>>>>>>Acquisio will be explaining how to increase conversions by 162 per cent using Facebook Ads at ad:tech London, taking place on 19-20 September 2012. Visit this session for free by registering now.
As we know, data, and the tools needed to manage that data, are increasingly cumbersome. In fact, IBM's 2011 global CMO study found that the explosion of data was marketing's single biggest challenge. For digital, the challenge is more keenly felt, as that data, and its immediacy, is integral to every stage of our work.
Google stated recently that as much as six weeks per person, per year were wasted navigating all the different advertising and campaign management platforms. I'm not sure how this figure was calculated, but I think everyone will understand the point: technology should be making our working lives easier -- and better -- but instead the temptation and perceived need to 'tool up' with many different systems negates the core benefit.
The merging of mediaToday, search, display, mobile, video and social advertising are gaining more traction and agencies need a holistic view of all components to understand how they affect one another. Advertisers can then leverage these insights to refine media buying decisions and strategies.
At the same time, the industry is undergoing a major shift towards exchange traded media. The need for demand side platform (DSP) expertise is on the rise, fuelled by the demand for real-time bidding (RTB) which the IDC predicts is set to command $680 million in ad spend in the UK alone by 2015. In order to remain competitive, it is critical for agencies and advertisers to diversify and empower these new technologies. When looking at merged media, knowing your target audience becomes even more important and should be based on a blend of advertiser, customer and site data. Deep, comprehensive tracking, reporting and analysis of all activity, across all channels, at all stages of the cycle is also key. 'Last click attribution' is fundamentally flawed in today's rich and diverse digital world, but if you can't segment and see the impact of different channels and touchpoints in a single view, you're no closer to understanding how the interplay affects and shapes the behaviour of your target audiences. But look closely at the source of your data. Many providers can only purchase third party cookie data through resellers to deliver search retargeting, but if it is not YOUR data, you can only see that loose family of search terms the cookie resulted from rather than the exact search term, giving at best, a flawed and incomplete view of activity and results.
With RTB, the trick is to make it as 'real-time' as possible. Acquisio takes a unique stance with regards to RTB to deliver retargeting campaigns within minutes of a site visit or search term being entered for example. Other providers miss this 'golden window' and take an hour to a day to commence retargeting activity. For consumables and lower value items, this just isn't good enough. We also work hard to assess the true value of each impression. For example, an advert that is retargeted three times could be deemed to be worth less each time it is served to a user to reflect the potentially lowered value of the ad. This frequency-based pricing will need to become standard across the industry as retargeting continues to grow.
The integration of data
Previously, data integration was by far the most time-consuming activity related to building aggregated data sets and data warehouses. The prospect of compiling all of this data from all of these channels, interpreting that data and then delivering it efficiently to a large volume of clients means one thing and one thing only: A massive investment in time and resources, and a logistical nightmare.
And yet the integration of data is increasingly pivotal to success. As we get more comfortable and clever about working with data, demand from agencies and brands alike increases -- along with the time it takes to mine all that data to extract the actionable insights it gives us. But there can be no 'one size fits all' approach in digital marketing due to the incredible granularity achievable, as well as the myriad different behaviours, demographics, activities and channels we can tap into.
That is why we created Acquisio Links. With over 15 ready-to-go data sources including LinkedIn and DoubleClick's Display DFA, we can now bring data into a single framework and give you the tools to view your data the exact way you want to see it. And yet this is still too limited considering the wealth of data available today, so we also offer a Custom Links solution, which allows clients to integrate any other data source they feel would support their campaign success. Using FTP data transfer, API integration, database inserts or third party connections, turnkey solutions should be able to transform, map and load the data you need, taking the strain of the integration out of agency's hands and delivering a result in hours or days.
A clear road ahead...
Once you have all your data and all your channels in one place, new insights and ideas will flow from the ability to compare different performance elements such as publishers, ads, campaigns and keywords through various time periods. And of course once you have a multi-channel, integrated perspective, your clients will see the value too via reports that can be created and delivered in seconds on any aspect of your work.
The benefits to agencies of this approach are considerable. Over and above the time and cost savings for deployment, having a holistic view of performance provides insights into new ways to grow both campaigns and client services, as well as giving clients superior service through consolidated and augmented optimisation.
The advertising landscape is now evolving faster than at any time in history. We all feel the challenge of getting up to speed and on top of new innovations and opportunities, but the holy trinity of technology, data and media, when used correctly, will remove the roadblocks and create a new world of opportunity for us all.
Laurent Boninfante is the EMEA MD at Acquisio>>>>>>Acquisio will be explaining how to increase conversions by 162 per cent using Facebook Ads at ad:tech London, taking place on 19-20 September 2012. Visit this session for free by registering now.
