The Link Between Advertising & Sales

More and more companies are attributing marketing budgets as a percentage of sales. To make the whole strategy of budget allocation meaningful, marketers should seriously track the results of their advertising dollar and effectively analyse the link between advertising investments and sales/client conversion. Knowing which ads drive sales helps us to focus our advertising budgets on promotions and media options that bring the greatest return on investment (ROI). Did you track how much sales you closed from your last advertising campaign? Did you get a report on the audience engagement levels?

Most marketers choose their advertising platform based on the media that has the highest number of audience. However in this age, the newspaper, TV or radio station with the highest audience will never be as dominant as the audience available on the internet or mobile phones.

Today a smartphone is our newspaper, TV, radio, gym instructor, camera, translator and so much more – it’s a lifeline and the best platform for advertisers to reach the right people at the right time. We should really rethink what's possible when our phone is essentially every device we need in one. Mobile phones offer the greatest advertising opportunity yet to be seen, in a mobile-first generation. However, most marketers haven’t figured out how to make it really work for their business. That’s because as marketers we need to start writing for a mobile audience and not just replicate the messages placed on traditional media. To ensure that mobile ads perform well, we need to explore all the possibilities and push the boundaries so our messages standout in a sea of 5000 ads per day. Let’s look at a few mobile advertising potential:

Instant messaging (IM) We need to acknowledge the fact that IM is now the default method of communication. Why not embrace this and have weekly conversations with clients through Bulk SMS? Take relationship management to the next level.

Immediate sale/response Our phones allow us to do a lot – at a click of a button we can make purchases or appointments or whatever. As a health practitioner, I can easily send ads out to patients and potential patients urging them to click to make an appointment. I can further incentivise them with a 10% off their next visit if they make the appointment now by clicking on the ad. To make it easier, when they are redirected to my landing page, I can have them sign in with Facebook so they don’t have to complete lengthy forms. With one ad and one click they can react to complete the sale.

Re-invent “Call to Action” Ads Let’s use a variety of call to action options to get more from our consumers. I think the “click here” icon is overused, why not get creative? The mobile ads have the options that allow a click on the ad to: Dial a number; Download an app; Visit a website; Redirect to Facebook and like the page; Save a coupon/PDF; Add an event to your calendar and so much more. Why aren’t we using these features more often to increase our sales and get our consumers to act? But, please can we ban the word “click”!

Targeting Capabilities I certainly can’t think of one other media that allows for such granular targeting capabilities other than mobile adverting. Can you? Why should I send my advertising message to people who cannot afford my product? Why should I send my message out to people who live too far away to make purchases? Mobile advertising can have me target my message by GPS location, gender, age, network, interest and so much more. Why again are we not taking advantage of this? If I have a new club opening, as a marketer, I’d want to get everybody who was frequently at the last hottest club over to my new club. I’d use mobile advertising to specifically target those frequent club-goers since they would show most interest in my club than homebodies. More marketers need to start thinking seriously about their target audience and strategize how to effectively get the right messages to them.

Smart Software Ads are no longer just standard images or videos. In the mobile world ads should use vivid and creative elements that are strategically stringed together to give consumers a series of instructions at the right time and place- to act! Mobile advertising allows for gamification, SMS, video ads, targeting capabilities and so much more. If one person sees 5000 ads per day why not use as many elements to make yours more memorable? In this age, if a smart transportation manager had a dilemma, he would turn to mobile advertising to let his passengers at the specific locations know that the buses are running late today. Or if a store owner had a sale, they can alert shoppers close to the store location on their phones to visit the store and include a map so the shoppers don’t get lost…. Which marketer doesn’t want real-time targeted advertising?

Transparent Reports Mobile advertising is one of the few easily track-able advertising options. Measuring the ROI on mobile advertising dollars is as easy as ABC. All marketers need to do is: A) Audience - Send out the rightly worded and graphically appealing message to the targeted audience B) Basic Reports -Analyse the report. The mobile ad report could include a number of things based on the objectives or the KPI’s of the ad campaign. A few of these are: SMS open rates, ad impressions served, CTR, app download rates or the mobile context among other things. C) Calculate your ROI based on the reports and your sales growth. A common formula is: ROI = (profit – ad cost) /ad cost or ROI = (gross sales revenue – ad cost) / ad cost

Of course advertising isn’t the only factor that contributes to sales growth, but advertising opens the door and creates a strong desire for the product/service which makes it easier for sales to be achieved. Why not target those who are most likely to complete the sale in the shortest possible time? Let’s not forget that the more sales increases, it’s the more marketing budget we get to spend… So what is your ROI on advertising dollars in 2015? Have you been choosing the right promotions and media options?