Industries still recovering from the pandemic, an impending recession, and a cost of living crisis… the headlines make for pretty bleak reading right now. It’s enough to make any company want to cut budgets and steel themselves for the turbulence ahead.
The trouble is, that’s not good for business either.
Brands that do better in uncertain times are those that keep advertising and marketing their business. We know this not just because marketing mogul Mark Ritson says so, but because we’ve helped brands do it ourselves.
We sold holidays during the pandemic for Aria Resorts and helped leads soar for ski operator WhiteRoad – all when the travel industry was in disarray.
So what can you do to prove marketing deserves its spot on the budget sheet? Make it more Moneyball.
Moneyball tactics
In case you’re not familiar with the best-selling book and blockbuster film ‘Moneyball’, here’s a quick breakdown.
US baseball team Oakland Athletics couldn’t compete with top teams, due to having less budget to buy the best players. Only, who was considered ‘the best’ was usually formed by talent scouts and their opinions. That left manager Billy Beane with few options to take the team forward.
Enter his data-savvy assistant manager. Using ‘sabermetrics’, the empirical analysis of in-game activity for baseball, Beane’s assistant crunched the numbers and discovered that some of the objectively highest-performing baseball players were going cheap.
Maximum effectiveness, astronomical budgets not needed.
The rest is history: The Oakland As went on to score 20 consecutive wins in an absolutely dominant 2002 season.
What you can learn from Moneyball
As we approach what is almost certainly going to be a difficult period ahead for customers and businesses, there are some lessons we can all take from Moneyball. It isn’t about outspending your competitors. It isn’t about going on feeling, or opinion.
It’s about data.
It’s hard to imagine that no-one in baseball had the same idea as Oakland Athletics, but when it’s the norm, it’s easy to go with public opinion and ‘the done thing’.
And in the case of economic uncertainty, that can often mean slashed budgets, as Finance departments inevitably try to make savings to weather the storms. The problem is, if the marketing machine stops, it’s much more difficult to get going again. The funnel isn’t being filled and the pipeline starts to dry up.
It’s also worth remembering that no-one has a business exactly like yours. Your data, your customer profiles, your budgets, your brand… they are all unique to you. So the very best thing you can do is crunch the numbers.
How to make your marketing more Moneyball
The best thing about performance marketing is that you’re generally spoilt for data. It’s an inherently measurable medium and the direction the industry is going in – with new campaign types like value-based bidding and Performance Max – suggest things are only going to get more data-driven.
Even so, you need a reporting setup that enables you to calculate the return on investment of your marketing. Those teams that can prove where results are coming from, which messaging resonates, and what percentage of leads turn to customers from which channels, will be best positioned to not just justify their marketing budgets, but build resilience into the business.
In times of economic uncertainty, you also need an acute understanding of how data and campaign activity translates to your business’ bottom line. For example, you might be used to lower costs per lead, but shifting consumer behaviour could bring that into contention. In which case, what are you willing to accept to see positive results? You need a good awareness of your threshold, and an even better understanding of your most important measures of success.
Is it higher conversion values? More conversions? Improved lead to conversion rates? How does all of that impact revenue coming in to the business? That’s where Finance departments will be looking.
If cuts are inevitable, you may actually be able to manage with less budget. As long as you’re investing it into your most successful channels, or using new technologies to make efficiencies, you’ll get more from it.
Need help getting your data in order?
We’ve seen how interrogating data and acting rapidly can not only help businesses survive tough times, but flourish. Our performance marketing pros can help you tidy up your data and devise bespoke tacking to get you the insights you need to manage the uncertainty, as well as pushing your PPC budget to work harder.
Get in touch with us today.
