Smart spending: How data optimizes your marketing

Have you ever heard the famous quote by John Wanamaker? “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I do not know which half.” In today’s data-driven world, this uncertainty no longer has to be the reality. Marketing science provides a sophisticated solution by leveraging advanced scientific methods, models, and techniques to unravel even the most complex marketing challenges.

At its core, marketing science draws from various data sources, such as customer behavior data, market trends, social media interactions, website analytics, and even offline metrics like in-store purchases. This data is then processed and analyzed using advanced tools and techniques to identify patterns, forecast outcomes, and recommend the best marketing strategies.

For example, let’s say you are launching a new product. Marketing science can help you understand which audiences are most likely to engage, which channels will give you the highest return, and even what messaging will resonate with customers the most. By integrating this data with insights from other agency disciplines—such as media planning, creative strategy, and research—you are able to fine-tune every aspect of your campaign.

How marketing science integration helps

Integrating marketing science with your current marketing strategy offers:

1. Clear, actionable insights, by transforming raw data and providing a comprehensive view of behavior and campaign performance.
2. A sharpened strategic focus by answering critical questions about audience, channels, messaging, and campaign impact. 
3. Real-time campaign adjustment recommendations, giving the ability to maximize return on marketing investments.

To further understand its impact, let’s take a look at a real-life application. A medical device company had an initiative to reconfigure their sales team towards optimal volumes and coverage areas, with media being the key driver of new leads. To maximize return on investment, they buit a custom, tech-enabled marketing science simulation tool. This tool was able to forecast thousands of media scenarios to find the optimal investment and channel mix to achieve monthly lead goals. This investment led to a 92% accuracy in predicting leads and a 30% decrease in cost-per-new-lead.

What about budget? The beauty of marketing science is that predictive modeling can be tailored to provide insights that maximize marketing dollars, at any budget, enabling clients of all sizes to make smarter investments.

At Butler/Till specifically, we believe in the power of marketing science to drive real results. By leveraging data, further integrating agency departments and collaboration, and delivering actionable insights, ultimately we help our clients achieve measurable success.

Kimberly Jones is president and CEO of Butler/Till.