Offline call data improved SEM performance and the customer experience
Customer generation is the ultimate metric; Allstate learns to optimize on- and off-line channels against it. From Search Engine Land:
“Call tracking, now generally rebranded as ‘call intelligence’ or ‘call analytics,’ went from being a novelty in the SEM world a few years ago to a perceived commodity today. However, the benefits of using call analytics extend well beyond campaign optimization into operational and customer experience insights for brands and marketers.”
Level Insight:
- With impressions, clicks, calls, inquiries, visits, likes, and numerous other platform-specific metrics in digital marketing, the metric that really matters is still sales. Call tracking from SEM ad to conversion allows media teams to optimize toward digital and non-digital sales activity.
- Call data can inform decisions to optimize SEM campaigns. With the buying process still occurring in both the on- and off-line spaces in several industries, visibility and communication between call center and SEM teams is vital.
- An SEM campaign can be expertly executed with precise targeting and incisive messaging, but without an effective closing strategy the dollars spent on clicks may be wasted. Using analytics, Allstate optimized every step of the buyer journey, including identifying and improving a poor customer experience in the interactive call menu.
Boosting Spending on the Smallest Screen, But Not Too Much, Has Direct Impact
Mobile advertising: With great power comes great responsibility. From Ad Age:
“Optimal spending on mobile tends to top out at much lower levels than other media, because it doesn’t take as much frequency to make an impact as other media.”
Level Insight:
- A mobile video ad only takes three views to reach saturation, significantly lower than the 12–15 views on television. Apparently political advertisers are not familiar with this data.
- It is possible to get too targeted. When addressing a small, niche audience, vary the message and the creative to avoid inundating the same people with the same ad — ad nauseam.
- Optimizing around a specific variable that was hypothesized to affect performance significantly increased campaign impact. The risk of ad exhaustion and overexposure to a certain audience necessitates adaptability, to pivot campaigns quickly and to adjust strategy. Why not experiment with optimizing against a moment instead of a demographic?
Ad blocking usage is up more than 10 percent from last year
Consumers are increasingly embracing ad blockers, but all is not lost. From Mashable:
“But despite the uptick, consumer attitudes towards online ads are actually increasingly positive, the report says. Around seven in ten respondents say ads have either improved in quality or stayed constant, and nearly six in ten say marketers effectively provide interesting ad content.”
Level Insight:
- Researchers found an inverse relationship between ad blocker usage and consumer attitudes about online ads. 80% of those surveyed wanted to see more personalized content in the ads. Consumers are willing to engage, but only if the message is right and that it fits the channel.
- Advertisers can still attain consumer engagement as ad blocker usage spikes. The onus is on the advertiser to create a better user experience and an offer that resonates with the target audience. However, a small, savvy population concerned about malware embedded in ads (particularly those created in Flash) will continue to use ad blocking programs.
- Beware: The article page is smothered by intrusive ads. From a display ad that covers the top third of the page to a Flash video with sound and no stop button (a political ad that reached its saturation point at one view), the blog post itself serves as an ironic endorsement of the mechanisms that hide the ads that fund the Mashable site.
