Tag: Blogs

Building a Roadmap to Your Best Customer: Customer Marketing Q&A

Posted on by Coegi

Marketers are tasked with the difficult exercise of creating meaningful consumer touchpoints that authentically connect an audience to your brand. To build a successful customer marketing strategy, you need to know who your best customers are and how to reach them. Being grounded with this knowledge also helps set your path to scale and discover your next best customers. However, it’s not always clear how to best define and cultivate these audiences to build sustained impact.  

To shed light on the topic, we sat down with Coegi’s CEO, Sean Cotton, and Director of Innovation, Savannah Westbrock, on The Loop Marketing Podcast. In this episode, they outline how to identify and reach your best customers and build long-lasting relationships. 

Continue reading to learn how to: 

  • Create and refine your ideal audience segments 
  • Collect and scale first-party data for cookieless targeting 
  • Test and measure the effectiveness of your audience strategy 
  • Tap into human nature to build long-term, loyal customers 

The following is an edited transcript of the podcast. Click here to listen to the full episode on your favorite streaming platform.

Spotify: The Roadmap to Your Best Customers

Q: To start us off, where should brands begin when building an audience targeting strategy?

Sean: It’s certainly a balancing act. You want to scale your marketing and reach as many potential customers as possible, but you don’t want to waste marketing dollars either. A great place to start is with the audience we already know – the most deterministic, valuable customers we have line of sight with. Engage them first, then model off of them. 

Then, expand your research with a focus on the human element. There is limited first-party or deterministic audience data. So we have to get to know our audience beyond those data points. What are their interest behaviors, attributes, and even psychographics? Start building upon your original data set with these insights. This can include social listening, focus group data, or other things of that nature. 

Q: In the midst of the cookieless future, what are some ways to build a futureproof audience strategy?  

Savannah: We’re in a really interesting transitional time. I’ve been referring to the period we kind of grew up in here at Coegi as the ‘programmatic Wild West’. We had so much data at our fingertips that we could skim through pre-built audiences and find a third-party data set we were really confident in. As we shift toward consumer privacy being more of a focus, we need to return to marketing basics. Social listening, as Sean said, is a huge one – especially with social media looking vastly different today than it did 10 years ago. 

Also, simply put yourself in your audience’s shoes. If something comes up in your research – blogs they read, shows they watch, subreddits they subscribe to – spend some time in those spaces. I think it will spark some interesting ideas of different touch points you can add to your overall strategy.  

Sean: I would also add that we are still maintaining a data-driven approach. Prior to the programmatic era, media decisions were often based on assumptions. Data-driven advertising helps us use quantitative data to inform who our audience really is. Now, we may be looking at a variety of other qualitative sources, but we want our assumptions to be backed by data. 

I think a good example was some campaigns we did with BODYARMOR for a number of years. Obviously, athletes are their target audience in the sports drink category. But, research found that moms were actually a primary purchaser in bulk at large retail stores. So that became an entirely new audience with a different messaging strategy. 

Q: How can brands best capitalize on first-party data to identify and reach potential new customers?

Savannah: First-party data collection was one of our first recommendations when Google made their announcement to deprecate third-party cookies. But there have been roadblocks along the way. Many brands are realizing that the way they set up their point of sale systems or their website was not ideal for aggregating all of their data. Especially if you have loyal consumers who use your products and are willing to give you their personal information, you want to gather all of that first-party data in one central location. 

So, whether it’s a CRM system or an ACP system, make sure your data is in an area where you can evaluate it. Then, let that high quality audience determine how you experiment as you broaden your strategies.  

Q: How can you apply audience data learnings across channels to bring the most value possible? 

Sean: Because we experience so many media touchpoints day-to-day, we want to take a broad, holistic view when we have valuable first-party data to gain audience insights. It could be the websites they visit, the influencers they follow, their location patterns, and even heat maps to the retail chains they frequently visit. By holistically researching how these customers spend time and where they devote their attention, we can get a full view of how to engage them throughout the day.  

Savannah: And that also helps us understand how our audience is responding to our messaging throughout the campaign lifetime. For example, Coegi media planners are beginning to implement a performance scoring model as a part of our measurement strategies. 

Let’s use the simple example of someone in-market for a car purchase. If they’re visiting our brand’s website and looking at different models, they might still be in the discovery phase. If we know they visited the lot too and spoke to salespeople, that’s a much more invested person who’s more likely to take the next step. So it helps us retroactively look at each touchpoint and the actions that grow out of them to understand the true effects of marketing.  

Q: How do you measure the effectiveness of an omnichannel audience strategy and build a test and learn approach to refine the process? 

Savannah: First, we empower the full team to come together: our in-platform specialists, strategists, research team, and even clients. Have a proactive conversation about what each step of the consumer journey really means and how each step needs to be measured against our media. 

Having this conversation upfront with all the correct people not only informs your setup strategy, it will also aid your optimization strategy. It can help you put together reports with really valuable insights. And overall, it leads to more successful start-to-finish campaigns that are replicable.  

Sean: This approach also powers our measurement strategy and learning agenda. As we are laying out the strategy, we make certain hypotheses. Then, throughout the campaign, we’re proving those suppositions either correct or incorrect and making pivots. The test and learn approach allows us to iterate on an ongoing basis to drive performance.  

Savannah: And there’s an added value of being honest and transparent – having those real conversations with teams and clients upfront. Often, our instinct is to want to always be the expert in every piece of our campaign. This gives us an opportunity to say, this is our expectation, these are our benchmarks, but let’s plan for what to do if this doesn’t work.  

Q: How do you balance human intuition with AI modeling to identify your next best customers and refine your marketing strategy? 

Sean: We have to understand our audience and be respectful to the sensitivities of their data. It really comes down to putting guardrails around AI machine learning – simple things such as frequency caps and sequential rotations of your creative messages to tell a story. 

Is cost-per-click or click-through-rate really driving growth for your brand? Or are you simply capitalizing on consumers that were going to purchase anyway? It’s a combination of understanding the human element, putting guardrails in place for machine learning to respect our customers, and then implementing a rigorous measurement strategy.  

Q: How do you avoid alienating customers with ad oversaturation and build a roadmap to long-lasting customer relationships that grow over time?

Savannah: Well, I love what Sean said about making sure your audience is seen as a human. One of the easiest ways to do that is to think, “what annoys me?” For example, when I get the same connected TV ad 400 times. What turns my view of a brand off and what can we avoid in our strategy? As you’re putting together tactics, think of the things that personally rub you the wrong way and be sure to avoid them.  

Sean: I think it’s also important to regularly refresh our customer database so we don’t forget about lapsed customers. We’re going to approach them differently than our most loyal customers. Understanding the nature of our first-party audience is another way to communicate with them effectively.  

Live Listener Q&A

Q: How do you build a customized user journey without feeling invasive or creepy? 

Savannah: Creepiness is obviously subjective, but for me, where I have felt that line was crossed is when I am getting a super personalized message from a brand I’m unfamiliar with. This speaks back to maintaining and nurturing your CRM list. 

I may have bought a product from this company years ago and they slipped my mind. So when I get that really hyper-targeted search banner ad or those t-shirts on Facebook with my name on them for some reason – those things are typically when the red flag goes up. They feel more invasive than a personalized email from a company who I’ve purchased from several times. 

Q: For a brand in the startup phase, how do you begin to build an audience strategy? 

Sean: I think a good place to start is simply your website analytics. If you’re a startup, you’re likely going to do some sort of press release. You’re going to try to get your name out there, and you may be doing some things to engage customers face-to-face. Take each of these opportunities to gather as much data as possible. 

From an online standpoint, there’s always your website analytics. You can drill down to the city level or even the DMA level to find where qualified traffic is coming from. If you have multiple pages, which are visitors most engaged with? What time of day are they coming to your site?

There’s a number of signals there that can be a starting point for audience learning. If you are able to engage face-to-face with a few people, you’ll gain insights about what the consumer response may be at a larger scale. So record and leverage that critical feedback. 

Savannah: There’s also an opportunity in the early days to think about creative ways to incentivize your initial customers. A common tactic is offering a discount if people sign up for your newsletter. 

Q: What are some creative ways for brands to jumpstart their first-party data collection when starting from scratch? 

Savannah: This is where partnerships can really come into play. Second-party data is a great place to start. If you don’t have a robust CRM list of your own, look for other businesses with high-quality data and do your due diligence to evaluate it. 

You can also look at things like retail media partnerships. If you’ve done on-the-ground research of where your consumers shop and what they’re interested in – you could go to Target’s Roundel, for example. Maybe you know your audience is in-market for parenting items. Look at those retailer audiences and see if there’s a unique way to reach them there.  

Sean: You can also tap into your creative executions in some cases. For instance, on Meta, someone who watches a video all the way through can be put into a remarketing bucket. Then you can perform lookalike modeling off of that group. You can do the same thing with programmatic video and there are other types of creative formats that allow you to gather first-party data. 

Q: What is your number one tip for audience segmentation and relationship building?

Savannah: Simply don’t forget that your audience is made up of people. Each member of your audience has a unique relationship and journey with your brand. Any opportunity you have to segment your audience and deliver different messaging at different stages of their journey is a great way to strategically build meaningful relationships. 

From there, it can inform the channels you execute on. It can inform your creative messaging. Overall, it lays a really solid foundation from people who are new to your brand to the loyal customers you’re working to build.  

Read Savannah’s Cookieless Targeting 101 article here. For more tips on consumer research, listen to our podcast episode, Research Done Right. 

Advanced Marketing Measurement and Modeling 101

Posted on by Elise Stieferman

A strong marketing measurement strategy is the cornerstone of media planning, answering the complex question: how is advertising supporting business success? 

A unified measurement framework guides brands toward achieving full-funnel goals. Sometimes, this is as simple as defining media KPIs and optimization points – think conversions, cost per action, reach and frequency, cost per unique reach, and so on.

But, oftentimes, media metrics alone cannot answer brands’ most critical questions. In these instances, advanced measurement studies and modeling strategies are critical tools to inform smart decision-making. 

Upgrading Marketing Data Insights With Advanced Measurement

Advanced measurement strategies don’t just track business success—they explain it. They answer the why before the what or how, providing a source of truth across multiple business disciplines and streamlining communication between stakeholders. 

What is advanced marketing measurement?

Advanced measurement refers to methods used to answer advertising questions that are difficult to address by standard media metrics alone. They’re important for understanding campaign performance in a more meaningful way than cost and reach. 

Examples of such questions include:

  • Did my brand have an increase in unaided brand awareness?
  • Did my retail locations gain incremental visits as a result of my marketing campaign?
  • Has my brand’s market share increased as a result of the media running?

In these situations, reporting back on simple media metrics won’t offer the depth of business intel you need. As Coegi’s Vice President of Marketing and Innovation, Ryan Green, quotes in Marketing Profs:

“Advanced measurement strategies mute the irrelevant metrics and form connective tissue between the rest so that marketers have a deeper understanding of how various campaign factors can help (or hurt) sales.” 

Some metrics simply matter more than others. When you shift toward performance metrics directly relating to your business goals, you’ll gain a clearer line of sight into what is and is not working.

5 Advanced Measurement and Modeling Tactics You Need to Know

Once you identify a need for advanced measurement, it’s time to determine which approach(es) will help fill that knowledge gap. Here are five of the most common advanced measurement methods we use at Coegi: 

#1 Brand Lift Study

What are brand lift studies?

Brand lift studies provide mid- or post-campaign consumer readouts to measure brand impact. Set up prior to campaign launch, these studies are ideal for awareness or consideration campaigns looking to track incremental improvements in more elusive KPIs such as brand awareness, ad recall, brand favorability and purchase intent. 

Brand lift studies are typically conducted through control vs. exposed consumer surveys that ask questions such as: 

  • Have you seen an advertisement for {{insert brand here}} in the last 30 days? 
  • What’s your perception of {{insert brand here}}? 
  • Would you consider purchasing {{insert brand here}} next time you visit the supermarket?

Depending on the media mix, you can deploy single-channel measurement studies. You’ve likely been served a one question survey before a YouTube video or in your Facebook feed – that is an example of a single-channel brand lift study. Or, you can run cross-channel measurement studies in a demand-side platform environment using display, video, audio, native, and connected TV methods.

These insights are able to be segmented by parameters such as audience, geography, creative, and channel to isolate the top performing elements.

Why use brand lift studies?

Brand lift studies help bridge communication gaps and showcase how various advertising channels work together to meet the primary goal. They can be useful for brands in any industry, especially those lacking broad awareness in cluttered categories.

#2 Foot Traffic Lift Study

What are foot traffic lift studies?

Foot traffic lift studies measure brick and mortar visitation. They connect the dots between awareness and conversion by measuring the lift of in-store foot traffic due to ad exposure. These studies are typically conducted using mobile location data from in-app user opt-in as well as one-to-one impression pixels. Industries that most commonly benefit from foot traffic studies are retail, auto, travel, QSR and CPG.

Why use foot traffic lift studies?

They serve as a valuable sales proxy for brands with brick and mortar locations or whose products are most commonly purchased at physical retail stores. Understanding visitation lift also helps understand consumer consideration, especially for large-scale items like automobiles that often have a longer purchase cycle. 

For industries and businesses without branded physical store fronts, creative assets should include retailer logos to direct consumers to distributors that are most convenient to consumers’ locations. 

#3 Sales Lift Study

What are sales lift studies?

Sales lift studies are used to measure SKU-level data and tie it back to advertising. They match in-store transactions to digital campaigns including digital, video, native, audio, social, and CTV ads. Oftentimes, these studies use first-party shopper data from retail loyalty programs to tie advertising exposure to in-store purchase behavior. Common sources for this information are retail media networks, IRi, and Catalina.

Why use sales lift studies?

These study results show the increase of in-store purchases due to omnichannel advertising efforts. Sales lift is ideal for CPG brands when incremental product sales and understanding of bottomline company growth is the most critical indicator of success. Attribution of sales is increasingly complicated as products are available in multiple online and offline marketplaces, and advertising is similarly fragmented. 

Sales lift helps zoom in on the most important metric, sales volume, without getting lost in the weeds. To see how Coegi used sales lift to prove ROI for a cookie brand, view our case study here. 

#4 – Media Mix Modeling

What is media mix modeling?

Media mix modeling (MMM) is an analysis method that helps define optimal media channel budget allocation using historical performance data. Through multi-linear regression models, this method assigns value to each marketing touchpoint, so marketers can determine how each variable impacted key outcomes. It requires at least two years of sales data and media metrics to make accurate predictions and performance optimizations.

“Marketers like specifics, as they help with targeting and attribution, but MMM’s purpose is to help marketers understand how various marketing activities drive the business metrics of a product or service.” – Hugo Loriat 

Why use media mix modeling?

Numbers don’t lie, but they don’t tell the whole story either. It is crucial to fully understand the context of the data you’re analyzing. What factors may have contributed to performance fluctuations? Creative? Messaging? Audience strategy? Seasonality? 

Media mix models help incorporate all of these variables to determine what story the data is telling. By blending multiple factors, rather than just a singular KPI, you can see a bird’s-eye view of how all the pieces are working together to impact long-term strategy and performance. 

Learn more on how to use MMM to boost your bottom line in this video: 

#5 – Performance Scoring Model

What is a performance scoring model?

A performance scoring model is a unified marketing measurement model that uses multiple, weighted data sources based on level of significance to define your media’s impact on business goals. It incorporates both media and non-media data to enable smart business decisions and more accurate predictions. 

In the end, you come out with a performance score that summarizes how your brand is doing in relation to business goals. Here’s a simplified graphic example of what a performance scoring model can look like: 

performance scoring model
Performance Scoring Model

Why use a performance scoring model?

No single marketing metric or strategy can equate to business success. Brands need a custom, yet flexible, solution to accurately track and measure marketing results on an ongoing basis. The performance scoring model is a great option for those looking for that flexibility and customization. It is an all-encompassing business dashboard you can use to unify data analytics, clearly qualify marketing’s impact and inform smart decision-making. 

Potential Barriers to Entry with Advanced Marketing Measurement

It’s important to weigh the pros and cons before implementing any of these tactics. Consider and discuss these three primary challenges before selecting your advanced measurement plan: 

#1 – Cost

  • For lift studies, each measurement partner has a unique pricing structure. At times, these can be cost prohibitive for brands just getting started. Consider the available budget and expected outcomes beforehand. 
  • For advanced modeling, you will likely need to outsource a digital agency, such as Coegi, or a data technology partner to implement these analyses – unless you have an in-house expert with statistics training. 

#2 – Data Availability

  • For lift studies, some providers require impression volume or retail location minimums to ensure feasibility and statistical significance. It’s also important to identify which channels you want to analyze. Walled gardens (ie. Amazon, Meta) will require different solutions than other programmatic platforms that allow for cross-channel measurement.
  • For MMM, you need to already have two or more years of quality marketing and sales data to input. Similarly, the performance scoring model is more flexible, but will be most effective if you have strong consumer data to input from the start. 

#3 – Time

  • Lift studies tend to take several weeks to launch and gather statistically significant data. It’s important to plan early and set expectations. 

Launching Your Brand’s Advanced Marketing Measurement Plan

Once you’ve identified a need for advanced measurement or modeling, it is important to ensure the tactics you chose align with the desired business outcomes. 

To help you get started, we took our entire approach to marketing measurement and boiled it down to five simple steps. View our 5 Step Guide to Successful Marketing Measurement here. 

Partner With Coegi for Expert Marketing Measurement Strategies

Advanced measurement and modeling will become increasingly important for quantifying marketing success, especially in the cookieless future. But this can be a daunting task for any marketer.

If you are unsure what measurement strategy is best for your brand goals, contact Coegi for a discovery call to get started. 

MediaPost – Stop Running Campaigns, Start Creating Ecosystems

Posted on by Coegi

The vernacular of the marketing campaign — implying that consumers and brands are at war against each other — is antiquated.

Advertising shouldn’t exist if its goal is to simply influence and manipulate consumers into short-term purchases. Most people are too smart to fall for that anymore, but more importantly, it only serves the brand’s short-term interests.

Instead, modern marketing must exist to benefit the brand, the customers, and the world at large. Very rarely does one message, one piece of content, one execution, do that.

View the article

How to Build a Content Amplification Strategy Using Publisher and Influencer Partnerships

Posted on by Lisa Merlotti

Custom content marketing is key to achieving long-term brand success. But, content creation can be expensive and time-consuming. A content amplification strategy allows brands to do more with less, maximizing the return on investment. 

In this article, you’ll learn how to create an impactful content amplification strategy that expands reach and extends content shelf life.

Why You Need a Content Amplification Strategy

Content amplification can build an authoritative voice for brands in any industry, from CPG to finance to B2B. For more complex industries, it is an opportunity to establish thought leadership and position a brand as a trustworthy educational resource. 

Alternatively, content can be all about entertaining the consumer – driving brand affinity and engagement. Whether you’re amplifying successful content, refreshing pre-existing content or partnering with a trusted third party to leverage their resources and authority – it all comes down to finding the ideal intersection between brand goals and consumer value 

Building a Holistic Content Marketing Plan

To begin crafting a strategic content marketing plan that satisfies both the brand and its consumers, follow these four steps. 

#1 – Establish strategic alignment on content goals and production strategy

Begin by putting together a comprehensive brief with the client that addresses: 

  • The brand’s core business and marketing objectives 
  • The brand’s content creation plans for the year to support these goals 

Once you understand the upcoming content pipeline, find ways to incorporate major initiatives, such as custom research studies, company highlight videos, or downloadable white papers, into the paid content marketing strategy. 

#2 – Analyze the existing content library

Next, look at the brand’s current content arsenal. What assets can be easily refreshed and repurposed? This decreases net new creative production needs, while making the most of high-value assets. To identify the best content pieces without bias, start by analyzing pre-existing organic metrics. 

  • What content formats are driving the highest reach and engagement on social media? 
  • What long-form content pieces are generating the most downloads, backlinks, or shares on your website? 

After understanding what great pieces already exist, you can refresh, amplify, and distribute them to more people within their audience groups. 

#3 – Partner with publishers for net new content opportunities

After understanding what content is currently at your disposal, identify gaps to fill by tapping into strategic publisher partnerships. 

  • Where is there competitive white space for the brand to own their message? 
  • Which channels are the brand’s competitors underutilizing? 
  • Where is the target audience most active and reachable? 

Leverage publishers to help create the most engaging and interactive assets possible. Some creative content formats we have explored include immersive articles, Instagram ‘meme’ Reels, podcast segments, animated videos, recipe blogs, co-branded national polls, and e-newsletter sponsorships – just to name a few. 

#4 – Ensure content provides authentic value

Identify the key messages, whether content families or thematic pillars, to find a valuable brand story. Also consider what content formats best communicate different types of information, as well as different target audience segments. For instance, a research survey with heavy statistical data may be best suited for an infographic, whereas a webinar may be better suited for a sizzle reel video.  

Remember these four guiding principles to create authentic marketing content:

As you are creating a custom content plan, you should also be formulating your content amplification strategy. Approaching these in tandem will help you determine what types of assets are needed for both owned and amplified channels and streamline creative production. 

Identifying Optimal Publisher Partnerships

To level up content production and audience reach, connect with reputable publishers to create and amplify custom marketing content. Our teams work closely to streamline communication and access the best added-value opportunities for clients by leveraging relationships with editorial partners.

These publishers could be vertical-specific sites, high-authority news organizations, or relevant internet content and entertainment communities. It’s beneficial to align with their editorial calendars to get greater engagement and stronger placements, while also considering factors like seasonality for the brand. 

In the publisher vetting and RFI process, we look at four key areas to determine the best partnerships:

  1. Audience: Does our audience have a high index and contextual relevance with this publisher’s content? 
  2. Content Quality: Are the publisher’s creative chops high quality, engaging, and suitable for repurposing across multiple channels? 
  3. Message Alignment: Does this publication’s mission and historical content align with the brand’s key messages and themes? 
  4. Distribution: Will this publisher provide adequate reach? Are there paid promotion and distribution opportunities across high-touch and owned channels? 

Typically, it’s best practice to diversify across a few different publishers to ensure you have adequate reach across your target audience. However, there are some instances where it makes sense to go all-in with one publisher if it strongly aligns with brand goals, or if your budget is limited. 

Repurposing Custom Content Across Channels

Content marketing is typically a pay-to-play space, at least in the initial stages of your brand partnership. Nearly every publisher has minimum spend requirements. Strategically repurposing content across channels (without simply copy and pasting) is critical to maximize that investment. 

For example, a publisher can help transform an in-depth white paper with proprietary content into an infographic or animated stat video. By making complex content more digestible, you can reach users earlier in the consumer journey, while still translating the key value proposition. 

After commissioning custom content, there are two highly effective ways to repurpose it: using derivative assets and tapping into influencer marketing. Let’s dive into each of these in more detail.

Using Derivative Assets to Extend Value and Reach

What are derivative assets? Derivative assets are micro content, such as ad units derived from the main “anchor content” and used to drive to the main “anchor content”. Examples of derivative assets include: 

  • Creating a native display unit that links to an organic blog post or sponsored article
  • Boosting an organic social media post on a brand’s page 
  • Using paid search engine marketing to promote a white paper 
  • Building organic and paid social media drivers that link to a branded e-book
  • Producing a sizzle reel from a long-form webinar

Derivative assets extend your anchor pieces, tailoring them to different audiences, placements, and stages in the consumer journey. This approach creates a more comprehensive content strategy and supports creative efficiency.  A good best practice is to sponsor pre-existing organic content, allowing you to test the content before dedicating advertising dollars. This way, you already know which content is likely to drive the greatest paid media results.

Amplifying Content with Influencer Marketing Partnerships

Influencer marketing is gaining more and more attention in the realm of content amplification. However, you HAVE to ensure the content is authentic to the creator’s individual brand and unique followership. An influencer simply pushing out your brand’s ad is not always going to feel organic.  

Publishers often have in-house influencer talent which brands can tap to gain additional reach outside of the publication’s readership. Take PopSugar for example. They have networks of highly-vetted influencers in the food, lifestyle, beauty, and fashion spaces which brands can leverage. Coegi also has an in-house influencer marketing team to help brands identify and partner with creators to create and promote branded content. 

Read our 5 Essential Influencer Marketing Tips article for more.

Key Takeaways for a Successful Content Amplification Strategy

Custom content and sponsored publisher placements have a myriad of positive effects – visibility, credibility, reach, engagement, and more. To reap these benefits, remember to focus on creating and amplifying content that provides true value to the consumer. 

Save and use this quick checklist to audit the quality of your content marketing assets:

  • Supports core business goals 
  • Translates key brand message through storytelling 
  • Offers authentic consumer value
  • Aligns with publisher editorial calendar or your brand’s seasonality 
  • Is able to be reused in multiple formats and across a variety of channels 

Ready to leverage Coegi’s expert media team to create your brand’s content amplification strategy?

Contact us today for a discovery call.

Social Media Marketing for Higher Education Brands

Posted on by Jenny McNamara

Looking for a way to stand out among the sea of colleges and universities competing for the attention of potential students?

Paid social media marketing is one of the most effective tactics you can use for your higher education institute.  

Most higher education marketing plans under-utilize paid social media in favor of more traditional advertising tactics. While these channels can be effective, there is a major opportunity cost in omitting social media channels where potential students are most engaged. 

Social media is a must-have tactic to reach student audiences and revitalize education brands’ market positioning. In this article, you’ll learn Coegi’s key best practices to optimize social media marketing for higher education so you can drive results – from awareness to enrollment. 

Using Social Media to Compliantly Reach Potential Students

Higher education audience targeting strategies can feel fairly prescriptive. Colleges and universities want to reach and engage with prospective students, whether undergraduates, masters, or professional students. This might seem pretty straightforward; however, reaching undergraduate students in a data-driven way is becoming increasingly challenging due privacy laws restricting advertising to minors. 

But, not all hope is lost. The data clearly shows that young adults are highly active on social media. So, while perhaps less frequently targetable by demographics, higher education brands can and should use social platforms to reach these individuals from a contextual standpoint in a compliant and authentic way. 

Tips for Targeting and Resonating with Student Audiences on Social Media

  • Avoid over-segmenting your audience to prevent overlap. For example, an audience of “all prospective students” and an audience of “prospective journalism students” will overlap and compete which will limit performance. 
  • Tailor creative to specific audiences and social media platforms. What performs best on Facebook will be different from what resonates with users on TikTok. 
  • Contextually target student audiences on social media using specific hashtags, TV shows watched, or other relevant interest factors based on research and trends.

Parents are Students Too When It Comes to Vetting Schools (And They’re Also On Social Media)

While paid social media is an excellent tool for reaching young students, focusing solely on students can limit your education campaign’s full potential. Nearly everyone is on social media – not just teens and young adults. Incorporating parents into your audience mix can vastly increase higher education campaign reach and efficacy, whether they are looking into colleges and universities for themselves or on behalf of their children. 

Social media encapsulates a wide demographic range, though the preferred social channel may vary. For example, Facebook and Instagram remain very popular with older generations. Consider leaning into these channels to capture more of your parent and professional student audience.

On the other hand, Snapchat and TikTok have higher usage among younger audiences. By creating a cohesive strategy across multiple social media platforms, you can ensure you’re reaching every potential decision-maker in the school selection process.  

Tips for Advertising to Parents on Social Media 

  • Sprout Social indicates that parents love hearing from other parents. Lean into messaging that focuses on building a community of support and educational resources across social media. 
  • Incorporate parent testimonials or useful statements from school administrators through short-form social media video formats.  
  • Use swipe-thru or animated graphics to highlight job placements, internship rates, and other ways your school can help facilitate their child’s success. 

Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment 

Leaning into social media opens the door for innovation within higher education marketing. Young audiences are on the forefront of changes to the social media landscape. This gives higher education advertisers the unique opportunity to test out new tactics and be early movers in the space. Your brand can increase credibility and favorability amongst your key audiences by creating social moments that surprise and engage these individuals.

This also applies to the types of creative you use. Students want to see something engaging and on-trend. TikTok, in particular, is a space to experiment with creative short-form video formats and explore innovative ways to drive leads. Check out these universities who are using TikTok to engage with students: 5 Universities and Colleges Winning on TikTok

Tips for Innovative Higher Education Social Media Campaigns

  • Research current social media trends among your target audience groups and regularly swap creatives to stay fresh and relevant.
  • Try using less formal creative messaging such as meme Reels on Instagram or trending TikTok challenges and hashtags.
  • Ensure your social media ads have a clear call-to-action to lead users towards application. 

Measure the Right Actions

Education brands face a unique challenge with social media marketing because their most critical action, submitted applications, is often not directly measurable. Obstacles, including third-party website domains and pixel data limitations, can complicate attribution. However, there are a number of high-intent actions users can take on your website that are worth measuring in paid social media campaigns. 

First, determine which lower-funnel actions are most important and measurable. Two such examples are clicks to start the application process or clicks to sign up for a campus tour. After determining these KPIs, optimize your social media campaigns for them.

From there, establish a conversion rate between “clicks to apply” and completed applications, for instance. By taking this analysis a step further, education brands can work to create a more complete picture of social media campaign attribution. 

Tips for Measuring Social Media Marketing Success

  • Identify existing data that can inform your measurement baseline. If you can cross reference campus visit button clicks against real campus visit data, you can identify incremental lift attributable to social media ads.
  • Develop data tracking strategies before media launches so you have an accurate picture of performance across the entire social campaign. 
  • Ensure all aspects of your strategy align with key KPIs so your campaigns garner meaningful results. 

Social media marketing for higher education brands offers fresh and engaging opportunities to reach the full spectrum of your target audiences. Think outside the box and explore how your institution can creatively show up on social platforms to drive high-intent actions, while also building greater brand awareness. 

To see some of these strategies in action, view our case study on Using TikTok to Reach College Students.

If you’re looking for a higher education marketing agency partner, contact Coegi today to learn more. 

CTV Targeting Best Practices: 4 Tips for Higher Performing Advertising Campaigns

Posted on by Coegi

How can your brand achieve extensive advertising reach without putting valuable marketing dollars at jeopardy? Create a smart CTV targeting strategy. 

TV advertising is a high impact advertising channel for building awareness and increasing share of voice by reaching your target audience in a non-skippable environment. However, the landscape is shifting. 47% of the U.S. TV viewers are already cordless and, by 2025, there will be over 235 million connected TV viewers. Is your brand reaching them? 

In this article, I’ll lay out how you can leverage the targeting and addressability benefits of connected TV in your large-screen video advertising plan. By the end, you will be able to apply four key learnings to your CTV targeting strategy to improve both your marketing ROI and your audience’s experience with your brand:

  • Pair cable and streaming for optimal reach and frequency
  • Diversify streaming platforms based on your CTV campaign goals
  • Leverage the addressability of CTV audience targeting
  • Lean into the power of contextual CTV targeting and premium placements

4 CTV Targeting Tips

#1 – Pair Cable and Streaming for Optimal Reach and Frequency

Before we dive too deep into specific CTV targeting strategies, let’s get one thing straight. We aren’t saying you should ignore linear (cable) television to go all in on digital. Linear TV is still one of the fastest ways to effectively reach mass audiences. However, the best way to achieve comprehensive consumer reach at an appropriate frequency is having the right mix of CTV, OTT, and linear. 

Traditionally, marketers would pour the majority of their big-screen budget into linear TV, and save a small fraction for CTV. There was a misperception that CTV had limited efficiency and reach. It was also more difficult to control ad frequency and compare measurement between linear and streaming. That has since changed. Today, these channels are beginning to speak the same language in terms of measurement, allowing for cross-platform comparisons and omnichannel reporting. 

Treating CTV as simply an incremental tactic is not only outdated, but inefficient. Connected TV ads can offer much greater control in regards to reach and frequency versus linear buys. To maximize results, pair linear and CTV/OTT in your media plan to create an omnichannel video strategy. Then, use cross-channel integration platforms to avoid siloes or ad fatigue, as well as understand impact. 

Hear why there should be a more equitable distribution between traditional and streaming television from our President, Sean Cotton, in this short video clip:

#2 – Diversify Streaming Platforms Based on Your CTV Campaign Goals

CTV targeting success comes down to knowing your marketing objectives and aligning that with placements that make sense based on where your audience consumes television content. You may be understandably concerned by the fragmentation of connected TV. There are so many streaming services and devices that it feels challenging to unify the experience. 

When evaluating targeting decisions, you have to evaluate what you value most: 

  • The streaming platforms on which your brand appears (Hulu, Disney+, Netflix, etc.)
  • Reaching audiences on a 1:1 basis

If you really want to advertise on a select few premium streaming platforms, you should be open to targeting a broader audience. Layering multiple audience segments on top of strict inventory limitations causes difficulties with achieving scale. But, you can leverage research to justify this strategy knowing that your audience spends time on platforms like HBOMax or Hulu, and take comfort knowing your ads are running on quality inventory. 

If your priority is reaching a highly specific audience, cast a wider inventory net. Look beyond the Hulus and walled gardens like Amazon Prime and YouTube TV, and instead lean into an omnichannel CTV buying strategy. While this will require more due diligence to ensure brand safety among lesser known CTV services, it creates an opportunity to take a more holistic approach to the opportunity across your consumer base.

#3 – Leverage the Addressability of CTV Audience Targeting

The golden rule of marketing – do everything in your power to avoid wasting media dollars. At least that’s our philosophy at Coegi. Needless to say, the typical “spray and pray” approach often used to reach broad audiences with linear TV makes us cringe a little. By using data-driven CTV partners, you can still reach broad audiences without overspending. 

There are a lot of data providers that can be activated to reach users on a 1:1 basis. This audience-first approach reaches high-value, addressable segments without overspending on mass media buys. Plus, you improve the user experience by serving relevant content in an engaging, large screen format.

You can also gain greater addressability through automated content recognition – an effective technology to simultaneously improve your audience targeting, ad personalization, and measurement in a privacy preserving way.. Automated content recognition (ACR) technology captures and identifies audio and visual on-screen content. It can capture any content being viewed on a smart TV screen: linear, streaming, video-on-demand, commercials, video games, etc. This data is fingerprinted and can be tied back to IP addresses, creating unique user IDs for specific devices 

The primary ACR targeting methods include:  

  • Target based on ad exposure (competitive conquesting)
  • Content affinity (live tentpole events, shows watched, games played)
  • Viewership behavior (cord-cutters, sports fans, etc.)

ACR data empowers you to better understand and reach your unique audience, as well as personalize messaging. 

#4 – Lean into the Power of Contextual CTV Targeting Strategies and Premium Placements

Audience targeting offers many benefits in the ability to drill down to specific behaviors, purchase history, and more. However, to maximize CTV targeting success, it’s important to balance audience-based and contextual targeting strategies. 

Why? Households share devices, so you cannot always be sure the person you are trying to reach is the one in front of the screen. Additionally, third-party cookie deprecation will impact overall addressability. Contextual CTV targeting does not rely on third-party cookie data, making it a more future-proof solution. It is also a valuable tool to achieve scale by targeting specific networks and content genres using audience affinity data. 

If you want to put a true stake in the ground, secure premium CTV placements through programmatic or direct publisher buys. Think live sporting events, award shows, or an ad spot on the latest Netflix series taking the world by storm. 

These premium placements are more expensive, with CPMs often ranging between $40-50. But, it’s critical to understand the value of running your brand’s message alongside highly recognizable content. If your audience is made up of huge sports fans, the impact of running a thirty-second ad spot during the NBA Finals could be invaluable to your long-term brand performance. Premium CTV placements both elevate trustworthiness for newer brands and energize existing brands. 

Learn more about how to optimize your CTV budget with quality inventory from Coegi’s Director of Programmatic Operations, Hannah Schatz, in this clip: 

The ways in which viewers consume TV are changing, but the overall love of programming remains. Knowing your brand and how your target audiences index against specific content is essential in the future of CTV targeting strategies. Implementing these data-driven targeting tactics will give you access to higher-quality ad space. 

For more information, view our OTT/CTV Advertising Webinar here or access our TV 2.0 Guide to gain a better understanding of the CTV ecosystem. 

Why the Performance Scoring Model is the Future of Marketing Measurement

Posted on by Coegi

 

Is your marketing measurement strategy founded in business intelligence or in media metrics? 

No single marketing metric can equate to business success. Likewise, no single marketing measurement strategy can translate success for all brands. You need a custom solution to accurately track and measure holistic brand health – based on your unique definition of success. 

This is why we believe every brand needs a performance scoring model. 

What is a performance scoring model?

A performance scoring model uses multiple, weighted data sources to define your media’s impact on business goals. This model should combine media data, business data, and advanced measurement studies, weighting each of the data points per their significance. 

Then, you can use this custom formula to create an overall brand performance score. By standardizing reporting and insights from both the granular campaign level to a broader business strategy perspective, this will allow you to make smarter, and more results-based marketing decisions.

Here is a simple example of how this formula can look:

Lift in Unaided Brand Awareness (45%) + Location Visits (20%) + Clicks (10%) + Sales (25%) = Performance Score

Using the Performance Scoring Model to Measure True Marketing Success

Advertising needs to be held more closely accountable to business outcomes. Marketing leaders are feeling this pressure more intensely now than ever. It’s uncomfortable and challenging – but these are necessary growing pains. As the industry navigates increasing consumer data privacy regulations, marketing plans require more complex planning and measurement. 

Simply put – today’s business challenges require more than basic in-platform forecasting and metrics. Media data – impressions, reach, cost-per-click – are too in the weeds to illuminate the full landscape. A performance scoring model incorporates both media and non-media data enabling marketers to make smart business decisions and more accurate predictions. 

It is simply a living, breathing business dashboard that allows marketers to accomplish three key things: 

  1. Unify disparate data sets to better contextualize and assess data analytics
  2. Clearly communicate the impact of marketing on business outcomes 
  3. Predict and inform smart campaign optimizations and strategic decision-making

3 Key Benefits of the Performance Scoring Model

1. Unify disparate marketing data sets

Data aggregation is at the core of this marketing measurement strategy. You may already be using measurement tools to combine media channels in one dashboard. But, business challenges require taking that a step further to reveal brand insights. 

The scoring model gives you a new understanding of marketing performance across the business using both conventional, and unconventional, metrics. This levels up your data analysis to go beyond engagement rates or a cost per action. You can add context by bringing in factors such as economic indicators, health trends, or any other data points impacting the business or consumer behavior. 

It’s not necessarily a tool to drive new sales or leads. But, it does allow you to frame conversations about multiple KPIs in a concise, digestible way. It can guide your marketing strategy so the media can perform better, which will impact long-term growth of bottom line metrics. Ultimately, it resets expectations and aligns teams on the incremental impact of media on business decisions. 

“With the custom scoring model, we work to see a holistic view of performance, setting meaningful KPIs and holding media accountable to business goals.”

– Ryan Green, VP of Marketing & Innovation, Coegi

2. Clearly communicate marketing results

The custom scorecard offers a more objective, quantifiable number you can use to communicate to key stakeholders. Communicating media’s value to non-marketers can be challenging at best, especially if you’re speaking with acronyms that do not apply to their daily jobs. By standardizing disparate data sets, you will be able to more easily achieve buy ins. 

For example, which of these is easier to understand? 

  • In March, FB CPMs decreased by 9.5%, CPLPV rose by 33.4%, and CTR was 1.7%. 

OR

  • In March, our overall media score was 7.5 out of 10, a 1.2 point increase from February.

Ultimately, the custom performance scorecard is a more tangible way to showcase directional return on marketing investment, in particular for stakeholders that aren’t in the marketing department (like finance or operations). Plus, it’s a very flexible data model. You can easily change the weights of each factor in your scorecard formula to accommodate input from other stakeholders or changing business needs. (We’ll get to how to create your custom formula in the next section.)

3. Inform smart marketing campaign optimizations

Finally, you can leverage custom performance scoring models to evaluate and identify leading indicators of success. You can use it to identify which parts of your media strategy are working in near real-time, rather than waiting months for results. Depending on the non-media data you incorporate, it can also help you make real-time pivots based on external factors. 

For example, you can use this model to identify highest performing DMAs. Then, you could distribute your budget and adjust messaging in softer markets versus stronger markets. Alternatively, you can swap geographic region as the optimization point with different audience groups. You can break down audiences to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each segment. Then again, strategically decide whether you will double down on strong audiences or focus on weaker audiences. 

How to Create Your Brand’s Performance Scoring Model

Ready to create your own scorecard? As you begin, media metrics are your most readily available and straightforward data points, so it’s fine if they make up the majority of your scorecard (at least initially). However, it’s important to pull in some external data as you iterate on your model over time. Otherwise, you’re siloing your marketing from other business factors. It’s like driving while wearing blinders. 

Outside perspective from non-media data guides smarter media decisions. Having that additional context can help you determine optimal frequencies, efficiencies, and top-line analytics goals. 

Examples of Non-Media Data Sources for Your Scoring Model:

  • Sales data: Sales by product/service, retailer, region, etc. 
  • Financial data: Consumer price index, stock market, interest rates, 
  • Infection rate data 
  • Net promoter score (understand your greatest customer advocates from  customers who need greater nurturing)
  • Consumer survey data: brand reputation, store cleanliness, product quality, service quality, brand loyalty
  • Advanced measurement data: sales lift, brand awareness lift, foot traffic lift

And this is just scratching the surface. You can get creative here and pull in more obscure data as long as it’s relevant to the success of your business and able to be analyzed at statistical signficance. 

Weighting Your Performance Scorecard Formula 

How do you determine what weight to give each input? I recommend leading with your intuition. But it should also be a group effort. Collaborate with the people closest to the data as well as the people closest to the brand. To avoid biases, be sure to gather input from several stakeholders:

  • CMO/Marketing Manager – Lead the discussion based on existing knowledge and marketing KPIs.
  • Data Analysts – Help provide guidance as to what data is available for use.
  • CEO/Board of Directors – Ensure strategy aligns with overarching business goals and external stakeholder needs.

As you have these discussions, remember it is an iterative process. The first formula you create certainly will not be the last. That’s the beauty of this custom model. It is adaptable, flexible, and increases in accuracy and relevancy over time as your data collection grows and your formula improves.

Implementing a Performance Scoring Model: Marketing Use Cases

Here are three ways Coegi has applied the performance scoring model to our clients:

Use Case #1 – Attributing CPG Sales to Advertising in Real-Time

Point-of-sale data lets consumer packaged goods brands see exactly how much was sold. However, the problem is speed. You often find out results weeks after a campaign. This is far from the real-time results you need to make agile marketing decisions. 

To identify CPG marketing ROI, brands typically need to go back and attempt to attribute that sales lift. Was it from your media spend? The media people certainly think so. Or did the economic boom really do all the work? Maybe it was the in-store displays… The custom scorecard model measures all of those things at once giving you a better idea of what drove sales. 

If you locate those leading indicators of success, you can have an idea of what’s working in real time. Then, when the sales data rolls in 4-12 weeks later, you can confirm what you assume to be true and adjust as necessary. 

Use Case #2 – Identifying Audience Likelihood to Travel 

The travel and tourism industry is impacted heavily by macro-environmental factors. How is the weather? What are flight tickets and gas prices? Is there a health pandemic halting travel? These kinds of factors influence where media should be placed for maximum results. 

This was especially prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used the scorecard approach for a state tourism client to create a “COVID-19 Scoring Model”. This scorecard gave each county in the state a score indicating level of opportunity for travel in each market. Using it, we were able to inform media decisions and ensure the strategy aligned with public safety. You can read the full case study here for more details. 

Use Case #3 – Identifying Highest Opportunity Geographic Markets for QSR Chain

Quick service restaurants operate in a competitive, cluttered space. Customer loyalty and share of wallet are major factors driving long-term QSR success. 

Knowing this, we create a performance scoring model for a QSR client factoring in brand lift attributes, visitation, and point of sale data. We even included data on how highly customers rated their french fries. Using this model, we were able to allocate budget to top markets and tailor messaging to boost market share among loyal customers. Read the full case study here. 

There are infinite ways to apply this methodology across any industry and any brand. At the end of the day, the performance scoring model is about getting to the WHY to inform the what – making our marketing strategies stronger and our clients even happier.

For help applying this approach to your brand, contact Coegi today for a discovery call. 

MediaPost – How MySpace Created a Gateway to the Metaverse

Posted on by Elise Stieferman

The marketing world has been abuzz with talk of the metaverse for over a year now. From Wendy’s to Louis Vuitton, brands are leaning into the possibilities of Web3.0 as an opportunity to further ingratiate themselves to their customers. However, there is still a gap with consumer adoption, despite the attention it’s being given.

Why?

For one, the average consumer does not understand what the metaverse means, according to eMarketer. Secondly, it requires an investment: in a headset, in a game, in time. And most marketers aren’t willing to make that leap when they don’t understand the value.

From my perspective, though, the industry has been overcomplicating the concept of the metaverse rather than making it accessible for audiences. Rather than pointing back to the origin of the word from the 1992 novel “Snow Crash,” let’s instead compare the metaverse to something widely known and understood — not the obvious like The Sims or Fortnite. Instead, let’s discuss how MySpace created the gateway to the metaverse…

View the article

The Drum – 2023: Marketing’s Year of… ?

Posted on by Elise Stieferman

2023 will be the year of content.

Great marketing content will become more important than individual ads or campaigns. One could argue that it’s the year of data privacy as audience targeting rapidly diminishes amid tightening regulations. But the response to those limitations is not to find data workarounds or audience-targeting solutions. The key to success will be bringing content and paid media under the same strategic umbrella to keep your brand from drowning under the weight of the shifting privacy landscape.

View the article

The Drum – 4 Ways CMOs Can Do More With Less

Posted on by Elise Stieferman

Want more bang for your buck? CMOs should focus on four key things: relationships, accountability, testing, and customer experience.

When times get tough and uncertainty causes unrest, marketing resources are often the first to be cut; too often, they’re seen as ‘non-business essential’. Right now, consumer concerns over inflation are resulting in fewer dollars spent.

Marketing teams are being asked to accomplish more with less and, for a chief marketing officer (CMO), these are challenging odds to overcome. In Q1 2022, 50% of the C-suite wanted to use marketing to grow revenue; 41% indicated reducing costs and finding greater efficiency as a priority. But not all hope is lost.

Here are four key steps CMOs should take to do more with less…

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