KPIs: Before and After Launching Your Campaign

Written By: Claire Ye | Reading Time: ~2 mins

---

When creating a new Marketing or Public Relations campaign, it’s easy to get lost in the development of the actual strategy as it is time consuming and requires a lot of attention to detail. But there’s an unsung hero that is crucial to the success of any campaign, one that is often overlooked: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

A Key Performance Indicator is a numeric value that measures the performance of a campaign over a set timeframe in a specific area. KPI’s should be incorporated in the strategy development phase as they can be used to evaluate the success of individual campaigns or marketing efforts as a whole and offer insights for improvements or future campaigns.

But why is it important to set KPIs before launching a campaign? Here are six reasons why you should set Key Performance Indicators before launching your next campaign:

1. To provide targets for your team to shoot for.
2. To provide milestones and markers to gauge the progress of campaign efforts.
3. To ensure that you have the ability to track the KPI itself or allow yourself the opportunity to implement the correct measurement mechanics.
4. To ensure that you will have concrete data to review after the launch.
5. To be able to connect a sale to a specific buyer’s journey. 
6. To give an accurate analysis of the success of a campaign. 

When it comes time in the strategy development process to determine your KPIs, you’ll want to sit down with your team and thoroughly discuss the strategy and what goals you want to achieve. Once this is sorted, you’ll want to set your KPIs following the S.M.A.R.T. goals criteria.

Specific – Who, What, Where, When and Why

Measurable – How will progress be tracked?

Attainable – Is the goal realistic?

Relevant – What is the purpose of this goal and will it benefit the company?

Timely – What is the deadline or timeline?

Once you have KPIs determined and you’ve launched your campaign, you can use the data they provide to:

1. Get reports to provide actionable insights.
2. Identify successful tactics to repeat.
3. Identify problems to fix.
4. Convince stakeholders to increase the budget for marketing activities.
5. Provide case studies to potential clients on your past successes. 

Key Performance Indicators must be determined before launching a campaign, and once they’re set, they can provide crucial insights into the success of your campaign. You’ll never be able to improve future campaigns if you don’t track KPIs. As management consultant Peter Drucker once said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

If you’re still struggling to develop the right KPIs for your campaign, contact us today. Our experienced team of storytellers is well versed in creating in-depth strategies and will be there to help advise and guide you towards the right direction.