Communication changed drastically in the wake of social media. Brands and marketers have shifted to online marketing to remain relevant to their consumers.
Online platforms now allow brands to engage with their customers and learn what they want. Marketers can determine the effectiveness of their digital campaigns by measuring the effectiveness of their digital audience. How is it done?
General Site Traffic
The first step to creating a successful site with high traffic is establishing a baseline. Next, you should get creative with your marketing strategy.
When you implement new marketing strategies, do you notice increased traffic to your site? How does the rise in your site traffic work?
Your end goal as a marketer is to attract many potential clients to your site. You want to make sure the potential clients who view your site become actual customers.
As Paul mentioned on this podcast, you have to ask, “What’s this audience interested in?”
Understand how the lift in general traffic to your site works. By doing so, you can determine the success of your marketing strategy in attracting viewers to your website.
Dr James Piecowye explains that change comes to mind in measuring our audiences.
New vs Returning Traffic
Every business has unique goals that vary from other competitors. What are your website goals? Do you keep tabs on your new and returning traffic on your website?
Both users are essential for your business. A new user has seen something on your website that attracts them, which may lead them to buy.
A returning customer means their last purchase was satisfactory, and they are back for more. What does that mean for you, the marketer? Kudos! You are doing something right.
Depending on your goal as a marketer, your focus may be on increasing new or returning users. Before getting started, determine which of these two users is more fundamental for your business. Who brings more to the table?
For example, if your goal is to increase new views to your website, you should focus on attracting new traffic.
Mobile Devices Traffic
Mobile devices make the most significant contribution to online digital traffic. The traffic is through popular mobile applications.
As Paul Kelly puts it, we have to acknowledge apps like Google, YouTube, and Facebook. These apps have shaped modern communication and interaction over the years.
Mobile devices are the easiest way to access apps because you can use them on the move. As a marketer, you must know how many users access your website or app on their mobile devices.
Additionally, how easy is it to access and navigate your website using a mobile device? Another factor is how long the visitors stay on your site. If a user visits a site for long, the chances of making a purchase are higher.
Make comparisons between the number of users who access your site using mobile devices and those using non-mobile means.
Traffic Sources
How do users access your website? Have you developed a set of SEO keywords that guides them?
Do other sites recommend viewers to your site? If so, how much traffic are you getting from those sites?
Today, consumers want to find information fast and easily. If your site makes information easy to absorb, you will have a considerable audience compared to a site that is hard to navigate.
As a marketer, ensure your brand and product description is specific and capture a consumer’s interest.
Average Duration a User Spends per Visit
Do you know how long a user spends on your site? What is the average click away time for your videos? How many seconds do they spend on each section of your site? You can find this out using a heatmap to know where your visitors are clicking the most.
Effect of Digital Proliferation on Audience Measurement Data
Most businesses are yet to grasp the ins and outs of online marketing. Companies that have existed for decades and operated in the traditional ways are most affected.
On our Series 1 Podcast, Dr James Piecowye mentioned that there has been a massive change in audience measurement data, thanks to digital proliferation. Digital marketing is growing and changing at a very high rate.
The highly dynamic field creates many demands on businesses to keep up. For example, most companies with an online presence require the following support teams;
- Social media marketer for enhancing the brands’ online presence
- Customer care for online customer queries
- Forum moderation team
- Artificial Intelligence experts
- Virtual assistants
The list can get overwhelming. We understand that a business needs to be flexible and accommodate the changing times.
However, does it mean you should exhaust your budget on human resources? We understand your need to be innovative and quickly adapt to the ever-changing digital world.
Proliferation takes hold when you decide to incorporate all the upcoming digital trends in your business. It creates the following challenges;
- Turns off customers – no customer wants an inconsistent experience. The moment they encounter challenges with your business, they will flee to an easier option.
- Affects employee morale – employees who work on the digital sites may develop a feeling of missing out on other operations of a business. If they feel their colleagues in other departments have better roles, they will be dissatisfied.
- Negatively affects a business – technology is a costly affair for companies. The costs vary from staff training to installing new technology and maintenance. The business has to analyse whether it makes an ROI on its technology adoptions. A business is likely to lose it if it develops a bad customer experience because of proliferation,
Why Digital Measurements of the Audience Are Failing Marketers
In the early days of the internet, social sharing was non-existent. Today, you can’t exhaust the channels of sending information online.
Customers receive information instantly, on-demand. There are so many ads on every social platform.
It is easy for an ad to go unnoticed in the jungle that is social media. So how do brands ensure they stand out?
It’s simple; brands follow their consumer. They advertise on sites that their consumers frequent.
As Paul puts it, the online platforms are likely to inflate content views since they stand to earn.
Unifying and distributing disparate data
There are different types of measurements for each type of content. It doesn’t matter the source, hub, or social page.
The methodologies and incentives of content are unique. Every social platform wants to tell a story, just not your story.
So, who keeps track of the activities of these platforms? Who keeps them in line? It’s you.
The unification of metrics allows you to stay in control. You understand how the content produced influences your decision-making.
Armed with the correct information, you can develop strategic objectives and invest smartly.
However, will the social platforms allow you?
Data Generates Insights for Action
Marketers are experiencing excessive information, which they can’t handle. How do they determine which is the correct data to collect and disseminate?
An overload of data doesn’t mean it should all be put into use. Data should be simple to understand and use, depending on your objectives.
Data should assist you in making decisions, not drive you to make decisions. It should be diplomatic, not autocratic.
The right kind of data should support your experience and contextualise awareness.
Transparency and Accountability
There should be transparency in disseminating your message. This ensures your target audience sees and hears it.
In the current marketing trends, the focus is on content, which is creating an audience measurement problem.
You can only determine the success or failure of your online marketing by measuring the audience. Transparency and accountability must come into play to get accurate results in measuring the audience.
A winning marketing team needs accurate intelligence to make informed decisions.
Vanity Metrics
Many clicks, views, and likes don’t mean the content is good. It may be vanity metrics at work.
They are easy to use, and marketers seek refuge in them to portray a false success of their marketing campaigns. Vanity metrics are detrimental to the success of online marketing in the long run.
Social Proof Bias
Human beings tend to find what appeals to others appealing to them too. It is psychological conditioning. How does it influence measuring the audience?
You go online and check out the latest trends. If something is trending, it’s because many people view or talk about it. You find what interests others as interesting to you.
You want to view what others have viewed. Not because it necessarily appeals to you, but because of social proof. You believe something is worth your time because so many people are interested in it.
Such a trend causes bias in measuring the audience. People who view content due to social proof aren’t genuine viewers.
The views of content inflate by social proof. This may create a false impression that the content is quality.
Conclusion
Numbers don’t always represent quality. When measuring an audience, you should examine the entire audience profile. Social media platforms can inflate the number of content views and mislead the target audience.
It is the responsibility of marketers to ensure they use the right metrics, such as ROI, to determine audience engagement.
