Marketing campaigns can deliver on a variety of goals, depending on the outcomes that you are trying to achieve. For instance, some marketing is meant to drive brand awareness, while the purpose of others is to introduce a new product or service or motivate your target audience toward taking a specific action. Naturally, these kinds of campaigns would be conducted and tracked differently depending on the goals.
What is an Action Campaign?
When you have a clear call to action (CTA) for your marketing that is measurable and focused on your audience taking an action, then you can effectively say that you're driving an action campaign. Action campaigns are incredibly successful for hosting a special event, recruiting for your business, and even for promoting a new product or sale. Action campaigns often have very clear and measurable goals, such as encouraging a certain number of people to fill out a form or make a purchase. They typically take place in smaller periods of time vs. branding/awareness campaigns that are ongoing and over longer periods of time.
Components of an Effective Action Campaign
Effective action campaigns often contain these key components:
- Specific and measurable goals
- Direct calls to action (i.e. “buy this,” “attend this event,” or “act now”)
- Clearly defined time frame
- Concrete budget
- Timeline and action plan
Each marketing action campaign should be flexible enough to allow you to quickly change tactics as needed in order to meet or exceed your campaign objectives. The frequency of your campaign should vary based on the type of media that you're using for your promotions as well as the metrics that you're measuring.
Action Campaign Best Practices
According to recent research by Digital Dealer, there is an ideal length of time for action campaigns. After studying response rates for digital advertising -- such as click-through rates, cost per visitor, and cost per visit -- longer action campaigns are much more effective and have a lower overall cost per lead as well. Shorter action campaigns of 1-2 months may not have enough time to gain traction, while campaigns that are between three to four months offer the best ROI based on the same key metrics.
It’s important to note that this is a survey based entirely on digital marketing. What we’ve found at Zimmer Radio is that many action campaigns can have immediate success after even one or two weeks, but that it all ties back to the call-to-action and frequency of ads during that time. Therefore, it’s not always about the length of time you run your action campaign - but more so the frequency. For instance, running a handful of ads a week for 3 months won’t be nearly as effective as an aggressive campaign over 3 weeks running multiple spots per day during peak times.
Creating a robust marketing campaign takes time, effort, and a strong strategy. As you're building your next action campaign, always focus on the activities that will provide true ROI. In most cases, the length of your action campaign will differ dramatically depending on your audience, medium, goals, and industry but it’s safe to say that action campaigns can be incredibly effective and frequency will always play a large role in your success.
