The ROI Cascade – the most effective platforms and strategies businesses can adopt to

As the overall consumer attention span is plummeting by the day, companies are fighting to capture fleeting eyeballs with maximum impact by boosting their marketing spend, especially for digital marketing. According to a Deloitte study, companies have seen over a 33% boost in performance due to their Digital Marketing efforts in 2020 alone. Based on this 2020 growth, the study predicted another 15% jump by the end of 2021. While these statistics indicate that companies have benefited immensely from Digital Marketing to get the maximum ROI, much deliberation is needed regarding the specific Digital Marketing strategy and platform an organization must spend on. Here are a few things organizations must consider to ride the digital marketing wave most effectively.

Calculating ROI

ROI is a measure of an investment’s efficiency. It is calculated as, ROI = (revenue/cost of investment) x 100. For example, an investment with a profit of $400 and a cost of $400 would have an ROI of 100%, meaning that for every dollar invested, one dollar was earned in return. ROI should be considered alongside other factors such as risk and time horizon when evaluating an investment’s success.

Looking for?

To begin with, businesses and their designated marketers need to define the objectives of the marketing activity, be it exclusively engaging industry players, as is often the case in B2B enterprises, or directly targeting the retail consumer.

For example, according to Word Stream, the average landing conversion rate is 2.58%, while the top 25% of performers achieve a conversion rate of 5.31%. This finding by the marketing giant reveals that conversion rates, as well as required strategy, both vary as per the company. Therefore in the absence of a one-size-fits-all approach, marketers and their clients need to set the aim of the campaign, which once set, makes it easier to choose the right platform for the next step.

Some of the most common goals of campaigns are spreading brand awareness among existing or new customers, boosting brand visibility to capture the attention of the target audience, giving a personalized experience to the consumer, and gleaning consumer behaviour metrics to optimize marketing efforts.

Choosing Platforms

If the target audience is directly industry players, then no other platform has a better ROI than LinkedIn, as it is one of the most organized sites for professional networking. Though the cost per click on the platform is on the higher end, compared to other platforms, B2B companies can leverage LinkedIn to get a whopping 200-500% ROI, reaching key demographics effectively.

Similarly, Bing Ads, with a proven record of effectively engaging niche organizations and demographics, has an impressive 200-300% ROI, and as opposed to LinkedIn, the platform is far more cost-effective and has less competition for your campaign to fight.

On the other hand, Meta (Facebook, Instagram) Ads and Google Ads have 100-300% and 200-400% ROI respectively. Campaigns on both platforms yield lucrative returns for B2B as well as B2C platforms, given the marketing drives are optimized with effective keywords, catchy ad copies and enhanced landing pages, among others. Moreover, the appeal of Meta and Google lies in the fact that they enabled varied demographics to be targeted under a single roof, although perhaps different groups need to be engaged uniquely.

Another method of consumer engagement would be Content Marketing, which has around 100-200% ROI. What sets Content Marketing apart from other advertising forms is that it’s more detail-oriented, thus giving more information on the product or service.

As search-engine-optimized content keeps generating traction over time, the long-term benefits of Content Marketing are brand awareness, brand loyalty and organic traffic, to name a few. Although in comparison to other advertising options calculating ROI for Content Marketing is not straightforward, companies can use metrics such as website traffic, lead generation, and resultant conversions to gauge the returns.

Strategies to be adopted by B2B businesses

Lead Generation: For B2B enterprises, Lead Generation is one of the most important strategies. Via SEM (Search Engine Marketing), display advertising, and content marketing B2B businesses can generate high-quality leads by targeting specific industries, job titles, or companies. Interestingly, according to HubSpot companies that engage in blogging generate over 67% more leads.

Cost-Effective Advertising: In choosing cost-effective, measurable advertising options, companies can opt for avenues such as pay-per-click or qualified leads, where the cost is incurred upon results. Such marketing methods not only directly indicate the ROI but also help set future marketing budgets.

Conversion Optimization: Companies can study the analytics of their B2B operations to crunch data on their click-through rates (CTRs), conversion rates, and cost per acquisition (CPA). This helps make data-informed decisions to improve their ROI.

Strategies to be adopted D2C Strategies

Direct Sales: Social media marketing, influencer marketing, affiliate marketing etc., can be leveraged to target specific target groups with defined tastes and demographics whilst considering the generational gap. For instance, if the target age group is between 40-50 years old, LinkedIn and Facebook may be the most suitable platforms. Whereas if the target age group is between 20-30 years old, Snapchat and Instagram may be more appropriate. By selecting the right platform for the target age group, businesses can effectively communicate with their audience. To calculate ROI for Direct Sales, companies need to focus on metrics such as ROAS (return on ad spend) and CAC (customer acquisition cost).

Customer Engagement and Retention: Speaking of the human touch, marketing options such as email marketing campaigns, loyalty programs, and retargeting ads can add value to the consumer at a personal level and drive the company’s Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and repeat purchases.

A/B Testing and Iterative Optimization: To get the best outcome of the campaign, companies can conduct A/B tests on ad creatives, landing pages, and promotional offers to optimize the campaigns, thus further increasing the ROI.

All in all, before investing in the Digital Marketing business, one needs to consider the aim behind the campaign, the best platforms and strategies, and the long-term brand goals.

The author, Mohan Gohade is Head- Paid Marketing, SRV Media