Measurement
Part of How to measure promotional merchandise campaigns and report the results
Promotional merchandise benchmarking for better reporting
Promotional merchandise benchmarking turns order data into a reporting baseline: choose your ratios, name each source and refresh the figures quarterly.
What to take away
Promotional merchandise benchmark research is the habit of comparing your own order, response and cost figures against published sector data or your own earlier campaigns.
- Ground market context in official business counts before quoting any internal number.
- Choose three or four ratios you can rebuild each quarter from the same source.
- Name the source and the date beside every benchmark in a report.
- Keep the underlying rows so a colleague can repeat your arithmetic.
Where benchmark data comes from
Two families of number feed a benchmark. External data describes the size and churn of the market you sell into. Internal data describes what your own orders delivered.
External vs internal benchmark data
External data
- What it describes
- Market size and churn
- ONS bulletin
- Business creations and closures
- GOV.UK estimates
- Buyer pool by size band
- Merchandise detail
- None
- Job in report
- Describe audience
Internal data
- What it describes
- Your own orders
- ONS bulletin
- Not covered
- GOV.UK estimates
- Not covered
- Merchandise detail
- Units and costs
- Job in report
- Describe delivery
The ONS Business demography, UK bulletin tracks UK business creations and closures, which shows whether the buyer base for branded merchandise is growing or thinning.
For a longer view, the GOV.UK business population estimates for 2021 publish private sector business counts by size band. Use them to show how the pool of possible buyers has changed since that release.
Neither source says anything about merchandise. They describe the audience your campaign has to reach, and that is the only job they should do in your report.
For merchandise-specific context, the British Promotional Merchandise Association publishes industry research and member surveys. Treat that material as sector context, not as proof of your own performance.
Choosing ratios worth reporting
Most teams over-measure. Pick a small set you can explain in one meeting and rebuild later.
Three ratios worth reporting
- £2cost per usable item
- 200usable items per month
- £400monthly spend
- 3ratios to track
Cost per usable item is the easiest. Add production, printing and delivery, then divide by the units people actually kept. A team paying £400 a month for 200 usable items records a £2 unit cost, and that figure travels well between quarters.
Response rate needs a definition before the campaign starts. Count traced actions, not compliments. The comparison of promotional merchandise attribution methods explains why the definition you pick changes the count, sometimes by a wide margin.
Reach is the third number, and it needs a denominator. If you sell to businesses, LinkedIn's audience targeting for B2B marketers explains how professional audiences are built from job title, industry and seniority. That gives you a figure to divide by.
Cost per traced response is the fourth calculation: total campaign cost divided by traced actions. It shows what each response cost to earn, and it uses the same cost total as cost per usable item.
Turning a benchmark into a reporting habit
A benchmark only earns its place if the team repeats it. That means a fixed source, a fixed formula and a fixed date.
Set the baseline before the campaign
Write down the number you expect before the first order ships. Record the source, the period it covers and who calculated it. When the campaign closes, put the actual figure next to the expectation, not instead of it.
Rebuild the baseline each quarter
Re-run the same four calculations on the same day each quarter. If a definition changes, mark the break in the series so nobody compares figures from either side of it.
Start with the quarter you already have data for. Duplicate orders and untracked giveaways usually distort the first run, so the third one is the one to quote.
A wider reporting structure helps too. The overview of promotional merchandise measurement and reporting covers how benchmarks, dashboards and review meetings fit together. It is the fastest way to see how the figures you choose reach the people who approve the budget.
Build a benchmark checklist
- Source named, with the publication date and the period covered.
- Formula written in plain words, not only in a spreadsheet cell.
- Denominator stated, whether that is businesses, recipients or units ordered.
- Currency and tax basis confirmed, since £ figures excluding VAT are not comparable with inclusive ones.
- Raw rows kept, so the total can be rebuilt from scratch.
- Owner named for the next quarterly refresh.
Common questions
How many benchmarks should a small team track?
Three is usually enough: cost per usable item, traced response rate and reach against a defined audience. More than five and the quarterly refresh stops happening.
Can I use supplier figures as a benchmark?
Only as a cross-check. Suppliers see their own order book, not your response data, so treat their averages as context rather than proof. Ask what period the figure covers and how it was calculated.
Do I need external data at all?
Yes, for scale. Official business counts explain how many potential buyers exist in your target size band, which stops an internal improvement being mistaken for market growth.
How often should benchmark figures be refreshed?
Quarterly suits most order cycles, because it lines up with budget reviews. Refresh sooner if you change supplier, artwork or audience definition, and note why the series breaks.
