Display marketing has become an increasingly effective way to reach your target market. Its various forms enable you to adjust your ads as needed, even automatically through machine learning. These ads may be used at each step of a customer’s journey to move them to the next step, and then new ads can then move them even further. Being able to measure these results at each step is very important to increased sales. Let’s explore how rethinking measurement in display marketing can help take your marketing to the next level.
Types of display marketing
Originally limited to just banner ads, display marketing has now developed into static, contextual, interactive, dynamic, video ads and more. Many types of ads can work well in both websites and mobile apps. Display marketing can partner well with search advertising through retargeting, displaying relevant ads based on web pages the viewer has already visited.
The typical journey to purchase
Customers do not decide to buy a product the instant that they first see your ad. There is a defined customer journey, or path to purchase, that they take, and their thought processes are different at each level. At the start of the journey, they are made aware of the product or service through a generic search. In the middle of the journey, the potential customer needs to have their desire stirred and boosted. The final step helps them to decide to buy. Correct marketing attribution helps you know just how effective each step is in the process.
The importance of multi-touch marketing
Ads often target people who are at the first level of engagement, or at the last level. While these ads will start to move them toward the goal of a purchase, having ads at each level targeting their state of mind at the time will produce far better results. These ads are designed to move them to the next level, gently, along the path toward the purchase point.
Attribution modeling and what it measures
Determining the effectiveness of display marketing requires attribution modeling, which is the measurement of the effectiveness of your ads during each step of the buying process. The marketing attribution model you choose for measurement determines the accuracy. For instance, if you choose the Last Interaction model (last-click attribution), the channel leading directly to the sale will receive 100% of the credit. Selecting the First Interaction model (first-click attribution), which may be paid search, would be credited with 100% of the sale. If you choose the linear attribution sale, and supposing you had four channels – paid search, a social network, an email and direct channels, then each one would get 25% of the credit. As you can see, the model you select determines the accuracy and level of detail in your results.
Better measurement in display marketing
As a customer responds to the various ads in your display marketing strategy, understand that these ads are for the early phases of the customer journey. In order to understand how effective each step of your multi-touch marketing and your mobile display advertising is, it is probably not wise to rely on the Last Interaction model, which is useless for the earlier stages.
The greater effectiveness of using attribution models
Alternative attribution models enable the user to discover which channels and ads are most effective in moving their target market from each ad to the end result: making the purchase. The advantages of alternative attribution models over standard last-click modeling are tremendous, providing much more information and details at every step.