Digital media has burst on the scene to become an increasingly large and important part of the marketing spend. As expenditures have increased, so has the need for greater accountability and measurement of the return on investment.
The large number of variables is a key challenge to successfully measuring the benefits of digital media marketing. Marketers should begin by identifying the objective of the media buy – drive sales, push shoppers to a Website, encourage them to visit a brick and mortar store or another objective. As with any media spend, it’s critical to identify clear objectives prior to starting the campaign.
Executing traditional and digital campaigns concurrently adds another layer of complexity. Online media drives both online and offline activity, and traditional media also sparks online and offline activity.
Building accurate measurement models requires both an understanding of this complexity as well as expertise in traditional and digital media. With the correct models, marketers can determine, for example, which TV campaigns create the highest contribution to online search. They can then test specific words and messages in this TV campaign and study the effect on line activity – a powerful capability.
These new models can also determine market saturation, ensuring marketers target media dollars to high value opportunities. Because these models include econometric data, results are much more “real world” than the models they replace.
As marketers continue to wring every last ounce of efficiency from their media budgets, clear strategies and comprehensive measurement tools that enable a “single point of truth” will remain at top of mind.
More details regarding this topic are covered in this article featured in last month’s Mediapost Online Daily: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=125717
As digital media and solutions to measure success continue to evolve, please share your observations, experiences and other thoughts by commenting below or via Twitter or Facebook.
Best,
Doug Brooks
Senior Vice President, Analytics and Modeling Service
