Developing a successful marketing strategy requires making smart marketing investments driven by data. In an increasingly competitive landscape, brands can’t afford to spend marketing budget on campaigns that don’t deliver a strong ROI.

 

In this guide we explore how Marketing and Procurement teams can leverage data and analytics to determine where to invest their marketing dollars and whether their marketing investments are delivering a return.

Marketing Investments Balance Performance

When assessing your marketing investments for value it is key to ensure you’re achieving the right balance in your budget allocation.

Data will help you to reveal where your marketing budget may be falling short.

Where should you be allocating more budget?
Where should you stop investing?

Data will provide the answers.

An important part is to ensure that your marketing investments allocated to your agencies are performing.

Using a tool like RightSpend will help you see, at a glance, which of your agencies are performing the best and delivering the most value and which could be reviewed to deliver a better return on investment.

Align Marketing Investments to Business Goals

Marketing objectives are often a moveable feast, especially with an uncertain economic landscape. However, data will determine where you should direct your marketing investments at any given time to make sure you are maximising the potential.

However, it’s important to ensure that your marketing investments are aligned with the goals, not only of the marketing department, but also of the wider company.

Business goals should dictate the allocation of your marketing investments and using data and analytics will enable you to connect the dots.

Marketing Investments Identify the Highest ROI

Sophisticated modelling can help Marketing and Procurement join forces to pinpoint the best performing channels and agencies combined. Understanding that bigger picture, and not just relying solely on campaign data, means that you get a deeper understanding of how your marketing investments are performing.

Armed with the right data and insights you can redistribute your marketing investments to better optimise the ROI and identify opportunities to make additional savings or efficiencies.

Generic metrics can provide some direction but can also mask actual performance. Brands and agencies that rely on vanity metrics, with nothing to compare against, risk overinvesting in marketing spend that has little to no impact on the business.

Focus should be on data that can inform decisions on your agency performance and further allocation of marketing spend, as tracking meaningful data will enable accurate assessment of marketing investment return.

Using robust benchmarking data and ‘should cost’ analysis will also help to inform your marketing budget optimisation and identify new opportunities.

Drive Better Marketing Investments with the Right Agency Compensation

Even with thorough data analysis, marketing performance will still be reliant on employing the right agency and structuring your agreements in a way that incentivises success.

Spending time to review and interpret your agency fee data will help you to make smart marketing investments and rapidly optimise your marketing activities based on facts, not assumption.

With clear KPIs in place, agencies and brands can collaboratively develop strategies for significant return on investment.

Marketing Procurement should implement agency compensation models that are designed to promote the desired behaviour and get the most value from the marketing spend.

READ: Choosing the Right Agency Compensation Model for Your Brand

In today’s data-rich landscape, marketing investments can be highly informed by using the right Marketing Procurement tools. Prioritising delivering significant returns on your marketing investments through data analytics allows your marketing budget to make the greatest possible impact.

Book a call with the RightSpend team today to find out how you can get more value from your marketing investments.