This week's test looks at how much optimization actually does improve results. We'll run one campaign with 24/7's optimization tool, and one without.
Consider that it took about eight years to go from the 468x60 to the new, larger IAB sizes, even though many of us knew the 468x60 was a lame format. Since the rollout of the new IAB sizes, we've seen rapid expansion into half page ads, mass adoption of screen takeovers, and streaming video being fed into almost any size unit -- all in just a couple of years.
We've also seen Flash, the one-time online pariah, become not only universally accepted, but a de facto tool for any serious online campaign.
Then there are ad serving technologies, like the Atlas DMT system we're using to traffic and track this Sugarshots campaign. Post-impression tracking is now de rigueur instead of an expansive option; we can tie conversion-based CPA to a specific creative on a specific site, as well as access a number of other tracking and reporting capabilities.
These improvements have all come from the industry's dire need to generate a better ROI from every angle possible. After all, only the strong survive.
While extensive progress has been made among the publishers, agencies and ad technology developers, the media networks haven't exactly been on vacation, either. Hence, one of the developments we'll be looking at in this week's test is how a media network's optimization capabilities can increase performance results.
Testing Strategy
Up to this point, we've mainly focused on how we can optimize based on different messaging strategies, media units, and creative tactics and directions. For this week's test I'm going to place the controls in the hands of Ari Bluman and his team over at 24/7 Real Media.
We should always optimize a campaign from as many angles as possible -- strategy, media placement, creative, production techniques -- every role has tactics for squeezing additional performance out of the campaign. When media companies have their own tools to help out, that's even better. They're taking an active role in campaign performance, which means one more angle from which we can try to raise the bar.
Testing Construct
Compared to many of our previous tests, our construct for this week's test is inverted in that instead of keeping the media placement variables constant and trying different strategic or creative tactics, we're going to keep the creative constant and test two different media tactics. One tactic will utilize a media plan without 24/7's optimization tool, the other running on the same network, but with the optimization tool at full throttle.
We'll run the same ad, Rasputin (on the right), for both media tactics.
As for the metrics we'll use for evaluation, we'll look to the Atlas DMT tracking system as well as 24/7's own ad tracking reporting. Further, since Sugarshots isn't fully an ecommerce business model, we'll focus on response data as the driving action against 24/7's optimization system, which we'll discuss in greater detail when we analyze the data in this Thursday's article.
Goals and Objectives
Our goal is pretty simple: to put some icing on our cake. If we've been able to successfully and consistently optimize message strategy and creative tactics as well as choose the most successful channel and unit size for our banner campaign, then we can also turn to something like 24/7's optimization tool and see if we can squeeze out another performance increase.
Will their system be able to improve the campaign's success? If so, by how much? We'll find out this Thursday. Stay tuned.
Doug Schumacher is the president of Basement, Inc.