The great irony of digital marketing is that you need to put a tremendous amount of effort into crafting a detailed strategy but, at the same time, you have to be prepared to pivot once your strategy is live. Pulling from insightful data and past experience, digital marketers must be willing to pull levers and make adjustments in pursuit of optimization.
After all, no one knows what your audience responds to quite like your audience. It would be unwise to ignore what they’re telling you through their actions (or lack thereof) and remain stagnant when insight-backed changes could improve conversions.
To jump-start your journey into digital strategy iteration, we’ll discuss some foundational best practices as well as walk through both pre- and post-click campaign optimizations.
Optimization = Measurement + Action
Digital marketing has many benefits compared to traditional channels, from pinpoint targeting to the diversity of options. Two of the strongest advantages are the ability to measure performance in great detail and the freedom to make changes on the fly that can be implemented in an instant. However, many digital marketers leverage only half of that duo — collecting data and producing detailed reporting, but stopping short of turning that insight into action. Instead, they often make only one choice when reviewing campaign data: whether or not to keep the campaign running.
This thinking can be quite wasteful, both in terms of the time spent building the campaign and the ad spend that’s been abandoned. In nearly all cases, there is some success or insight revealed through data that can illuminate the path forward. No matter what, you know more now than you did at the campaign’s launch. That knowledge should be used to iterate, not restart.
Digital marketing without data-informed optimization is like throwing darts with your eyes closed. You’re making adjustments based purely on intuition rather than insight and not really improving your chances of success.
Tip: Optimize, But Don’t Tinker
Do pick an element, make a change, test the change and determine success.
Do not change several elements and guess which made a difference.
Tip: Be Measured in Your Response
Another tendency we see with testing is underfunding the effort and then overreacting to the results. Like campaigns themselves, campaign optimizations require time and investment to produce meaningful results. Nothing of significance can be learned overnight, and our general recommendation is to run a test for a minimum of two weeks before determining your next course of action.
An example of overreacting to testing results, particularly after a brief test, might be the following:
You ran an A/B test measuring the success of blue versus gray background colors. Because blue performed 1% better than gray after a few days, you’ve decided that your marketing team is forbidden from using gray backgrounds going forward. The issues here are that the test was too short, the variable too subjective and the results too nebulous. Just because you ran a test doesn’t mean you have to act.
Do give your tests a reasonable runway and accept that they might be inconclusive.
Do not make sweeping decisions based on small tests or negligible success.
Suggested Adjustments and Tests
Pre-Click Optimizations
Creative A/B Testing
Ad Frequency Capping
Targeting and Segmentation Adjustments
High-Performing Asset Prioritization
“Marketing’s job is never done. It’s about perpetual motion. We must continue to innovate every day.”
– Beth Comstock, former CMO and vice chair, GE
Post-Click Optimizations
Landing Page Conversion Optimization
Full Website Conversion Optimization
High-Performing Content Prioritization
User Drop-Off Point Identification
Our hope is that this overview provides you with the information and inspiration you need to level-up your digital campaign optimization processes.
Looking to bring your digital marketing efforts into focus?
AvreaFoster provides full-service digital marketing capabilities to B2B brands that value clarity — in terms of results, communication and how well we understand your business. Reach out to our team to start the conversation.
