What do you do if your marketing campaign fails?

POV: To fail is not to be* a failure; failure as an event does not define the marketer. To fail to learn* from failure, however, might be the most destructive event of all. When a campaign fails, first take a break. Come back and review your data (qualitative and quantitative) with fresh eyes. If possible invite a second pair of eyes to help. I recommend being as granular as possible with your investigation because generically drawing conclusions about failure will only give birth to more failure --and next time you might even have twins on your hands. Study the components of your marketing campaign to identify the exact break point of the campaign. When you do, dive even further to understand causation. You test again. Never give up!🦾

A really smart person once told me the truth is in the data if you beat them hard enough. What they meant is you have to look at the data with an understanding of attribution and cause and effect. Don’t blindly assume the data tells the whole story. Defining success and failure is something that should happen before a campaign ever begins. Further, a failed campaign is only a failure if you don’t learn and understand why it did not meet your objectives. If you have never failed at a campaign it means you aren’t taking risks and maxing out the opportunity. It usually takes a few failures in order to optimize a campaign. Plan for evaluation and have the risk/mitigation plan baked in.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝟎𝟏: Grab a coffee first. 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝟎𝟐: Prepare counter answers for the questions from stakeholders about the failure. 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝟎𝟑: Get into data analytics. No clicks? Analyse and re-work the content vs search-intent fit. High CPA? Work on the landing page, and core web vitals. 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 - Have a brainstorming session with peers, ask for opinion, suggestions. Align them for decision-making. 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞, 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐭 - I'd recommend having plan B, and C, against each metric pre-start of the campaign, which would keep you tweak-ready. 𝐍𝐁: Marketing is all about testing, no experts could foresee which works and which won't.

First, define what "failure" means. Were there agreed upon sales and/or revenue goals prior to launching the campaign that everyone was onboard with? Different people have different opinions on what success vs. failure looks like, so alignment beforehand is critical. Once there is alignment and all agree that the campaign failed, it's investigation time. 1) Examine seasonality and external factors 2) Analyze performance by channel. Start from the top (i.e., channel level) and work your way down (i.e., audience, creative, messaging, etc.), looking at key reach and conversion metrics along the way. 3) Assess website/physical store conversion rate. In short, work your way step-by-step, examining all factors. And LEARN for the next time.

If a marketing campaign fails, metrics will only point to the cause, not the effect. To determine failure, we must first: A.) Go back and confirm that process data for each contributing campaign element was correctly developed based on thorough research, including: 1. Product/service competitive comparison. 2. Product/service positioning. 3. Target audience. 4. Pricing. 5. Copy points/copy platforms. 6. Creative. 7. Media channels 8. Campaign spending 9. Campaign targets based on 1-8. B. Most likely, failure to thoroughly vet one or more of these elements and relationships before developing the campaign will point out the cause for failure.

When a marketing campaign fails, we should ask questions such as: 🔹 What factors contributed to the campaign's underperformance? 🔹 Were our assumptions about the target audience flawed? 🔹 Did we fail to resonate with their pain points or desires? 🔹 Did our messaging or creative execution fail? By dissecting the failure objectively, we can extract valuable lessons that will inform and refine our future strategies.

In seeking client or consumer feedback, some of the vehicles that could be done to do this are: 1. Surveys and Questionnaires 2. Feedback Forms on Websites 3. Socials 4. Customer Reviews and Ratings 5. Customer Interviews The more harsh and critical feedback, the better for your business.

Gathering insights from internal stakeholders and directly from your target audience is crucial for diagnosing a marketing campaign's underperformance. Engaging both groups provides a well-rounded perspective, often uncovering discrepancies that aren't immediately evident in the data. Firsthand customer feedback, obtained through feedback sessions and surveys, is particularly valuable for identifying misalignments between your campaign's value proposition and your audience's expectations. This holistic approach has been indispensable in my experience, revealing critical insights that allow for the recalibration of strategies, ultimately transforming potential failures into success stories by fostering a culture of listening and adaptation.

Collect feedback from both internal stakeholders and, if possible, directly from your target audience. This can provide insights not immediately apparent in the data. In my experience, customer feedback sessions and surveys have been invaluable in uncovering misalignments between our campaign’s value proposition and our audience's expectations.

Gather feedback from customers, stakeholders, and team members involved in the campaign. Their insights can provide valuable perspectives on what went wrong and how to improve.

1. Key is to fail fast 2. Execute experiments at scale 3. Learn dynamically when campaigns are in flight 4. Have learning and expectation boards for each swim lane of campaigns. These learning will be unique to channel, funnel, campaign objective. And will continue to evolve and change 5. Follow MAB approach to dynamically reward experiments that work and punish experiments that don't 6. Be humble and know what had worked earlier, might not work in future 7. Accelerate learning and narrow on targeted experiments by subscribing learning from ecosystem of colleagues, partner, agency, platform, network

Analyse the campaign data and see what part is under perform, also compare with what your competitor are doing, then do another approach to fill the gap

It's critical to analyze the data and feedback to better understand what parts/components failed and why. This way, you can come up with a more refined strategy; e.g adjusting the target audience, key message, marketing collateral, content format, marketing channels, your call to action etc

Through the feedback data, really target and understand the components of the campaign that were lacking. The best thing you can do here is to take previous successful campaigns and compare for what elements were aligned and which were not. Developers do the same thing with developing features for a website or building out workflows.

I think it would be imperative to go back to the drawing board and simply develop another campaign. Some of the points to improve on would be: - Use of more palatable language - one that can be easily understood and can generate continuous engagement on various platforms - Segment your audience - Attach human interest stories to the product/service in question

The crucial thing is split testing. If you need test A/B/C split system,not just A/B. Check not only the text, CTA, but necessarily look at the target group, budget and benefits from our product/service. Sometimes it's enough to change the image, sometimes we just don't emphasize the BENEFITS clearly enough. The biggest mistake in practice is to put a CTA and not have strong benefits for the product/service. Always ask yourself why would anyone pay for this? When we find a precise and convincing answer, we get a successful campaign with a little bit of good visuals.

When you make changes, test them on the market to measure effectiveness, but be smart with adjustments as you do not want to waste yours or the clients time. Use thorough capabilities to conduct testing for different adjusted elements of the campaign. I would see testing as like the confirmation to your work process.

Some good advice I received is to "fail fast." When you make changes to a campaign, you don't want to wait around for multiple weeks to see if they have the desired result. Condense your test budget to a reasonably shorter timeframe and get the data flowing faster so you can find the best solution considering your goals, customers, seasonality etc... Don't waste your total budget, but set aside a "test" budget for this purpose. When you find a successful solution then you can go all in, still with consistent careful monitoring.

Now that you've adapted your strategy, it's time to make sure the changes you've applied are correctly made. Have you tested running a purchase now that you've changed the way your cart works? Have you tested the CTA you have changed to make sure it's now leading to a specific landing page? Once you've tested out the user experience that the user will have and confirmed everything is working, now is the time to go live!

Before rolling out the adjusted campaign at scale, test the changes in a controlled environment. A/B testing different elements of your campaign can help identify what works best and fine-tune your approach. This iterative testing approach has been crucial for optimizing campaigns post-failure.

The best thing you can honestly do is build a case study around your implemented learnings and look for similar situations that come up around that use case. Optimizing your approach and strategy as you work through different campaigns will make you a much stronger marketing analytics professional. The way of the data is the way through.

Learn. Period. There is no “fail” or “lose.” There is only “learn.” Gather feedback. Re-examine your assumptions. What can we learn from this?

The best way to know if you actually learned something is to be able to explain it. And that's why I think that every single case that happens to have been particularly challenging should become a case study in your portfolio.

For me every day its unique to Leverage Team Experience: Utilize the diverse experiences within your team to generate fresh ideas and solutions. Encourage team members from different functions (such as creative, digital, analytics, and customer service) to provide their perspectives on what went wrong and how to improve. This multidisciplinary approach can uncover unique insights and foster innovative solutions that might not be apparent from a singular viewpoint.

Incorporate the lessons learned from this process into future campaigns. Documenting these learnings and sharing them with your team ensures that the same mistakes are not repeated. Implementing a structured learning process has helped my teams become more agile and effective over time.

The only way a campaign can “fail” is without data. Perhaps it doesn’t meet your desired outcomes, but measured appropriately, that is just informing your next set of actions.

It’s important to view the failure as a learning opportunity rather than a setback. Maintain a forward-looking perspective, focusing on how the insights gained can drive future success. Staying resilient and positive, and encouraging the same attitude in my team, has been key to bouncing back from campaign failures.

Failure doesn't end for everything you did. Yes it's true we need to learn and improve, but don't make this failure drop you down. A marketing campaign is like an, exploration of creativity and ideas. So nothing is useless and bad. Just keep the positive vibes and try to answer the markets needs in a unique way. Just move forward, keep the collaboration and teamwork, seeking for another creative ideas for the next marketing campaign. Just remember, don' t let the failure one make you down.

Marketing campaigns do fail! As with anything that doesn't meet expectations, see it as a gift and learn from it. Dive in, examine the data, and ask objective questions, such as: ‣ Did you do enough testing? ‣ Was your hypothesis flawed? ‣ What specific factors contributed to the underperformance? ‣ Were you speaking to your target audience(s) in their language and with empathy? ‣ Were you offering your target audience(s) timely and relevant content that would be appreciated? Digging deeper provides valuable lessons to help inform and refine future strategies.

Marketing Campaign should fail, it's normal. 3 Steps to take: 1. accept it, analyze data, make hypothesis why 2. make a new one 3. test again. If successful - Great! If no - start from step 1.

Mostly I just cry and question my own existence. Sometimes, if I’m feeling especially overwhelmed by failure, I’ll just blame it on “marketing attribution being broken” because that seems to work as a scapegoat most of the time. But I still cry. It helps.

Marketing campaigns fail due to 2 reasons: 1. Your campaign wasn't good for the target audience 2. Your KPIs and the funnel for analysis was not set properly 3. The campaign was good, but it lacked distribution In any case, it is important to understand the exact cause of the failure, and treat it as learning. I get that the campaign not performing directly results in loss of money. However, for marketers, once the campaign is out, there's hardly anything that they can do. So the efforts should get directed towards deep analysis, tweaks in the landing points, and applying the learning to the next campaign.

Remember to evaluate the broader market and competitive landscape, as external factors can also influence campaign performance. Additionally, maintaining open channels of communication with your audience can provide ongoing insights to inform your marketing strategy. Navigating a marketing campaign failure involves a combination of thorough analysis, open feedback, strategic adjustments, and a commitment to continuous learning and improvement. By adopting a structured approach to understanding and addressing the reasons behind a campaign's underperformance, you can turn setbacks into powerful drivers of future success.

Consider Coca-Cola's disastrous introduction of "New Coke" in 1985. Despite extensive research, the company should have judged the public's attachment to the classic formula. However, instead of stubbornly persisting with their mistake, Coca-Cola listened to their customers, acknowledged their misstep, and swiftly reintroduced the original formula, rebranded as "Coca-Cola Classic." This way they cemented brand loyalty and reenforced market dominance. Another more recent example is Netflix's transition from a DVD rental service to a leading streaming platform. Initially faced with scepticism and resistance, Netflix embraced the inevitability of digital disruption, pivoted its business model, and emerged as a global entertainment powerhouse.

One example is Pepsi's "Pepsi Refresh Project" in 2010. Despite significant investment and positive initial buzz, the campaign failed to drive increased sales or brand loyalty as expected. Pepsi evaluated the campaign's performance, acknowledging that focusing solely on social good initiatives didn't resonate strongly with their target audience. They adjusted their approach, shifting back to traditional marketing strategies while integrating purpose-driven elements more seamlessly into their overall brand messaging. This example highlights the importance of aligning campaign objectives with audience preferences and being willing to adapt strategies based on performance feedback.