If you want sales, why are you rewarding engagement instead?

The title of my book - Why Does It Make You Want To Buy Something?  is meant to be a reminder for marketers that good marketing sells stuff.  That is its purpose.  If it doesn't sell stuff then someone gets fired - usually the agency.  Or the company goes under.

So why aren't companies aligning incentives with sales goals?

According to TrackMaven's 2017 Marketing Leadership Survey, despite the fact that 61% of marketers say their top objective is to increase sales, only 23% of compensation is based on revenue.  Instead marketers are being evaluated based on engagement (91%), consumption (82%) and audience growth (78%) despite the inability to show any correlation between these measures and sales growth. (Loechner, 2017)

Yes, that's right.  71% say their top challenge is attributing the revenue impact of social and content marketing.  (Burney, 2017)  So why assume that it is having any positive impact on the bottom line at all? 

It wasn't such a big deal when digital costs were low, but these days a premium Instagram campaign costs $1 million.  For that amount of money you could run a solid month of advertising on network television, which is still the most effective marketing medium.  And since Americans 18-24 are watching 15 hours and 36 minutes of traditional television a week, you won't lack opportunities to reach them. (2017)

No wonder I just saw a commercial for Harry's.

Loechner, J. (2017, May 4)  mediapost.com.  Misalignment Of Incentives With Goals Plagues Marketers.  Retrieved May 5, 2017, from

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/300186/misalignment-of-incentives-with-goals-plagues-mark.html

Burney, K. (2017, April) What Marketing Leaders Think About Strategy, Technology, and Data-Driven Change.  trackmaven.com.  Retrieved May 5, 2017, from

https://trackmaven.com/blog/marketing-leaders-strategy-technology-data/

(2017, April 24) The State of Traditional TV: Updated With Q4 2016 Data.  marketingcharts.com.  Retrieved May 5, 2017, from

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/are-young-people-watching-less-tv-24817/

Are we really surprised that online is taking a hit?

3/9/09
In late 2008 people were predicting that online would continue to see advertising gains due to its low out-of-pocket and perceived efficiencies. But, recent data shows that online spending does indeed appear to be down in first quarter 2009. ("Online Ad Spending Seen Shrinking", 2009)

It has been my experience that during bad times, marketers retrench, take a conservative approach and fund only those media that have proven their worth.

Some new studies that have just come out indicate that television is more effective then ever in stimulating sales (Neff, 2009) -- the only true measure of success. Online on the other hand has succeeded admirably when it comes to attracting attention, a la the "elf me" promotion, but has not been equally successful in increasing sales growth.

What do you think? Is it a good time to run advertising online, or time to pull back?

(2009). Online Ad Spending Seen Shrinking. Wall Street Journal. Retrived February 25, 2009 from: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123558776209174437.html?mg=com-wsj

Neff, J. (2009). Guess which medium is as effective as ever: TV. Advertising Age. Retrived February 23, 2009 from: http://adage.com/print?article_id=134790