MSN offers advertisers a number of research tools. One of these is AdIndex from Dynamic Logic, a research application to measure advertising effectiveness. AdIndex studies are run in conjunction with an online ad campaign and are designed to provide advertisers, agencies and publishers with traditional brand metrics to gauge the impact of their online advertising campaign. Every time a client's ad is served to a website visitor, an exposure is recorded in the AdIndex exposure database.
Visitors are randomly intercepted to take a brief survey and, upon their consent, are asked a series of questions designed to measure the branding impact of an ad campaign. Responses are broken out by those exposed to an ad and compared to those not exposed. Since both groups are recruited from the same websites and the only variable between the groups is exposure to an ad, the impact that exposure has on metrics can be measured-- such as brand awareness, ad recall, message association and purchase intent.
Other players offer:
Google Analytics, HitBox, WebtTrends
What this could mean for marketers:
Measuring what happens after someone sees an ad is critical. Marketers using MSN’s research tools may be able to quickly assess the impact of real-world campaigns in the minds of consumers and not only achieve their branding goals, but make a profit too by compelling consumers to purchase their products and services.
Microsoft also recently acquired DeepMetrix Corp., a provider of web analytics and business intelligence tools for online marketers and publishers. The acquisition will help deliver to marketers new web analytic applications in the near future.
Additional resources:
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