In order to determine how well your company is doing, or if you are on the right track to achieving your goals, you must have something to measure your progress. Without this, it is impossible to determine if the path that your campaign is following is in fact the one that is going to yield the best results for your company. KPI’s are an invaluable form of company intelligence that allows an organization to discover what work still needs to be done in order to improve their campaign.
First and foremost; get rid of the idea that your SEM campaign is perfect and that there is nothing more that can be done to improve it. This approach will only end up hurting you in the end. In an industry as dynamic as SEM, things are ever changing. What is working now may not be what drives the best campaign results in the near future. The only way for anyone to succeed is to be open to learning and open to change. If you fail to establish milestones to measure your SEM progress then you fail to stay ahead of the curve. You must be able to stack your company up against the competition and determine what is working and how you can continue to facilitate that success down the road.
Once you have determined what may need some revamping, you must then select a few KPI’s. Well, monitoring, managing and analyzing KPI’s can take up a lot of company time and effort. It is therefore extremely important that the proper KPIs are chosen in order to target specific company needs. If the improper KPI’s are selected, then time spent analyzing your campaign is time wasted. As mentioned earlier, this industry is constantly changing, which means time is precious. Therefore, you must take the proper time and utilize all the proper resources, in order to determine which are the best KPI’s to monitor with your specific SEM campaign.
Often times a company will focus on improper KPI’s because they lack the adequate knowledge and awareness about new opportunities critical for progress. It is essential to avoid myopia and always think progressively in terms of what aspects of SEM your company can tap into in order to boost performance. By doing so, and by managing your current KPI’s properly, it is possible to see where your company is going to end up and what must be altered in order for you to reach your specific goals. KPI’s therefore allow you to not only imagine the business you wish to become but also help you re-structure certain aspects of your SEM program in order to develop into that business.
Again, the steps to take in order to avoid this commonly made mistake are not difficult. You first must be willing to accept that your SEM campaign may need some work. The market is continually changing and therefore it is nearly impossible to maintain a perfect campaign. Do your best to avoid myopia, and take an in depth look at your company goals and what aspects of your campaign are going to help you get there. Lastly, choose the proper KPI’s to analyze. KPI’s can tell you a lot about how your campaign is doing as well as help you determine where you want your company to be down the road. So take the time to look at how your campaign is measuring its success, and Mistake #3 will never plague your SEM efforts.
-The NetElixir Team
