An action research on providing added value to unsuccessful sponsored contents to increase article views and improve client retention

XYZ Amplify is News Publisher XYZ\u27s independent digital marketing agency that offers editorial and pay-per-click advertising campaigns. The sponsored content campaigns are the primary service of XYZ Amplify; these are brand dedicated articles that cater to businesses looking for a publisher to promote their products or services. The challenge that these sponsored content campaigns face is when the performance of the articles does not reach its KPI (i.e., guaranteed views per campaign). Paying clients would often discuss their disappointment with the partnership and would lead to the non-renewal of campaigns. As of September 2021, XYZ Amplify has a low client return rate of 0.07%; this action research aims to improve (1) the relationship with the clients who had unsuccessful campaigns by providing added value to increase the views of their sponsored content that could result in (2) renewal of campaigns. In cycle 1, the researcher addressed a recurring problem where the sponsored contents are not reaching its KPI by creating a newsletter placement within the News Publisher XYZ’s daily newsletter. These placements will reach the 450,000 email subscribers and may potentially drive traffic and increase engagement. The added value aims to take the humanistic management approach by focusing on improving the quality of the relationships and reversing the emotional effects of the unsuccessful campaigns. By the end of the first cycle, two out of the ten clients with unsuccessful campaigns renewed their contracts. However, on the second cycle, the researcher tested this by providing the same added value to campaigns that have ended a minimum of 30 days upon the feature and are no longer in contact with XYZ Amplify; unfortunately, all six clients that were featured in the newsletter did not show interest despite some brands generating sales from this added exposure. Upon analysis, the temporal element plays a crucial factor when providing an added value to the campaign. This should be considered in 2 ways: (1) the campaigns should still be ongoing, the added value may be given mid to tail-end of the campaign, and as necessary as possible; (2) the management intervention must be given before the client can make their analysis on the performance of the campaign and the partnership with XYZ Amplify (i.e., before the client has formulated an impression with the partnership, intervention should be given before the client requests to discuss the performance of their campaign.) Providing the intervention may increase client return rate, satisfied clients, and exemplary client feedback from ended campaigns