Why research should be the driver of your digital campaign

US Digital ad spending is up almost 20% this year – on track to reach $129.5 billion quite soon. Research shows that companies with deep pockets have been estimated to fork out in excess of $20 million on Google advertising alone, for example: AT&T – Spent $40.8 Million, Verizon – Spent $22.9 Million; Go Daddy – Spent $21.7 Million. 

Clearly making use of good research will ensure that digital ad dollars are spent wisely. Let’s take a closer look:

For advertising: It is a digital world…

Digital is where it is at. Everybody is going there from a brand perspective. Spending more online than ever before and looking to be more creative and effective with each new campaign. The joy of digital is that every action is trackable – which means there is a lot of data available about the audience – who they are and what they are doing. It means that there is a lot of scopes to get things very right, but similarly also a lot of scopes to get things very wrong. As a result, every digital campaign needs to be driven by research. This is not a place of gut feel or tugging at the heart-strings. It is fuelled by cold, hard facts and data and you need to be cognizant of this if you want to achieve the desired results. Here are some of the elements that should be looked at before completing your strategy.

What platform to use

Don’t just operate in the digital space because that is what everybody is doing. And don’t just assume that the digital space is a small one. It is very complex with lots of different means by which to interact and engage. There is Android versus Apple. There are social media. There are apps or websites. There are platforms like USSD or SMS to consider. It is a never-ending list of sub-categories and differentiators, each one unique to a specific demographic or LSM. There are also major cost implications with different strategies. Talk to various experts and seek multiple opinions. Find out about the costs of Android app development Sydney versus USSD development in Melbourne. Compare and contrast and then draw conclusions. You need to engage with your audience where they are.

Information is power

Knowledge is power and any campaign needs to target specific data sets and audience segments. This all comes about through data analysis and it would be advisable to engage with one of the many data analytics companies Sydney boasts in its greater metropolitan area. These people are the experts in their field, and they are the folk who will give you the information in advance of your campaign and then continue to monitor it and analyse it for the campaign’s duration. It is important to recognize that no campaign is ever set in stone and that there should always be the flexibility to make changes on the fly on the back of sound analytics.

Personas

Before any campaign gets underway it is a good idea to develop some audience personas. The idea should be to get into the head of the target audience and to understand them fully. Don’t make assumptions here. Ask questions. Interview people. Use the available data. And then, based on what you know go ahead and develop the appropriate campaign. Online surveys can be very good in this regard to help assimilate the information and to understand what is important to the target demographic. Whatever you do, do not assume that just because something is important to you, that it is also important or relevant to the people that you are looking to engage with.