Digital Marketing Tactics: How to Forecast, Compare, and Prioritize Channels

Introduction

This article focuses on the Tactics step in START Planning, but applies more broadly for anyone who is doing digital marketing planning or wants to revisit the tactics within their overall strategy. 

Whether planning or revisiting already running with tactics in the wild—SEO, paid search, social, content, email, and beyond—the next challenge is deciding where to invest your time and budget.

In the Tactics phase of the START Planning Process, we don’t just make a list of ideas. We apply real-world data, planning tools, and forecasting models to make informed, business-aligned decisions.

This second article in our Tactics series (check out last week’s article) takes you deeper into how to evaluate, compare, and prioritize digital marketing channels before any execution begins.

Why Evaluation and Forecasting Matters

Most companies don’t have unlimited resources, which means every dollar and hour spent needs to move the needle. Without proper evaluation and forecasting, marketing leaders can fall into common traps:

• Investing in high-cost, low-impact channels
• Overlapping efforts that cannibalize results (e.g., paid vs. organic search)
• Missing out on compounding ROI from channels that grow over time

The goal here is not to make perfect predictions, but to get close enough to reality that you can make strategic trade-offs with confidence.

Step 1: Standardize Your Evaluation Criteria

The first step is to evaluate all potential tactics through the same lens. This removes bias, gut-feeling decisions, or overreliance on past success.

Here are key evaluation categories you should apply to every tactic or channel:

• Reach: How big is the potential audience you can access?
• Relevance: Does this channel reach the right audience, at the right stage of their journey?
• Cost: What’s the cost per click, impression, or lead—and how does that compare across channels?
  Speed: How quickly can this tactic start delivering results?
• Sustainability: Does this channel continue to produce value over time, or require ongoing spend to maintain?
• Attribution Clarity: How easy will it be to tie performance back to revenue or key business outcomes?

You can assign simple numeric scores (e.g., 1–5) for each category and calculate a weighted average or overall ranking. While not scientific, this gives your team a common framework to compare apples to apples.

Step 2: Use Real-World Data to Forecast Results

Evaluation helps you prioritize; forecasting helps you plan. Once you’ve narrowed your list to a few high-potential tactics, it’s time to project what results you can realistically expect.

Forecasting can feel intimidating, but you don’t need to overcomplicate it. You just need to answer this question:

If we invest $X in this tactic, what do we expect to get in return—and when?

Here’s how to do that for common channels:

SEO Forecasting
Use tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Google Keyword Planner to estimate search volume for relevant keywords. Apply expected click-through rates and conversion rates to forecast traffic and leads. Then layer in how long it might take to earn rankings (usually 3–6+ months).

PPC Forecasting
Google Ads and Microsoft Ads provide keyword-level CPC estimates. Multiply CPC by target volume to estimate budget. Then apply expected CTR and conversion rates to estimate lead volume and cost per lead.

Social Advertising Forecasting
Platforms like LinkedIn and Meta provide audience size and bid estimates. Forecast based on impressions, clicks, and conversion data (or use benchmarks if you’re just getting started).

Email & Content Marketing
Use historical open, click, and conversion rates. Forecast based on list size and expected growth. With content, consider search traffic potential and engagement metrics as indicators of downstream impact.

Important Tip: Be conservative. Use mid- or low-range estimates and build in ramp-up periods. You’re better off being surprised by upside than disappointed by unrealistic expectations.

Step 3: Map Tactics to the Funnel

Another key part of the Tactics planning phase is identifying where in the customer journey each channel plays best. This ensures you’re not overspending at one stage (e.g., top-of-funnel awareness) while neglecting others (e.g., lead nurturing or conversion).

Here’s a simple mapping to consider:

• Top of Funnel (Awareness): SEO, display ads, social media, thought leadership content
• Middle of Funnel (Consideration): PPC, webinars, guides, comparison content
• Bottom of Funnel (Conversion): Email nurturing, retargeting ads, conversion-focused landing pages

The best-performing marketing plans don’t rely on a single tactic—they use a mix that supports the full funnel and moves prospects through each stage efficiently.

Step 4: Identify Overlap and Cannibalization

In the evaluation process, it’s easy to think more is better. But certain channels can overlap and reduce each other’s impact—or worse, inflate your costs without lifting results.

Common examples include:

• Google Ads targeting branded keywords you already rank #1 for organically
• Paid and organic search competing for the same keywords without a strategy
• Multiple remarketing platforms targeting the same audience

This is why documentation and planning is so critical before launching (or relaunching) anything. You want to ensure each tactic has a clear role and measurable impact, and that it plays well with others in the mix.

Step 5: Document It All in Your Plan

The output of the Tactics phase is what we call the DMSP Lifecycle—a detailed planning asset that shows how your selected tactics align with your goals, budget, and customer journey.

Your documented plan should include:

• The full list of tactics evaluated
• The final set of tactics selected
• Forecasted reach, cost, and outcomes for each
• Channel mapping by funnel stage
• Key assumptions and benchmarks to revisit later

You don’t have to get every projection exactly right. But by doing the work upfront, you avoid guesswork, reduce risk, and lay the groundwork for measurement in the Review phase in your next steps in START Planning in creating your Digital Marketing Success Plan™.

Final Thoughts

If Strategy defines what success looks like, then Tactics defines how you’ll get there. But choosing the right marketing tactics isn’t about guesswork or trends—it’s about evaluation, alignment, and forecasting.

When done right, the Tactics phase ensures:

• Your marketing dollars are allocated intentionally
• You can predict and measure success with confidence
• Every tactic plays a clear role in your larger strategy

In the next phase—Application—we’ll dig into the actual assets and resources you’ll need to bring these tactics to life.

Are your tactics mapped to your strategy, or are you just throwing things at the wall?

Let’s fix that.