3. Strategic Planning, Objectives and Digital Business Models

Introduction and Context

Digital and social media marketing is often presented as a collection of channels—search, social networks, email, websites, mobile applications and creator platforms. Strategic marketing, however, begins before channel selection. It asks what the organisation is trying to achieve, which customers and relationships matter, how value will be created, and how digital activity will contribute to measurable organisational outcomes.

This distinction is important because digital activity can produce considerable visibility without producing profitable growth. A campaign may generate impressions, likes and traffic while failing to improve brand preference, sales, retention or customer lifetime value. Strategic planning provides the connection between business purpose and marketing execution. It converts environmental information into choices, choices into objectives, objectives into coordinated action, and action into learning.

For postgraduate students and marketing managers, the central challenge is not simply to know frameworks such as SOSTAC or RACE. It is to use them critically, select appropriate measures, recognise trade-offs and adapt strategy as markets, technologies and customer expectations change. This chapter examines those requirements and then connects them with digital business models, including platform, subscription, advertising and creator-economy models.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Conduct a strategically relevant situation analysis for digital marketing.

2. Formulate SMART objectives connected to brand, revenue and relationship outcomes.

3. Apply RACE, SOSTAC, marketing funnels and customer-journey frameworks appropriately.

4. Distinguish strategic choices from tactical channel activity.

5. Evaluate platform, subscription, advertising and creator-economy business models.

6. Select meaningful metrics and use analytics for managerial decision-making.

7. Identify ethical, governance, privacy and attribution risks in digital planning.

8. Develop an integrated digital strategy for a realistic organisational situation.

From Digital Activity to Strategic Choice

A strategy is an integrated pattern of decisions about where to compete, whom to serve, what value to offer and how resources will be deployed. A digital marketing plan is the operational expression of that strategy in digital environments. The two should not be confused. Posting frequently is an activity; building a trusted community that supports retention is a strategic intention. Buying search advertising is a tactic; reducing customer acquisition cost in a profitable market segment is a strategic choice.

Digital strategy operates across three connected levels. Corporate strategy determines the organisation’s overall direction, such as growth, diversification or social impact. Business strategy determines how the organisation will compete, for example through price, differentiation, convenience or specialist expertise. Marketing strategy translates that competitive logic into segmentation, targeting, positioning, value propositions, relationships and communications. Digital channels then provide means of reaching, serving, converting and learning from customers.

A sound plan therefore begins with questions such as:

• What business problem or opportunity requires action?
• Which audience or stakeholder is most important?
• What customer value proposition can the organisation credibly deliver?
• Which behaviour should change?
• How will success be measured financially, relationally and socially?
• What capabilities, data, people and technologies are required?

The answers should be mutually consistent. A premium positioning, for example, may be damaged by excessive discount-led acquisition. A subscription model may be undermined by campaigns that optimise only for initial sign-ups rather than continued use.

Situation Analysis: Reading the Strategic Environment

Situation analysis is the disciplined examination of internal capabilities, external conditions, customers, competitors and performance evidence. Its purpose is not to produce a long description of the market. Its purpose is to identify strategically significant problems, opportunities and uncertainties.

An external analysis may include political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal influences. In digital marketing, these include platform policy changes, privacy regulation, algorithmic visibility, economic pressure on household spending, changing media habits, artificial intelligence and public concern about data use. Industry analysis considers rivalry, buyer power, supplier or platform dependence, substitutes and barriers to entry. A small brand that relies entirely on one social platform faces a different strategic risk from a business that owns its website, customer database and distribution network.

Customer analysis should move beyond demographic description. Managers need to understand needs, desired outcomes, barriers, information behaviour, device use, purchase context, trust requirements and post-purchase expectations. Search queries, web analytics, customer-service records, reviews, social listening, surveys and qualitative interviews can be combined to identify customer tensions. Quantitative data shows what is happening; qualitative evidence often helps explain why.

Internal analysis examines resources and capabilities. Relevant questions include whether the organisation has distinctive content, usable data, marketing technology, analytical competence, delivery capacity, customer-service capability and governance processes. The resource-based view of strategy is useful here: sustainable advantage is more likely when resources are valuable, difficult to imitate and supported by appropriate organisational systems.

A SWOT analysis can summarise findings, but it should not replace analysis. A statement such as “strong social presence” is weak unless supported by evidence and linked to an implication. A more useful formulation is: “High engagement among existing customers creates an opportunity to develop advocacy, but dependence on rented platform reach creates a risk to predictable acquisition.”

A practical situation-analysis sequence is:

1. Define the business question.

2. Gather evidence from performance, market and customer sources.

3. Segment findings by audience, journey stage and commercial importance.

4. Identify causal issues rather than listing symptoms.

5. Prioritise opportunities according to value, feasibility, risk and urgency.

6. Convert priorities into objectives and strategic choices.

Objectives: Turning Intent into Measurable Direction

Objectives describe desired outcomes. They are different from strategies, which explain how outcomes will be pursued, and tactics, which specify particular actions. “Increase qualified demand from small-business customers” is an objective. “Use educational search content and webinars” is a strategic approach. “Publish two articles each week” is a tactic or activity target.

SMART objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. A strong objective might state: “Increase the proportion of qualified website leads from the target professional-services segment by 20 per cent within six months, while maintaining a lead-to-sale rate of at least 12 per cent.” This is more useful than “improve lead generation” because it identifies the audience, outcome, magnitude, period and quality constraint.

SMART does not mean that every valuable outcome can be reduced to a single number. Brand trust, community belonging and customer experience require a portfolio of indicators. Objectives should therefore be organised hierarchically:

• Business objectives: revenue, margin, market share, retention or cost efficiency.
• Marketing objectives: acquisition, conversion, loyalty, advocacy or brand preference.
• Communication objectives: awareness, comprehension, credibility or intention.
• Channel objectives: reach, qualified traffic, engagement, leads or assisted conversion.
• Activity measures: content production, testing frequency or response time.

The hierarchy prevents vanity metrics from becoming the main purpose of marketing. Reach may be appropriate for an awareness objective, but it is insufficient evidence of commercial success by itself. Similarly, a high click-through rate may be undesirable if the traffic is irrelevant or unprofitable.

Objectives should also reflect strategic tensions. Growth objectives may conflict with profitability; personalisation may conflict with privacy; automation may conflict with human service quality; short-term conversion may conflict with long-term brand building. Senior marketers must make these trade-offs explicit rather than allowing platform metrics to determine strategy implicitly.

RACE, SOSTAC and the Logic of Planning

The RACE framework—Reach, Act, Convert and Engage—organises the customer and marketing process. Reach concerns visibility and qualified audience access. Act concerns interaction and consideration, such as content consumption, product exploration or lead capture. Convert concerns purchase, booking, subscription or another defined transaction. Engage concerns retention, repeat purchase, advocacy and continuing relationship value.

RACE is particularly useful for mapping objectives and metrics across the customer lifecycle. It also draws attention to post-purchase activity, which is frequently neglected when teams focus on acquisition. The stages are not always linear. Customers can move backwards, repeat stages, use several devices or enter through advocacy rather than awareness.

SOSTAC provides a broader planning architecture: Situation analysis, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action and Control. Situation establishes the evidence base. Objectives specify desired outcomes. Strategy determines segmentation, targeting, positioning, value proposition, channel roles and resource priorities. Tactics describe the marketing mix and channel execution. Action allocates responsibilities, schedules, budgets and systems. Control establishes measurement, review and corrective action.

The frameworks complement one another. SOSTAC structures the management plan, while RACE helps organise customer-facing activity and measurement. For example, a SOSTAC plan may set a retention objective, use RACE’s Engage stage to map customer behaviour, and then specify email, community and service tactics supported by a churn dashboard.

A common planning error is to begin with tactics: “We need a TikTok campaign” or “We should use an influencer.” Strategic planning reverses this sequence. First define the audience and objective, then assess whether the channel’s audience, format, economics, data access and brand fit justify its use.

Funnels and Customer Journeys

The funnel is a useful simplification of movement from awareness to consideration, conversion and loyalty. It supports budget allocation and helps identify leakage. Nevertheless, it can misrepresent contemporary behaviour if treated as a rigid sequence. Customers compare brands through search, communities, reviews, marketplaces, creators and offline experience. They may encounter a brand after a recommendation and may continue researching after a purchase.

Customer-journey mapping offers a richer perspective. A journey map identifies stages, touchpoints, customer questions, emotions, pain points, organisational actions and evidence. It should distinguish the customer’s actual journey from the organisation’s preferred campaign path. A map for a high-involvement service might include trigger, problem recognition, exploration, comparison, consultation, purchase, onboarding, use, renewal and advocacy.

Journey analysis enables managers to locate moments that matter. If many visitors begin an application but abandon it at identity verification, additional awareness spending may be less valuable than simplifying the form, clarifying privacy information or improving technical performance. If customers purchase but do not activate a service, onboarding—not acquisition—may be the strategic constraint.

Useful journey metrics include reach and brand search at early stages; engaged visits, content completion and qualified enquiries during consideration; conversion rate, cost per acquisition and margin at purchase; and retention, repeat purchase, referrals, satisfaction and customer lifetime value after purchase. Attribution should be interpreted cautiously because journeys are multi-touch and platform reporting may over-credit easily measurable interactions.

Digital Business Models and Value Creation

A business model explains how an organisation creates, delivers and captures value. Digital environments make several models scalable, but they also introduce dependence on data, platforms, network effects and attention.

Platform Models

A platform facilitates interaction between two or more participant groups, such as buyers and sellers, hosts and guests, or audiences and creators. Its value often increases through network effects: more participants can make the service more useful to other participants. Platforms may earn commissions, listing fees, subscriptions, advertising revenue or payments for additional services.

Platform strategy requires attention to both sides of the market. Attracting sellers without buyers creates poor experience, while attracting buyers without sufficient supply creates dissatisfaction. Trust mechanisms—ratings, identity checks, dispute procedures, moderation and guarantees—are strategic assets. Platform businesses also face risks of fraud, market concentration, unfair ranking and participant dependence.

Subscription Models

Subscription businesses exchange recurring payment for continuing access, convenience, content, software, membership or replenishment. Their economics depend less on the initial sale than on retention. Important measures include recurring revenue, activation, churn, renewal rate, customer lifetime value, acquisition cost and payback period.

A subscription proposition must provide continuing value. Merely placing a one-time product behind a recurring payment is unlikely to sustain trust. Pricing architecture, free trials, cancellation processes, onboarding, usage reminders and service recovery all influence retention. Managers should distinguish voluntary churn from involuntary churn caused by payment failure and should avoid dark patterns that make cancellation unnecessarily difficult.

Advertising-Supported Models

Advertising-supported businesses provide free or subsidised access and monetise audience attention, data-informed targeting, placements or sponsored content. Their strategic challenge is to balance user experience, advertiser value and long-term trust. Excessive advertising can reduce engagement and encourage users to leave, while weak measurement can undermine advertiser confidence.

Advertising strategy must also consider brand safety, fraud, viewability, frequency, contextual relevance and privacy. The availability of large quantities of impressions does not guarantee valuable attention. A publisher or platform should understand the quality and commercial relevance of its audience rather than optimising only inventory volume.

Creator-Economy Models

Creator-economy models allow individuals or small teams to produce, distribute and monetise content, expertise, entertainment or community. Revenue may come from sponsorships, affiliate commissions, subscriptions, memberships, digital products, live events, licensing, tipping or platform revenue sharing.

Creators often possess high relational credibility because audiences perceive ongoing interaction and personal identity. That credibility is also fragile. Commercial disclosure, truthful claims, transparency about affiliates and respect for audience boundaries are essential. Brands should assess creator-audience fit, credibility, engagement quality, content rights, brand safety and the possibility of overdependence on one personality or platform.

Connecting Models with Marketing Objectives

Business-model selection changes the meaning of marketing performance. An advertising-supported platform may prioritise active users, session quality and monetisable attention. A subscription service may prioritise activation, usage frequency and retention. A marketplace may prioritise successful transactions and balanced participation on both sides. A creator business may focus on audience trust, conversion to owned channels and revenue diversification.

The same metric can therefore have different strategic meanings. A large audience is valuable to an advertiser-supported platform, but it may be unprofitable for a subscription business if users do not retain. A low acquisition cost may appear attractive until low-quality customers create high service costs or early churn. Metrics must be interpreted through the economics and purpose of the model.

Customer lifetime value is particularly useful when used carefully. A simplified formulation is:

Customer lifetime value ≈ average contribution per period × expected relationship duration − retention and service costs.

This is not a precise natural fact; it is a decision estimate dependent on assumptions about margin, churn, discounting and behaviour. It should be tested against cohorts rather than used to justify unlimited acquisition spending.

Analytics, Automation and AI in Strategic Planning

Digital planning depends on a measurement system that links objectives, events, data sources, analysis and decisions. A useful measurement framework identifies the key performance question, the relevant indicator, its data source, reporting frequency, owner and decision rule. For example, a rising cost per qualified lead may trigger audience refinement, landing-page testing or a review of channel quality.

Dashboards are valuable when they support decisions rather than merely display numbers. Cohort analysis can compare customers acquired in different periods or channels. A/B testing can evaluate alternative messages or experiences, provided the test has a clear hypothesis and sufficient attention to sample quality. Marketing-mix or incrementality approaches may be needed when last-click attribution is misleading.

Automation can support bid management, segmentation, triggered communication, lead scoring, customer service and content workflows. AI can assist with forecasting, summarisation, personalisation, creative variation and anomaly detection. However, automation does not remove the need for strategic judgement. Poor objectives, biased data or weak governance can produce faster and more scalable mistakes. Human review is necessary for sensitive decisions, high-impact targeting, factual claims, cultural representation and crisis communication.

Illustrative Case: Northstar Learning Subscription

Background

Northstar Learning is a fictional online provider of professional short courses. It sells individual courses and has introduced a monthly subscription giving members access to a catalogue, live sessions and assessment tools.

Situation and Problem

The company invests heavily in paid social advertising and reports strong sign-up volume. However, many subscribers cancel within the first two months. Marketing reports low acquisition cost, while finance reports weak contribution margin. Customer interviews indicate that new members find the catalogue confusing and do not understand how to select a suitable learning path.

Analysis

A situation analysis identifies a mismatch between the acquisition objective and the subscription model. Campaigns optimise for registrations, not activation or retention. The customer journey shows a major failure between conversion and first meaningful use. Analytics confirms that members who complete an orientation activity and begin one course in the first week are more likely to renew. The brand also risks being positioned as a large but undifferentiated content library.

Strategy and Solution

Northstar revises its objective: increase the three-month renewal rate of new subscribers by 15 per cent within two quarters while maintaining a sustainable acquisition cost. Its positioning emphasises guided professional development rather than unlimited content alone.

Using SOSTAC, the company redesigns onboarding, introduces role-based learning paths, sends behaviourally triggered reminders, and offers a live orientation session. RACE is used to organise measurement: Reach tracks qualified professional audiences; Act tracks pathway selection and orientation attendance; Convert tracks paid subscriptions; Engage tracks course completion, renewal and referrals. Paid media is reduced in low-retention segments and shifted towards audiences with stronger completion behaviour.

The control system uses cohort dashboards. Marketing, product and customer success review activation and churn weekly, while finance reviews contribution by acquisition source monthly. Cancellation feedback is categorised to distinguish price objections, low usage, content mismatch and technical problems.

Outcome

In this illustrative case, the organisation would judge success not by sign-ups alone but by improved activation, renewal and contribution margin. If retention improves while acquisition remains economically sustainable, the strategic change is supported. If renewal does not improve, Northstar should test content quality, pricing, service design and segment fit rather than simply increasing advertising.

Learning Points

The case demonstrates that the most visible funnel problem may not be the most important one. A subscription business must market the continuing value of the relationship. Objectives, customer journeys, product experience and financial measures must therefore be designed together.

Challenges, Ethics and Governance

Strategic digital planning faces several recurring difficulties. Data may be incomplete, inconsistent or biased. Platform metrics may be defined differently across suppliers. Attribution may overstate the value of measurable touchpoints. Organisational teams may pursue conflicting objectives, such as reach, leads, revenue and customer satisfaction. Privacy restrictions may reduce individual-level tracking, requiring stronger first-party relationships and aggregated measurement.

Ethical planning requires more than legal compliance. Marketers should obtain valid consent where required, collect only necessary data, explain relevant uses, protect information and provide meaningful choice. Targeting should not exploit vulnerable people or reproduce discriminatory outcomes. Persuasive design should not conceal costs, manipulate consent or make cancellation unreasonably difficult.

Governance should assign responsibility for data quality, approvals, access controls, creator disclosures, advertising claims, crisis response and AI use. Organisations should maintain an audit trail for important automated decisions and establish escalation procedures for harmful content, security incidents and platform failures. Brand safety is not merely an advertising concern; it includes the environments in which a brand appears and the effects of its communication on stakeholders.

Emerging Strategic Directions

Several developments are reshaping planning. Privacy-enhancing technologies and restrictions on third-party tracking are increasing the importance of consented first-party data, contextual relevance and experimentation. Retail media is expanding the role of commerce platforms as advertising environments. Social commerce increasingly combines discovery, recommendation, transaction and service. Generative AI is accelerating content production, but it raises issues of originality, disclosure, intellectual property, hallucinated claims and workforce capability.

The strategic response should not be to adopt every new tool. Managers should assess whether a development improves customer value, organisational capability, economic performance or learning. Durable advantage is more likely to come from trusted relationships, distinctive knowledge, strong service and adaptable systems than from temporary access to a fashionable feature.

Best-Practice Principles for Strategic Digital Planning

Effective planning is evidence-led but not data-naive. It connects business economics with customer insight, sets a small number of meaningful objectives, assigns clear channel roles and measures outcomes across the relationship. It treats owned assets—such as websites, email permissions, communities, customer knowledge and service capability—as strategic resources rather than relying exclusively on rented platform reach.

Plans should include explicit assumptions, risks, budget constraints and review points. Teams should test important uncertainties, document learning and be willing to stop activities that do not create value. Finally, strategy should be communicated across marketing, product, sales, technology, finance, legal and customer service. Digital marketing succeeds when it is integrated with the organisation’s total value proposition, not when it operates as an isolated communications function.

Chapter Summary

Strategic digital and social media marketing begins with business purpose, customer value and evidence rather than channel enthusiasm. Situation analysis identifies external pressures, customer needs, internal capabilities and strategic opportunities. SMART objectives translate broad intentions into measurable outcomes, while objective hierarchies connect business, marketing, communication, channel and activity measures.

SOSTAC provides a planning architecture from situation analysis through control. RACE organises customer-facing activity across Reach, Act, Convert and Engage. Funnels simplify movement between stages, whereas customer-journey maps reveal non-linear behaviour, pain points and moments requiring organisational action. Platform, subscription, advertising and creator-economy models create different value mechanisms and therefore require different performance measures. Analytics, automation and AI can improve planning, but only when supported by sound objectives, human judgement, privacy protection and governance. The central managerial task is to align strategy, experience, economics, measurement and ethics.

Key Terms

Situation analysis: Systematic examination of the market, customers, competitors, capabilities and performance evidence.

SMART objective: An objective that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

Strategy: An integrated set of choices about markets, value, competitive position and resource allocation.

Tactic: A specific action or executional method used to implement strategy.

RACE: A framework comprising Reach, Act, Convert and Engage across the customer relationship.

SOSTAC: A planning framework consisting of Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action and Control.

Marketing funnel: A simplified representation of movement from awareness through consideration, conversion and loyalty.

Customer journey: The sequence of customer experiences, decisions and touchpoints associated with a need or relationship.

Value proposition: A clear statement of the value and benefits offered to a defined customer group.

Platform business model: A model that facilitates interactions among two or more participant groups.

Network effects: Increased value arising when participation by one group benefits other participants.

Subscription model: A model based on recurring payment for continuing access or service.

Churn: The rate or occurrence of customers ending a subscription or relationship.

Customer lifetime value: An estimate of the contribution generated by a customer over the relationship duration.

Advertising-supported model: A model that monetises audience attention, access or targeting for advertisers.

Creator economy: Commercial activity in which individuals monetise content, expertise, community or influence.

First-party data: Data collected directly by an organisation through its own customer interactions and permissions.

Attribution: The process of assigning credit for an outcome to marketing touchpoints.

Incrementality: The additional outcome caused by an intervention compared with what would have happened without it.

Dark pattern: A design practice that manipulates users into choices they might not otherwise make.

Review Questions

Short Answer Questions

1. Distinguish a marketing objective from a tactic and provide an example of each.

2. What are the four stages of the RACE framework?

3. Why should SWOT analysis not be used as a substitute for evidence-based situation analysis?

4. Define customer churn and explain why it matters in a subscription model.

5. What is meant by first-party data?

Long Answer Questions

1. Explain how SOSTAC and RACE can be combined in a digital marketing plan.

2. Discuss the role of customer-journey mapping in identifying strategic priorities.

3. Compare platform, subscription and advertising-supported business models in terms of value creation and measurement.

4. Explain how SMART objectives can prevent vanity metrics from dominating digital marketing decisions.

5. Evaluate the ethical and governance issues involved in using automation and AI for digital marketing.

Analytical / Application Questions

1. A retailer receives high social engagement but declining sales. Design a situation-analysis process and propose a hierarchy of objectives.

2. A subscription app has low acquisition cost but high early churn. Use RACE, a customer journey and relevant metrics to diagnose the problem.

3. A brand wishes to work with creators to launch a health-related product. Recommend criteria for creator selection, governance and performance evaluation.

22. Multiple Choice Questions with Answers

Question 1

Which statement best distinguishes a strategic objective from a digital marketing tactic?

A. An objective describes a desired outcome, while a tactic describes an executional action.

B. An objective is always qualitative, while a tactic is always quantitative.

C. An objective applies only to finance, while a tactic applies only to communication.

D. An objective is selected by platforms, while a tactic is selected by customers.

Correct Answer: A. An objective describes a desired outcome, while a tactic describes an executional action.

Question 2

A subscription company measures sign-ups but ignores activation and renewal. What is the main strategic weakness?

A. It is using too many customer-journey stages.

B. It is evaluating an ongoing relationship model mainly through an acquisition measure.

C. It is focusing excessively on first-party data.

D. It is using a platform model rather than a subscription model.

Correct Answer: B. It is evaluating an ongoing relationship model mainly through an acquisition measure.

Question 3

Which activity belongs most directly to the Engage stage of RACE?

A. Buying a first impression advertisement

B. Publishing an introductory brand video

C. Improving renewal and referral behaviour among existing customers

D. Increasing the number of unpaid search impressions

Correct Answer: C. Improving renewal and referral behaviour among existing customers

Question 4

In SOSTAC, which element determines segmentation, targeting, positioning and channel roles?

A. Situation

B. Strategy

C. Action

D. Control

Correct Answer: B. Strategy

Question 5

Why is a customer-journey map often more useful than a rigid funnel alone?

A. It eliminates the need for performance measurement.

B. It assumes that all customers follow the same linear path.

C. It reveals touchpoints, pain points and non-linear behaviour across the relationship.

D. It focuses only on post-purchase advocacy.

Correct Answer: C. It reveals touchpoints, pain points and non-linear behaviour across the relationship.

Question 6

A marketplace attracts many sellers but few buyers. Which platform issue is most evident?

A. Failure to balance participation on both sides of the market

B. Excessive customer lifetime value

C. Overuse of subscription pricing

D. Insufficient creator disclosure

Correct Answer: A. Failure to balance participation on both sides of the market

Question 7

Which objective is the strongest SMART objective?

A. Improve our social media presence soon.

B. Become the most popular brand online.

C. Increase qualified leads from the target segment by 20% in six months while maintaining a 12% lead-to-sale rate.

D. Post more content and receive better engagement.

Correct Answer: C. Increase qualified leads from the target segment by 20% in six months while maintaining a 12% lead-to-sale rate.

Question 8

Why can last-click attribution mislead a digital marketing manager?

A. It gives equal credit to every touchpoint.

B. It may over-credit the final measurable interaction in a multi-touch journey.

C. It cannot measure any digital interaction.

D. It measures only customer satisfaction.

Correct Answer: B. It may over-credit the final measurable interaction in a multi-touch journey.

Question 9

Which practice is most consistent with ethical digital marketing governance?

A. Making cancellation difficult to protect recurring revenue

B. Collecting all available data for possible future use

C. Using consented data, clear disclosures and human review for sensitive automated decisions

D. Allowing platform algorithms to determine all targeting without oversight

Correct Answer: C. Using consented data, clear disclosures and human review for sensitive automated decisions

Question 10

A creator partnership produces high reach but little qualified traffic and poor audience fit. What is the best strategic conclusion?

A. Reach alone proves the partnership is successful.

B. The creator should be evaluated against audience relevance and the campaign objective, not reach alone.

C. The brand should immediately increase spending on the same creator.

D. Creator marketing cannot support relationship objectives.

Correct Answer: B. The creator should be evaluated against audience relevance and the campaign objective, not reach alone.