Performance marketing … is it something more than clicks? How do you keep score in the contemporary digital universe? Well, first of all, brand marketers have to think beyond the click and the cost-per-acquisition. Measuring the success of digital advertising has come to include many new variables that weren’t in the picture even a few years ago.
Case in point is the entrance of real time bidding or RTB. This new current in the digital sphere allows the purchasing and selling of display ad impressions through exchanges. The impressions are purchased individually, and in real time. Agencies and advertisers typically make up the buying component, while publishers are positioned on the selling side. The coveted impressions are sold on a seller side platform, much like equities flying through the stock market. Hence, the bidding element.
Thanks to RTB, digital display campaigns clearly satisfy the performance marketing requirements established by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Here’s how to qualify as performance marketing in the eyes of this esteemed organization:
- The objective of a campaign must be to motivate users to take a specific action. This is NOT about raising the awareness of your phenomenal product or service.
- The contribution of the advertising to the desired action must be measurable.
- A consumer must have the ability to optimize his or her purchase in real time, or close to real time.
RTB gives digital display marketers a telescope with which to scan the web and evaluate a campaign’s performance far and wide. If storm clouds are spotted, advertisers can chart a new course and steer the campaign in more favorable directions.
Even more impressive, RTB enables marketers to track the connection between particular digital display ads and website visits or purchases — even if users don’t click on the intended ads. If that kind of monitoring power isn’t performance marketing, then nothing in cyberspace is.
If you have any questions or comments regarding performance marketing, or about any brand-related topic, feel free to send them our way. You can connect with the Young Company team at 949-376-8404 #4033 or bart@youngcompany.com. And be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+ for the latest brand marketing news and tips.