I don’t give a damn about your CTR. And neither should you.
A common narrative plays out during the life of most digital media campaigns. Strategy is set, ads are placed, and reports flow in. Sometimes those reports come weekly, sometimes they come monthly, but they all contain columns and rows of data displaying things like Impressions, CPCs, CPMs, CPCVs, and CTRs.
Someone is tasked with putting these reports together. And they’re likely tasked with boasting about the sweet CTR that was achieved last week. The dramatic increase in impressions. The lower CPCs that were attained. Everyone smiles, proud of the work they’ve done. The client is happy. The agency is happy. They’ve done it!
But… done what, exactly?
Did you generate foot-traffic at the store level? Did you move the needle on overall brand awanress (in a truly measurable way)? Did you increase sales? Did the investment in that ad actually pay for itself, or did it generate a net loss in the end? Do you have any way of knowing either way?
As an industry, we’ve created metrics to justify our own existence. We made up a series of data points (or as you probalby have heard them referred to by your agency KPIs) to justify the money our clients spend with us. And the best part is we’ve convinced our clients that those metrics are good enough to justify the spend they’ve made. It’s an “investment” we tell them.
The problem here, is that those metrics have distracted us from the real point: building businesses. The goal of any media program, is to ultimately generate an increase in sales, whether that be by creating awareness, demand, or ultimately processing a direct transaction.
Impressions, CPCs, CPMs, CPCVs, and CTRs aren’t the whole story. They’re the introduction. What really matters is the data points that measure how those metrics roll up into a meaningful impact on the brand. And that comes well before you start designing your ads.
Before you start down the path of your next digital campaign, begin first by determining the metrics you’ll determine to prove your impact on the business. Because after all, isn’t that the whole point?
