Marketing Campaign Mistakes That Only Data Can Reveal

The digital marketing world is highly competitive. Everyone knows it. Thousands of channels, thousands of formats and thousands of competitors all sharing the same goal: reach the target audience. The pressure is there.

And if you add the pressure of results on top of that, things get even more complicated. Marketing strategies have become one of the central elements of any company. It does not matter whether it is a startup or a large company with hundreds of years of history: you need a good plan to sell.

But… what happens when that strategy does not deliver the expected results? There can be errors in the strategy itself (poorly chosen channels, irrelevant messages…), but that is not always the case. And when it is not, what is actually going on?

Why marketing fails: too many ideas, not enough diagnosis

Marketing teams are good at what they do. They know how to define the right buyer persona, choose the most relevant channels and media to reach that audience and decide which messages can capture their attention and convince them that your brand is the right one.

But marketing teams cannot have everything under control. They can put together the best possible marketing campaign and still not see the results they expected. In that case, something is failing that is escaping them. It escapes them, yes — but not the data.

And that something is what we call frictions: a key concept for understanding why marketing campaigns do not always turn into real results, even when everything seems to be in place. In this article we will explain why they are so important and how your data can help you identify them.

Frictions and digital marketing: interrelated errors

Everyone knows the famous "butterfly effect": the theory that says a butterfly's wingbeat can change the world. And while it might seem like an exaggeration, in the case of digital marketing and conversion, it is a reality. Everything is connected.

In this case, our wingbeat is frictions. Or in other words: invisible obstacles that affect the performance of your marketing strategy and that occur at different stages of the conversion funnel. Sometimes in the ad itself, but other times at the final step of the checkout.

In short, frictions are everything that can negatively affect the results of your marketing campaigns, their conversion. It is important to understand that these frictions can occur throughout the entire user journey and that is why it is essential to pay attention to every detail.

Types of frictions and marketing errors and how they affect your strategy

Conversion barriers come in all shapes and sizes. But they all have one thing in common: they cause the potential customer to come to a sudden stop and prevent all your marketing efforts from turning into a real purchase.

Although it is not easy to categorise them, here is a breakdown of the types of frictions you can find within your marketing strategy (and outside it):

• Perceptual frictions

These are the most common in any marketing strategy: the message does not work and does not generate interest. But while it is common in your campaigns, it can also occur outside them. Very often, a disconnect between your marketing messages and the information on your website can generate this type of friction.

• Functional frictions

This type of friction responds to the most rational and logical aspect of the process. These are the ones that result in the user or customer not really knowing what to do, how to continue. Too many options, unclear buttons, overly complex steps… The next steps are not clear.

• Emotional frictions

There are a series of frictions that respond to the personal emotions and perceptions of users. We are referring to different elements that can lead to distrust, doubts or even a lack of connection with the brand itself. In short, frictions that arise from not paying attention to emotional aspects that are important to the user.

• Cognitive frictions

Finally, there is a type of friction that connects with the cognitive processes we all follow when completing a task. When there are obstacles in the way we process information, we are unable to complete anything. We are referring to information overload, too many steps or even a lack of clarity.

The most important thing about frictions is to understand that they are not mutually exclusive. That is, you can find all of them at different stages of your funnel and some may have a greater or lesser influence on your customers. But it is important to be able to identify them clearly.

How data reveals what the marketing team does not see

Where are those frictions that are holding back your marketing strategy? Good question. They are hidden. You may not see them, or even if they are obvious, you may not be able to identify them as such because you are not a customer.

Those of us who work for digital businesses or brands like yours carry a lot of bias. We know the product perfectly, we think some information is more important than other… In short, we take things for granted. And that is why we need an objective and rational eye to help us identify these frictions.

And that all-seeing eye is data. A reliable and rational source of information that will help you identify where those problems might be that are stopping your marketing strategy from working. That said, there is one thing you need to know: data will not tell you what the friction is, it will tell you where it is.

From data to reality: testing as a transformation tool

Thanks to your analytics you can identify where the problem lies: a drop in the progress of customers through the funnel, CTRs that are too low at specific moments or key banners with no interaction at all. But how can you fix it?

That is where a solid testing strategy comes into play. Essentially, a series of actions that help you identify the why behind those problems. Once you have identified a friction, you will need to form hypotheses about it and validate them with A/B tests that try different alternatives.

Mim Habits: the silent friction that was holding back sales

When we started working with Mim Habits, we all knew something was not right, but we did not know exactly what.

Their website had good traffic, the product was attractive and they had good segmentation. In theory everything was fine, but in practice the story was very different: their campaigns and website had an extremely low conversion rate.

The Boost solution

• Friction analysis

We started by identifying potential frictions within the Mim Habits website design. Where were users dropping off? Where was the abandonment rate increasing? This allowed us to determine there were 3 main problems:

• The user journey was confusing.

• There were too many options without clear guidance.

• The value proposition was not clear at first glance.

• Redesign and A/B testing strategy

We proposed a new, much cleaner and more concise product page design that addressed the perceptual frictions around the product. We also ran an A/B testing strategy to validate our hypotheses.

• A 136% increase in conversion rate in just 10 months

It was clear that the frictions were there. And they were multiple. Too much information, a purchase process that was too complex… Thanks to our initiatives we managed to connect Mim Habits' marketing efforts with a realistic, high-quality user experience. And that translated into real conversions.

→ Discover all the details of the Mim Habits success story

Make your marketing campaigns generate more conversions with Boost

The success of a marketing campaign does not depend solely on a good idea or attractive design. It depends, above all, on our ability to listen to what the data is telling us once that campaign is already running.

Because a campaign can look impeccable… and still fail.

Data has the power to reveal what is not visible to the naked eye: from a CTA that is not understood to a landing page that does not guide the user. And detecting those invisible frictions is what makes the difference between a campaign that goes unnoticed and one that truly generates impact.

The key is to stop guessing and start testing. Analyse, optimise and launch again. A campaign does not end when it is published: it begins when you start learning from it. At Boost we work this way. With a continuous improvement mindset, where every piece of data counts, every friction is corrected and every change has a reason. Do you feel your campaign could perform better, but do not know what is failing? The data already knows. Contact us and we will help you interpret it.