Programmatic buying affords an opportunity for marketers to take a big leap toward integrated, actionable measurement. Part five of this five-part series shows how brands can get better answers to their questions and make more informed decisions about their spend and creative direction.
Step 1 – Organize audience insights
Step 2 – Design compelling creative
Step 3 – Execute with integrated technology
Step 4 – Reach audiences across screens
Step 5 – Measure the impact [You are here]
Why it matters
Brands can learn what audiences think about their ads—and how perceptions might shift as a result of ad exposure—almost instantaneously. But first, they must have solid measurement tools and optimization plans in place.
Brands have always used measurement to improve their media and creative strategies. Today, however, programmatic buying and integrated platforms have brought new levels of speed and the ability to act accordingly. The resulting real-time feedback loop helps brands make each impression and digital interaction smarter than the last.
Here are the opportunities, actionable takeaways, and best practices from marketers who have found success using robust measurement set-ups.
The opportunity
It's now possible to fully analyze the purchase path and understand which audience touchpoints are most likely to translate to action. Brands now have access to measurement and attribution solutions that are user-first, open, and actionable.
For example, tools that tell you the number of incremental searches for your brand after someone is exposed to your ad give you a broader view of impact beyond just views or clicks. And with data-driven attribution solutions, you can arrive at a model that provides the most accurate view of how your marketing touchpoints influence audiences to act.
How to succeed
Follow these steps to dial in your programmatic-buying feedback loop:
- Get the view
Use programmatic buying to target and optimize for viewable impressions to ensure ads are seen. Google has long subscribed to the Media Rating Council (MRC) definition of viewability: A minimum of 50% of an ad must be in view for a minimum of one second for display ads or two seconds for video ads.
- Measure brand lift in real time
Integrated survey lift tools can generate real-time feedback on ad recall and brand awareness. You can also study brand interest, which describes how ads change search behavior among exposed audiences. Share survey and brand interest results with creative and brand strategy teams to improve digital campaigns.
- Use data-driven attribution
Data-driven attribution helps you determine exactly which ads, keywords and campaigns are having the biggest impact on your business goals―and shows you the optimal combination for your marketing. Google Attribution, for example, lets marketers measure the impact of the entirety of their marketing across devices and channels—all in one place.
Case study: Data-Driven Attribution cuts Ford of Canada’s CPAs by 25%
Check out how Ford of Canada adopted data-driven attribution from Google Marketing Platform1 to achieve a 25% reduction in CPA, a 480% rise in clickthrough rates by giving the right credit to each advertising channel.
