“Let’s do digital right in 2024”, ADMARP President urges new era of impactful, results-oriented digital marketing

By Zion Rufus

While emphasizing a renewed focus on genuine business growth rather than fixating on vanity metrics, President of the Association of Digital Marketing Professionals (ADMARP), Stanislaus Martins, has urged the industry to recalibrate its approach to digital marketing in the coming year

Calling on professionals to “do digital right in 2024” in a transformative statement, Martins, who also sits as Regional Director at Aleph for SSA (Aleph represents leading digital platforms like Meta, X, Snapchat, Spotify, Snapchat, Mdundo and AudioMack in Nigeria) addressed a prevailing trend where digital marketing efforts are often measured by vanity Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), mirroring traditional channels rather than harnessing the unique capabilities of digital platforms.

He advised “Let’s not focus on just spending the money on digital channels but in parallel focus on optimally using digital channels to drive actual business growth,” noting that 2024 should mark a departure from this practice and a deliberate shift toward a more results-oriented approach.

The central message conveyed was a charge for a more purposeful and strategic utilization of digital platforms and a more rigorous and business-centric approach to digital marketing—a perspective aimed at achieving not just visibility and engagement but tangible growth and performance impact.

According to the President, “This is what digital excels at, but sadly some agencies and brands focus on the vanity KPIs that put digital in the same space as traditional channels,” reflecting a concern that the unique capabilities of digital marketing are often overshadowed by an undue emphasis on superficial metrics that may not necessarily translate into tangible business outcomes.

Framed around the notion of adopting a “measurement mindset”, the ADMARP President’s vision for 2024 is to see a shift of narrative from an exclusive focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) that merely measure engagement or reach, to a more holistic approach that emphasizes the actual impact on business performance, with digital campaigns playing a more integral role in driving both performance and tangible business results.