Why prioritising campaign agility may have a positive impact on your cost per result
Since infancy we’ve been conditioned to be fastidious planners, praised for mapping out long term life strategies and quizzed about where we’ll be five years from now. Those in our friendship group who didn’t feel inclined to plan their corporate career at the age of ten, evoked our pity or an eye roll or two. After all, as Benjamin Franklin so wisely said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”.
We’ve been brainwashed to believe that to make decisions in the present or very short term is to be disorganised or short sighted – but what if we told you that it could be the best paid advertising decision you’ll make this year, and it may even positively impact your cost per result!
The reality is that companies often set quarterly or annual budgets for spends on Google or Meta, but with the detailed level of real time reporting and analytics we now have access to, for some businesses, this type of long term planning may be negatively impacting their cost per result.
When you set a quarterly budget for a campaign, this can often translate into a daily budget which Google will be delighted to spend for you with no contextualisation of the wider sales landscape. When positive or negative sales trends occur, there may be a lack of opportunity to alter your paid advertising budgets in response, locking you into a daily spend which isn’t in your best interests.
Setting quarterly budgets may also encourage a static mindset where you just check in on your campaign performance monthly or quarterly – which essentially freezes your campaign efforts, rather than creating a position of campaign agility.
So how does this agility look in reality…
If, for example, you’re looking to achieve a £15 cost per purchase, instead of locking yourself into quarterly budgets, give yourself the flexibility to respond to real time data. If you see for a period of time that the cost per purchase has gone down to £12/13 then it could be an ideal opportunity to raise your daily budgets as the ads are performing well. If however, you can see that the cost per purchase has gone up above £20 or even £30, then you can decide whether you want to reduce the daily spend during periods like these.
Ideally you want to maintain the flexibility to take advantage of sales opportunities and protect against spiralling costs. Monitoring the main metrics of cost per result, cost per click and cost per purchase on a daily or weekly basis – especially around peak trading periods – gives you real time visibility of your performance, and confidence to make informed campaign decisions.
So… how do you feel about releasing control of this obsession with long term planning, and thinking a bit more short term?
From a position of campaign visibility and agility, your decisions have the power to maximise positive trends. If you continue to see good results in cost per result, you can raise paid advertising budgets and make hay while the sun shines. You can take advantage of upturns with an increase in budget, and if you see negative trends you can reduce paid advertising spend in line with that; just like a variable tracker on a mortgage – but way more exciting!
Don’t fret, this ultra organised and strategic professional you’ve worked hard to become won’t go to waste – it will actually thrive in this new dynamic marketing environment. Instead of periodically looking at quarterly or long term budgets, you’ll be laser focused on a shorter time span, and keeping the cost per result as your main reference point.
You can also utilise the skills of Idenna to manage and advise on your digital marketing spend. Our dedicated campaigns team are experts in their field and have a proven track record of delivering agile and successful paid advertising strategies.
Want the best results? Contact Idenna.