Promotional marketing campaigns are effective solutions for boosting brand awareness, customer engagement, and driving sales. Despite that, if you are not seeing any quality outcomes, you might be doing something wrong. Whether you’re using personalized promotional gifts or digital incentives, proper measurement of key performance indicators (KPIs) is essential to optimize the ROI on those campaigns. Here’s what you should do.
Key KPIs to measure promotional campaign success
To evaluate the effectiveness of your promotional marketing campaigns, you need to monitor the right metrics. Below are the most critical KPIs and how to leverage them for actionable insights.
Conversion rate
A primary indicator of success, conversion rate tracks the number of recipients willing to associate with the brand in the future by making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. To ensure effectiveness:
- Embed custom URLs or QR codes on personalized promotional gifts to track users’ digital engagement.
- Use promo code redemptions, like discount codes, to track successful usage and the average order value generated.
According to a Fresh Promotions case study, promotional campaigns offering scannable QR codes saw a 30% higher conversion rate than printed URLs.
Brand recall and awareness
Promotional items boost brand visibility, but the question is whether recipients remember your brand in the long run. To ensure:
- Conduct post-campaign surveys
- Track brand mentions, hashtags, and tagged posts related to your campaign.
- Leverage Google Trends or SEMrush to see if branded searches increase.
Customer engagement
Monitoring engagement metrics reveals how users interact with your brand long after the campaign. A high engagement score implies a strong audience response. How to measure them?
- Promptly track various social media metrics, including likes, shares, comments, and UGC featuring your brand’s products.
- For in-person giveaways, track booth visits, demo requests, or follow-up inquiries.
- If you are providing a subscription-based CTA, track open rates and click-through rates (CTR).
Return on Investment (ROI)
You would want to know the revenue generated through your promo campaigns, right? Then, calculate ROI and check if it exceeds the costs. A FreshPromotions study uncovered that thoughtful promotional campaigns generate an average ROI of 300-500%, with personalized promotional gifts performing better due to their higher perceived value.
- Compare revenue before, during, and after the campaign to analyze spikes.
- Calculate cost-per-acquisition (CPA) by dividing the total campaign costs by the number of new customers acquired.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) increases
Higher repurchases after promotional campaigns mean boosted customer loyalty and long-term profitability for the brand. You can analyze a buyer’s value through:
- Calculate the repeat purchase rate by comparing the frequency of repurchases by promotional recipients and non-recipients.
- Track average order value (AOV) to check if new customers acquired through promotions spend more per transaction.
- Retention rate to determine the number of promo recipients who remain engaged with the brand after 6-12 months.
Top tools for tracking promotional campaigns
You would also need to use the right tools to measure your KPIs effectively. Find a list of the best platforms/tools for tracking and optimizing your promotional efforts.
Google Analytics & UTM parameters
These tools are best for tracking website traffic, conversion rates, and user behavior from promotional campaigns. You can do by:
- Creating UTM-tagged links to determine traffic sources.
- Assessing bounce rates and session duration to track engagement.
QR code generators (Bitly, QRickit)
Use QR code generators to link physical promotional products to digital actions, such as:
- Leveraging dynamic QR codes to track scan counts, locations, and devices used.
- Integrate with CRM systems for lead capture.
CRM systems (HubSpot, Salesforce)
CRM tools help manage leads and also measure long-term customer value. You can:
- Log interactions from promo recipients via email opens or demo requests.
- Measure CLV and retention rates.
Social media analytics (Hootsuite, Sprout Social)
You can effectively track user engagement and brand mentions through social media analytics tools. You would be able to:
- Track hashtag performance and user-generated content.
- Assess user sentiment (positive/negative mentions).
Survey tools (SurveyMonkey, Typeform)
Use reliable survey tools to collect direct user feedback on brand perception. These tools help:
- Distribute post-campaign surveys via email or dynamic QR codes.
- Enquire promo recipients about the usefulness of your branded product.
Ultimately, promotional campaigns serve as a measurable marketing channel. By measuring the above KPIs and using the right tools, you’ll know exactly which campaigns earn their keep and which do not by measuring their impact.