Challenges in Managing Campaigns Effectively

As we start the new year after busy Q4 of 2018, there’s a lot on mind. It’s a time to step back and see what worked and what didn’t and get ready for even busier Q4 of 2019. But the preparation has to start form beginning of 2019 itself, so that we are not scrambling as we approach Q4 2019.

Business is all about growth… from a Campaign Managers perspective, it’s being able to…

1. Deliver on larger more complex budgets
2. Manage leaner teams
3. Make faster data-driven decisions to ensure:
   • Maximum ROI
   • Higher Profitability / Margins
   • Keep operational costs down

So, how can Campaign Management leads who are in-charge of meeting above goals be able to meet these expectations? For effectively meeting these goals Campaign Management leads must first beak down the various aspects of campaign life cycle. There are typically 5 aspects for managing any campaign and challenges associated with them:

1. Setup Campaign KPIs: Each Campaign has specific KPIs against which it is supposed to deliver. If those delivery / performance KPIs are not met, then that budget is lost without getting ROI. KPIs that have to be tracked can vary by channel as well. For example, social channel and display channel might have completely different KPIs. Hence setting up these KPIs for a given IO across various channels is the first step towards effective Campaign Delivery Management. Typically, these KPIs are separately tacked in their respective delivery systems and getting a holistic view becomes challenging.
2. Collect Campaign Data in Real-Time: As the Campaigns start delivering in their respective channel systems, such as Social, Display, IPTV, Programmatic, etc., it becomes imperative that they are able to get visibility into various delivery and performance KPIs so that they can begin to make adjustments to campaigns to optimize towards their respective goals. Today, most Campaign Managers rely on manually created reports in MS-Excel which are:
   • Too late by the time they are generated for review
   • Error prone cause of mapping data from various systems
   • Don’t have the level the granularity that they are looking for
   • Not generated frequently enough leading to missed opportunities
   • Not meaningful enough to really take any actions
3. Analyze Collected Data: Meaningful data analysis requires skills in data management. With limited data set MS-Excel may suffice, but as the data size increases and data gets complex, it puts limitations on the type of analysis the can be performed. For example, Campaign Managers may have to move to MS-Access of even basic MySQL database. If Campaign Managers are working off of a limited high-level aggregated data set, then they may not be able to do the kind of deep analysis which prevents them from tapping into the opportunities or identifying the issues which may have meaningful impact on campaign delivery.
4. Get Actionable Recommendations: Most reports the Campaign Managers get today from their reporting teams, don’t give any sort of actionable suggestions. They have to spend time in manipulating and interpreting the reports to take any meaningful actions based on the data that they have received. Making sense of data at times needs specific skills which may not be core competencies of Campaign Managers. Hence, they need to have mechanism in place which will give them specific recommendations, based on Campaign KPIs, in addition to reports related to campaigns.
5. Make Adjustments and Track Impact on KPIs: Once the data is analyzed, action on analyzed data has to be taken at the earliest so that impact of the corrective actions can be tracked. In case Campaign Manager is managing a large number of campaigns with line items, then making these changes may take a while. Due to the volume, the Campaign Manager may decide to make the changes less frequently. This may lead to missed opportunities. This is especially true to in case of Programmatic Buying scenario. If the impact of changes cannot be effectively measured, then effort put in the entire cycle of campaign management is wasted.

If you are Campaign Manager, we would love to hear from you regarding the challenges that you face in your life as a Campaign Manager.

In next part of this series, we will cover how technology can help Campaign Managers effectively address these challenges.

For questions or comments reach out us at info@webtest.yuktamedia.com