Measurable Marketing: Stop Wasting Money On Ads

Aug 10, 2024

4 min read

There is a short book that was written over 100 years ago. Written by a well known American author, this book intended to highlight the benefits of adding new scientific technology into marketing strategies. The following is a quote from a century old book attempting to predict the future of marketing.

"Most national advertising is done without justification. It is merely presumed to pay. A little test might show a way to multiply returns... Such methods, still so prevalent, are not far from their ends. The time is fast coming when Men who spend money are going to know what they get... Enormous advertising is being done along scientific lines. Its success is common knowledge. Advertising along other lines will not much longer be content."

-Claude C. Hopkins

A Naive Prediction

Back in those days, emerging technology like the internet and software was predicted to be a way to really measure the impact of a businesses' advertising.

Honestly, who would not think this would be the case?

And yet, over 100 years later, advertising has not changed and remains unmeasurable.

Are You Not Convinced?

Take any big name brand out there and think of the last advertisement you consumed from them. Lets use M&M's as our example.

Those of us who enjoy going out to a theatre to watch a new movie know exactly the type of advertisements I am talking about. You are sitting in your chair waiting for a the movie to play when you see several talking pieces of chocolate. They usually have some dilemma that they must face. There might be a dramatic scene of a bomb timer ticking down, and the talking chocolate must jump into action.

Now, even if you enjoy these short films, I want you to ask yourself a couple of serious questions....

Did that advertisement make you want to purchase a pack of M&M's?

2. What does the theme of the advertisement have to do at all with chocolate?

3. Now, if their ad does make you get out of your seat and go buy a pack of M&M's, how does the company know that you purchased their product because of that specific advertisement?

4. How much do you think it costs to run that ad in theatres across the nation?

You can do this experiment for most, if not all, big companies. You can even do it from your couch at home.

The Coping Mechanism

I have previously highlighted a word that I hope grabbed your attention. This powerful word has kept businesses in the dark ages for far too long. It is why our earlier prediction has yet to come true.

Now I will not speak to heavily on why branding and brand building should not be the goal of your advertising because I intend on writing a whole Blog about it.

In the mean time, I want you, as a business owner, to think of some reasons why this should not be your primary goal with respect to marketing.

This line way of thinking makes me wander. If the goal most businesses want to achieve through advertising is brand awareness, then what service would a marketing agency try to provide through paid ads?

Then I start to think.... If you are hiring a marketing agency to build your brand, whose promoting your products and services?

The Needs Of A Local Business

You need to know how impactful the money you invest into your business is, and how much revenue it generates.

Most bullets are not fired blindly, in fact, they are usually targeted at a specific object. If you miss, the glass doesn't break. How do you know if you hit the target without having a target?

This analogy should be applied to your marketing strategy. Now, sadly, most marketing teams you can hire will help aim your sights straight and true. They cannot, however, tell you if you hit the bullseye.

How to Measure Marketing?

I honestly am not sitting here telling you some amazing breakthrough I had while singing in the shower. It really should be common knowledge but for some reason this idea has been an afterthought for most marketing agencies.

Our mindset is that every advertisement needs to have a measurable effect. Makes sense right?

How can we measure marketing?

Well we could spend millions developing and integrating a new software to analyze the results of every ad that we run. Even with this software, we could not track every reason why your customer decided to purchase your product. Plus we would have to charge our clients significantly more money for access to our software.

Or.....

We advertise a specific offer. Every ad has a different offer. Kind of like it's own unique finger print. Then we track the offer to a purchase. This is a simple and easy way to measure how well your advertisements perform. No talking chocolate or gecko, no movie production teams or paid actors, and no purpose other than to sell your products.

A Quick Analysis

It is important for our clients to see what we are talking about. The link below is a Superbowl advertisement

https://youtu.be/_BWYyRicB8w

I'm sure you have seen it. The ad does not have a specific offer but it does have a very specific call to action (CTA). This ad slot cost the company about $7 million and generated roughly $19 million in sales.

Coca-Cola in 2023 spent roughly $5 BILLION on advertising. That is more than the GDP of 51 countries. For sugar water!! They cannot prove to their board of directors whether they have an effective marketing plan or not. They just saturate the market with their logo (Branding) and think their commercials of a polar bear is the reason people drink their product

Your Next Move Matters

Doing nothing is always an option, I am not saying it is the smartest of your choices but if that is your plan, so be it!

For those of you who want to take direct action to stop wasting money or those who would like to start off their marketing strategy the right way listen closely.

I do not know of another marketing team who has been implementing this strategy. They could be out there. But you are here, and you have already found one.