Encouraging more brands to invest in digital marketing channels may be easier to do once the technology for mining their consumer data is up to full speed.
IAB Europe has attempted to find solutions for unlocking growth in digital by gaining feedback from over 700 brand advertisers. Essentially, the group went about asking brands what they would like to see from their various tech providers to up their current level of digital investment.
The insights signalled a clear need for establishing when a consumer is most susceptible to advertising as well as more in-depth information regarding their interests and behaviour.
Other readings suggested this improved view of each consumer could create more relevant and targeted messages, with the resulting boost to performance possibly having an influence on ad spend.
Deeper data
Forming part of its ‘Metrics and KPIs’ survey, IAB Europe’s findings showed that 81% of brands believe pinpointing a consumer’s position in the purchase journey is important to providing relevancy within ads.
This stat echoes comments made by DigitasLBi’s media innovations director Andrew Girdwood, who used a panel session at Performance Marketing Insights: London to explain that ad trading desks – specifically those working off programmatic models – should be getting better at reaching the right consumers at the right time.
IAB Europe found that brands are also interested in finding more about their consumers’ multi-tasking traits. A total of 79% believe this is important to judging how receptive a user is to advertising, which could influence the type of ad they receive.
Setting goals
Overall, there is a huge demand for being able to track what consumers are doing online, with this cited as a possible factor in digital growth by 77% of brand advertisers.
As for ad KPIs, which represented a big focus of the study, brands are always on the lookout for an agreed set of metrics on which to ascertain the performance of their digital activity.
These could range from some of the more traditional methods of measurement and goal setting, such as brands awareness and purchase intent, as well as newer sets including a likelihood to recommend fans or followers on branded social media accounts.