ROI

2011 Trending Topic: Social Media ROI

by Nichole Kelly · April 21, 2011

Did you get a larger social media budget for 2011? Are you being pressured to deliver ROI from your new budget? As the buzz around social media finally made it to executive’s ears their willingness to open the proverbial purse strings loosened, but it came at a price that many marketers were unprepared for … accountability.

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Telling Your Social Media Fortune

by Stephanie Schwab · December 31, 2010

Inside a recent fortune cookie: “Statistics are no substitute for judgment.”

Putting aside that fortune cookies are no longer fortunes anymore, they’re aphorisms (or “sh**ty observation cookies” as my friends Constantin and Paull call them), this is a pretty good aphorism about social media.

While I believe that it’s essential that social media managers, and their marketing and PR colleagues, figure out how to measure the ROI of social media – the statistics part – I also think there’s an important judgment part of social as well. Kat French says it’s about narrative and anecdote – that you’ve got to put aside the “idiot gauges” and figure out what the customer and brand impact really is.

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Counting Nose Prints On Your Shop Window

by Jeff Larche · September 15, 2010

Two pressing needs in digital marketing analytics are estimating ROI and improving conversions through better web metrics. I’ll be talking to you about both in the weeks to come.

The first focuses on optimizing the flow of qualified traffic. The second looks at optimizing what you do with that traffic. Both lead to better online profits.

Let’s actually start with the second one: conversions. To improve your site’s “close rate,” you first have to acknowledge that it’s a lot like running a bricks-and-mortar store — even if what you’re trying to “sell” is the action of subscribing to an e-newsletter or downloading a whitepaper.

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The ROI of Rotary

by Ike Pigott · September 8, 2010

DISCLAIMER: The following conversation is did not really happen, at least in the form presented. It is an amalgam of conversational snippets I have overheard from people in Corporate America. Many have probably happened somewhere near you.

“Peterson, come here for a moment. We need to have a talk.”

Getting called into the boss’s office is never fun.

“Peterson, I’ve been looking at your proposal. I’m afraid I’m going to have to turn you down.”

We all live with disappointment.

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If CMOs Are Unhappy With Digital, It’s Their Own Fault

by Jason Falls · April 21, 2009

Jason Falls

According to an article in AdWeek and a survey conducted by recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles, chief marketing officers are unhappy with their digital strategies. H&S polled 111 senior marketing executives at firms with $1 billion or more in annual revenues to come up with the “kinda sucks” prerogative. This essentially means they polled people who are used to spending a LOT of money on advertising who think the web space under-serves.

Apples to oranges.

: Image by TheBusyBrain via Flickr

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The Demise of Online Advertising Is Upon Us

by Jason Falls · September 8, 2008

I always laugh when reading media reports of announcements by analysts. In the sensationalism-driven market that is today’s journalism, lots of superlatives are used as if some numbers cruncher at J.P. Morgan is the modern day Nostradamus.

One such analyst last week lowered his prediction for the growth of online advertising spend. Imran Khan adjusted his prediction of online display advertising in 2008 and 2009 saying the overall economic downturn will have a trickle-down effect. His 2008 estimate for the online display market is now $8.2 billion, down from $8.6 billion. He expects 27 percent annual growth in the U.S. ad market now, down from a 32 percent projection earlier this year.