A great digital campaign, on a platform like Google AdWords, is nothing without a solid media plan behind it. You’ve chosen a great agency partner, and now it’s time to start a campaign that generates results. We know that the most important phase of the campaign begins before it even hits the internet, so what should you be considering in the planning phase?
At JP, we have four simple questions to help start the collaboration process. This helps us build our digital media campaign roadmap and provide the results that actually matter to our clients.
What are your goals?
Just like in any other campaign, expectations for what the campaign can and can’t do should be a priority discussion. You can only measure the success of your campaign if you have communicated with your agency what your goals are. Some ways you can measure success is by comparing sales increases, receiving more phone calls, new traffic on your website, and more over a certain period of time. Digital media campaigns can and do provide tangible results, it’s all a matter of goals and measurement.
What does your target audience look like?
Want to reach millennials in the suburbs or even pet owners? The evolution of digital media now means that we have targeting tactics and capabilities beyond your wildest dreams. If you have a general idea of your typical consumer’s demographics and buying habits, we will hone in on those secondary traits like geographical regions, their hobbies and more. This is valuable for creating a niche audience instead of casting a net out to the masses, meaning we’ll be even closer to reaching your goals.
Do you want your customers to click to your website?
This is an important question when determining the capacity of your digital campaign. If your website is not up to par, your chances of reaching your goals are slim to none. Google released a statement late last year that it would prioritize mobile friendly websites over non-mobile friendly websites for Google SEM and Display campaigns. Google also created this great tool to test how mobile-friendly your website is. If you’re looking for opportunities to improve your website, this can give you a starting point to make your advertising budget go further.
If a new website isn’t in your budget this year, consider creating a landing page that can showcase a specific offer or product you are promoting through your digital campaign. This is a more cost-effective alternative and can be updated and customized on a campaign-by-campaign basis.
How will you track your results?
The beauty of digital marketing is the ability to track and measure your creative and tactics. All digital vendors provide an analytics dashboard to track your campaigns in real-time and monitor campaign results to make any necessary optimizations. All marketers should be familiar with the basics of Google Analytics, or whichever analytics platform you refer to, as this will help connect patterns between your digital campaign’s results and web traffic.
Remember, a great digital campaign is nothing without a great plan. JP has a team of digital media experts ready to help you launch your digital campaign, and if you want to ever chat, let us know! Best of luck in all your digital endeavors!
–Mia Villarreal, Media Buyer
