Any successful shopper campaign begins with defining one single minded objective. Aligning relevant and measurable KPIs against this objective up-front will establish a solid reference point when determining detailed media plans, as well as ensuring post-campaign evaluation is fair and relevant. With this approach too, you can reset and sharpen performance expectations for budget gatekeepers. Below we detail a few top-tips around defining KPIs.
Don’t have a ‘default option’
There are hundreds of KPIs and these can be reviewed using a range of hard and soft measures. Hard measures are numeric, tangible indicators of business success, whereas soft measures are often more subjective. Soft measures in many instances are just as important as harder tactics but are often overlooked. As a business, be wary not to rely and report on a default, narrow set of measures internally. Remember if your shopper investment unlocks incremental feature it is almost guaranteed to deliver for your business, even if the media invested in doesn’t ‘pay-out’.
Hard Measures
Uplift %
£ Uplift
ROI
Penetration %
OTS
CPM
Soft Measures
Buyer goodwill
Increased commercials leveraged
Shopper feedback
Stretched media guidelines or innovative media activation approach
Plan considering one objective and aligned KPIs
Always think back to your objective and end KPIs throughout the planning process. It’s easy to run a with media selection based on factors other than the KPI in question, for example basing plans on historic “successful” campaigns or implementation realities such as poor availability on your preferred media channels. Always plan your shopper media selection based on the specific job to be done. By knowing your KPIs upfront you can keep yourself and your team on track.
Measure success based on one campaign objective and aligned KPIs
Why is this important? An example can bring this to life. Frankly, there is no point leaning on ROI as your priority KPI when you are defining the success of an NPD focused media support plan; with low base sales the likelihood of delivering pay-out is extremely low. Nevertheless, we know activating against NPD is vitally important to secure initial awareness in-store and is critical to delivering healthy sales growth and ongoing listings. It would be dangerous to hold back media investment for NPD, however FMCGs who consider ROI as their sole KPI can easily justify doing so.
‘More’ is not always better
Don’t fall into the trap of looking to continually ‘improve’ a particular KPI. KPIs can never be as simple as a ‘better than last time?’ For example, it may be clear that a segment of your portfolio consistently delivers strong ROI, in which case knowing that cost per store is a core determining factor for ROI delivery, perhaps shift to focus on £ uplift per store as your KPI – strip cost out of the equation. Always review your KPIs and evolve in line with business realities.
Summary
KPIs are extremely important, enabling shopper teams to plan and measure campaign success. Always align upfront and take care within this selection process to maximise impact.
Matthew Ingram
Senior Client Executive