Marketers have identified the top three KPIs (key performance indicators) they consider to be “fakes” or of little use in measuring campaign results.
Media KPIs That Matter, a survey of 93 conducted in the March quarter of 2021 by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in the US, asked marketers: “Which KPIs do you consider to be ‘head fakes’ for media?“
This is referring to KPIs that may be endorsed by a media partner but aren’t really useful and may even be potentially deceptive.
The KPIs most cited: Likes; Sentiment/comments; Shares (on social media).
These are all also ranked in the middle of the pack for use and ranked very low in importance. Likes and shares are at the very bottom of that list.
“This suggests that while measuring engagement may be an indicator of brand affinity, media managers are placing more importance on measuring brand action, which is a lower-funnel metric,” says the study.
The ANA says media KPIs have been identified as one of its areas of initial interest due to the direct connection between KPIs and business results.
Charlie Chappell, VP of media at The Hershey Company: “Today’s media leaders find themselves with an incredible opportunity to step up and become true business partners who are key drivers of growth versus just cost containment managers of large spends.
“Yet our industry has struggled to provide clear guidance on how to link the media metrics we all know and love to the outcomes that matter most to our C-suite leaders.”
The study found the most used KPIs for media:
And the most important KPIs arted by the survey respondents:
Return on investment/return on advertising spend is an outcome metric directly tied to business growth -- for every dollar spent, this is the expected return.
"It guides the marketer on whether advertising investment pays out," says the study.
The most used KPIs include many long term industry staples, including CPM, CPC, unique reach and frequency.
"These are universal metrics for measuring audiences and providing trading currency across platforms," the study says.
"Such KPIs apply to a wide variety of campaigns and goals and are relevant to almost every situation. As one of the qualitative interviewees said, 'These KPIs are ubiquitous'.”
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