The CMO Challenge: Maximizing Digital Marketing Spend & Retargeting Investments

Andrew Fegley
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read

Yesterday, I was reading the latest Merkle Digital Marketing Report. A big finding was grabbing all of the headlines:

Google Paid Search Spend Up 23% in Q2 2017

Marketers, it seems, have continued to double down on paid search as a means to drive traffic to their websites. This trend isn’t new — in fact, many CMOs and their teams were budgeting for this in the beginning of the year.

If you’re like most company leaders, you’ve got a stake in the search game and for good reason. It’s a necessary way to drive traffic and uncover new prospects.

Often when those visitors bounce, most CMOs or marketing organizations serve up display ad retargeting. In fact, here’s another headline that grabbed some traction this year, courtesy of Adroll’s annual State of Performance Marketing Report:

Between 25% and 50% Of Digital Marketing Spend is on Retargeting

Here’s the catch: These headlines aren’t telling the whole story. Almost every company is invested in driving new traffic, then spending money to retarget to users who don’t make a purchase.

But often, those investments are only driving clicks — not conversions.

The sad truth is 92% of first-time website visitors don’t make a purchase. Most of the time, those visitors leave the website without leaving a trace.

So we can invest as many marketing dollars as we want on paid search and digital display ad retargeting. But if those visitors aren’t converting, CMOs are burning money and instead of optimizing the spend.

Let’s take a look at three keys to making sure your marketing spend is driving results.

1) Take Another Look At The Books — And React
You already know where your dollars are allocated — but how are they performing this year?

If your spend paid search or digital display ad retargeting isn’t driving new customer acquisition, conversion, and revenue, it might be time to shift that money to new marketing strategies. You can realize major revenue changes in Q2 and Q3 to set your company up for success during the upcoming holiday season, for instance.

2) Think Beyond Siloed Channels

One of the biggest issues with the Merkle report is that it underscores a big problem in marketing: A single channel performing well does not mean revenue will increase. Same for AdRoll: A single remarketing strategy deployed does not ensure you’ll hit your numbers for the year.

CMOs must take a holistic look at the whole sales funnel in order to realize results. Instead of examining channel performance in a vacuum, it’s time to look at the entire customer journey to drive conversion and brand loyalty.

3) Optimize Spending Across Departments
CMOs are facing another challenge: Data, spending, and execution are often siloed. I frequently work with clients who have digital and traditional marketing arms working separately, which leads to incongruity in analytics, tactics, and results.

Example: If your investment in paid search is driving traffic to your website but those visitors aren’t converting, it’s typical to respond with retargeting through display ads. But that keeps your dollars in one channel — effectively doubling down on the same technique.

What if you thought outside of the box? What if you responded to website visitor interest with a direct mail piece that was customized, personalized — and deployed within a week? The latest technologies allow companies to seamlessly cross channels, having data-driven conversations with new prospects in digital and traditional media.

And that’s the holy grail — that’s what drives conversions. Both paid search and remarketing are insanely powerful tools — and they’re here to stay. But they have to be done right, with a data-driven understanding of your website visitors, the ability to reach out to them in a meaningful way, and a retargeting approach that doesn’t rely on digital alone.

Written by

Andrew is the President of Remarketable, the only proprietary, privacy-compliant, multichannel retargeting platform dedicated to driving transactions.

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