Optimizing Your Advertising Campaign Measurement Approach

The fast-paced, tech-savvy nature of consumers, combined with the explosion of media channels and content providers, also means the death of "after-the-fact" campaign measurement that's solely focused on who saw the ad. It is no longer prudent for marketers and advertisers to sit idle for the duration of an advertising campaign or promotion and then assess the effectiveness of ad spend on in-store sales lift weeks or months later. Measurement, and in-campaign targeting rebalancing, must be continuous in order to optimize efforts and eliminate frustrated retrospection on how campaigns "could have" performed better.

We are entering a game-changing era where marketers will have no choice but to embrace data-driven solutions that develop highly targeted audiences and continuously tie them to the impact of the media on in-store sales. The future of advertising campaign measurement is big data. The future of advertising campaign measurement is real-time optimization linking sales to media exposure. The future of advertising campaign measurement is here.

Real-Time Optimization

The ability to adjust campaigns mid-flight based on high-quality, in-depth insights is a critical competitive differentiator for advertisers and marketers and their clients. Today's "always-on" marketplace has forever changed the path to purchase, and traditional measurement solutions that can't offer mid-campaign intelligence will surely falter. The ability to make instantaneous, data-driven changes to a campaign will drastically increase ROAS and eliminate waste.

For example, if a major food manufacturer sought to measure campaign lift for a new product launch, it could use such an approach to identify which efforts are driving performance at various snapshots throughout the campaign. If two creative pieces are outperforming others and increasing sales, and certain socioeconomic groups and geographical regions are more responsive to the campaign overall, this manufacturer could reallocate ad spend in order to more aggressively reach these groups and bolster the successful creative pieces. If more resources are allocated to the best-performing aspects and most-responsive socioeconomic categories, the campaign will be more compelling and impactful, building brand trust while accelerating sales.

A Vast and Varied Set of Data

The ability to make immediate campaign adjustments will only work if backed by a vast and varied set of data. For effective advertising campaign measurement there is no such thing as too much data or too much granularity. Campaign measurement solutions should not only account for point-of-sale data, frequent shopper and loyalty data, geographical location, demographics and media type, but also causal variables such as price gaps, promotion intensities, features, weather and accessory advertising. Measurement solutions that fail to integrate these critical data sources are not capable of providing the granularity necessary to accurately optimize media campaigns in real time. Making mid-campaign decisions without the insights that comprehensive data sets can provide is akin to a doctor removing an organ believed to be causing a patient pain without conducting all the necessary diagnostic tests.

Intuitive Display for Actionable Results

The successful implementation of a real-time, data-driven campaign measurement solution relies heavily on the ability of the solution to convey trends, media performance and consumer responsiveness in an intuitive, straightforward manner. The solution should allow for the effortless dissemination of decision-influencing information -- such as total campaign results and sub-campaign level results, including creative, ad placement, publisher, targeting and other relevant breakouts -- to clearly communicate optimization opportunities to clients and facilitate immediate decisions.

Looking Ahead

As data sets grow in depth and reach and the consumer becomes more connected across all channels, advertising campaign measurement solutions will be able to reach new levels of speed and accuracy. We are not too far away from tying all the demand levers, such as advertising, promotions, e-mails, billboards and social communications, to individual, real-time exposure and purchase behavior for true 1:1 personalized relationship development. This will benefit the consumer who seeks more relevant, useful content and will enable marketers and advertisers to ignite their campaigns to surpass client expectations and deliver unprecedented levels of growth.

To learn more about IRI's campaign measurement solutions, visithttp://www.iriworldwide.com/. 

The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage/MyersBizNet, Inc. management or associated bloggers. Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.