Measuring success: How long should you run a marketing campaign before making changes?

At Brew Digital, we believe in a test-and-iterate approach to marketing. You can’t just set-and-forget a campaign, as there lies weak ROI and spending waste.

But how frequently should you be making changes to your marketing campaign? Should you be doing weekly check-ins, or waiting multiple months before tinkering? 

The truth is, there is no right answer! Every campaign will be different, and what works for one company, product, or audience might not work for another. That said, there are some rough guidelines that can be generally applied, and then tailored to your specific circumstances.

Initial run period: 1-3 months

Congratulations, you’ve kicked your campaign off, but now what? Most marketing experts recommend that you run a campaign for a minimum of a month, and up to three months before you decide to make significant changes. This allows you to collect meaningful baseline data, and observe trends. 

Daily monitoring

Let’s return to our oft-touted concept of marketing not being something you can set and forget. There are, in fact, certain things that you’ll want to be doing daily to ensure the smooth operation and effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. These checks focus on two main areas: delivery and responsiveness. Ensuring that your ads are delivering correctly and staying within the allocated budget is crucial to avoid overspending and to maximise ROI. 

Additionally, being responsive to social comments and interactions is vital for maintaining engagement and addressing any immediate concerns or feedback from your audience. For example, people are very quick to spot spelling mistakes or broken links, but it’s also possible your campaign has inadvertently caused an outcry you might want to be responsive to. This is the stage where you can quickly identify and address any emergency changes needed to keep your campaign on track. 

Weekly monitoring

Weekly checks are crucial for maintaining momentum in your campaigns, and helpful for ensuring accountability within your team. These checks allow you to track progress, identify emerging trends, and make minor adjustments before they become significant issues. Weekly reports are also useful for tracking spend over time and your conversions, allowing you to see what’s working and what needs improving. As the weeks progress, you'll gain insights into the effectiveness of your strategies and can make data-driven decisions to optimise your campaigns.

Monthly

Monthly reviews are the ideal time to consider making strategic changes based on the performance data you've collected. At the end of each month, conduct comprehensive reviews to assess overall performance against your KPIs. This allows you to take a step back and evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns, providing a clearer picture of what's working and what needs adjustment.

After the first month, if a campaign shows clear signs of underperformance, consider making minor adjustments. These tweaks could include modifying ad copy, adjusting targeting parameters, or reallocating your budget to more productive areas. By making these changes based on a month's worth of data, you can refine your approach and improve the campaign's performance in the following months. This iterative process helps ensure that your marketing efforts remain effective and aligned with your business goals.

Beyond the first month

After 2-3 months you should have gathered enough data to make more informed decisions around your campaign performance. Use that information to establish what’s working and where; are there particular channels or pieces of content, or ad variations that seem to resonate with your audience better? Try to find patterns and insights that can help you understand why something is successful, but be careful not to see trends where there aren’t any. Once you identify the high-performing aspects, allocate more resources and budget to these areas. 

If your data suggests that your campaign is still underperforming, then it might require some more substantial changes. Focus on what is working across your channels, and try to double down on it. As above, if there are ads or channels that are resonating with your audience, try to replicate that success. Go back to your core hook or value proposition and assess whether they’re compelling enough. Develop a few new variations of your offer and implement A/B testing to see which ones resonate more with your audience.

Lastly, if nothing seems to be reinvigorating your campaign, don’t be afraid to change the strategy and shift focus. If none of your existing channels are yielding results, try alternative platforms. Similarly, if none of your messaging or creatives are attracting attention, you might need to revisit them. Lastly, don’t be afraid to engage directly with your audience. If your marketing isn’t resonating with your customers, ask them directly for insights and feedback. This can be valuable not only to learn more, but also to continue to build a relationship with your existing base. 

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It’s essential to have a strategic plan in place but also be prepared to adapt and innovate as things progress. Use the data in your business to inform decisions and be ready to pull or push budget based on performance. Ensure that your plan includes brand building and not just focusing on immediate results. This balanced approach will help achieve long-term success.

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