Measuring TV

Google has expanded its web analytics offering to include metrics on TV advertisments and the impact they have on website traffic. This addition generates automatic reports that tell marketers when and where their TV ads ran, the number of impressions delivered, the cost and the CPM. The data can also be looked at by region, should an ad buy focus on a specific city for example, Google Analytics can track traffic coming to your site from that area only... an interesting way to test alternate versions of ads?

As Brett Crosby, a group manager with Google Analytics says:

"One of the common complaints with TV and all advertising is that it's difficult to track success, and when you do get any sort of tracking information, it takes so long [to receive] that it's difficult to act quickly on," he said. But the Google TV analytics data "is updated throughout the day, so it allows people to make very quick decisions about what is working and what is not."

Actions Speak Louder Than Clicks

I recently conducted a webinar with Brett Hieggelke, Vice President of Strategic Marketing at TouchClarity Omniture called "Actions Speak Louder Than Clicks - The New Rules of Engagement Optimization". The presentation is based on our shared approach to optimizing the on-site experience. It shows a selection of results we have jointly achieved by applying both technology and marketing best practices.

Performance Marketing & Creative

In my industry, there is and has been a conflicted view of how metrics driven performance marketing effects the creative process. It's too restrictive, too limiting, what about the brand experience?... And yet, as Norman Guadagno, a colleague from a sister company Zaaz said in a recent post:

"When used properly, performance marketing doesn't serve as a threat to designers, usability experts, or anyone else in the organization. It provides the foundation of a holistic business strategy that leaves designers free to be creative, usability experts open to shape the experience and ultimately allows the company as a whole to monitor Web initiatives and make well-executed adjustments that benefit all parties. Performance marketing allows everyone to bring their "A game" to the table and clearly see the results of their efforts. "

Omniture Takes Offermatica

Web site analytics and optimization firm Omniture is spending $65 million to acquire Offermatica, a company that sells subscription-based A/B and multivariate site testing tools. My company has long (and successfully) partnered with Offermatica and we wish them continued success.

More here...

After The Click at ad:tech

I am at ad:tech today (Wednesday, August 1st) presenting After the Click, our approach to online marketing with my colleague Shane Atchison from Zaaz. We will cover the new laws of relationship marketing on the web and demonstrate how the currency of interactions has definitively moved from eyeballs to dollars. I will post a synopsis of our presentation afterwards, meanwhile, the critical strategies for success that we will discuss are:

1. Decide what you want to achieve and identify the key performance indicators
2. Monetize and prioritize your desired behaviors
3. Measure what matters and those things you can impact
4. Focus on the key conversion points on your site

Social Targeting

A startup based in Boston is bringing a social element to the targeting of display ads on the web. Adpinion allows visitors to vote on ads (thumbs up or down), the combined vote determines what ads you and other visitors see when visiting an Adpinion network site. Adpinion collects preferences through a voting bar that sits along the left hand side of their embeddable ad unit. Each vote contributes to a profile of your ad preferences and the ad profile for the site overall. Rates will be based on clicks and related to how close ads match your preferences.

Of course the best measure of an ad's success will remain a click....

Here's how it works...

1. Adpinon helps you place your ad into their system, where related people and ads group together.
2. Feedback from users helps to move the ad into more relevant groups.
3. When a user goes to a website within our network, Adpinion displays an ad that suits their interests.

More on Pay Per Action

Cost per impression, cost per click or cost per action - the one commonality is cost. And, like every cost there must be a counter-value. Advertisers (and not Google) are responsible for ensuring that that value is realised by making sure that the result of a visit to a site or a landing page is a profitable one. Start by segmenting your audience, making the landing page relevant by aligning the content of the page to the ad, banner, search result etc, test and optimise the different elements of the page and use metrics to listen carefully to what the consumers (visitors) are telling you. In the absence of this, the cost/value ratio will continue to be out of whack whatever the model.

The Beauty of Getting It Wrong

I guarantee that online (and search) marketing conversion rates would be higher than the paltry 4% if only we would adopt a more exploratory or experimental approach. We needn’t and indeed shouldn’t deal in certainty in the online world, doubt is our friend. As long as we listen, learn and adapt our messages to the explicit and implicit feedback we receive, we will be exponentially more successful. The web provides a global, real-time and real life laboratory – only the foolhardy wouldn’t treat it as such and reap the benefits…. As Voltaire said - doubt is unpleasant, but certainty is ridiculous. Tailor the offer, the call to action, the headline, the copy and whatever else in response to what your customers say (on blogs, product ratings etc) and do (on site behaviour, purchases, abandonment etc). Use whatever mechanisms and data you can lay your hands on to constantly monitor your consumers attitudes and behaviours and the act on it.