Cross-channel campaign reporting: Why it matters for your marketing success

Are you constantly juggling multiple marketing channels to reach your target audiences and grow your business? In a competitive market, cross-channel marketing is a common approach for boosting conversions – but it needs to be done right.

Whether it’s social media, email marketing, paid search, or traditional advertisements like billboards, you need the right method of cross-channel campaign reporting to optimise your activities for maximum results.

We delve into what cross-channel campaign reporting is and why it’s essential for the success of your marketing efforts.

What is cross-channel campaign reporting?

Cross-channel campaign reporting is the practice of consolidating campaign performance data from various marketing channels into a single, cohesive view.

The customer journey is often complex, consisting of multiple touchpoints across different channels. You need the right software to collate cross-channel campaign data into one centralised platform, giving you a more accurate overview of your marketing performance on an individual and macro level.

For example, traditional attribution models like first and last click might show you that pay-per-click (PPC) activity is rarely the first or last click in the customer journey. However, a platform with cross-channel campaign reporting – such as Mediahawk – can reveal that PPC activity is still a pivotal touchpoint in most successful customer journeys indicating its hidden value.

This unified reporting enables you to make more informed decisions and optimise the right strategies across all your channels for better results.

The benefits of cross-channel reporting

Cross-channel campaign reporting has become more critical than ever for marketers who want to stay ahead of the competition. There are a wide range of benefits that come with implementing software with cross-channel campaign reporting.

1. Improved campaign performance

One of the most significant advantages of cross-channel campaign reporting is the ability to optimise your campaigns across multiple marketing channels and sources.

The detailed reports will give you full visibility of how different channels are performing, in terms of metrics like conversions and sales, for example. You’ll then quickly identify which strategies are working and which need adjustment.

If your social media channels are driving high website traffic but low conversions – as revealed by your visitor to call ratio – you can adjust your approach to improve performance and monitor the outcome. This level of insight allows for continuous optimisation, leading to more consistent results.

2. Consistent messaging across platforms

A huge part of effective marketing is maintaining consistent branding and messaging across all platforms, which is crucial for building brand trust and recognition.

Cross-channel campaign reporting will identify any channels and campaigns that are underperforming – potentially indicating ineffective brand messaging. After creating a new campaign, such as a Facebook ad, you can monitor how effectively this drives engagement. If your target audience isn’t interacting with the campaign, you can realign the messaging to boost conversions.

You can also use data gathered from more successful campaigns on your other channels to help you know what adjustments to make for the best messaging.

3. Unified data for better decision-making

Having all your performance data in one place is invaluable for making data-driven decisions with your campaigns.

With individual campaign reporting, it’s a siloed view and you’re only seeing a small part of the bigger picture. Cross-channel campaign reporting gives you a full-picture overview of how each campaign is contributing to entire customer journeys across all channels.

This will give you a complete insight into the true value of your campaigns, and help you make more informed decisions with all the necessary data.

4. Enhanced ROI tracking

To understand the true return on investment (ROI) of each campaign, you need to accurately track how it contributes to the whole customer journey and how many conversions and sales each activity is responsible for.

For instance, a standard report can make a social media campaign appear unimportant if it doesn’t result in conversions quickly. However, cross-channel campaign reporting can reveal that a large majority of customers follow the link from social media to your website and then make a call.

This broader viewpoint makes all the difference when you need to adjust resourcing for campaigns, and make sure you have enough evidence to justify your marketing budget.

Key metrics to track in cross-channel reporting

To effectively manage cross-channel marketing campaigns, you should make sure your chosen software enables key performance metrics that provide actionable insights.

Some essential metrics to track are:

• Conversion rates: This measures the percentage of users who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or making a call.
• Engagement metrics: This tracks how well a campaign drives user interactions, such as email click-to-open rates and the number of pages a website visitor viewed.
• Customer acquisition costs (CAC): This calculates the overall cost of acquiring one new customer through different channels, to assess the efficiency of your marketing spend.
• Return on ad spend (ROAS): This evaluates the revenue generated against your marketing spend, to determine the profitability of your campaigns and keyword bidding.

Tools for effective cross-channel campaign reporting

You need the right marketing analytics tools to conduct your cross-channel campaign reporting in the most beneficial way. Here are some to consider:

• Google Analytics: Google Analytics is the most well known platform for tracking and reporting on website traffic. It allows you to see how different channels contribute to your online conversions.
• HubSpot: HubSpot’s integrated marketing platform streamlines your reporting by consolidating data from various channels. It helps marketers understand the performance of their campaigns in the wider customer journey.
• SEMrush: SEMrush can assist in cross-channel campaign management and reporting. It offers features for tracking campaign performance across search engines, social media, and paid channels.

To effectively optimise your strategies with cross-channel campaign reporting, it’s worth considering a specialised platform like Mediahawk.

Mediahawk’s cross-channel reporting features

Mediahawk understands the importance of cross-channel campaign reporting in building a full-fledged marketing strategy.

Our powerful platform is designed to give you a comprehensive view of your marketing efforts across all channels, whilst offering actionable insights that drive greater conversions. Not only can you track the performance of your online and offline campaigns, you can integrate data from other marketing software, such as Google Ads and Facebook, to make better decisions about where to invest your advertising budget.

Cross-channel campaign reporting is no longer a luxury, but a necessity, if you want to stay competitive. And with our advanced call tracking software, you’ll have everything you need to enhance your cross-channel marketing.

Request a demo today, to learn how you can leverage the power of unified data, make smarter decisions, optimise your campaigns, and ultimately drive better results for your business.