staying ahead of the competition. Let’s say that all of your
competitors are focusing heavily on Facebook, but you see more industry-
specific conversation happening on Twitter, it’s time to invest in that platform.
Optimizing your campaigns to focus on one or two platforms can often be more
cost-efficient than being everywhere.

Social research

Social research is a great way to find out where your customers are (as
suggested above) as well as keeping your finger on the pulse of what they
want to see in your industry. Staying abreast of the issues your customer cares
about can also help you predict trends. For example, if people are buying fewer
new cars, it may mean that auto parts and services/repairs may increase since
people are keeping their older cars for longer periods of time.

Online search demand

This is a great way to monitor trends and predict increases or decreases in
demand. People who are conducting relevant search queries for your product or
service may be in the market to purchase. A quick tip is to keep tabs on volume
increases or decreases for more long-tail, or specific, searches. For example,
instead of monitoring trended volume data for “womens shoes,” try searches for

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Part

7
By Jeff Adelson-Yan
Leveraging Multiple Data Sources for
(continued)

brand, product, size and color. This will give you a better idea of who is looking
to purchase and not take into account those people just “kicking tires.” For more
information about online search demand, check out this video from Levelwing
Director, K.B. Reidenbach.

Site intercept research

This is a form of research that comes in the form of consumer survey. You have
no doubt been asked to complete a site intercept study when on a brand’s site.
This is a great way to get ahold of some qualitative research, asking specific
questions of your customers about their intent to purchase and the factors
that help them decide. The results from these intercept questionnaires can be
used in conjunction with other research in order to inform your demand-driven
approach.
“Marrying disparate
sources of data can Campaign data
help you create
a roadmap of Lastly, you can look at the history of your campaign data’s performance for
marketing to your insights about how it will perform in the future. Things like discounts and
customers at the promotions are important to monitor over time. If an optimized campaign about
most relevant times spring cleaning does not perform well with your target audience during the
to them” winter, perhaps you can take some money from that budget and add it to later
in the year when sales and inquiries are typically higher. Similarly, these data
sources can help you make demand-driven inventory decisions.

Marrying these disparate sources of data (seemingly unrelated) can help you
create a roadmap of marketing to your consumers at the most relevant times to
them. This kind of customized solution can ultimately end up saving you a large
portion of budget, which you can allocate to better-performing initiatives.

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Part

8
By Jeff Adelson-Yan
The Buck Doesn’t Stop Here:
ROI Analysis
You’ve no doubt heard the phrase “the buck stops here.” And that’s what
many people may think when they have successfully completed a marketing
campaign. They look over the metrics and say things like “this campaign
garnered 40% more clicks than last year’s” or “there was a 15% increase in
transfers to our website from social channels.” But truthfully, the process is
not completely over until you’ve evaluated how each channel contributed to
your business bottom line. This means going past what was spent and brand
awareness. There are still things to be learned, and that is when ROI analysis
comes into play.

What is ROI Analysis?

Basically, ROI (return on investment) is a number assigned to an initiative that
tells you how much money the initiative made you. Sometimes marketers will
“The process is estimate this number, stating its “probable” impact or “implicit” payoff. This
not completely will usually occur when the proper measurement is not in place, or the initiative
over until you’ve itself was aimed at a more abstract goal like “brand awareness.” However,
evaluated how each ROI analysis dives deeper into the data and assigns a concrete number to the
channel contributed impact each channel had on the business’s bottom line. This is not relegated
to marketing, as it can also be applied to initiatives like HR and staffing
to your business
optimizations or customer acquisition and retention.
bottom line”
Why Is It Important?

ROI Analysis is important because it directly ties revenue to marketing initiatives.
In digital marketing, we do not have to rely on approximated metrics (“We think
about 80,000 people saw this billboard”). Instead, we can implement tracking
and analytics that can catalog exactly how a user engaged with our ads, links,
videos and more, which gives us exact numbers.

What Can We Tell from the Data?

When people talk about “Big Data,” they are usually referring to the seemingly-
endless amounts of data captured from users’ engagement (including the user’s
demographic and actions).What we can learn from data is practically limitless,
which is why people often get scared when they hear the term. Some examples
of useful data include: what time of the year people are most likely to purchase
your product, what kind of messaging gets the best conversion rates, which
KPIs are the best signals of success and more. ROI Analysis uses the data
collected in order to assess which campaigns performed the best and why. The
why is very important as it will inform other business decisions and marketing
initiatives down the road (this is what we refer to as “data-driven marketing.”)
The more data you have, the better your insights, which leads to better
campaigns and more sales or leads generated. Therefore, Big Data should not
scare us, but encourage us to rise to the challenge.

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Part

8
By Jeff Adelson-Yan
The Buck Doesn’t Stop Here:
ROI Analysis
(continued)

Where Can We Use ROI Analysis?

Though we often use ROI Analysis to assess how marketing campaigns perform,
ROI analysis can be applied to virtually any part of your business to which you
are devoting time and money. HR and staffing optimization is a great example
of how, instead of assessing marketing collateral, we can assess human capital.
What are the best times of year for your business to hire? At what personnel
number is your business most efficient? At what rate of growth should your
employee number be in relation to client growth? Similarly, ROI analysis can be
used to aggregate data about customer purchasing habits, brand loyalty or even
website design. These optimizations can make a huge difference in how your
business runs.

If you are not generating a specific ROI for each of your marketing campaigns
“ROI Analysis through various channels, it is important to ask how it can be attributed. There
can be applied to are many ways that digital attribution can work, but you have to choose the
virtually any part route that is best aligned with your business goals. If, for instance, your business
of your business generates mostly call leads, it would be imperative to include a phone number
to which you are on your paid search ads. Using a unique, tracked phone number can tell you
devoting time exactly what calls resulted from a user being shown an online ad. Tracking
these calls to leads and eventual sales can help tie an exact ROI (ie: revenue)
and money”
to your paid search campaign. And anything less than that is simply not helpful
enough. That is why measurement is critical and why ROI is the most important
measurement. It essentially makes sense of the dollars you are spending and
earning to give you a clear picture of your performance.

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Who is
Levelwing? Like what you read
and want to learn more?

Primary ASQ contributors Steve Parker, Jr. and Jeff Adelson-Yan are also the
Managing Partners and Co-Founders of Levelwing. Levelwing is a business
analytics + intelligence firm, mining and analyzing data to help businesses operate
with greater clarity and profitability.

Please contact us directly to learn how your business can benefit from
our services.

Steve Parker, Jr.
e: steve@levelwing.com
p: +1.843.631.4587

Or visit our website at
www.levelwing.com/services

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