Maximise your Ad Budgets: Invest Advertising Dollars with Confidence, Based on Data
Empirical evidence should be the backbone of effective advertising strategy. Advertisers that draw on real-world observations, modelling and predictive analytics to guide decision-making, invest advertising dollars with confidence.
Brands are striving to be more data-driven in many ways across their own organisations, and agencies should be expected to back up their strategic recommendations with empirical evidence. Brands should expect advertising services and media buying partners to demonstrate how they are making the best use of available data. Advertising decisions must be based on concrete data rather than guesswork.
An advertising services and media agency that provides its clients with empirical evidence is one that ‘shows their work’, explaining recommendations with rationale rooted in data, obviously aligned with each client’s business and its objectives.
What is Empirical Evidence?
Empirical evidence refers to information gathered through direct observation or experimentation, providing tangible data to support conclusions or decisions. It relies on real-world evidence rather than speculation or theory. It serves as a reliable foundation for making informed judgments and predictions.
Useful reading:
Applying Empirical Evidence to Your Advertising Strategy
– Research and Analysis Phase
At the outset of any advertising campaign, thorough research and analysis are essential.
Your advertising services agency partner will analyse consumer behaviour, market trends, past performance and competitor activity. First-party data should be leveraged to help segment audiences effectively and tailor your media mix accordingly.
This phase should go beyond information gathered from platform dashboards to consider creative efficacy and provide analysis of which elements of the brand’s advertising programs have really been working. And which haven’t. You need to know which elements are contributing the most value based on how they contribute to business objectives.
Analysis must be undertaken to consider current market share and market share objectives. The resulting insights should help to determine the required advertising spend needed to address short and long-term objectives.
A brand should expect empirical evidence to demonstrates that the agency’s research and analysis is relevant to its business and objectives.
– Adjusting Mid-Campaign
No need to wait till a campaign is over to assess its performance. There are ways to monitor target audience reaction, engagement and attention during the campaign. Your agency partner should continuously monitor performance metrics and testing to determine how to optimise results throughout the campaign. They should make data-driven decisions to adjust ad creative or targeting strategies, or reallocate budget to ensure campaigns stay on track. [continues below image]
– Assessing Campaign Results
Gathering empirical evidence is all well and good but it must be evidence that matters. Beyond superficial metrics like click-through rates and site visits, advertisers should assess campaign performance in the context of broader business objectives. Therefore, advertising outcomes should be correlated with KPIs relevant to the business, such as sales, registrations, market sector growth etc., to provide insights into the true impact of advertising efforts.
– Planning Future Investments
It has never been more doable to rapidly make use of advanced analytics, scenario modelling and data management tools to produce empirical evidence to inform advertising investment.
Look for a media strategy partner that uses advanced modelling techniques to forecast the potential return on investment for different advertising approaches. This will give you confidence in your ad spend decisions. This forward-looking approach ensures resources are invested where they will have the greatest impact.
Choose your Partner Wisely
Finally, advertisers should be feeding more data into their advertising and media buying programs than ever before. Expectations around effective use of the right data sets, data management, data privacy and security must be high.
In addition, empirical evidence, based on data science, should guide every step of the advertising journey. Expect Agency partners to explain campaign effectiveness in terms relevant to the business. Request evidence in support of these discussions.
By grounding decisions in data and observations, advertisers can make informed choices that drive tangible results.
