Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of the annual Performance Marketing Awards and the stage is set for companies of all sizes to pledge their entries.
In support of the performance marketing industry’s leading award ceremony, PerformanceIN will be speaking to some of the previous winners in the hope of sharing some of their wisdom ahead of the entry period closing on January 22.
Today we’re talking to Chloé Pascal, EMEA marketing manager for Kenshoo – the agile marketing software group which, through the judging process, claimed the Third Party Innovation award for 2015.
This award puts the spotlight on innovation. So with this in mind, what put Kenshoo’s IDA product ahead of the stiff competition in the Third-Party Innovation category?
Chloé Pascal: Digital marketing is a hot-bed of innovation so there’s always a lot of competition in this category. I believe what helped Kenshoo’s Intent-Driven Audiences stand out was its clear, effective approach to bridging the gap between search and social. It uses search intent data – one of the strongest signals that online marketers can leverage – to inform and refine social (Facebook) campaigns in an automated way. Data-driven marketing is being realised with innovations like IDA that allow marketers to remove the silos between their programmes and more easily make rich insights more actionable.
Just give us quick overview of IDA, a bit about how it came about, and what sort of successes IDA took credit for in the year running up to the PMAs earlier this year…
CP: IDA is the first solution in the market that matches clicks on search engine ads to audiences on Facebook in real-time. This allows marketers to show ads to consumers that have searched for specific keywords and also use Facebook’s targeting capabilities to find more customers like them.
The idea came from our knowledge through various studies that if you can manage search and social ads together in a co-ordinated way, you can improve the overall performance of your campaigns. Advertisers generally struggle here because they simply can’t act quickly enough to exploit opportunities; they have to rely on separate, silo-based advertising campaigns – one for search and one for social.
By using IDA to integrate search intent data with social, we’ve seen brands increase ROI by up to 110% in their Facebook campaigns, as well as boost revenue from search marketing campaigns (up 22% in trials), with average order values up by 38%.
So if this year’s contenders think their product fits the bill, what advice would you give to constructing an eye-catching entry?
CP: Focus on explaining how you went about addressing a real digital marketing problem or opportunity in a smart, innovative way. Clearly define the objectives you set for the innovation and include plenty of performance data that demonstrates its success.
Are there any areas of performance marketing innovation you’ve had your eye on over the last year that you expect to make an appearance in the shortlist?
CP: At Kenshoo, we have the privilege of working with a number of partners who are leading the way in digital by creating cutting-edge solutions for marketers.
Given the influence of mobile on consumer behaviour, some of the most notable innovations of the past year are helping solve the unique and complex challenges that come with this mobile-first era. Our cross-device reality necessitates technology that allows for better tracking, measurement, and attribution, and those solutions have started to emerge – be on the lookout for more mobile innovations in the year to come.
More generally, why would you recommend companies get involved in the awards in 2016?
CP: Entering awards is a great way to showcase your successes and raise your profile – and it also brings a nice feel-good factor internally because most people get motivated and inspired by a company that is being recognised for its work. It can take some time and effort, but it’s definitely worth it!