Optimize. Experiment. Boost Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). Marketers hear these directives constantly. And despite your best efforts, sometimes it can feel like nothing works. No matter how many tests you run or changes you make to your ad campaigns, you aren’t moving any closer to your goals. Worse, stakeholders start to lose confidence that your efforts make an impact on real business results.
We know that isn’t true. Marketing and advertising are fundamental elements of a successful company. But finding solutions to better ad campaigns can be difficult, especially in a highly competitive market. To help marketers improve their strategies, boost ROAS, and prove the value of their efforts, we’ve highlighted 3 key changes to make to get more from your marketing campaigns.
1. Target Audiences Based on Behaviors
Often, when marketers think about optimizing their advertising campaigns, they start with changes to creative or messaging. Sometimes they evaluate whether the audience is right for that particular ad set. But rarely do they look into the data that informs the different audience segments their campaigns are targeting. More specifically, they don’t know exactly how the advertising platform determines who should be included and who shouldn’t.
At GroundTruth, we use behavioral data to determine audience segments. We don’t just look at browsing trends or online interests. We include past visits, purchasing data, and any other real-world behaviors we can use to create the most accurate audiences. The result is more valuable actions from your target audience—think increased visits to your stores, check growth, and higher ROAS.
If you aren’t sure what kinds of data informs the audience segments on your current advertising platform, ask! It can give you a better idea about changes to make to your strategy to improve your performance.
2. Focus Goals On Each Advertising Channel
When making choices about what ads to place and where, sometimes marketers can default to more is better. And it makes sense. The more people who see your ad, the more people you can retarget, and eventually convert. But, it doesn’t always work that way, especially if the ad you’re serving doesn’t make sense for that channel.
Think about a Connected TV (CTV) ad. Placing ads on CTV is proven to bring in real business results for companies. But only if they use it correctly. For example, some companies will include a CTA for users to visit a website to learn more. Sure, they’ll put the website on the ad, but most users don’t watch their favorite shows ready to type out a URL. They do usually have a second device with them, like their phone, that can scan a QR code.
Or maybe your team created a QR code for your campaign and put it on a DOOH ad. But the billboard is on a busy freeway, in a state that makes it illegal to use your phone while you drive. That doesn’t mean the messaging or the audience is incorrect. It just means the team hasn’t thought about using the right creative on each channel. It may require higher investment upfront or longer production time, but it will result in a much higher return when your ad works in each of the different channels.
Before you launch your next campaign, ensure that the ad sets you create make sense for how users behave on that channel and what they expect from the content they see.
3. Use ROAS As A North Star Metric
Finally, the best way to ensure that you’re making the right strategic decisions is to pick a metric that communicates performance, efficiency, and impact on the bottom line. In other words, using ROAS as your north star performance metric ensures that you are focused on the top priorities for the marketing team, and your company as a whole.
You can decide, based on what your focus is, whether you measure ROAS by marketing channel or campaign. That may change throughout the year. But as long as everyone agrees that ROAS will be the most important metric, all your choices will remain aligned and move your team in the right direction.
Achieving this kind of alignment is also much easier when your team can get a holistic view into reporting with data that is timely, relevant, and accurate. Make sure that you can see how all your campaigns are working together in a single view so that you are making informed decisions as quickly as possible.
Make the Switch to GroundTruth to Get Real Business Results
GroundTruth is the only platform that turns real-world behavior into real business results, like in-store traffic, incremental sales, or higher ROAS, for marketers. If you want a partner that can help your advertising dollars work more efficiently, contact us today. We’ll show you the difference GroundTruth can make in your next ad campaign.
