Charles Stuart | Partner | Technology, Media & Telecommunications | PwC South Africa | mail me |
No matter which industry your business finds itself in, advertising forms a crucial part of any company’s go-to-market strategy to help achieve a host of business goals – from influencing consumer behaviour or driving sales and revenue growth, to gaining a competitive advantage and expanding into new markets.
Based on our Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2024 – 2028, digital advertising revenue in South Africa is expected to increase from R26.3 billion in 2023 to a resounding R38.1 billion in 2028.
The intricacies of digital performance and ad spend
While it remains a multibillion-Rand industry, the world of digital advertising is a complex ecosystem. It seamlessly connects users, publishers, advertisers and technology platforms, while serving as an intricate system that aims to deliver relevant ads to users and maximise value for brands. However, the journey from a user’s browsing activity to seeing a targeted ad on their screen involves numerous steps and technologies. This means that the efficacy of advertising campaigns needs to be assessed more stringently to ensure you are getting the maximum benefit from your investment.
Despite the sophistication of modern paid media, the industry is revealing significant gaps between client expectations and campaign delivery. The intricacies of digital performance and ad spend can lead to substantial inefficiencies within the media advertising ecosystem, with our in-house experience indicating that between 30% to 90% of digital campaign impressions are not delivered fully as intended. This highlights the challenges that businesses are facing in achieving optimal results.
Some of these common challenges may be due to a misalignment of campaign objectives, inadequate or incorrect audience targeting, suboptimal ad placements, insufficient viewability rates or misallocated budgets. To ensure your campaigns are hitting the mark as effectively as possible, a few key elements must be considered.
Taking a comprehensive approach to the digital advertising ecosystem
Understanding the intricate process of ad delivery and management is crucial for effectively executing campaigns.
Several key steps are involved in this process, and it is imperative to understand their interconnectedness:
By using the above model to examine your campaign plan, it could help eliminate frequent mistakes that businesses encounter and offer effective strategies to optimise your return on investment in this evolving domain.
Strategic oversight on traditional and digital campaigns
Robust strategies are needed to maximise the effectiveness of campaigns in both digital and traditional landscapes.
Focusing on key areas of oversight and optimisation allows advertisers to enhance their return on investment and ensure their messages are effectively reaching their intended audience. To do this, a multi-faceted approach is needed. This begins with a thorough examination of contractual obligations and financial reconciliations—and by meticulously reviewing agency commitments versus delivery, advertisers can uncover delivery discrepancies and spend inefficiencies.
Secondly, performance monitoring is needed to ensure that contractually promised key performance indicators are met throughout the campaign lifecycle (this includes specific, measurable targets such as video views or engagement rates, which should be clearly defined and regularly evaluated). And lastly, and perhaps most critically, advertisers must prioritise the integrity and visibility of their ad placements to track viewability, combat ad fraud and ensure brand safety – a non-negotiable in today’s digital landscape.
Benchmarking excellence: Driving strategic insights and cost efficiency
Benchmarking is also crucial as it serves as a vital tool for cost optimisation and strategic improvement in advertising. By comparing a company’s advertising practices against those of industry leaders, benchmarking helps identify areas for improvement and cost reduction.
In the case of digital advertising, benchmarking can reveal how top performers are managing viewability rates, combating ad fraud and ensuring brand safety, while in traditional media, typical benchmarks comprise circulation, viewership impressions and reach to ensure the campaigns are optimally placed for the best results.
Unveiling digital campaign realities through a Digital Performance Review
Performing a Digital Performance Review (DPR) is the game changing factor being used by forward-thinking companies to ensure they’re achieving the maximum impact from their advertising campaigns.
A DPR addresses a crucial question in digital advertising: Is my agency/in-house team bidding for the right audience, in the right context, at the right time?
Some common gaps we are seeing in advertising campaigns today are:
- Inconsistent process application: While agencies and in-house teams often have well-designed processes for digital campaigns, our reviews frequently reveal inconsistencies in their application across different campaigns.
- Widespread impression errors: A consistent and alarming finding across all clients, including top global advertisers, is that 30%–90% of digital ad impressions contain errors.
- Technology utilisation gaps: Many organisations are not fully leveraging their adtech tools, leading to missed opportunities in campaign optimisation and performance tracking.
- Transparency issues: There are often discrepancies between what’s reported in media booking and financial systems versus what’s actually delivered in campaigns.
Enhancing digital marketing effectiveness
Considering that every Rand needs to be accounted for in today’s business operating environment, performing a rigorous, independent assessment of digital advertising efforts is imperative.
It is crucial to identify whether there are significant gaps in campaign execution, while at the same time remembering that these challenges present opportunities for substantial improvements in performance and efficiency.
By addressing these areas, advertisers can enhance their digital marketing effectiveness, aligning more closely with best practices and maximising return on investment in the complex digital advertising landscape.
Related FAQs: Digital marketing ROI optimisation
Q: What is digital marketing ROI optimisation?
A: Digital marketing ROI optimisation refers to the process of improving the return on investment from digital marketing campaigns. It involves analysing various metrics and marketing tactics to maximise the effectiveness of marketing efforts and ensure budget allocation leads to higher conversions and brand awareness.
Q: How can I improve my ROI within my digital marketing campaigns?
A: To improve your ROI within digital marketing campaigns, you can implement data-driven strategies that focus on optimising your target audience, enhancing conversion rates and utilising analytics tools to measure and adapt your marketing strategies. Additionally, consider reallocating your marketing budget towards the most effective channels.
Q: What metrics should I focus on for ROI in digital marketing?
A: Key metrics for measuring ROI in digital marketing include conversion rate, return on ad spend, customer lifetime value and overall marketing budget efficiency. By analysing these metrics, marketers can identify areas for improvement and optimise their digital marketing efforts.
Q: How do analytics tools help in optimising ROI?
A: Analytics tools provide insights into the performance of marketing campaigns by tracking metrics such as conversions, audience engagement and campaign effectiveness. This real-time data allows marketers to make informed decisions and adjust their strategies to boost ROI.
Q: What role does attribution play in ROI optimisation?
A: Attribution plays a crucial role in ROI optimisation as it helps marketers understand which marketing tactics and channels are driving conversions. By accurately attributing sales to specific efforts, marketers can optimise their strategies and allocate budgets more effectively to maximise ROI.
Q: Can machine learning be used to enhance digital marketing ROI?
A: Yes, machine learning can enhance digital marketing ROI by providing predictive analytics, automating data analysis and improving targeting strategies. This technology helps marketers identify trends and optimise their campaigns in real-time, leading to better ROI outcomes.
Q: What are some proven strategies to boost ROI in digital marketing?
A: Proven strategies to boost ROI in digital marketing include segmenting your target audience for more personalised marketing, investing in high-performing marketing channels like email marketing and social media advertising and continuously testing and optimising your content marketing efforts.
Q: How can I measure the effectiveness of digital marketing strategies?
A: The effectiveness of digital marketing strategies can be measured through various metrics such as conversion rates, customer engagement and return on investment. Regularly reviewing these metrics helps marketers understand which strategies are working and where improvements can be made.
Q: What is the importance of budget allocation for marketing success?
A: Budget allocation is critical for marketing success because it determines how resources are distributed across different marketing channels and tactics. Proper allocation ensures that funds are directed towards the highest-performing strategies, ultimately leading to improved ROI and more effective marketing campaigns.
Q: How does real-time data impact digital marketing ROI?
A: Real-time data impacts digital marketing ROI by allowing marketers to make immediate adjustments to their campaigns based on current performance metrics. This agility helps in optimising strategies quickly, ensuring higher conversion rates and maximising return on investment.
