Using competitive analysis to project your marketing budget

Project your digital marketing budget for

2017 and beyond

Jeff Sauer (@jeffalytics)

@jeffalytics

Who wants to kill it in 2017?

We all do!

@jeffalytics

But is that our reality?

Or are we fighting for budget scraps?

@jeffalytics

Budgets, eh?

We need to get a bigger budget!

So we visit our finance department

And we ask really nicely

And finance is all like…

So we create what might be the best growth chart in the history of charts. Sooo perfect!

And finance drops the hammer

And we get super sad and might even cry

@jeffalytics

That used to happen to this guy I know…

Until he finally got fed up with hearing no

NO

@jeffalytics

And adjusted his approach

@jeffalytics

Want to start hearing “yes” more often?

@jeffalytics

How to project value of increased

marketing budgets

Make a compelling argument for

bigger budgets

Using competitive data to build our

own models

What we can learn from competitive intelligence tools

Today, we will discuss

View at www.jeffalytics.com

Quick resource mention: Periodic Table of GA

@jeffalytics

Ci Competitive Intelligence

First tool: Google Analytics

@jeffalytics

Bm Benchmark Reports

Check one box in your GA account

Thisisdoneatanaccountlevel

Choose your industry vertical

Then set your location and website size

@jeffalytics

Start comparing

Story: Our earned media program is working

Story: Our email program is way behind

Isemailperformingpoorlyorjustnotbeingtracked?

Story: We have no paid media, but others do

Wearenotspendinganythingonadvertising.Shouldwebe?

Story: We have a missed mobile opportunity

Second Tool: SimilarWeb Pro

Industry level benchmarks

SimilarWeb Tool: http://www.similarweb.com/

Traffic source comparisons

@jeffalytics

Good stories, but still many

questions

@jeffalytics

What about specific

competitors?

@jeffalytics

Tc Traffic Comparison

• SimilarWeb Competitive Intelligence Tool: http://www.similarweb.com/

Specific individual website traffic rankings

Compare traffic to others

Understand overall traffic trends

Then start drilling into traffic sources

Who is investing in social?

Is anyone doing display?

What is your Audience Interested in?

Even do Mobile Comparisons!

@jeffalytics

Sc SpendComparison

SEMRush Tool: http://www.semrush.com/

SEMRush for Search Spend Estimates

Traffic costs

SEMRush Tool: http://www.semrush.com/

Granular data to compare with AdWords tool

Also data from SimilarWeb

SpyFu Tool: http://www.spyfu.com/

Make sure to compare with SpyFu as well

MOAT Display Intelligence Tool: http://www.moat.com/

Check out Moat for display intelligence

@jeffalytics

What do we do with this

data?

Triangulate your data sources

Your Data Adobe, Google Analytics

Triangulate your data sources

AnonymizedBenchmark (GA),

Industry (SW)

Your Data Adobe, Google Analytics

Your Data Adobe, Google Analytics

SpecificSimilarWeb,SEMRush, etc.

AnonymizedBenchmarking Reports (GA)

Triangulate your data sources

AnonymizedBenchmark (GA),

Industry (SW)

SpecificSimilarWeb,

SEMRush, etc.

Your Data Adobe, Google Analytics

@jeffalytics

Project your marketing

budget

@jeffalytics

Low Watermark (What we are currently doing)

Provide several, well researched options

@jeffalytics

Low Watermark (What we are currently doing)

Provide several, well researched options

Medium Watermark(What our competitors are doing)

@jeffalytics

Low Watermark (What we are currently doing)

Provide several, well researched options

Medium Watermark(What our competitors are doing)

High Watermark(Our market potential)

Show low-medium-high expense projections

Project revenues for each budget

Calculate profit potential

$-

$5,000,000

$10,000,000

$15,000,000

$20,000,000

$25,000,000

ProfitPotential

ProfitPotentialofMarketingInitiatives

LowWatermark(currentbudget) MediumWatermark(competitorsbudget)

HighWatermark(10xMoonshotPlan)

Put together a profit model to share

@jeffalytics

Which one would you

choose?

@jeffalytics

Let’s bring this back to

finance

Six Months and 10 calls later…

Yo, give us a bigger budget and we will make you $21 Million in profit!

$- $5,000,000$10,000,000$15,000,000$20,000,000$25,000,000

ProfitPotential

ProfitPotentialofMarketingInitiatives

LowWatermark(currentbudget)

MediumWatermark(competitorsbudget)

HighWatermark(10xMoonshotPlan)

Finance loves you

You might even get promoted!

Promoted

@jeffalytics

Bonus: Automation

ideas

@jeffalytics

Automation saves time!

@jeffalytics

Cy CyfeDashboards

• http://www.cyfe.com/

Cyfe for Free API based dashboards

All kinds of integrations

Sample Cyfe Dashboard

Cyfe Competitive Dashboard https://www.cyfe.com/blog/competitor-dashboard/

Competitive Dashboard with Cyfe

Harvest Google Alerts

Connect Cyfe with other tools using Zapier

@jeffalytics

Za ZapierRecipes

• https://www.zapier.com/

My favorite technology in the world right now

Choose the product you want to integrate

Zapier Recipe Book - https://zapier.com/zapbook/cyfe/

Create your own recipe or choose from recommended lists

@jeffalytics

Project your marketing budget

Automation saves time and research

Back up opinions with competitive

research

Speak the language of the CFO

Action Items

Get the spreadsheet:jeffalytics.com/budget2017

Thank You!

Jeff Sauerjeff@jeffalytics.com