Measuring Digital Media Efforts

Background:  The Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline (OTH) was created from funds allocated to the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) through the Master Settlement Agreement. Since 2003, OTH has served more than 350,000 Oklahomans.

Program background:  In an effort to create a integrated strategic plan for OTH, all health communication media teams – including social, digital and traditional - work together to create objectives, strategies and tactics to encourage and promote registrations for free OTH services. Each of these teams uses a funnel strategy to plan their campaigns. The funnel starts with awareness, moves down to educate, then engage and ultimately, convert. Typically, traditional media impacts awareness, and starts the consumer through the funnel process. In order to change behavior, we try to move the user through the funnel by impacting their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs – leading to the final step of a conversion.  For OTH, a conversion is defined as a click-to-call, sign-up or call request through either a paid search ad, social media post or website interaction. Content and messaging is planned using the funnel as a guide. We collaborate on where we know users are in the funnel and create messages that will move them through to convert. For example, if a social media user has watched an educational video, we might serve them with an ad that asks for some type of sharing or engagement. After they complete this action, we serve them an ad asking for the conversion. This could be a click-to-call ad or a website click ad directing them to sign up for services. 

Evaluation Methods and Results:  We use many tools to measure where people are in the funnel, what they are doing when they get to our site, and how they are behaving. When reporting as a digital team, we show how our campaign has impacted each stage of the funnel and how that has affected conversion rates. Digital reporting includes website metrics, social media engagement rates, paid search cost per acquisition, digital media performance metrics and SEO optimization results. We detail lessons learned through optimizations and key takeaways that will influence upcoming performance goals. 

Conclusions:  Taking away the silos of an organization allows campaigns to become more cohesive and, in turn, makes reporting easier. Planning ahead for where your consumer is, and what action you want them to take makes the ultimate conversion much more attainable. The brand also takes on a more unified look when everyone is involved in planning. It allows the user to move from a digital ad, to a social ad, to the website without feeling like they are interacting with a different type of messaging. 

Implications for research and/or practice:  Because the Helpline has a clear objective to drive enrollments at OKhelpline.com and 1-800-QUIT NOW, we can focus our efforts on getting potential quitters to take that call to action when they are ready.