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4 minute read
Marketing can be a whirlwind. Between endless to-do lists, juggling new requests, and running experiments, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and lose track of what’s actually moving the needle. So, how do you know if all that hard work is paying off?
The answer lies in focusing on what truly matters to your business: your OKRs, ROAS, and ROI. They can help you cut through the clutter and stay centred on actions that have real impact. Let’s dig into how you can make these metrics your guiding lights, especially when feeling overwhelmed.
Constant Optimization Can Be Overwhelming, But Here’s How to Simplify It
As marketers, we know that constant optimization is essential. We’re always tweaking, testing, and trying to make our campaigns perform better. But with all the demands coming in daily, it’s normal to feel like you’re in survival mode, struggling to balance testing with everything else on your plate.
If you find yourself nodding in agreement, know that you’re not alone. It’s easy to get distracted by day-to-day tasks, losing sight of whether these tasks are contributing to your core goals. The trick is to refocus on what really matters to your business, by coming back to your OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), and ROI (Return on Investment).
Let’s break each down and look at how they can help you stay focussed.
OKRs: The Big-Picture Goals that Guide You
Objectives and Key Results, or OKRs, are the high-level goals your team is aiming to achieve, along with measurable outcomes that signal progress. Your objective might be something like “Achieve 20% market share,” while the key results could include targets like “Attract 10k leads” or “Achieve an average 80% NPS”
Why are OKRs important? They help ensure all those tasks and campaigns actually build toward a bigger business objective. When things get chaotic and new ideas start flying in, revisit your OKRs. Ask yourself, “Does this idea align with our main objectives?” If the answer’s no, it’s probably a nice-to-have rather than a must-do.
Pro tip:
Use OKRs to prioritize! If an idea or request doesn’t contribute to your main objective, consider it for later or set it aside. This keeps your efforts streamlined and purposeful.
ROAS and ROI: Your Performance Checkpoints
If you’re not obsessing about driving ROAS and ROI, you should be. Driving positive outcomes here will unlock more resources, budget and capacity as your business leaders won’t be able to say no!
ROAS
Return on Ad Spend measures how much revenue you’re generating for each dollar spent on ads. For example, if you spend $1,000 on a campaign and it generates $5,000 in revenue, your ROAS is 5:1. This metric is great for campaigns aimed at driving direct sales or conversions.
ROI, on the other hand, measures the overall return of an investment and takes into account all costs, not just ad spend. It’s especially helpful for business leaders who need to understand the overall return to the business from marketing.
Whenever you feel overwhelmed by data, testing results, or random requests, remember to look back at ROAS and ROI. They’re your performance checkpoints, helping you gauge whether your work is genuinely creating a positive return.
Pro tip:
If a campaign isn’t delivering positive ROAS or ROI, don’t hesitate to pivot. Reevaluate, adjust, or even let go of ideas that aren’t providing a return.
A Customised Funnel Can Be a Lifeline
When data starts piling up, it’s easy to feel lost. What should you be looking at? Where are the actionable insights? For marketers, especially those who are more right-brained, the constant inflow of numbers can feel overwhelming.
A custom funnel can help simplify this. By mapping out your company’s user journey from their first interaction to becoming a paying customer, and inputting conversion benchmarks at each step, you can estimate the potential impact on revenue of your marketing tactics. You can also refer back to your funnel when actual data is coming through to see where customers may be engaging more or less than expected and optimise your approach accordingly.
For example, if you’re seeing high engagement at the impressions stage but low click throughs, it might signal a need to adjust your call-to-action or refine the message for those closer to a purchase decision. A well-defined funnel also helps you zoom in on the data that really matters, rather than feeling like you have to analyze everything at once.
Pro tip:
Use the funnel as a diagnostic tool. Instead of getting bogged down by every metric, focus on those that track movement along the funnel. It’s an easier way to zero in on actionable insights!
Staying Focused on OKRs, ROAS, and ROI Helps You Beat Data Overload
In a test-and-learn marketing environment, data can be both a gift and a curse. There’s so much to sift through that it can be hard to tell what’s relevant. Here are some simple ways to cut through the clutter:
- Anchor yourself to OKRs: Regularly revisit your OKRs to make sure your activities align with your main objectives. This prevents you from spending time on things that don’t contribute to your core goals.
- Use ROAS and ROI as filters: Are your current campaigns producing a positive return? Use ROAS and ROI to guide your decisions. It helps you identify which campaigns are worth scaling and which may need re-prioritizing or even stopping.
- Look for trends over time: One-off data points can be misleading. Instead, look for trends over days, weeks, or months to understand the bigger picture.
By focusing on OKRs, ROAS, and ROI, you’ll gain clarity on what’s driving real results, allowing you to take clear, confident action.
Communicating Your Wins to Stakeholders
Keeping your efforts aligned with OKRs, ROAS, and ROI has another big perk: it makes it easier to communicate your successes to stakeholders. By framing your results in terms of these metrics, you can show how your work is contributing to broader business goals.
For example, rather than saying, “Our latest email campaign had a high open rate,” try presenting it as, “Our email campaign contributed X% to our engagement OKR and generated an ROI of Y.” It’s a subtle shift that makes your impact clearer and more compelling.
Pro tip:
Use OKRs, ROAS, and ROI as the foundation for any report or presentation. This helps stakeholders see the bigger picture, especially when comparing short-term wins with long-term objectives.
When Overwhelmed, Come Back to These Basics
Marketing is fast-paced and complex, it’s easy to feel buried under tasks, data, and new ideas. So, the next time you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a deep breath, revisit your OKRs, and use ROAS and ROI to guide your decisions. Marketing is challenging but rewarding, and staying focused on what truly matters will make all the difference.
