Digital marketing campaigns can be created quickly and generate large amounts of data even faster
This gives marketers unprecedented levels of data and so a great ability to steer marketing campaigns towards their desired outcomes. However, it’s all too easy to end up disappearing down a rabbit hole of analysis, chasing incremental improvements at a granular level; quickly losing sight of the big picture and in doing so, slowing down the process of broader campaign adjustment decisions that help drive campaigns towards success. Balancing high level and granular analysis and adjustments is key – much like the way an F1 team designs and adjusts a winning car.
Top Level Planning & Analysis
Think of top-level analysis as the stage where the team designs and monitors the fundamentals of the car. At this level, team managers are focused on the overall performance and how all the major components fit together to achieve the ultimate goal: winning races.
Overall Design: An F1 team thinks about the car’s aerodynamics, weight distribution and engine power when designing a successful car. Think about your marketing in the same way; top-level analysis looks at the big picture metrics such as ad spend, leads/sales generated and brand visibility to help decide which components to use (such as Facebook, Google Ads, Email, YouTube etc.). You’re assessing how the big components of your marketing campaign contribute to your overarching business goals. These broader assessments help you to hopefully put together a winning combination of parts.
Strategic Decisions: Decisions about the type & size of engine (Facebook, Google Ads, Youtube etc), the kind of tyres (the target audience) and initial fuel load (budget) of the car are made at this level. These decisions set the foundation/framework for your campaign’s success, similar to how a car’s design sets the stage for its performance on the track – how fast and far it can go.
Performance Tracking: Just as you would track a car’s lap times and overall performance in different conditions, top-level analysis focuses on tracking broad metrics like overall sales volumes, lead conversion rates etc. to ensure you’re meeting your business objectives. Keeping track of these metrics helps to quickly identify any broader elements that may need adjusting or replacing whilst also identifying which combinations of components most effectively help to drive success.
Establishing authority and expertise
Granular analysis is like fine-tuning the car’s individual components to maximise its performance. Specialists focusing on this level of detail ensure every part of the car is optimised to contribute to the overall goal of winning races.
Component Optimisation: Just as you would look to make weight savings by paring back components, improve horsepower by fine-tuning the engine or optimise grip by adjusting the tyre pressure, granular analysis involves scrutinising specific aspects of each component such as keywords, ad creative, audience segments and more. The aim is to make detailed adjustments to ensure each part of your campaign so it performs at its best. This takes time and expertise. Whilst each granular adjustment can yield improvements, they are typically of lesser impact than adjustments made higher-up/at a broader scale.
Identifying Issues: If the car has a handling issue in certain corners, you’d need to look closely at the suspension components or tyre choice (or a combination of the two). Broad analysis would help you to identify that there is a handling issue and which components may be the cause. Granular analysis would help to identify and address specific problems with the components, such as underperforming keywords or ad creative.
A/B Testing: This granular approach is akin to testing different tyre compounds or aerodynamic tweaks in controlled conditions with the aim of providing incremental gains. A/B testing different ad creatives or landing pages helps determine what variations yield the best performance for your marketing campaign. They don’t give the car an extra engine or set of wheels but they can make the tyres more grippy or the engine more fuel efficient.
Personalisation: Just as you might customise the driver’s seat and controls to fit the driver perfectly, which in turn may lead to a car that reaches its goal faster, granular analysis allows for personalised ad experiences tailored to specific audience segments, enhancing user engagement and conversion rates. These changes require high levels of accuracy and yield proportionally small improvements – but are improvements nevertheless.
The Winning Approach
To create a winning car, the overall design, component selection and the fine-tuning are important. However, each needs to happen quickly and efficiently to make the most out of any competitive advantage created. Your marketing campaigns need the same approach.
Each car is put together and refined by multiple experts. This ensures that resources are used efficiently and that improvements are made in the shortest amount of time. One person may be able to do all the necessary research, design and optimisation across all elements of the car and ultimately achieve the same level of performance. However, the end goal can be reached far more efficiently through teamwork; with experts analysing and improving at a granular level, whilst team managers analyse and steer based on the top-level data. The cumulative effect of granular changes made at scale by specialists along with the top level insight provided by campaign managers gives the best chance of achieving success.
