The Chamber of the Digital Economy of Uruguay (CEDU) started its second cycle of teleconferences "Webinar 2020" with the presence of experts who addressed the issue of return on investment in marketing campaigns in social networks to boost e-Commerce.
Julio Cucchi, Master in Digital Marketing and Account Manager of the marketing company Portlike; and Andrés Marrero, director of the advertising agency Cardinal, were the speakers in the first presentation of this new cycle that consists of three instances.
Cucchi began his participation by pointing out that return on investment (ROI) is one of the topics that generate most debate in the world of digital marketing, as it is not easy to perceive and there are no specific strategies to determine it, because it depends on the objectives established in each campaign. "41% of companies do not know if their social media efforts are paying off. The investment is very large and a significant number of companies do not know what impact it is having on their business," he said.
However, he argued that measuring ROI is not impossible, but you have to know which metrics to look at depending on what you are looking for, such as adding followers, loyalty, increasing sales or having a specific revenue that does not always translate into more income. The marketing expert pointed out that results are often observed through reactions or "likes" on social networks, when in fact other metrics must be taken into account and for that purpose specific digital tools such as Google Analytics must be used.
"ROI is what the company receives from the time, money and resources it invests through social media marketing," he summarised.
Cucchi remarked that it is important for companies to have a presence on social media, but not only that, but also to keep track of what is being done and what returns the activity offers to the business. "ROI is a tool with which we can find out where we can improve our efforts, identifying the leaks or weak points of our campaigns.
In order to have control over the social media campaign, he said that a clear and measurable objective should be set, which in most cases is to lead to a reaction from the user.
"There is a trend where people get a lot of information through the web, but then end up buying in the physical shop. This is unfair to the ROI because it counts everything as an investment, but then the sale goes to the physical shop," he said, although he said it should be borne in mind that this is how brand value is being built.
Cucchi pointed out that it is important to measure how much is spent on the campaign to evaluate whether a positive or negative ROI is obtained, and this is where the hours worked, human resources, content development, use of design tools and more come into play.
After receiving the technical knowledge from Cucchi, Marrero went on to talk about his experience at the head of the agency he runs and mentioned that he uses a rule of three to know the ROI of the campaign he runs. "If we manage to establish a relationship between investment and return, everything else flows. The goal is to find a healthy relationship between the money I'm investing and what's coming back," he said.
On the other hand, Marrero stressed the importance of the volume of return and, based on some examples, pointed out that sometimes it is advisable to "sacrifice" part of the return. "You have to sell the car or whatever it is with the objective of growing the business and thus having more profit in the future," he illustrated.
From his experience and contact with business people, he believes that the important thing is to allow the business to grow and not so much to have a good ROI. "From the marketing agencies we work with designated budgets, but those who understand business know that, when a healthy return relationship is achieved, the idea is to try to maximise the volume of business," he added.
Marerro concluded his presentation by referring to creativity, an aspect that, he said, must be present when generating content for social networks, in order to attract the attention of users, but also to understand what they are looking to see and how their interaction can translate into a positive ROI.
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