Every sport has a scoreboard. So can you tell if your digital strategy is winning or losing?
In sports, you quickly identify what team is winning and what team is losing.
You may not know or be familiar with the sport itself, but if you see the scoreboard, you will know who’s up or down immediately.
Your digital marketing strategy should be no different.
Especially in 2023, when all professional marketers have access to the measurement tools needed to put up a live scoreboard.
I’m not suggesting that everyone must adopt our campaign management philosophy, but I am saying that measuring results online it’s much easier today than a decade ago. The tools and resources exist.
There are of course, complex scenarios, in which you may be running a mixture of digital advertising, print, and even radio. These complex multi-touch campaigns may request more complex and let’s be blunt, imperfect, systems of attribution that are specific to your campaign.
But even then, I would argue that you still need a scoreboard.
For the purpose of this article though, let’s stick to the aspect of your Home Services digital advertising campaigns.
So what’s on the scoreboard?
There should be two main components on your scoreboard
- The goal that you and your marketing strategist agreed to.
- The live results of the digital campaign.
Those two components are the signal. Everything else is the noise.
Just like in baseball, you can do down many rabbit holes and discover batting averages, average pitches thrown by your pitcher over any giving night, RBIs (runs batted in), and countless other stats.
These are important to the coaches and the specialists of course, but meaningless if at the end of it all, no one knows the score.
The Role of Your Campaign Manager
The role of your Campaign Manager is to interpret all your campaign’s KPIs (key performance indicators) and manage the direction of the campaign accordingly.
A seasoned Campaign Manager should be able to interpret granular data points and connect those metrics to they’re overall contribution towards the main goal.
How Do You Define Your Goal?
You can start by using a methodology that all the stakeholders can agree on.
We recommend SMART goals.
- Specific: Goals should be clear and well-defined. They should answer the questions of who, what, where, when, why, and how. The goal should be concise and focused on a specific outcome.
- Measurable: Goals should be quantifiable so that progress can be objectively tracked and measured. Establishing specific criteria or indicators allows for evaluation and determination of success.
- Achievable: Goals should be realistic and attainable within the given resources and constraints. They should consider the individual or team’s abilities, knowledge, and available support.
- Relevant: Goals should align with broader objectives and be meaningful in the context of the overall vision or purpose. They should have a direct impact on the desired outcomes and contribute to the larger plan.
- Time-bound: Goals should have a specific timeframe or deadline. A clear target date or timeline creates a sense of urgency and helps in prioritizing tasks. It also allows for monitoring progress and making necessary adjustments.
By adhering to the SMART framework, Home Services companies can create well-defined goals that are more likely to be achieved. This approach helps to clarify intentions, improve focus, and provide a roadmap for success.
Examples of Goals by Digital Solution
New Web Design
If you are in the process of launching a new website or making landing page updates, you may want to put up your most important metric on the scoreboard.
The main goal of any website for Home Services Contractors should be to generate more leads.
Therefore, the scoreboard should measure the website’s conversion rate.
The aggregate conversion rate for phone calls, texts, live chats, and form submissions to be more exact.
On one end it will have the SMART goal you and your web design team agree to, and on the other end the live results for any given time.
An example of a SMART goal for Web Design
A roofing company is planning to launch a new version of their website and will optimize their landing pages as they receive real-world data.
- Specific: Increase the conversion rate of the new website by optimizing the user experience.
- Measurable: Achieve a 4% conversion rate in the next 90 days. (Hint: This is your scoreboard.)
- Achievable: Measure the conversion rate of the current website and craft your strategy on how the new website will achieve the 4% conversion rate in 90 days.
- Relevant: Increasing the conversion rate will directly contribute to the roofing company’s success and positively impact the overall business goals, such as increasing sales and revenue.
- Time-bound: Achieve the desired conversion rate of 4% within the next three months, starting from today’s date.
Agreeing on the 4% goal required a theory around the objective and a path to achieve the objective. The SMART goal provides a frame of thinking to come to an agreeable goal.
SEO Campaign
The only goal of SEO for a Home Services Contractor is to increase the amount of relevant and local organic traffic.
The aggregate organic clicks from all branded and non-branded terms to be more exact. Your SEO campaign manager can have different micro-goals, such as measuring branded and non-branded terms, different service queries, and pages, but the main objective will remain the same, the organic traffic driven to the website.
Therefore, the scoreboard should measure organic clicks.
On one end it will have the SMART goal you and your SEO team agree to, and on the other end the live results for any given time.
An example of a SMART goal for SEO
An HVAC contractor in Austin, TX begins a new SEO campaign, seeking to increase their organic traffic.
- Specific: Increase the number of organic clicks for HVAC services. Your SEO manager may get more specific for relevant search queries for installations, repairs, commercial, or even local searches, but the main objective will likely remain the aggregate sum of traffic.
- Measurable: Achieve a 20% increase in traffic in 120 days.
- Achievable: Based on the current search volume in Austin, and your current keyword positions, the SEO manager determines whether the goal is achievable.
- Relevant: Generating more organic traffic would contribute to the overall success of the HVAC company, especially if their website is also doing the job of converting the traffic effectively.
- Time-bound: Achieve the desired traffic gains in 120 days from today.
Agreeing on the 20% organic traffic increase will require the stakeholders to understand where they currently stand in organic traffic and a theory of why they can reach the 20% lift.
Pay-Per-Click Campaign
When you are investing your precious marketing dollars in a paid advertising campaign, you will absolutely want to know whether you are getting your return on investment or not.
That’s where the scoreboard comes in.
For Home Services marketing, you will want to measure how many leads you are generating.
We tend to recommend establishing a monthly lead goal, as well as a cost-per-lead goal.
These will be the most clear indicators on whether your campaigns are running successfully or not.
You may take this a few steps ahead and calculate your ROI directly.
An example of a SMART goal for PPC
A pool construction company in Savannah, GA begins a new PPC campaign, seeking to increase their monthly customer leads.
- Specific: Increase the number of pool construction inquiries from new customers.
- Measurable: Generate 40 monthly leads at a maximum cost of $80 each. By now, you probably also know your lead-to-closing rate, so you should have a pretty good estimate of how many clients you will earn from 40 leads.
E.g. If you close 30% of your leads, that means that out of 40 leads, you will generate 12 new clients. - Achievable: Based on the current search volume in Savannah, and your current competitors, the PPC campaign manager determines the goal is achievable.
- Relevant: 40 leads a month contributes to the overall number of pools you will install every month.
- Time-bound: Achieve the desired monthly leads starting 30 days from today.
Agreeing on the 40 monthly leads also implies that the stakeholders agreed on a marketing budget that allows the campaign to generate 40 leads.
Conclusion
In conclusion, implementing a goal scoreboard is crucial for measuring the success of your digital marketing strategy in the home services industry.
Just like in sports, where the scoreboard indicates the winning and losing teams, having a live scoreboard for your digital campaigns helps you track progress and make informed decisions.
By defining goals, you can focus on key metrics that contribute directly to your desired outcomes.
This also prevents vague marketing efforts and reporting calls in which you hear about dozens of different metrics, and yet, you are unable to answer whether you are winning or losing.
Whether it’s optimizing website conversions, increasing organic traffic through SEO, or generating leads with pay-per-click campaigns, SMART goals provide a clear roadmap for success and enable you to evaluate your performance accurately.
Embracing the goal scoreboard framework empowers home services companies to achieve well-defined objectives and drive business growth.
