Navigating the ‘black hole’ of digital media

How do you know if you’re getting what you’re paying for?

The digital space can seem like a black hole for advertising dollars with the limited information that is shared and the limited understanding of where and when, or even if it’s running.

With newspaper/magazines, tear sheets and physical copies are proof the ad ran as intended. Pin it on a bulletin board, and it has a longer life of its own. With outdoor billboards, you drive by your location daily and know it’s up. With TV and radio, you know which stations, programs or dayparts you’ve purchased to know that the spots are running. With “traditional” media, you often have friends telling you they heard your spot. Which is great – if they in fact are your appropriate target audience.

The digital space does not have to be a black hole. In fact, there are more opportunities for true transparency into where the dollars/impressions/actions take place than most advertisers realize.

Advertisers deserve transparency and accountability for advertising dollars

With the continued growth and fragmentation through more media channels than ever to engage consumers within their daily lives, transparency becomes an even bigger struggle in understanding where the money is going, largely as a lack of visibility into where it runs and when it runs.

Black holes for advertisers do not need to exist. There are multiple ways to gather data, providing comfort that dollars are optimized to actions, not just impressions or clicks.

A few considerations when contemplating a shift to digital:

Google Analytics is a must-have. And not just a must-have, but monitored continually to provide key insights and actionable opportunities:

-Bounce rate: Indicates whether clicks to sites are intentional or robotic – in addition to site relevancy to users driven to the site

-Conversions: Signify the right audience is getting to the site because they are taking the desired action driving objectives

-Time on site: Indicates a quality audience being driven through extended engagement

-User flow/behavior flow: Provides visibility into how users are engaging with site and how many pages/clicks it takes to achieve desired action

-Demographics: Allows information on who is visiting the site – helps validate or poke holes in who the perceived target audience may actually be

And these are just a few of the options available within Google Analytics to truly understand the performance

-Ensure trackable conversions. Sure – impressions and clicks can help drive conversions. But ultimately human actions are what matter.

-Consider where the placements are happening – is the site that your ad is appearing on relevant to what you are selling, and is it a resource where someone would truly be investigating your product category?

Media vendors should be providing campaign transparency

It should be an expectation to have visibility into more than just impressions and clicks. Ultimately, results are the objective – not impressions and clicks. Here are just a few of the options available for data opportunities vendors could share to support performance-driven digital campaigns:

Conversions – Both click-thru and view-thru. Because let’s face it: Few of us click on a banner intentionally. But we may respond to it without realizing it has impacted us.

Frequency – Visibility into how many impressions/touches it takes for a user to take an action. After a certain number of impressions, we may want to shift to another user. Or pay less per impression for each user who has already had exposure.

Time of day / day of week – When are users most engaged with the ads? If conversions are not taking place in the middle of the night – stop running ads there.

Creative performance – Sure, clicks may help indicate which creative is driving traffic, but if it isn’t creating actions on the back end, does it really matter?

Device – Mobile / tablets / desktop – if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, the options of having a mobile-focused campaign are limited. This can be adjusted until your site is ready.

Transparency brings tangibility to the black hole of digital media

While traditional media still serves a purpose and has a strong audience, the shift to digital engagement with consumers cannot be ignored. While there are many considerations for advertisers to think through, it does not have to be blind endeavor. With anything, having a proper strategy, approach and set-up at the beginning allows for valuable, actionable insights leading to a stronger ROI for any integrated campaign.

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