Refine ROI with Actionable Marketing Analytics

Refine ROI with Actionable Marketing Analytics Understand how marketing activities impact traffic, leads and sales. Marketing analytics lets you understand the entire sales and marketing funnel -- from prospects to leads to renters -- to define which marketing activities drive traffic, and, more importantly, leads and sales. Slicing and dicing this source of data across varied campaigns and timeframes lets you report marketing ROI to direct investment in the marketing tactics that help you manage your marketing more effectively.
“And that’s with massaging the numbers?”

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”
“I don’t know what I should be measuring so give me everything and then I’ll sort out what is important”

Marketing has become synonymous with measurement and analytics. We've moved on from the days when marketing was resource intensive and not measurable. Today, the art of marketing has been transformed into not just a hard science but into something altogether new. We are juggling an ever increasing constellation of tactics - from whitepaper downloads to SEO to viral video campaigns - while working to reconcile our activities with our relatively run-of-the-mill lead funnels. We will look at what is critical to measure and what's just interesting noise. Here are some best practices for measurement and tactics in pursuing value-added insights while avoiding the trap of analytic paralysis.

Refine ROI with Actionable Marketing Analytics
Steven Everett CLP, COS
Director of Marketing | Regional Director
Thies & Talle Management

1.How to Use Marketing Analytics to Understand the Entire Sales Cycle

Typical Sales Cycle

Measuring Tools
ACTION ITEMS
Page Views
Video Views
Code Scans
Printed Brochure
Driving Directions
Links to Company Website
Ad Words (CPC)
Banner Clicks (Click thru ratio)
Hits to Unique URL
SALES
Guest Cards
Lead Touch Points
DEAL
Leases
Applications
IMPRESSION INDICATORS
ILS Site Visit #
Print Distribution #
Key Words
Banner Impressions (CPM)
FOLLOW UP
Closing Ratios
Follow Up Touch Points
CONTACT POINTS
Call Tracking
E-mail Tracking
Chat Conversations
Appointments Set

Questions before we continue?
So many marketing choices

2. How to Understand & Measure Your Marketing Activities[You’ll need this for the ROI portion]

Measuring Tools
ACTION ITEMS
Page Views
Video Views
Code Scans
Printed Brochure
Driving Directions
Ad Words (CPC)
Hits to Unique URL
SALES
Guest Cards
Lead Touch Points
DEAL
Leases
Applications
ILS Site Visit #
Key Words
FOLLOW UP
Closing Ratios
CONTACT POINTS
Call Tracking
E-mail Tracking
Chat Conversations
Appointments Set

Site Visit #
IMPACT
Visitors to a site equal leads. No visitors, no leads.
Ranking can be deceiving as not all visits are created equal
Does the site have a landing page with multiple channels
Understand unique visitors to total visitors
Bounce rate can have a huge impact on quality of traffic
Seasonal numbers need to be taken into account
National search numbers are not as important as local search numbers for your particular property
Use yearly trend to understand an ILS ad spend
Help you predict lead numbers from the source
MEASURE
Free Site Visit Tool
Compete.com
For you company website make sure you are using Google Analytics (free tool)
Google.com/analytics

36% Difference

IMPACT
Eyes on pages are needed to create leads.
Number of locations
Location DOES matter
Replenishment rate matters
Daily, Weekly, Biweekly, monthly
MEASURE
Number printed does not mean number picked up
Printed
Distributed
Racked
Non-prospect deliveries
Replenished
Returned

Keywords (Search)
IMPACT
Keywords Drive Traffic to either your site or your ILS
If no one is searching a specific keyword than having it does you no good
ILS’s buy keywords to drive site traffic
Typically they focus on Macro not Micro keywords
Use long tail keywords for your buy
ILS’s are catching on to long tail searches
MEASURE
Google.com/insights/search
Embed chart on your iGoogle page
Test by doing a search using the keyword(s) or phrase

“Apartments in Maplewood”

IMPACT
Fulfilling your contracted CPM shows that the site is delivering enough visitors
Not fulfilling the contracted amount means you over bought
Capping out before the months end means you bough too little to be effective
MEASURE
Use impression report provided by ILS
Know your percentage buy of overall impression for a given month
20,000 impressions = 10% exposure or 1 in 10 ratio
When and where will the banner appear
Skyscraper, Top Banner, Rolling Skyscraper, floating
Main Search Page, Results Page, Property Page
Know the sites average click through rate so you can benchmark
Understand the monthly distribution model
All at once or evenly distributed over the 30 days

Measuring Tools
ACTION ITEMS
Page Views
Video Views
Code Scans
Printed Brochure
Driving Directions
Ad Words (CPC)
Hits to Unique URL
SALES
Guest Cards
Lead Touch Points
DEAL
Leases
Applications
ILS Site Visit #
Key Words
FOLLOW UP
Closing Ratios
CONTACT POINTS
Call Tracking
E-mail Tracking
Chat Conversations
Appointments Set

Action Items
Page Views
IMPACT
Page views allows you to judge how effective your listing tag and photos are
You can also tie this to your contact points to see if people are looking at your ad but not contacting the site
A low ratio between views and contacts could be poor photos, high prices or lack of amenities
MEASURE
1 to 5 ratio should be your benchmark
500 search page results should equal 100 page views
Rural areas will yield a higher ratio: 1 to 2

Action Items
Video Views, Code Scans, Printed Brochure, Driving Directions, Links to Company Website
IMPACT
Metric allows you to verify that your pricing and design created interest
Does not guarantee contact point or qualified lead
MEASURE
Use ILS report – Views, printed, driving, links to site
Use Bit.ly link - scans
Use Google analytics – links to company website

Action Item
Ad Words (SEM)
IMPACT
Can be use for an immediate traffic drive of qualified search traffic
Instant “on” and instant “off” with 100% controllable cost
MEASURE
Use Google Campaign Management Dashboard
Monitor both with CPC and Click Thru Rates
Monitor closely with changes to description and keyword bids

Measuring Tools
ACTION ITEMS
Page Views
Video Views
Code Scans
Printed Brochure
Driving Directions
Ad Words (CPC)
Hits to Unique URL
SALES
Guest Cards
Lead Touch Points
DEAL
Leases
Applications
ILS Site Visit #
Key Words
FOLLOW UP
Closing Ratios
CONTACT POINTS
Call Tracking
E-mail Tracking
Chat Conversations
Appointments Set

Contact Points
Calls
IMPACT
Depending on source, calls can represent 50-75% of total leads generated by source
Number of calls is a direct relation to search results and page views stats
Primary driver of appointments
Depending on source, calls could be a cost to property on a Pay Per Lead model
MEASURE
Use call tracking reports from either ad source or from call tracking phone numbers
Need to remove duplicate numbers and short calls (under 8 sec)
Need to use same metric reporting for all sources if you use for source to source comparisons
Use lead tracking software (Lead2Lease, Lead Tracking Solutions)
Need to know your Answered to Unanswered call ratio

Contact Points
E-mail Lead
IMPACT
Depending on source, e-mails can represent 25-50% of total leads generated by source
Over the last couple of years, leads from this source have improved their lead quality
MEASURE
Use ad source reporting
Use lead tracking software (Lead2Lease, Lead Tracking Solutions)
Need to know your response time

Contact Points
Appointments Set
IMPACT
The ratio between leads to appointments is a metric for 2 main items
Quality of leads
Skill set of person answering the phone (on-site or call center)
Dramatic changes (+/-) can indicate issue with price or special
MEASURE
Difficult to measure unless you are using a call center for 100% appointment setting
Pure measurement is hard because it requires human interaction
PMS typically under report and mis-report

Garbage In = Garbage Out
Analysis by Level One found the following variances
Only 32% of manually entered sources in Property Management Software (PMS) matched the digitally recorded source of Level One
Of 13 ad sources tracked, 11 created more leases than they were credited with
Over-reported sources include:
Craig’s List (40% more credit)
Internet (1300% more credit)
Drive-by (22.3% of leases incorrectly attributed)
Of actual appointments that turn into leases, 64.5% of the sources were incorrectly attributed in the PMS even though the source was provide on the guest card by Level One.

Contact Points
Lead Touch Points (number of times we touch a lead)
IMPACT
This metric allows you to monitor how well you are doing with lead follow up
100 leads does you no good if you are not acting on any of them
You are not doing as well as you think you are
MEASURE
Start with using your PMS – CRM tool
There are tools available to help (Lead2Lease, Lead Tracking Solutions)
Set goals for sites – 5 per lead
Develop a step process for them to follow
Phone, e-mail, mailer, phone, e-mail

Measuring Tools
ACTION ITEMS
Page Views
Video Views
Code Scans
Printed Brochure
Driving Directions
Ad Words (CPC)
Hits to Unique URL
SALES
Guest Cards
Lead Touch Points
DEAL
Leases
Applications
ILS Site Visit #
Key Words
FOLLOW UP
Closing Ratios
CONTACT POINTS
Call Tracking
E-mail Tracking
Chat Conversations
Appointments Set

Deal
Leases / Applications
IMPACT
Final goal of all sales processes
Should not be the end all choice for marketing decisions
Best Use: monthly leases can provide trend analysis for occupancy projections
MEASURE
People are using multiple sources for research
Need to decide how you determine credit source
First contact vs. Last contact
Split between sources
Predetermined ratios based on generated traffic from source
100 leads should equal 5 leases or 5% close ratio
Removes human error in recording or sales ability

Questions before we continue?

3. How to report ROI from direct investments

Return On Investment
Marketing campaigns are investments. And like any smart investment, they need to be measured, monitored and compared to other investments to ensure you’re spending your money wisely.
Return on investment (ROI) is a measure of the profit earned from each investment.Like the “return” you earn on your portfolio or bank account, it’s calculated as a percentage. In simple terms, the calculation is
(Profit – Investment)
Investment
ROI calculations for marketing campaigns can be complex — you may have many variables on both the profit side and the investment (cost) side. But understanding the formula is essential if you need to produce the best possible results with your marketing investments.
= ROI

Return On Marketing InvestmentLead Based
Lead ROI
If the main goal of a marketing campaign is to drive leads and exposure to your property than this is the best way to judge the success of the campaign.
Lead ROI is not Cost Per Lead
Typically you would use this when you know your closing percentages and value exposure
Know you product value and sales ratios
Rental Value
Lead Value
Closing Ratios
Conversions Ratios

Lead ROI Example
What are your marketing assumptions
I know that 5% of leads close deals
I know that additional exposure rents apartments on average 1-month faster than without
My average rent is $700 per month
20 leads are worth $700
Example Stats
Monthly Cost: $300 | $900
Monthly Leads: 50 | 10
Formula
(50/20 x 700) - $300
= +4.83 Every dollar spent you made $4.83 in return (483% Return)
$300
(10/20 x 700) - $900
= -0.61 Every dollar spent you lost $0.61 (61% Loss)
$900

Lead ROI Example - ILS
Marketing Assumptions
(11,518/20 x 700) - $188,895
= +1.13
$188,895

Lead ROI Example – Outreach Mailer
9000 pieces
Call tracking number in place
Unique URL
QR Code tied to Bit.ly
Distribution Cost: $1000
Calls: 50
Site visits: 100
Code Scans: 75
Key Data
(50/20 x 700) - $1,000
= +0.75
$1,000

Return On Marketing InvestmentRental Based
Rental ROI
More difficult to be accurate as data is not perfect due to human interaction
Rental ROI is not Cost Per Lease
Need to be done using a long period of time due to the length of rental sales cycle
Need to subscribe to a value rate (what a rental is worth)
1-month rent (due to quicker occupancy)
2-month rent (estimated vacancy lost)
Total Lease Value (used with non-traditional marketing)
Incremental Rentals above last year or base line

Rental ROI Example
Due to average vacancy time period, new leases are valued at 1-months rent
Example Stats
Annual Cost: $3,600 | $10,800
Annual Rentals: 24 | 12
Formula
(24 x 700) - $3,600
= +3.66
$3,600
(12 x 700) - $10,800
= -0.22
$10,800

Incremental Rental ROI Example
We increased ad spend with a marketing source so each rental above our benchmark is additional revenue from the source. These additional rentals allowed us to rent our apartments 1-month sooner than without.
1-month average lease value: $700
Example Stats
Base Annual Cost: $6,000
New Annual Cost: $12,000
Increase Ad Spend: $6,000
Incremental Rentals Gained: 15
Formula
(15 x $700) - $6,000
= +0.75
$6,000

Other Key Points to Keep in Mind
Analysis needs to be quick & visual enough to allow train of thought process
Consumer controlled data (limited control)
Flexible enough to build on for future changes and growth
Use complexity only when needed
Stay “business” focused. Analysis must have bottom-line impact
Marketing needs to have analytics behind it

Thank You!

Refine ROI with Actionable Marketing Analytics

by Steven Everett on Oct 28, 2010

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Refine ROI with Actionable Marketing Analytics — Presentation Transcript