Brand activation is the process of sharing more about your brand’s products or services with people. It’s a marketing plan that follows planning and covers getting your brand into the public and getting people to engage with your company.

For a brand activation to be a success, you need to have exceeded the amount you invested in the marketing campaign. You need to make more in sign-ups, positive interactions, and sales than you spent on your marketing campaign. That becomes your return on investment (ROI). The higher your ROI, the more successful your brand activation was. Not every ROI measures sales, however. Every campaign is different.

As you market your products or services, how do you know when your brand activation is effective? How do you measure the value of your brand activation? Your journey starts with key performance indicators (KPIs) and other metrics you decide are the best tools for measuring the success of your marketing plan.

Define Your Goals

Before you get into the KPIs and metrics, you have to clearly define your marketing goals. For one brand, it might be sales, but for another, it might be the number of new registrations for a virtual conference.

Think of everything you hope to achieve. It might simply be increased sales, but a one-time sale with a new customer might not be enough. You may have several goals, so carefully consider them all. Once you have your goals laid out, you can start considering the areas of your brand activation that are the most important to measure.

What Are the Most Common KPIs and Metrics to Measure?

You have decided on your brand activation goals, but how do you know what to measure? Sometimes, you need to track multiple KPIs to get the best picture of your successful campaign or lack of success if things don’t go as well as hoped. These are some of the most common metrics to use when measuring the value of a brand activation.

Consumer Engagement and Experiences

Some of the metrics and KPIs fall under the consumer engagement and experiences category. You’ll be tracking things like these.

• An increase in interactions: Are you noticing that more consumers are interacting with your brand on social media and your brand’s blogs? If so, that’s a sign of success. Keep tracking the increase in interactions to monitor your brand’s performance.
• An increase in website traffic: Use analytics to track the increase in website traffic you’ve gained since starting your marketing campaign. It might take a few days or even weeks before anything is noticeable.
• Extra time is being spent on your marketing activation: Track how long people are spending with your brand. If you have a website, track average time on page (average session durations) and bounce rates to determine how long people are spending with your brand.
• Feedback from surveys: Surveys are a great way to track performance with your brand activation. When you ask people what they think, what are the responses? Are you getting positive feedback or is it negative?
• More brand mentions in blog posts, reviews, and website articles: You notice your hashtag or @ symbol and brand name are appearing a lot more online. If your brand is trending through brand mentions, you’re doing something right.
• Positive social media interactions: You’re finding a lot of positive comments, likes, and shares on social media. When you are seeing interactions like shares, is the user-generated content positive? You want to see positive interactions, but if you’re seeing negative feedback, don’t be too upset as these are metrics you can use to learn from.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has been trending for years, and marketing experts believe that TikTok influencers will be a very hot tool for brand activations in 2024. TikTok’s reach over Instagram is about double.  If you use influencer marketing, how much did you pay or what did you have to offer the influencer to land the partnership? Using that cost, consider what your gain has been.

Ideally, you want the amount you’ve spent or goods you’ve provided to give in exchange to be less than what you gain. But, make sure the increase correlates to the influencer and not something else. Make sure you also read comments on the influencer’s social media accounts and see what that influencer’s fans have to say about you.

Lead Generations and Conversions

Not everything you do in a marketing campaign has to be online or a completed sale. You could also use lead generations and conversions to determine the success of your brand activation. If traffic is coming through registrations for a tradeshow, concert, exhibition, or festival, ticket sales are an important metric for determining success.

Imagine this. Your marketing campaign didn’t land as many sales as you wanted, but you did get 100 people to start talking about your brand with their friends, co-workers, and family members. Two months later, they told a dozen people, and those people told another dozen people. The reach your brand gets from word-of-mouth discussion is tremendous. Soon, that talk may lead to the conversions you want, and that includes conversions like these.

• How many people completed registration or purchased an item after learning about your brand?
• How many people told more friends, family members, and co-workers?
• How much did you spend on that ad or post vs. how many registrations or sales you gained? Was the marketing expense worth it?
• Consider the increase in sales you’ve gained. What is the ROI right now, but what about if the growth continues at the same rate? How much gain will you have in three months, six months, a year?

Brand Activations Don’t Have to Be Typical

When you’re planning your brand activation, make sure you don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to be like everyone else. Your competition may have opted for a traditional trade show booth, but that doesn’t mean you have to. Creativity often draws more attention.

Create an experience that makes your brand stand out. Whether it’s a pop-up store that people are not expecting to come across during a day at the beach or a sampling event at a park, stand out. The more unique you are, the more attention your brand gets. Start tracking the success by knowing what metrics and KPIs are right for your specific campaign.

Taking the time to set your marketing goals, choosing the best metrics to gauge success, and effectively marketing your business are important in any brand activation. When you establish experiences to build relationships and loyalty to your brand, you’ll have the tools needed for a successful brand activation.