Determining the goals for your digital advertising campaign is one of the most important steps in the media strategy process. The goals you decide to use for your campaign create a pathway that could lead to the success of your marketing efforts. There are many different types of goals you can set throughout a digital advertising campaign. Here are a few tips on how you can determine those goals:
1. Identify the purpose of the campaign
What is the main purpose of your digital advertising campaign? The very first step in creating a successful campaign is determining what you are trying to achieve with it. Are you trying to generate new leads, increase sales conversions, or create a brand presence on social media? Once you determine what the primary purpose of the campaign is going to be, you can begin to work through what the other goals of the campaign should be to follow suit.
2. Decide the audience you want to target
Next, it’s time to decide who you want to target throughout your digital advertising campaign. To get the overall result, you want from your campaign, aiming the content at the right people is the way to ensure success. For example, a women’s clothing store probably doesn’t want to target male-dominated traffic areas like ESPN and NFL.com. They’re going to want to focus on “women’s sites” like Pop Sugar and Home & Garden. Once the target audience is decided on you can begin to create the content for your digital marketing campaign, so it speaks to them. Content aimed directly towards the target audience can increase the number of leads, conversions, etc., you are hoping to receive dramatically.
3. Determine the goal of the Ad Group
Finally, determine a specific goal for the ad group you are using throughout your campaign. Each type of goal gives you additional insight into how your digital advertising campaign is performing among your targeted audience. Below are three examples of goals that could be applied to any ad group:
- CTR: CTR, also known as Click-Through-Rate, is how often someone who sees your ad clicks on it. Having a goal of CTR can help you determine if the creative you’re using for the digital advertising campaign is placed efficiently and targeting the right audience. Creative with a low CTR may not be showing your target audience the message you’re trying to convey correctly or be on a site not relevant to the audience. With this goal, you can monitor the effectiveness of your advertising throughout the entire campaign and make changes accordingly.
- CPC: CPC, also known as Cost-Per-Click, refers to the actual price you pay for each click your ad receives during campaigns. This goal allows you to measure which ad is receiving the most clicks and focus your efforts on those performing the best. CPC can be the most useful when you are trying to drive traffic to a particular page or part of your website. This type of goal isn’t best if you’re trying to get your target audience to participate in a particular action like a sale or form submit. Instead, CPC is used more for creating a brand presence or bringing your audience to a specific article/piece of your site for them to view.
- CPA: CPA, also known as Cost-Per-Action, is where the advertiser pays for each specified action throughout a campaign—impression, click, form submit, or sale. This goal, unlike CPC, is a specific event you would like your target audience to complete. It allows you to measure exactly how much you spent to get that event. CPA can give you great insight into your audience’s reactions to certain advertising and what gets them to complete a conversion.
Overall, the goals of any campaign are unique to the company running digital advertising. But, always keep in mind that these goals can help your campaign run more efficiently and create the results you are hoping to receive from your digital advertising.
