New Year’s positive sentiment drives both perception and anticipation for growth. It is our primary challenge to ‘do better’ every year. In our business, this could apply to increasing awareness, creating engagement, driving up ROI (return on investment) or boosting sales. On the face of it, this is fine. But the challenge intensifies when the market is slow, as is the case at present.
In this backdrop, finding new methods and approaches to help achieve the KPIs becomes more vital. And there are a few steps that can help achieve it.
In most cases, when companies close their books, they capture all values, have clear performance benchmarks and set efficient goals for the coming year. This should be the market norm in the advertising and media industry as well. Media books should be well scrutinized before closing, on a yearly basis, so that they capture all the media values and pave the way into measurable and efficient KPIs, to be set for the following year.
Before beginning to plan for 2017, it is imperative to properly close the 2016 media books and secure three key essentials:
– Have a full 2016 review analyzed vs. solid markets benchmarks
– Highlight areas for improvement and quantify their net impact or value
– Set efficient KPIs (quantitative & qualitative) for the coming year
Advertisers miss out on the chance to enhance their media efficiency simply by continuing with inefficient benchmarks from previous years. This creates a snowball effect that deviates results further from efficient market norms, and eventually impacting media performance and ROI.
Media auditing is becoming more popular with time due to the increased demand for maximum efficiency and ROI. It allows marketers peace of mind on how media budgets are invested. In addition, the latest digital platforms, data abundance and the new technological advancements that are shining, provide opportunities for better measurements. This, if properly leveraged, will lead for more efficiency as opposed to following the traditional approach and looking at contractual values in isolation.
Media auditors should not look purely at the trading aspects of the media value chain. They have to be well placed and equipped to review planning efficiency, be able to clearly quantify its impact on the overall media deliveries, and work closely with the client and agency to put the needed mechanism in place that governs the planning and implementation of campaigns and keeps pushing the bar higher.
