In light of the dramatic changes in consumer behavior during the last year, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) recently polled marketers about media KPIs. Half focused on ad effectiveness.
The last year drove significant changes in consumer behavior. It transformed the way we shop, with 75% of U.S. consumers saying they tried a new shopping behavior. Most intend to continue that behavior after the pandemic. During this period, consumers also spent more time on digital media, streaming, digital audio and online gaming.
Despite consumers’ demand for more content—and the increasing complexity of multi-channel distribution—most media companies are still in the early stages of transforming their operations, to take advantage of these new realities. And many brands are not confident they can measure results accurately and completely across media types. That’s especially true in the growing connected TV (CTV) and gaming channels.
All those changes in behavior have us wondering—how well do we really understand today’s consumer? We need to continue to ask questions about the true impact of ads. We need to ask what we are getting, in terms of attention, and what messaging resonates with whom. Do we know if somebody is paying attention differently on one platform versus another? And what media channels drive sales and store visits?
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) recently polled marketers to understand which media KPIs are most important. It’s telling that half focused on ad effectiveness. Proactive marketers are taking steps to understand this campaign performance information. These steps include:
- Optimize baseline verification measurement. Verification is the baseline to evaluate ad effectiveness. This includes validity and viewability (g., is a real and relevant ad served to an actual person who can see it)? Ads need to be in a suitable environment as defined and controlled by each brand. As is well known, ad fraud is a challenge all brands face.
- Track engagement and impact. Once you connect your campaign to datasets that reveal meaningful impact, things rightly center around attention. Human, viewable and brand-safe impressions still set the standard for core measurement. But true brand effectiveness requires deeper evaluation.
- Measure across channels. Fluid media consumption habits change how we reach and capture audiences. It also calls for the ability to understand how consumers actually pay attention across emerging formats to uncover what real viewing means.
Innovative marketers who plan and experiment with formats beyond traditional social media posts and editorial-style content learn much more. That’s because verification alone won’t tell you about impact post view.
Source: Constantino, D. (2021, August 3).
3 Ways ad measurement is evolving to gauge true ad impact. InContext: An inside look at the business of digital content,
OracleDataCloud.
Member Only Access
