As B2B marketers contemplate shifting more dollars to digital in order to take advantage of the lower costs and promise of better customer reach, it’s not surprising to hear questions from retailers related to how this spend will generate leads and how they are meant to measure success.
The metrics of digital advertising are undeniable. Whether the objective is brand visibility or cost per lead, digital has moved ahead of television and direct mail in terms of total advertising spend. Digital advertising uniquely complements other ad spend commitments as well. And now with mobile advertising as one of the more promising ways to reach the consumer in the buying process, digital is closing the loop for targeting in-the-market buyers in-store, at home, or at work.
The traditional sales funnel is looking more and more like a virtuous circle, where a consumer should be able to be engaged anywhere in the consideration process with a message that is supportive of eventual closure. Today’s digital marketplace is multi-threaded — keywords, website, display ads, video, and mobile geo-fencing. All of these components orchestrate to create qualified leads and help close sales sooner.
The challenge to the retailer or dealership is how to measure what investment is the one that paid off. Digital attribution can no longer be a guess. Qualified leads, verified prospects, or a simplistic “last click” aren’t going to work in the long run.
Ultimately, only three touchpoints matter: the in-store traffic, the website, and the leads produced.
If your digital advertising spend gets people into the store you should be able to connect that store visit to the audience that saw your advertising online. If the audience served advertising went to the website, you should be able to connect an impression to a website visit. Finally, if the advertising served generates qualified named leads that can be followed up, you’ve connected ad spend to a lead.
Cookie-based onboarding makes these metrics nearly impossible to achieve, as the original audience list is linking to an anonymous ID. That ID can be one person or multiple IDs can represent that original person. There can be duplication and many false positives that obscure your measurement goals.
By contrast, an IP-based onboarding process is able to connect your prospect list to the audience served. The IP that visits the website and goes to the store with a smartphone in hand can be matched. Placing an SVA tag on the website links audiences and impressions served. Visits to the website or store can be converted to named leads.
The IP Address and Smart Zones technology from Semcasting connects the dots for maximum transparency throughout the virtuous circle of digital advertising. Learn more about this matchback and attribution process.
Ray Kingman : Feb 9, 2017 10:43:00 AM
