A new study commissioned by programmatic marketing and analytics platform DataXu suggests a need for greater agreement between brands and media agencies in defining and setting business-driven KPIs. The findings, based on a survey with 374 senior marketers at brands and professionals at media agencies across the UK, France and Germany, reveal that both parties often use different KPIs for marketing campaigns—a trend that’s particularly pronounced in the UK.
Although a vast majority (67 per cent) of brands and media agencies surveyed in the UK describe the process of setting KPIs as collaborative, they also indicate different preferences for which KPIs they use. Most media agencies prefer to focus on ROI (46 per cent) and website visits (34 per cent), while brands prefer to measure conversion rates (36 per cent) and shares or likes (34 per cent).
Moreover, UK brands in particular feel very certain they know which KPIs are best, as 77 per cent indicated. Not far behind, media agencies expressed similar feelings about their own ability to know best at a rate of 57 per cent. These results suggest that instead of pursuing discrepant KPIs, brands and agencies should make sure they agree on KPIs in pursuit of the brands’ business objectives.
‘These findings indicate that although brands and media agencies across the UK are working together to design, run and measure campaigns, they use different metrics for success,’ says Chris Le May, DataXu senior vice president and managing director of Europe & Emerging Markets.
‘This study is a call for all parties involved in digital advertising to reconcile their metrics and define success according to direct business outcomes. Because at the end of the day, what matters is that brands, agencies and tech partners are working together to implement the best solution for the brand.’
What works best?
The study suggests that agreeing on the best KPIs can be testing for both parties. For example, 62 per cent of brands and 72 per cent of media agencies in the UK say they find it challenging to get valuable KPIs from each other.
Furthermore, the study suggests that the agencies and brands that confront such challenges find it difficult to agree on KPIs.
In fact, 47 per cent of these media agencies say that brands do not measure the right KPIs. Similarly, 58 per cent of brands say that those used by media agencies do not align with their business objectives.
Brands and media agencies in the UK may espouse some discrepant views, but, fortunately, they are also very likely to communicate about them. In fact, 85 per cent of brands and 72 per cent of media agencies in the UK say that they would challenge those presented by the other.
In order to define well-informed and collaborative KPIs that reflect the campaign’s specific goals, brands and media agencies will need to draw on this willingness to communicate in order to align their objectives and craft collaborative, effective and business-driven campaigns.
Further reading on KPIs
