With third-party cookies being phased out and surveys being prone to biases, marketers will become increasingly reliant on experiments to test the effectiveness of their campaigns, Isaac Gerber, director of commercial insights, North America at Captify, said on a recent Tech-Talk Webinar.

Here are the three steps to take to validate campaign effectiveness and drive results.

1. Get your team aligned on goals early in your campaign

It’s crucial that you clearly define your major impact goals at the beginning of campaign planning. Once decided, it’s important to ensure your team is aware and committed to achieving them.

2. Run campaigns that help achieve those goals

While it may seem straightforward, it’s pivotal that a marketer runs campaigns that will support the goals they are trying to achieve. For example, a coupon code on a direct mailer campaign would likely improve sales and not lead generation. Including measurement personnel in discussions to get their buy-in will help determine whether the campaign will be able to reach the intended result.

3. Ensure you have the right data to measure your campaign and drive your ideal performance

“As search is the best indicator of intent and location is the best indicator of exposure, the power is in bringing these two ideas together,” Gerber said. “A geo-based experiment with good holdouts, setup, and methodology can help companies really understand the change that happens in a market as a result of a campaign.”

Gerber shared an example of a successful geo-based search test conducted by an outdoor lifestyle brand to measure the impact made by a campaign that rebranded its products and services. Out of those who saw the ad on connected TV in the geographies where it ran, 19% were more likely to search for the brand and 27% were more likely to search for the product mentioned in the campaign.

By analyzing how search behavior in certain geographies is impacted by the campaigns in those areas, marketers can better understand customer sentiment, leverage very targeted insights, and justify investments in expensive campaigns.

Watch the full webinar.

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