Advertising Equals Sales Lift: Sometimes It Does...

As long as advertising has existed media people have sought guarantees that advertising equals sales lift. As you know, sometimes it does... and sometimes it doesn’t.

The recent excitement behind online video is bringing the topic center stage again. I would love to prove, without a doubt, that online video ads lead to sales lift. In fact, I would love to quantify that online advertising of any kind produce lift, but there are no guarantees in this world. There are always the uncontrolled factors of price competition, consumer distraction, and media diffraction. Lift is achievable, however.

Thinking it through... if a CPG campaign, or most any campaign for that matter, does achieve measurable lift, it results from a combination of six things:

1. Retail participation: It may be possible that single channel lift can result from online ads. Brands do control more of this in the e-commerce universe. But more often than not a brand needs to show retailers that they have a stake in this game. Trade promotions, co-op, and foot traffic drivers all play in here.

2. Multi-channel planning: I think this is the biggest change in CPG lift coordination. Marketing directors and VPs can aim for the proper percentage lift using a combination of Internet metrics from open rates, impressions, registration, and coupon redemptions. In so doing they can inform planning of their campaigns from inventory to fill rates.

3. Targeting and audience customization: Certain audience segments are going to be more valuable and more important to providing lift. Digital marketing is the most efficient way to accomplish that.

4. Sales and marketing coordination: Media companies must work closely with brands as they plan for major campaigns. On the brand side, any company that expects an ad or promotional campaign to result in substantial lift needs coordination on their side of the street. Nothing focuses sales and marketing teams like data. Media partners can provide data on customer trends, retail trends and shifting audience composition.

5. Media: Media pulls the product through. Yes, it can be the most important part of achieving lift. I don’t think Internet marketing on its own can drive lift. But it can be number one on the priority list.

6. Optimization: Here’s the nightmare if a CPG company is planning on even a one percent sales lift. What if it’s not working? Here digital marketing has no peer. It can be adjusted. None of the preceding five elements can.

When a client asks me for that sales lift guarantee, I always ask what that client’s goals are. Inevitably I’ll hear that they want a particular sales increase to coincide with their campaign. But unless I can control the other five elements, I can’t look that client in the eye and promise anything but the best audience. And that, by the way, is not a bad place to start.