Imagine a paid ad campaign with tons of impressions, a great click-through-rate, and a low cost-per-click cost...this sounds like a marketer’s dream. But is it really making a difference? Is this campaign actually leading to customers and revenue for the company?

Today, marketers are increasingly being measured on actual business impact, not just generating a high number of leads or increasing overall website activity. And on top of that, they are expected to produce these results quickly. Boosting lead count fast can be easy; just put more money into paid marketing efforts. But if this doesn’t lead to a strong ROI, it’s not the right tactic. Focus needs to be moved from top-of-funnel success to more efficient down-funnel conversions. Aligning marketing efforts with sales needs in order to generate high quality leads, rather than a high quantity of leads, requires a shift in strategic planning.

So the question now becomes how to analyze and optimize paid ad spend to reach these conversion goals. Currently, most available software platforms don’t allow for this type of measurement. They stick to impressions, clicks, CTR, and maybe one mid-funnel custom conversion. To get to the bigger picture, lead generation marketers end spending countless hours running reports, aggregating data, figuring how to use numerous VLOOKUPs in spreadsheets to connect ad performance data to web and sales conversion data. Not only is this time-consuming, it it prone to error, lacks granularity, and needs constant manual updating.

This is why we are excited to announce AdStage Join , a new technology solution that automatically connects cross-network ad performance data to down-funnel metrics, like Google Analytics goals and Salesforce leads and opportunities. This allows lead generation marketers to quickly and easily analyze and optimize paid ad spend based on sales conversion goals, proving and increasing Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

AdStage Join automates the entire connection process, saving time and eliminating manual mistakes. It also links conversions all the way down to the ad or keyword level, giving marketers a deep view previously unattainable. It demonstrates the true value of each individual ad for the most granular optimization throughout the entire funnel.

And the best part is that there is no engineering work or coding needed. AdStage Join uses the UTMs currently in place (or Google Analytics autotagging) to connect data. There is no need to modify any URLs or use pixels to track conversions. Once the connection is set, AdStage automatically pulls fresh data at a regularly set cadence, so information is always accurate and up-to-date.

AdStage Join gives marketers the one view needed to close-the-loop between paid marketing and sales efforts.

What can Join do for you?

So now you have AdStage Join and you have connected your ad data to web and sales data. Now what?

First, you can conduct deep analysis to identify the ads that are actually leading to sales. Previously, you might have reported on ad or ads set performance at the network level, then reported on the overall number of demo request, MQLs, and SQLs. With AdStage Join, you can report how each individual ad or ad set (at any level of granularity, rather than the network level) leads to a demo request, a MQL, or SQL (split out by this granularity, rather than an overall number). Analyze how placements, targeting, ad creative, ad copy, and more impact your sales numbers.

Next, you can set up automated alerts or rules based on this deep dive analysis. For example, if a particular ad set leads to 10 SQLs in a 30 day period, you can automatically add more budget to it, increasing the likelihood that you receive even more leads. Inversely, if a particular ad creative leads to zero demo requests, you can set a rule to pause that ad, so you stop spending money on creatives that don’t convert down-funnel.

With AdStage Join, you now have the ability to plan and budget ad spend based on actual customer conversion!

How to Leverage AdStage Join

AdStage Join is automatically included in the AdStage free 14 day trial. Sign up today to see how the AdStage platform can help you close-the-loop and optimize campaigns at scale. Or schedule a personalized demo to see how the AdStage platform plus AdStage Join can meet your specific needs.

We’re here to help! Contact us at join@adstage.io with any questions.