Interactive Marketing Nirvana and Advertising Technology
By Jeffrey Pruitt, iCrossing
What do we want to measure? A marketer’s “nirvana” would be tracking all interactive advertising data in the context of search; because we can tie this back to keyword data (words are a great lens into our audience, think of this as a constant and ongoing survey).
Combining performance metrics from all interactive channels (and offline channels as well) with spend and budget information enables us to understand multi channel integration and interaction and also spurs a new type of conversation in the boardroom. This enables us to bring multiple partners into the boardroom to discuss integration (both organizationally and tactically), appropriate budget allocation, and most importantly search as a promotional vehicle. We want to track the customer interaction with the brand, from the time they express interest until the time they perform an action; we might see this through an interaction of display media, email, visitors going direct to a site, paid search, natural search, etc…
In today’s digital world, metrics are determined by the business goals of the client or agency. Measuring your performance, building brand visibility and reputation monitoring are just a few examples of common business goals for interactive agencies and their clients. It is key to measure not only the point of conversion (directly contributing to the goal), but also every point that attributed to that conversion - true multi channel and funnel attribution.
The big question here is not only what do we want to measure, but ultimately how do we go about measuring it? Technology today allows marketers to measure results across multiple channels, bringing those results from search out of the silo and into the board room.
Pruitt joined iCrossing in 1999 as Chief Financial Officer and Director of Business Development. Before coming to iCrossing, Pruitt spent six years at Arthur Andersen in the Audit and Finance divisions. He is serving in his 3rd term on the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), and is the current President and Co-Chair of the Business Development Committee. He is also on the advisory board of YPA.
-- Guest Blogger
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