Table of Contents
ROI of Sales Funnel: The Importance of Return on Attention (ROA)
Introduction
In the world of marketing, measuring the success and effectiveness of your campaigns is crucial. While return on investment (ROI) has traditionally been the go-to metric, it fails to capture the true impact of top-of-funnel marketing efforts. That’s where Return on Attention (ROA) comes in.
ROA is a metric that measures how well your marketing efforts capture your audience’s attention. It provides a different perspective from other common marketing metrics like ROI, return on equity (ROE), and return on advertising spend (ROAS). By focusing on ROA, you can better understand the effectiveness of your top-of-funnel marketing and drive more revenue in the long run.
The Importance of ROA
Not all marketing efforts have a direct impact on revenue. Building brand awareness and creating product awareness are crucial aspects of marketing. However, many marketers struggle to measure the success of these efforts, as they solely rely on ROI as their primary goal. ROA serves as the antidote to this problem, allowing you to measure how effectively your marketing captures your audience’s attention.
Understanding ROA
ROA is a metric that measures how well your marketing efforts capture audience attention. It takes into account various factors depending on the marketing channel being used. For example, attention can be measured in terms of views, likes, shares, or engagements. The cost of the attention gained can also be calculated by dividing the total cost of the campaign by the number of units of attention gained.
ROA vs ROI, ROE, and ROAS
While ROI, ROE, and ROAS are important metrics in marketing, they each have their own limitations. ROI focuses on overall profitability, while ROE indicates social media content quality. ROAS helps compare campaign performance but lacks broader cost context. By using a combination of these metrics, applied to the various channels of your marketing funnel, you can improve overall marketing performance visibility.
How Measuring ROA Transforms Marketing
Measuring ROA allows you to shift your approach to top-of-funnel marketing by focusing on capturing attention rather than immediate conversions. This means you can tailor your campaigns to deliver valuable information, appeal to emotions, or simply be more creative. By using ROA as your primary metric, you can assess the effectiveness of your campaigns based on capturing attention rather than strictly revenue-driven goals.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Measuring ROA
To measure ROA effectively, you need to establish measurement criteria for each marketing channel you plan to use. This involves deciding what counts as attention, whether it’s views, impressions, likes, or other engagement metrics. Once you’ve determined the criteria, you can tailor your creative and messaging to suit your ROA goals. Deploy your campaigns and collect data to analyze the results and plan the next steps for improvement.
Examples of Successful ROA-Focused Campaigns
Two notable examples of successful ROA-focused campaigns are Mailchimp’s “Did you mean Mailchimp?” and Wistia’s “One, Ten, One Hundred.” Mailchimp’s campaign aimed to capture attention by creating nine fake brands that rhymed with “Mailchimp,” generating significant earned media impressions and organic searches. Wistia’s campaign focused on creating entertaining and interesting content without direct links to their product, targeting in-house marketers. Both campaigns achieved great success in capturing attention.
Three Top Tips to Improve ROA
To optimize your ROA-focused campaigns, here are three tips to keep in mind:
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Keep things concise: Attention spans are short, so concise messaging is essential to capture attention effectively.
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Maximize messaging resonance: Your messaging should resonate with your target audience, appealing to their emotions and providing value.
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Use the right channels: Not all channels are suitable for attention-focused marketing efforts. Tailor your marketing strategies to the appropriate channels based on their stage in the marketing funnel.
Conclusion
ROA is a valuable metric for measuring the effectiveness of top-of-funnel marketing efforts. By focusing on capturing attention rather than immediate conversions, you can run more creative, inspired, and effective campaigns. By measuring ROA, you gain a better understanding of your campaign’s success and can work towards improving it. Don’t solely rely on ROI; incorporate ROA as a key metric to drive better marketing performance.