Defend and grow your marketing budget
Our new ‘CMO Measurement Toolkit’, supported by Merkle, will help you prove marketing effectiveness in the boardroom.
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Prove your marketing effectiveness in the boardroom
The current economic climate of stagflation has meant that marketing budgets are under more pressure than ever.
At the same time, short-term performance marketing effectiveness has declined by 62% over the past two years, while brand campaign effectiveness has nearly doubled.
This innovative toolkit provides CMOs with the guidance needed to identify effective measurement and prove marketing effectiveness in the boardroom.
The DMA can also upgrade your marketing team's data skills to support you in managing marketing effectiveness. Find out more about our government funded Data Bootcamps.
Methodology
The DMA Effectiveness Databank consists of data from 1,261 DMA award entered campaigns. Some data is derived from the self-declared information provided in the award entries, while additional tags have been created to add further depth to the databank.
The DMA is Europe’s largest community of data-driven marketers.
Guided by our customer-first principles enshrined in the DMA Code, the DMA champions a rich fusion of data, technology, insight, creativity and diverse talent.
We set, teach and promote standards to build trust and deliver marketing effectiveness for the UK’s data and marketing community.
About the DMA
Merkle is a leading data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company that specialises in the delivery of unique, personalised customer experiences across platforms and devices.
For more than 30 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading non-profit organisations have partnered with Merkle to maximise the value of their customer portfolios.
About Merkle
Over
170
metrics are being
used to measure marketing effectiveness
of effectiveness metrics relate to business outcomes
8%
Only
brand effects generated by highly creative campaigns
4x
more
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Five Essential Tips For CMOs
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Want to learn more? Download the full report here.
Campaign measurement plans are still too focused on less meaningful campaign delivery and digital vanity metrics. 41% of effectiveness metrics used by marketers fall into this less meaningful group compared with the 59% relating to brand, response and business effects. Speak the language of the boardroom when articulating campaign effectiveness if you want to unlock further budget. Linking marketing spend to business outcomes such as ROI, customer growth, market share improvement, profit growth and long-term customer loyalty will help to sell the organisational value of marketing when budgets are under pressure.
1. Focus on measuring what matters to your business
Want to learn more? Download the full report here.
If the reporting of business effects is what appeals to the boardroom, it’s crucial to understand at the planning stage
which media inputs are most strongly linked to positive business outcomes. Metrics related to campaign reach, spend efficiency (which doesn't mean simply chasing the lowest CPMs) and ad engagement all link to business outcomes. Net Promoter Score (NPS) growth, retention rate and Average Revenue per User (ARPU) increases are also strongly linked to positive business outcomes and should be planned for where relevant.
2. Assess which metrics are linked to business outcomes
Total Number of Business Effects by Response Metric
3. Contextualise marketing performance against relevant industry benchmarks
Marketing effectiveness is still below pre-pandemic levels, with sub-standard measurement undoubtedly playing its part. However, like-for-like comparisons should be made when setting campaign KPIs. For example, while response and business effects have declined during the past three years, brand effects have nearly doubled. An organisation’s industry of operation makes a huge difference too, with financial services, retail and charity campaigns all above-average performers.
Want to learn more? Download the full report here.
Average Number of Business, Brand and Response Effects per Campaign
4. If current demand is scarce, stimulate future demand through brand building
Generating customer response to marketing comms is harder when household budgets are under severe pressure. If short-term response cannot be found, then future demand can be stimulated with brand activity. The benefits of such an approach will be felt when the economy and customer demand both recover. Brand activity can itself drive sales
directly, and through a halo effect on performance/response marketing in the short term.
Want to learn more? Download the full report here.
Brand vs Response Campaign Objective Profile
5. Rediscover the lost art of creativity to drive campaign response
High levels of creativity are currently being used to generate business and brand effects – a finding which should encourage the boardroom to support a culture of creativity in marketing. Performance / direct response marketing is currently not taking advantage of the creative opportunity, however. This is a big opportunity for advertisers aiming to arrest the decline in response effectiveness.
Want to learn more? Download the full report here.
Effects Per Campaign:
Top vs Bottom Creativity Quartile
Marketers are still too focused on digital vanity metrics.
Without focusing on the metrics that matter, it's going to be very hard to turn around the decline in marketing effectiveness.
-Ian Gibbs, DMA Director of Insights
of effectiveness metrics relate to business outcomes
8%
Only
Unlock the full report