How to Stop Giving Away Your Money To Google?

During the pandemic, big brands like P&G and Uber slashed their ad budgets and noticed almost ZERO impact on their sales revenue. Within digital, there is a broad base of marketers that believe digital ads do not work. A survey conducted by Demandbase and Wakefield Research confirmed that digital marketing efforts can lead to extensive ad waste because, while they reach a large audience, much of that audience is outside the intended core group of the target.

Trends in Digital Ad Spend

For our North American clients, website marketing and SEO consume around 30% of our efforts, followed by 25% of direct response-type efforts. These would be (virtual) events, email, social media, and content syndication. 

If you could call the developments mentioned a trend, it is supported by a declining venture capital investment decline of 10% in the last 5 years. You could argue that Digital Ad Spend is a financial bubble on its own, as worldwide spending is projected to grow to a whopping $526 billion in 2024 ($332 billion in 2020). Wired dedicated a piece to this in 2020 that you can read here. 

How to measure ROI in digital?

Measuring ROI with ads is a big challenge. When you are a data-driven outfit like EuroDev, you want to stay away from the back-hole effect of the unmeasurable deployment of resources. All of our customers realize the importance of digital marketing and together, we want to measure success and prove that what we are doing is working.  

The majority of marketing teams that we work with measure success through conversion rates, a smaller part looks at total leads or click-through rates. It is very obvious that teams are looking for the right metrics. 

Creating a consumer-centric approach in Europe

This is exactly why we choose to work through a customer-centric approach, focusing on a core group of high-value targets. We do not try to sell to everybody but sell to the accounts that matter. Choosing this strategy automatically allows digital to align with sales more intimately. 

So, we advise getting over the FOMO because the ROI that you are praying for will not magically appear overnight, no matter how much you will tweak. A strong content marketing strategy is the most durable investment in the long term, especially in Europe, where the market is so diverse. A highly personalized message (sensitive to language, and culture) will show your genuine interest in your most important set of prospects. 

The big, rewarding advantage, of a strong content strategy, is that the results are measured in detail and your efforts build up in relevance over time. So remarket good content by presenting it in a variety of ways; blogs, whitepapers, videos, testimonials, and infographics. This is simply more sustainable and delivers better revenue over time.  

Interested in building long-term B2B partnerships in Europe? Connect with us.

About EuroDev

EuroDev, established in 1996 with offices in The Netherlands and France, has a single, defined purpose to help mid-sized North American companies expand their business in Europe. We have created a proven, successful business development model and since our founding, have partnered with over 300 companies to help them define and meet their European business goals. Services provided include Sales Outsourcing, HR Outsourcing and Digital Marketing.

Another relevant article: Learn more on how to deal with public procurement in the EU