Any advice on quick metrics for marketing effectiveness? It was decided in my company that non-digital, brand marketing would be measured thru Brand Track. But this is quarterly and the data takes very long to come in. Then we tried to move to a LTV – CAC model but this has not worked. Every time, there is a non-digital brand spend, we get asked questions about why it is worthwhile. We keep saying that in the long term CAC will come down, but who has patience to wait that long in these tough times. I think that the company may disband the brand team altogether
I sympathize with your dilemma Hitesh. The truth is that investment in brand does require a long-term view and not too many metrics will reflect change in the very short-term. (Even a Brand Track may not significantly move every quarter). Let’s not even go into the many different ways that companies calculate CAC. I am sure your company, like most, is loath to add a lumpy brand spend to CAC and probably puts it under a separate discretionary head.
The best short-term metrics for brand spend are usually:
- Organic traffic
- Google trends
If you are doing a large-scale brand spend like TV advertising, these should show immediate upward movement. They will fall once you cut the spend, but at the end of an effective marketing campaign, will settle at higher levels than when you started.
Smaller, targeted spends like events are more complex to measure. Try running tightly targeted awareness surveys before and after. My best advice would be to explore two sets of metrics:
- The traditional long-term brand measures
- Short-term ‘before and after’ metrics that are specific to the spend
Remember to agree on both of these with your management and document them! Be very sure of the audience you are tapping into for the metrics – make sure it is the right one. In my experience, often metrics fall apart because their base respondents are questionable.
