Your challenges, overcome: proving ROI

So you’re ready to hit up Freshers 2024 – or perhaps Black Friday, Festive season, or those all-important housing fairs – with a stunning campaign. But how do you measure and demonstrate your return on investment (ROI)? Mark Walker, revenue coach, has pondered – and answered – this question many times over the course of his career. So, we asked him all of the difficult ROI questions for you… you’re welcome!

First things first – can you give us an overview of your career so far?

“So, I  started my career in the events space, running B2B conferences and working with sponsors to make sure that they got ROI from their events. I then went to Eventbrite, where I was Head of Growth; I looked after all of their event marketing, SEO, partnerships, organic social media… pretty much everything that was not paid marketing. From there, I moved on to a really early stage company in the consumer insight space. I was their Marketing Director to start with, and then became their Chief Revenue Officer over time, looking after all of sales and marketing and customer success. Then I moved to Student Beans (now Pion) where I was Chief Revenue and Operating Officer. Since then, I’ve helped a number of different businesses as an independent coach and consultant and essentially focused on Go-To-Market (GTM), helping them think through their marketing and sales strategy and execution.”

Ok, onto ROI. If an alien entered the room right now, with no prior knowledge, how would you explain ROI to them? 

“I would ask them if I could have one of their intergalactic snack bars to hold on to for a couple of days – in exchange, I would then give them back five intergalactic snack bars. I’d ask if they’d be happy with that? But what if I took the same snack bar and I held onto it for a couple of weeks and then maybe gave it back again – possibly with a little nibble out of it. They probably wouldn’t be so happy! The first provides ROI, the second does not. 

That is the concept of ROI. If you invest something by giving it to me up front, but in a reasonable period of return I can give you at least 3x back –  that is considered good ROI.”

So, moving on from aliens to students. When working with students specifically, what goals do brands typically have? How have they measured those goals? 

“So this is one of those “it depends” answers! 

Some businesses will measure the campaign success on how much profit they get back out of the money they’ve invested in the campaign. Others will think about traffic,  newsletter subscriptions, or sales – those types of things – and others will think more about long-term brand building; things like awareness, consideration, purchase intent, brand perception. 

While I don’t think there are huge differences in how students affect ROI compared to other demographics, I do think they are typically harder to reach and win over. So while a lot of brands care about direct response types of ROI, others understand that shifting perceptions and building brand equity is key with students. More so than with other demographics, there are brands who are willing to invest more in brand building as opposed to direct response – just because they’re so tough to win over and build that trust and credibility with.”

Let’s talk about demonstrating ROI. Can you share any success stories from campaigns that have activated on campus? 

“There are a few! Last year, for example, we worked with a major high street bank. They’d noticed that over a number of years, their resonance with the student market had decreased. So they worked with us in a big campaign across campus, utilising all of our different assets. As a result, they more than doubled their sign-ups on the previous year. When you think about what a student lifetime value is to a major bank, that is a very significant shift.

We’ve also worked with a number of different fashion retailers, including vintage stalls. They often see immediate ROI on the day itself – we’ve heard as much as 10x in terms of pure sales.

Finally, we work with many providers in the accommodation space, where it’s quite a high ticket value. It’s quite an expensive thing for a student to invest in. And these providers get a very quick CAC to LTV. So the amount of money they’re paying to acquire a new customer – in this case, a student – relative to the lifetime value of that student is very fast money back into their bank; another way to demonstrate ROI.”

What advice do you have for organisations looking to demonstrate ROI where the outcome isn’t necessarily tangible to get sign off on their business case?

“So I think there are a few ways to think about this. 

If you are not already in the student market, then you have to think a little bit more in the long-term. It’s crucial to invest in introducing – or indeed reintroducing – your brand, building that brand story with students in mind. You can’t build a brand in a single campaign or a single touchpoint. You have to commit to the market in a slightly longer time horizon, and start to invest today in order to accrue ROI later down the line.

If you are already in the student market and you already have a reasonable level of awareness and credibility, then you can think about ROI in a slightly shorter time horizon –  you’ve already done the hard work of building resonance, and now it’s about getting the outcomes back from that investment.

So there’s a very famous study by two marketers – Binet and Field. They talk about these two types of time horizon; long-term brand building and shorter, direct response campaigns. If you only do one or the other, you tend to not see the return. If you do both, you see significant returns. So if a brand is struggling to make the immediate ROI argument, they really have to ask themselves a question: do they want to be in that position next year? If so, they need to start investing in building that brand and building that narrative today.

Take a learnings-focused approach. Instead of setting an absolute target, you could also simply set out to create incremental change; to beat what you have today. You’ll learn a lot from this approach – sometimes it’s hard to make the economic argument for learning, but it’s actually incredibly valuable to learn from your campaign, so you can optimise going forward. Because ultimately, if you make investments today, then they compound over time. Suddenly you have a breakthrough event where you’re making quite a lot of direct ROI and money from the student market.”

And, whilst short term ROI is the dream, what’s your view on the longer-term value and  returns of marketing to students during Freshers? 

“It’s really hard to underplay the long term benefits of advertising to Gen Z students. They’re typically the subset of Gen Z who will go on to significant areas of influence – becoming leaders, with greater earning potential and greater spending power. They’re cultural conduits – spreading ideas and starting movements – which means that what happens on campus doesnt stay on campus. They take these ideas back to their hometowns, they influence their parents, peers and younger siblings. This is why so many brands target youth – because they are the next generation and their capacity for loyalty lasts a lifetime, so long as you continue to service them with high-quality, value-for-money products and services. 

Ultimately, if you want to market to students, – it’s a cliche, but you miss 100% of the chances you don’t take. The only guaranteed way not to appear in the student space is to not invest in it. If you don’t appear at Freshers, or advertise on campus during key moments throughout the year, you’re making a very conscious decision not to be part of the student conversation. This tells students they are not important. Ask yourself: is that the right message you want to give? Or do you want to be part of the conversation?”

Ready to join the conversation? Kick off your Freshers campaign today with native – your gateway to reaching Gen Z students at scale.