August 2010

70% of Advertisers Are Looking for a Better Way of Measuring and Tracking Their Online Marketing Efforts

Omniture, an online marketing and web analytics company, released an in-depth report reviewing current online marketing tactics and measurement tools for blogs, user generated content (UGC), social media, and display advertising.  The purpose of the study focuses on consumer behavior given today’s overwhelming online advertising landscape, as well as how marketers can quantify their online marketing campaigns.  The study is packed with great insight on where consumer habits are trending. What’s most interesting and highly sought after by any online marketer is how to quantify these tactics and what the best analytics tools are for this.

Current Web Analytic Tools and Trends

While traditional forms of advertising i.e., brand, image, display, have been widely used online since the Internet’s inception, new measurement tools are being looked at to bridge the gap between impression and click through.

Here’s a snapshot of the article we found most intriguing:

“More than any other time in the history of the Web, marketers are measuring a variety of metrics. On average, they use six metrics. Click-throughs account for the highest usage at 80 percent, followed by impressions at 62 percent.

Direct response-oriented metrics are becoming increasingly popular at 57 percent, particularly registrations and purchases. In addition, engagement mapping (also called purchase path measurement or attribution) is emerging as a metric – - it is the idea that you can attribute a consumer’s fulfillment to a previously viewed ad, even if they took not obvious action at that time.

This lingering awareness, or latent impression, results in the consumer clicking a second similar ad or returning to the Web to perform a search on the product. The principle is a new idea; it is happening in relation to Web analytics tools as a way to determine how display campaigns really affect consumer behavior on a particular site.

Marketers must expand their metrics horizon to consider out-of-box methods for measurement, such as using free tools for listening to buzz on other sites about your product or creatively leveraging search analytic tools you are already paying for to monitor how individuals change their search behavior, as an indicator that your advertising in the social media space is having a desired impact.”

Jupiter Research’s findings state 70 percent of advertisers want more accurate campaign measurement.

The Omniture report, collaborating with Jupiter and Forrester, goes on to introduce a newly formed metric: Engagement Mapping (also called Purchase Path Measurement or Attribution). This consists of the idea that as the advertiser, you can attribute a consumer’s fulfillment to a previously viewed ad, even if the action is not taken at that time. Simply, if the consumer sees an ad campaign targeted to where the demographic is searching, it will be highly likely that the consumer will run into that same ad campaign enough times – -  the end result being a response to purchase.

In today’s world of ad tools overload, there is an emerging need for an accurate, simple, and manageable web analytic software. Emily Riley, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research, sees that advertisers are only beginning to see the need for attribution. “The pivotal factor for success is to figure out the resulting behavior, then be able to reverse segment the user population based on whether they saw the campaign or not”.  For instance, tracking the impression and click through rates.  She goes on to say, “This will start to prove that those who are exposed to creative spending are more likely to convert over a period of time.”

Thus, serving the consumer ads that are relevant and targeted is key of course, but making sure that Advertisers can directly link the sales funnel through to purchase with more robust analytics tools is what’s on the mind of most advertisers.

For Digispace, an online performance based advertising company already providing web analytic software and optimization tools in the CPA and direct response segments, we believe we’ll crack this code too. Stay tuned!

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