In this short video blog, Clarivoy CEO Steve White shares the one question that every dealer should ask of any PPC vendor that they are considering.

The Most Important Factor to Consider When Choosing a PPC Vendor from Clarivoy on Vimeo.

During my Innovation Cup presentation at the 2016 DrivingSales Executive Summit, while presenting our Multi-Touch Attribution software, one of the judges, Robert Karbaum, challenged me saying that Google Analytics already allowed users to import sales data. When the question was asked, I had my attribution hat on, versus my Google Analytics hat, so I was thinking in the context of “can you import sales data AND do user-level attribution.” Given that presenters in the contest have a very limited amount of time, I do not feel I did a good enough job of clarifying my answer in full. With that framework in mind, let me clarify with this blog:

A question that often arises in talking about Multi-Touch Sales Attribution, one of Clarivoy’s core products, is: “How are you doing anything different from what Google Analytics already does for me?”

Well, Multi Touch Sales Attribution incorporates offline sales data and connects ALL the online AND offline marketing touchpoints on a consumer’s purchase path to the eventual sale. Google Analytics on the other hand, lives in the online world only.

Before I go any further, I want to be clear: free analytics tools or platforms, such as Google Analytics, absolutely have their place in a marketer’s bag of tricks. However, while I am not out to end the use of Google Analytics, I want to underscore the downside of relying exclusively on these type of tools. Throughout my 17 years in the digital marketing sector, I have seen an over-reliance on Google Analytics and other web analytics solutions. These platforms, in their default out-of-the-box installations, provide data, but often not intelligent insights.

While marketers are lulled into believing that an out-of-the-box implementation is good enough to get accurate information for their marketing decisions, these free tools only focus on online activity. With so many reports, all the data a marketer needs must be in there somewhere, right? In actuality, what marketers end up with is last-touch, online only attribution.

Google Analytics measures site activity, but not what’s important: SALES! Google Analytics enables you to measure the success of your marketing based on clicks, cost per click, website traffic, number of leads and vehicle detail pages (VDPs) amongst others. Unfortunately, those metrics don’t offer information as to exactly what impacted sales. That is why we call them vanity metrics. How do you improve your marketing and increase sales solely using vanity metrics? Optimizing on those vanity metrics feels productive, but is it, really?

The reality is that Google Analytics only gives you part of the entire picture. You are only looking at digital marketing activities. Looking for marketing insights from only part of the picture may drive you to the wrong conclusions.

For the advanced marketer, Google does offer a more robust analytics platform called Google Analytics 360 (formerly known as "Premium"). This paid platform is intended to solve many of the issues that enterprise customers may have with the free version: for example faster data processing, higher quotas, and a rudimentary version of attribution analytics.

Ultimately, Google Analytics 360 has many of the same issues as the free version. The CMO of a very large auto group recently told me he canceled Google Analytics 360 as he felt the value was just not there. For this sophisticated marketer to say “No, Thanks” to Google’s premium tool speaks volumes about the usefulness of its metrics. While these tools do deliver a substantial amount of information, they lack the substance to actually help optimize marketing decisions because the information delivered isn’t based upon data about what actually caused that sale to happen!

Sadly, in my opinion, free web analytics solutions have given rise to a lackadaisical approach to marketing and website optimization. The attitude is, “Just put Google Analytics on the site…simple…we’re done now.” Such a position has created a laissez faire attitude toward performance objectives. It’s as if Google Analytics lets marketers off the hook -- they’re not held accountable for their true performance or the performance of their marketing initiatives. Relative ignorance has become acceptable.

This ignorance manifests itself in several ways. Google Analytics, by default, gives 100 percent of the sales credit to the last (non-direct) touch. For the vast majority of dealerships, this last touch comes from a brand search for the dealership’s name. As a result, many sales leads are wrongly attributed to search, because most marketers just look at the overall impact of search, and don’t drill down into what keywords actually sell the cars. And, as ignorance is bliss, they invest more into that channel and then pull back on the very marketing campaigns -- display ads, social, TV, etc. – that ARE actually triggering consumers to search for the dealership in the first place.

Consider the following scenario. A customer first discovers your dealership via a third-party auto listing site. Then they come back to your site later by searching your dealer name on Google and clicking on an AdWords listing, which perhaps was right above a free Google organic listing for your website. By default, in Google Analytics, that AdWords click took 100% credit for that visitor, assuming as a fact that it was incredibly valuable, when it may have had no impact at all on whether or not that sale was made.

To further complicate things, approximately 2 out of 3 of all car buyers do not contact the dealership prior to their first dealership visit. So, “walked in” is the most commonly reported method for how initial contact was established. However, 83 percent of consumers reportedly visited a dealer’s website before stepping into the dealership.

Given these facts, nearly 66 percent of leads sourced as “walk-ins” are incorrectly attributed. And, the remaining leads are attributed on a last-click basis. This is a recipe for disastrous marketing decisions which have a long-lasting ripple effect by reducing or eliminating what are in fact effective marketing channels -- display advertising, social, third-party auto listing sites, video and TV. The very channels that keep the dealership top-of-mind throughout the consumer purchase path and trigger consumers to search for a dealership. Even Google underscores the importance of using a variety of mediums to trigger brand searches in their study: “Vehicle Shopper Path to Purchase Study.”

While Google Analytics is touted as “free,” we all know nothing in life is really free. It’s a fallacy to believe there are no costs involved. There are real costs, in dollars, to managing Google Analytics in a way that gives true and valuable insights to marketing. This includes the huge hidden cost of incorrectly allocating marketing spend to the WRONG channels and losing out on the lift that the RIGHT channels would give you.

In addition to investing in modern digital analytics, don't abandon traditional tried and true advertising tactics that have served you well for years. Instead, find a partner that can help to measure and analyze the effectiveness of marketing for the entire purchase path of all your customers– offline, online and everywhere in between. Then make decisions based on real attribution data, not data which is biased towards an attribution model that benefits the company providing free analytics tools. You’ll find your decisions are more beneficial and will see that your marketing spend is much better optimized. And because of that, you’ll sell more cars.

I hope that this blog helps explain in more detail the question I received from the panel during my Innovation Cup presentation at the 2016 DrivingSales Executive Summit. We’re very honored to win the award this year and excited for our future. We look forward to helping dealers sell more vehicles by better optimizing their advertising spend!.

Clarivoy CEO & Founder Steve White explains the multiple attribution models that exist in this short video blog.

Steve White: Attribution in a Nutshell from Clarivoy on Vimeo.

For the first time auto dealers can have total certainty how many vehicles AdWords sells

Columbus, OH (November 9, 2016) – Clarivoy today announced the native integration of its industry-leading Multi-Touch Sales Attribution solution into Google AdWords. The integration includes its proprietary Anonymous Attribution technology, which identifies the online and offline purchase paths of buyers who choose to remain anonymous, ensuring a large percentage of all sales are properly attributed to specific keyword, YouTube and display campaigns.

Dealerships currently piloting the native integration have seen impressive results. In fact, according to Alan Krutsch, Director of Marketing and E-Commerce at Apple Autos, Clarivoy was able to identify $2.2 million of previously unattributable monthly sales for his dealership, providing a much more transparent view of which ads really contributed to sales, “As dealers we spend all of this money on marketing tactics and not enough energy and money on analysis and insight. This new integration enables us to make smarter decisions based on facts and data. As marketers we need to optimize campaigns based on data that is flowing through AdWords or our bid management platform. The native integration of Clarivoy’s Multi-Touch Sales Attribution solution into AdWords gives us vital insight and certainty on what is working -- and that’s priceless,” said Krutsch.

According to Clarivoy CEO Steve White, Clarivoy’s native integration into Google AdWords allows dealers to optimize their AdWords campaigns based on actual sales data - not vanity metrics. “There is a total disconnect. Many dealers think AdWords is working for them. However, they only know half of the story with clicks and don’t truly know what sales can be attributed to their campaigns. And even those that have taken on the arduous task of matching buyers to their AdWords tracking codes are extremely disappointed with the low amount of sales they can identify, since a large percent of buyers never self-identify in their buying journey. Now, for the first time ever, auto dealers will know how many vehicles AdWords sold for them in any given month,” White stated.

Clarivoy’s Multi-Touch Sales Attribution platform uses proprietary attribution algorithms that help marketers discover what’s really driving sales. It is uniquely focused on user-level attribution, allowing clients to transparently view a consumer’s full purchase path, sorting and ranking the influence of each channel’s contribution – paid search, display ads, TV, email, third party websites, organic search, social, and brand website.

The new integration into Google AdWords collects and pairs all AdWords clicks and calls to the appropriate vehicle buyer while fractionalizing the credit within AdWords, ensuring no over-attribution to any one keyword, campaign or ad group. Designed for ease of use, all dealers need to do is install Clarivoy’s simple tracking code and provide DMS access to sales.

Clarivoy’s native integration into Google AdWords will be unveiled at the upcoming Kain Automotive Clients & Friends Digital Success Workshop, November 15th- 17th at the
21c Museum Hotel, Lexington, KY.

For more information, or to sign up for a product demonstration, visit: http://www.clarivoy.com

# # # # #

About Clarivoy           

Clarivoy is the auto industry’s leading provider of multi-touch sales attribution and advanced digital targeting tools. Their solutions reveal more about their clients’ customers, their advertising and their path to success so they can drive more sales.  Clarivoy’s proprietary technology grants marketers incomparable visibility into their customers and campaigns – across all channels, all devices – online and offline.  Armed with this new information, marketers can stop guessing and start knowing what is working and what is not. http://www.clarivoy.com

With automakers expecting a slow-down in sales we should soon see how each manufacturer chooses to respond.

Typically, when looking to boost sales, OEMS add incentives or special lease deals. However, that may not be the right strategy. These types of campaigns tend to end up starting a domino effect that creates a catalyst for competing manufacturers to offer similar incentives in order to maintain market share.

Just as reported in a recent article in Automotive News, in down times, typically manufacturer’s gloves come off as they battle for consumer buying attention through marketing and incentives.

This has an effect on dealers of all brands who must then react to what’s happening in their personal markets to stay competitive and keep the lights on at their dealerships. For many, simply throwing more money into marketing will be the go-to solution – very similar to what manufacturers are expected to do – but is that the right answer?

The majority of dealer marketing is price-centric -- designed to lure customers to the dealership through big discounts. When manufacturers as a group start throwing incentive money right and left, dealers react by reducing their prices causing competitors to follow suit. This infinite circle of react-and-respond behavior typically includes an increased marketing spend. Dealers order more leads and, in general, invest more money in traditional and digital advertising. Oftentimes, this increase in budget is welcomed by their vendors. Why not? Of course the vendors like more business. But is increasing marketing spend actually going to matter if the competition is simply following suit?

I get it. Our industry tends to be numbers based. Get more people in the showroom and we’ll sell more cars. How do we get more people in the showroom? Spend more money. While that formula may seem logical, with just basic data to work with, many dealers find that they’re spending money in all the wrong places and not spending money where it should be spent. They see poor marketing results and end up pulling their hair out trying to figure out what works and what does not.

In no way am I saying sit back, relax and let your competition eat your lunch -- and steal your customers. What I am saying is that sadly, some dealers simply don’t know what marketing actually works to drive customers into their dealerships outside of a vendor rep taking credit, or looking at a source in the CRM to determine which advertising methods produce sales.

Without a larger picture, it’s almost impossible to truly judge what marketing strategies pay off and which ones don’t. You may not have to spend more money at all to “keep up with the Joneses.” But rather spend the same amount of money you’ve been spending – only spend it smarter.

Consider taking a holistic approach to your marketing spend and touchpoint influences. This will help to identify where you can improve, which channels are influencers and which ones aren’t. Armed with that knowledge, decisions can be made that could result in an increase in sales without an increase in marketing spend.

And, if we do find ourselves in a downward sales period, the ability to spend money more intelligently could be exactly what your dealership needs to remain competitive without emptying your bank accounts.

                   TV Analytics Solution Selected By Auto Dealer Panel as the Most Innovative

Columbus, OH (October 27, 2016) – Clarivoy, the automotive industry’s leading provider of multi-touch sales attribution, today announced that the company’s proprietary TV Analytics solution has been named the winner of the 2016 DrivingSales Innovation Cup Award for the Most Innovative Dealership Solution of 2016. Clarivoy competed on stage with four other finalists at the 2016 DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES), and was selected as the winner by a panel of auto dealers.

Clarivoy’s proprietary TV Analytics solution stringently maps online traffic to TV ads, matching advertising spot data with website visitors, granting advertisers a transparent snapshot of which TV ads truly influence sales.

Dealers who used TV Analytics were able to make data-driven decisions for their media buys that helped decrease their cost per website visitor as much as 2X. TV Analytics also provided the visibility one auto dealer group needed to intelligently broaden their cable reach, maximize the investment they make in TV, reallocate more spend (16%) to cable and reduce their cost per website visitor by 62 percent.

Agencies also greatly benefit from this solution. In fact, by combining TV Analytics data with cost information, one agency shifted their investment in underperforming spots to local insertion and upgraded other national inventory to higher converting and more socially active networks. As a result they achieved a 40 percent lift in their schedule’s performance.

Clarivoy’s intuitive TV Analytics dashboard lets dealers quickly visualize the impact of their advertising:

• Identifies which networks, programs, creatives and dayparts convert potential consumers into buyers.
• Optimizes cost per response by identifying the most efficient website traffic drivers.
• Powered by a proprietary graph model, the solution extracts “important influences” from hundreds of spots and months of data, assigning true proportional credit.

“This is a great validation of the hard work the team at Clarivoy invests in product development to ensure our dealers are supported by the best technology and most effective solutions. I am very grateful for all their efforts and delighted that dealers have chosen our proprietary TV Analytics solution as the Most Innovative Dealership Solution. I also want to give a big shout out to Andy Mohr Automotive Marketing Manager, Lisa Masariu-McCoy, and Marketing and Technology Director at Germain Motor Company, Shaun 'NIFF' Kniffin. They really know their stuff and it is their incredible results that impressed the judges and helped us win. When it comes to understanding the results of their advertising, dealers can’t afford to guess anymore,” said Clarivoy CEO Steve White.

“When advertisers move away from a Last Click Attribution model and utilize a Multi-Touch Attribution approach to measure the impact of their marketing investments, they will be amazed to realize all of the marketing touchpoints which led to the purchase of a vehicle and that TV should remain an important part of the media mix,” White added.

For more information, or to sign up for a product demonstration, visit: http://www.clarivoy.com

About Clarivoy            

Clarivoy is the auto industry’s leading provider of multi-touch sales attribution and advanced digital targeting tools. Their solutions reveal more about their clients’ customers, their advertising and their path to success so they can drive more sales.  Clarivoy’s proprietary technology grants marketers incomparable visibility into their customers and campaigns – across all channels, all devices – online and offline.  Armed with this new information, marketers can stop guessing and start knowing what is working and what is not. http://www.clarivoy.com

Columbus, OH (October 18, 2016) - Clarivoy, the automotive industry’s leading provider of multi-touch sales attribution, today announced that the company’s proprietary TV Analytics solution has been selected as a finalist for the eighth annual DrivingSales Innovation Cup Award, which recognizes the most innovative dealership solutions of 2016. Many companies applied, but DrivingSales’ panel of dealer judges could choose only five finalists to compete for the award.

Finalists will compete onstage for the Innovation Cup Award at the 2016 DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES). The event, to be held at The Bellagio in Las Vegas, brings the most progressive automotive dealers in the country together to discuss innovative and effective trends that can drive increased sales.

Clarivoy’s proprietary TV Analytics solution stringently maps online traffic to TV ads, matching advertising spot data with website visitors granting advertisers a transparent snapshot of which TV ads truly influence sales.

Dealers who used TV Analytics were able to make data-driven decisions for their media buys that helped decrease their cost per website visitor as much as 2X. TV Analytics also provided the visibility one auto dealer group needed to intelligently broaden their cable reach, maximize the investment they make in TV, reallocate more spend (16%) to cable and reduce their cost per website visitor by 62 percent.

Agencies also greatly benefit from this solution. In fact, by combining TV Analytics data with cost information, one agency shifted their investment in underperforming spots to local insertion and upgraded other national inventory to higher converting and more socially active networks. As a result they achieved a 40 percent lift in their schedule’s performance.

Clarivoy’s intuitive TV Analytics dashboard lets dealers quickly visualize the impact of their advertising:

• Identifies which networks, programs, creatives and dayparts convert potential consumers into buyers.
   
• Optimizes cost per response by identifying the most efficient website traffic drivers.
   
• Uses adaptive data learning analytics that evaluate a trailing 12-month media buy to calculate net profit and cost per resource, illustrating which campaigns are phenomenal, which are flat and which are failing.
   
• Powered by a proprietary graph model, the solution extracts “important influences” from hundreds of spots and months of data, assigning true proportional credit.

“I am extremely proud of our team at Clarivoy and delighted that dealers have chosen our proprietary TV Analytics solution as a finalist for Most Innovative Dealership Solution. Today’s market is so competitive that when it comes to understanding the results of their advertising, dealers can’t afford to guess anymore,” said Clarivoy CEO Steve White.

“In order to efficiently manage their budgets and get the most impact and ROI, it is vital that dealers know the real results of their ad spend and not rely on last click attribution. TV Analytics allows us to connect offline and online activity making this solution a great addition to our suite of multi-touch sales attribution tools. I am very excited by the results our advertising agency partners and top dealers such as Germain Motor Company and the Andy Mohr Auto Group are seeing as a result,” White added.

White has also been chosen as a speaker at the summit. His session, titled “Tools for the Advanced Dealer Marketer: From Free to Fantastic” will focus on helping marketers understand the spectrum of tools available (from free to fantastic) to measure the results of their online and offline advertising along with the advantages and disadvantages of each. Attendees will also learn how to use free or low cost tools to get some of the same data that the “fantastic” tools provide and how to move beyond the first layer of “vanity” metrics to discover data that will really drive their business.

Dealers can receive a $100 discount off current registration rates by visiting http://www.clarivoy.com/dses.

# # # # #

About Clarivoy           

Clarivoy is the auto industry’s leading provider of multi-touch sales attribution and advanced digital targeting tools. Their solutions reveal more about their clients’ customers, their advertising and their path to success so they can drive more sales.  Clarivoy’s proprietary technology grants marketers incomparable visibility into their customers and campaigns – across all channels, all devices – online and offline.  Armed with this new information, marketers can stop guessing and start knowing what is working and what is not. http://www.clarivoy.com

In most dealerships a dispute inevitably arises between salespeople over a sold customer. Perhaps it’s because one salesperson initially assisted the customer and a second closed the deal and delivered the vehicle while the first was off for the day. And what happens when a customer visits multiple times and perhaps a third salesperson is involved?

Most dealerships won’t split deals more than two ways – typically first and last – with that third salesperson receiving nothing for being in the middle. The question then becomes who was most influential in the sale of that particular customer? Was it the first person, the last person or the person in the middle?

It’s hard to make that judgement. Why then, do dealers typically have the whole “first and last” rule without giving any credit to the salesperson in the middle? My guess is because it’s the easy way. In an extreme example, what if 10 salespeople helped that customer before they purchased? Depending on the length of time and the dealership’s protection policy, typically the first and last salespeople would be the only ones credited with the sale and paid on it. Is that fair? Did the other eight salespeople involved in the sale really have no influence on the sale whatsoever?

I guarantee that each and every one of those salespeople influenced the customer in some way – whether that was to build trust, explain features, answer questions, go on test drives or whatever – they all played a part in guiding that customer towards the desired final destination… a sale. It would be difficult to calculate how to split a commission 10 ways, or determine which salesperson had what amount of influence. I get that. It’s hard and the easiest way is to simply stick with first and last.

OK, so attribution is difficult enough with salespeople. But what about everything that happened that drove that customer to your dealership?

When we dive into the digital world of sales attribution, many dealers tend to follow a similar path. Keep in mind that most dealers get data from individual vendors and that bias can certainly be reflected in the data. For example, a third-party listing site may take credit because the customer converted on a VDP form, or called a tracking number. Or a widget company would take credit because the customer converted on their widget.

The fact is that not one singular entity is ever responsible for the entire customer journey and, because of that, no sale can be fully attributed to a single source. The customer’s car buying journey today encompasses multiple touchpoints and each and every one has some influence in that customer’s decision about which car to buy and where to buy it. Yet I see dealers continue to make decisions based on what are, in my opinion, erroneous attribution models.

The majority tend to fall into “first-click” attributors who believe that only the first touchpoint should be credited with the whole sale. Then there are the “last-click” attributors who believe the last touchpoint should receive all the credit for the sale. These attribution metrics are certainly an EASY way to make decisions about which vendors, listing sites, or media to allocate budget to. However,  neither will help you make a truly informed decision. In fact, subscribers to either one of these models may actually be harming themselves by cutting out a touchpoint simply because they believe it has no influence on their buyers when in fact it does. This makes their marketing strategy less effective, resulting in decreased sales.

So, if “first-click” and “last-click” aren’t the answer, then what is?

Unlike the salesperson attribution dilemma, digital marketing is quite the opposite. With digital and/or traditional media, the dealer pays for exposure before any sale is ever made. Having data on how each and every medium affected any particular buyer is paramount in making the most effective and cost-efficient use of your ad budget. Today’s technology enables you to do this. It’s called a multi-touch attribution model… and it’s something worth paying close attention to.

The philosophy of this model is that each and every touchpoint the customer visited influenced the sale. Yes, some may have influenced that sale more than others, but each one played a part. Knowing how much influence each touchpoint had on that specific buyer’s road to the sale enables you to make truly informed and educated decisions with your advertising dollars.

Consider changing the way you make decisions. Perhaps it is not such a great idea to rely purely on vendors who want to convince you that their solution is wholly responsible for the sale – that will never be true.

With the right data – and that data is available – you can track the customer’s entire journey (even the transition from offline media to online) and decide where best to allocate advertising dollars. First and last will never be accurate and are not the best metrics to influence marketing decisions.

In today’s world consumers are influenced by many factors – both on and offline – and knowing which of these stops on their journey are most influential will help you make decisions that produce true results, not easy answers.

Columbus, Ohio (July 22, 2016)- Clarivoy today announced the release of a new feature for their Multi-Touch Sales Attribution product. Anonymous Attribution identifies the online and offline purchase paths of more than 90 percent of a dealer’s buyers who choose to remain anonymous. Anonymous Attribution uses proprietary technology that matches a buyer to the devices, access methods, and sessions they used to shop for their vehicle.

While 83 percent of car shoppers visit a dealer’s website prior to visiting the dealer’s store, the majority choose not to self-identify by filling out a form, chat or a phone call. According to a Polk Automotive Influence Study, approximately 2 out of 3 car buyers do not contact a dealership via form submission or a phone call prior to their first visit. “This data gap leaves a huge blind spot in a marketer’s ability to accurately attribute sales to sources like paid search and third party sites,” said Clarivoy CEO Steve White.

The ability to provide purchase path data for a broader group of customers significantly increases the accuracy of sales attribution results. The insights derived from this broader data set show more clearly the results of keyword searches, display advertising, social referrals, and third party sites, leading to improved marketing performance.

“We believe this feature is a breakthrough in multi-touch sales attribution. Advertisers can, for the first time, observe all touchpoints that led to a conversion for the vast majority of their customers, even the ones who don’t fill out a lead form, call or chat,” added White.

In fact, one Clarivoy client was able to double their customer match rate using Clarivoy’s Anonymous Attribution feature, granting them valuable insight into the impact of their paid search campaigns.

Clarivoy’s Multi-Touch Sales Attribution platform uses proprietary attribution algorithms that help marketers discover what’s really driving sales.  It is uniquely focused on user-level attribution, allowing clients to transparently view a consumer’s full purchase path, sorting and ranking the influence of each channel’s contribution – paid search, display ads, email, third party websites, organic search, social, and brand website.

About Clarivoy

Clarivoy is a marketing technology firm specializing in unified, unbiased business intelligence. Our solutions reveal more about our clients’ customers, their advertising and their path to success so they can accelerate sales and amplify results.  Clarivoy’s proprietary technology grants marketers incomparable visibility into their customers and campaigns – across all channels, all devices – online and offline.  Armed with this new information, marketers can stop guessing and start knowing what is working and what is not.

Contact

Katie Robinson

VP, Marketing

katie@clarivoy.com

614.975.4514

Quarter 4 is nearly upon us and businesses everywhere are taking stock, trying to figure out how they will meet their goals in the last quarter of 2016. A phrase we use often is “hold your advertising accountable.” With that in mind, I compiled a list of 5 questions to ask before you lock in your Q4 marketing plan and budget.

How much did you spend in the first two quarters? 

It’s time to pull together the figures on how much you spent versus how much you earned. I know this isn’t the first time you’ve taken a look at these figures, but do this exercise anyway. You should be able to pinpoint where the majority of your advertising budget was spent by channel and campaign.

What worked and what didn’t? 

Go get that marketing manifesto you wrote as your road map for 2016 and see how far you have come. What forks in the road did you take? Which detours got you where you wanted to be, and which ones didn’t? Ok, I know this can be frustrating because all that data in different places is making you insane, and is the reason you avoid looking at your marketing results in the first place! If this frustrates you as much as it does me —all those numbers in different places and all that money and not being able to understand the direct impact on your results - that’s ok. For now, just take a look at a couple of items, like the most successful campaign and the least. Try to understand why each one worked or didn’t, as the case may be. Was it a different keyword? A special promotion? Favorable weather? An increased ad budget? A motivational sales team meeting?

What are your goals for Q4?

Don’t give up on the creation of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals, even if the data isn’t all there.  As your journey to gain transparency into the results of your campaigns progresses, you will know exactly what you’re looking for.   

Where should you adjust your spend to meet those goals?  What new tactics do you need to add?

If your second half goals are similar to those of the first half and you feel confident in the return your ad spending generated, that’s great!  Keep doing what you’re doing!  But if your goals are changing or you’re not happy with the results of your ad spend (or you’re not sure if you’re not happy), it’s time to mix things up.  Look to competitors, new technology vendors, and even innovative companies outside your industry for new ways to efficiently reach potential customers.

If answering numbers 1 and 2 caused you some frustration, ask yourself what you can do to get more transparency on your ad spend and its results.  What vendors are working for you and which ones are making your life more difficult?

When I started in this industry as a digital marketer, the lack of transparency into the true results of my clients’ ad spend frustrated me.  Most agencies used either first click or last click attribution and didn’t take into consideration the clicks in between, or the effect of offline advertising.  Look for providers that can not only connect the dots between offline and online, but also provide marketing directives.  That way, you not only know what worked and what didn’t, but exactly what you should change (or keep) moving forward.