2009 will be one of the toughest years for online display advertising, but when the going gets tough, forward-thinking companies don't need to cut ad spends, they just need to understand how to optimize them.
The new leaders in marketing will be those that push through rough times, setting new standards and sophistication required for digital advertising teams of media planners, account management and creative utilization.
Positively impacting the digital advertising market in the long term and over time is a matter of knowing how to spot inefficiencies -- learning what to look for, when and where to look for it.
To help you get ahead of the curve, here are the top five insider tips that smarter branding campaigns will implement in 2009:
- Optimal branding -- It's a common mistake to evaluate the performance of display ads exclusively by the click-through-rate. Brand marketers need to be more interested in the reach and impact of campaigns; to understand that ultimately it's about time. Time spent with adverts is a clear indication of brand interest. Real return on branding investment can only be assured by observing consumers as they choose to spend substantial time with the ad. Software to measure these time efficiencies is essential for any digital marketing manager. With tighter budgets in place, marketers should hold the reins of campaigns and conduct close reviews of ad performances by frequency at the first phase of a campaign.
- Driving user conversions within banner ads -- the definition of a 'conversion' depends upon the campaign objectives of the advertisement including: purchasing a product, requesting a test-drive, downloading a brochure or engaging the user with the brand. The key here is 'Grab them while you can'. Bring the brand experience directly to the consumer on the page that the ad appears on. Capturing details within a banner ad means that the consumer doesn't have to click away from the page that they are browsing, making them more likely to leave behind their details for the marketer. This is an essential for the marketer to re-acquaint with the potential customer at a later stage.
- Creative optimisation -- Making sure you're serving the best-performing creative elements across your online media buys is relatively simple, yet surprisingly overlooked. This is bound to change in the coming year as marketers look for ways to cost-effectively produce multiple campaign versions that are immediately engaging with powerful design elements.
- Creative meets analytics -- Campaigns need to support brand impact and scrupulous measurement as much as the creative behind them. Creative and media teams need to work closely together to design creative that speaks to the overall performance objectives. Creatives must include mechanisms that allow for analyzing, monitoring and optimization; with the ability to change these in real time.
- Cross channel integration -- As display advertising continues to become widely available on PCs; traditional, online and mobile channels will come to the front line. Marketers are encouraged to "follow" active consumers throughout the day across all channels to optimize their branding budgets. Innovative tools to track the full path to conversion are now available from Eyeblaster's Channel Connect for Search.
So when the going gets tough, don't cut ad spends, just cut inefficiencies. In this new economic environment companies must focus on knowing what to look for from their marketing campaigns, how to optimize these elements, when to make changes -- and act.
Mick O'Brien is vice-president for operations, Asia Pacific, at Eyeblaster.
