The problem with setting targets

There’s a common question that we get from bosses and clients alike when we’re running performance marketing campaigns. As with all online marketing campaigns, the performance or return on investment is always going to be at the top of the agenda. As a result, we’re always asked the same thing: what’s our target for these metrics?

This is where things tend to get a bit tricky. It’s difficult to declare a target to aim for or any typical benchmark, even more so for campaigns that are brand new. Naturally though, it’s human nature to be curious and to ask about what the expected results might look like. The answer cannot simply be a shrug of the shoulders, but instead, we need to change our thinking a little bit and do something that we’re not so programmed to do. Proceeding without a target in mind simply means that we define our targets as we go along, aiming to improve with each week.

This philosophy isn’t exactly new, and I’m sure many people will argue that that is what happens anyway, regardless of having a target or not. And if that’s the case, I’d argue about the point of having any target at all. In reality, hitting a target doesn’t mean that you stop trying. Personally, I don’t think it’s good practice to treat a target as the be all and end all.

Here’s a scenario to think about: imagine if we’re running a campaign over 4 weeks, where we surpass our target conversion rate throughout. However, over the duration of the campaign, we see that the conversion rate performance has dropped week on week, every week. Would you say this was a success?

In this case, having a target to aim for has worked against the campaign. For me, this campaign has not performed as well as it should, despite surpassing its target each week. By benchmarking against a number, we ignore the progress of the campaign, instead justifying the performance by pointing to the fact that we’re surpassing a target. That might do for some, but for me, that doesn’t sound like the right thing to do.

In a case like this, I’d be concerned with the fact that our performance has been falling week on week. For me, my target is to improve on the previous week. Sure, there are lots of factors that can influence the performance of a campaign, but our optimisation work is designed specifically to improve on that performance, not to simply surpass a number. The context is all wrong, or indeed, missing.

And that is why I believe that arbitrary targets are not necessary for performance marketing campaigns. It’s just not good enough to aim for the same number all the time. Performance marketing cannot promise instant or big results, and I’d suggest that it’s better to look at this in a way that allows your campaign to really grow. It’s a little unnatural to constantly be trialling and erring, particularly as we’re not trained in this way. For example, going through school, you probably only get to redo homework if it’s really bad, not because you are being given the opportunity to improve. In this digital marketing world, however, we have the opportunity every day to improve on what we’re doing, and that ought to be our guiding principle.