This article is part five of a multi-post series on SearchFuel discussing tips to a successful search marketing program through integration of your search and media agencies. Click here to access previous articles in this series: Let’s All Play in the Sandbox Together, Share for Success or Share to Exceed, Communication-Your Shovel to Success and Budgeting Campaigns- Building With All the Right Materials.

It’s time to tackle the next stage of building our sand castle – picking paint colors, flooring and lighting fixtures, or in layman terms ­­– setting our campaign goals. In previous blogs, we’ve discussed the grains of sand involved in teamwork across multiple media partners – playing together, planning and communicating and budgeting – now that the foundation is in place, it’s necessary to get to the details.

The campaign goals are more than likely to be mandated by the client. They want to set a goal for ROI or CPEA (Cost per End Action) so they are able point out how their money was spent and what they received in return. It’s important to bring to the table secondary goals and add-ins so the client realizes that working together as a team will bring value-add to the account.

Let’s say our client wants registrations as their goal indicator. They want 5,000 registrations to their program by the end of the year with an average spend of $500 per registration. The interactive or direct mail groups can probably reach these goals, but TV may be less likely. So how can TV get involved in helping with the goal? Mentioning the website or phone number repeatedly and prominently in their ads will provide viewers with the proper information and lead them to the registration page where they can sign up. The cost of TV on its own may not meet the client goals. A combined spend across traditional and digital media helps the client become more cost effective per registration. Showing the correlation of on-air TV ads and registrants vs. off-air times and registrants can help correlate the relationship of TV to the rest of the campaign.

If testing or combining data isn’t a possibility, find out what value each specific medium brings to the campaign and suggest a proper measurement. Many online campaigns measure awareness as a goal. The cost to get the brand name to users can be much lower in such campaigns. Revenue campaigns can be the hardest for all marketers, especially in times of recession.

A funnel approach can be helpful with revenue generating campaigns, as they will help determine what a potential buyer is thinking and how to reach them at the decision stage-and where to place the most money in reaching these people. Funnels also help you to have multiple goals, and to reach those goals.

Setting goals with your client shouldn’t be black and white, nor should it be a competition.  Work together to get as much reach for your client as possible – through awareness, SOV, revenue, or whatever other indicators you can come up with.

A distinct message across all channels is the best way to meet your goals.  Sound familiar?  It should because consistent messaging was one of the first steps we took in planning our castle.  It’s worth mentioning again as we need everyone to constantly be thinking of our sand castle every time a new campaign is launched or a trip to the beach comes up.  And just in case it’s still not sinking in (let’s definitely hope it’s not caving in!) – our next post will center around the messaging!

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