The success of your marketing and advertising campaign is found in the percentages, not the big numbers.
The success of your marketing and advertising campaign is found in the percentages, not the big numbers. Tabloids use big numbers, and your firm never wants to be associated with Tabloid News. We’ve all seen the headlines:
300 Judges Disagree with Supreme Court Ruling!
Thousands of People Speak Out Against CEO!!
250,000 People Tuned Into Our TV Show Last Night!!!
Wow, those are some big numbers! But the main question is this: How many is that actually? What’s the context here? We’d probably get a more accurate snapshot of the situation if these numbers were presented as percentages. The one issue here, though, is that big numbers spur
a reaction. This is good for news, but not for your firm.
Sure, “300 judges” sounds like a lofty number. If I had 300 judges standing here in my office telling me I was wrong, I seemingly would agree with them. On the other hand, if the total number of judges is, say, 3,000 judges, we’re suddenly looking at only 10% of the judge population. So, if 1/10 judges are now in my office telling me I’m wrong, I’m probably going to
disregard that 10% of the population.
This is how you need to look at your client numbers.
Say that a partner comes storming in, screaming that you only got 20 new leads in February when you brought in 50 in January. He shouts, “We dropped the ball in February!” But you happen to know that the firm spent $50k in January advertising, while only spending $10k in February. You point out to your cohort that our Cost-per-Lead (CPL) in January was $1k ($50k spend divided by 50 leads), while your CPL in February was only $500 ($10k spend divided by 20 leads). Comparatively, your message was more effective in February than it was in January.
The vast majority of firms are interested in two questions as far as their advertising goes: How much are we spending? How many leads are we getting? To get the full picture, you’ll need to go one step further and combine the two: How many leads are you getting for the money you’re
spending? To properly gauge your efforts, you’ll need to examine everything on a “per” basis. You know your costs, so you’ll need to know your “costs per” in other measurables.
Ask yourself the following:
● Do I know how many clicks our online ads are receiving? Then find our Cost-per-Click.
● Do I know how many people are calling our advertised phone number? Then find our
Cost-per-Call.
● Do I know how many leads are generated from our efforts? Find our Cost-per-Lead.
● Do I know how many actual clients are generated from our efforts? Find our Cost-per-
Client.
If you can find the “per,” you can properly measure the efficiency of your ad dollars to make
more informed decisions.
Eric Elliott is a marketing and creative professional and serves as Principal for VIP Marketing and Advertising an integrated marketing agency, Principal of Craft Creative and Editor of The Legal Ad Journal, based in North Charleston, SC.
In 2018 his advertising agency, VIP Marketing and Advertising received notoriety as one of the top 400 branding agencies in the United States by Clutch. When Eric isn’t working on an ad campaign or creating the next advertising masterpiece for his clients he spends time with his wife and children. He enjoys consuming social knowledge and attending marketing conferences. He is currently focusing his energy toward his podcast The AdCast and publishing a self-help memoir. You can reach him at Eric@heyimeric.com or various social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Snapchat.
