2. UNIFIED MARKETING PERFORMANCE:
MAXIMIZING RETURN ON DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
At a Glance
Business Trend
• Digital marketing has entered a new, fragmented universe, a multiple channel galaxy of web, social and
mobile planets.
• Consumer adoption of social and mobile is especially fast and furious, ramping up faster than past
channels, putting brands and chief marketing officers under pressure to understand consumers and meet
demand.
• This fragmentation is disrupting the marketing landscape and presenting new challenges for determining
investment and measuring effectiveness.
At Issue
• Many of the same challenges faced 15 years ago when companies began web marketing are at issue
today in social and mobile channels.
• Brands are jumping on the social and mobile bandwagons to meet demand, but in the rush to get there
are bypassing the fundamentals of digital marketing planning.
• Each digital channel has its own measure of success, but many marketers are unaware of what to
measure and which key indicators are important
Business Solution
• A strategy that includes measurement, testing, targeting and optimization is a recipe for success in social
and mobile channels, just as it is with websites.
• Knowing what and how to measure each channel can set the stage for continual improvement, customer
engagement, and conversion and revenue.
• Advanced tools that allow data to be analyzed and optimized across all channels offer the best business
case for achieving marketing performance by getting measurable return on marketing dollars.
CHALLENGES OF THE NEW DIGITAL MARKETING
LANDSCAPE
An enormous wave of diversity has hit the shores of digital marketers. With the fast and furious adoption of
Facebook, Twitter and smartphones, consumer demand for social and mobile channels has hit marketing like a
tsunami, catching many brands – and their CMOs – unprepared to manage expectations in this new digital
landscape.
With every new channel comes a new set of technologies, content classification, standards and measurements
that must be understood and incorporated into marketing programs. And developing new channels requires a
level of investment that often requires justification to the executive board. How can brands know which new
channels will be worth their time and resources?
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3. The new multi-channel ecosystem, spurred by consumer demand and sophistication, is disrupting the digital marketing
landscape and making it difficult to measure effectiveness and evaluate overall performance.
The Fragmentation of Customer Touchpoints
In May 2011, Webtrends commissioned Forrester Consulting to
study the phenomenon of the "splinternet," a term Forrester coined
to describe how digital interactions have moved from being primarily
site-centric just a few years ago to being splintered across multiple
channels and devices. The study yielded three key findings:
1. The Splinternet disrupts the marketing landscape, but adapting to a multiple channel environment is critical.
2. Marketing strategies need a reboot to meet expectations of sophisticated consumers.
3. Multi-channel success requires understanding of unified customer behavior across all channels.
Success Looks Different Over Here
“Get ready for mobile now.
Adding to the sense of disruption - and confusion - is that success on Begin evaluating mobile
social and mobile platforms is measured differently than success is channels and establishing
measured on the web. benchmarks to ensure that
your organization is ready
For instance, web performance is most often measured in visits, page
to expand into mobile once
views, click-throughs, duration, etc. Social platform success is seen in
it hits the tipping point with
"likes," posts, comments, sponsored stories, re-tweets, etc.; while
your target customers.”
mobile is seen through the lens of downloads, usage, QR code usage,
or even as a tool for payment.
Source: Recommendation from “The
Because there are significant differences in technologies across Implications of the Splinternet and
Future of Web Analytics.” A Forrester
platforms, there are differences in the way customer engagement is Consulting Thought Leadership Paper
performed. As these channels advance and more tools and apps Commissioned by Webtrends in
September, 2011
become available in each platform, what is measured – and how it is
measured – is important to how success is measured.
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4. HOW TO MEASURE FOR DIGITAL MARKETING SUCCESS
Marketers see the splinternet as an opportunity to deliver more targeted and relevant communications for
increased customer engagement. Each new channel offers another way to acquire customers and increase
loyalty. Yet, 68 percent of brands enter these new channels without a plan for success.
Lessons learned from the web
Fifteen years ago, the web was emerging as a new marketing channel. Companies developed a website not
knowing where they were headed with it or how to measure its effectiveness. And many companies were
reluctant to enter the channel, not knowing if it would bring value to their customers or be worth the investment –
at that time, a very expensive undertaking.
The same challenges are present today in social and mobile channels. But lessons learned and tools created for
measurement and optimization of websites can be carried forward into these new digital arenas. Measurement
enables brands to put a strategy in place and plan for success, one step at a time. Measuring each channel
strategically gives brands the ability to compare results across channels and integrate results for a unified view of
overall marketing performance.
The Digital Marketing Maturity Model: Crawl, Walk, Run
Entering a new channel without a plan for success that includes measurement and optimization can be costly,
especially if you're "just experimenting". Thinking through goals and setting expectations can ease trepidation of
entering an unknown channel, and instead set a path toward a new marketing opportunity.
To plan for success, brands are adopting a three-step process, which can be thought of as the "crawl, walk, run"
process, and it involves measurement, testing and targeting, and nurturing and effectiveness:
Forrester’s study yielded three key findings:
1. Crawl: This is an operational reporting stage, where brands measure what matters to a company's key
performance indicators, such as adoption of apps or acquisition of fans.
2. Walk: Testing and targeting allows brands to apply insights from measurement to build engagement and
improve the customer experience.
3. Run: Nurturing users with targeted marketing results in conversions and revenue, providing brands with a
true picture of marketing effectiveness.
This process is not only a recipe for marketing success, it's a path for gaining maturity in all digital channels.
SOCIAL MARKETING: CONNECTIONS THAT COUNT
Social media itself is changing. Facebook has been primarily known as a community site where friends could
communicate and fans could engage with their favorite brands. But Facebook has evolved. In just a short time,
Facebook has become a powerhouse of ad inventory, more than Yahoo!, Microsoft, FOX and AOL, with nearly
180 billion U.S. display ad impressions alone. It is now a performance environment filled with media and ad
campaigns, click-throughs, conversions and revenue streams.
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5. Strategies learned through online and database marketing can also be applied to Facebook: Fans are 100
percent opt-in subscribers comprised of customers and potential customers; Ad units are email campaigns;
Apps are landing pages; and the Fan Page is a website. And just as with online marketing, campaign
performance can be measured, tested, targeted and optimized to gain enhanced results and fan engagement.
To make Facebook connections count, it is important to follow the crawl, walk, run process: acquisition,
engagement and nurture, with nurture being the level that brings most value, either in conversions or revenue.
Social Marketing Maturity Model
Crawl: Walk: Testing, Targeting/ Run: Nurture/
Acquisition/Adoption Engagement Effectiveness
Target Strangers, customers Fans Fans
and friends of fans
Destination Fan page or site Fan page or app App
Goal or Value Build fan base or traffic for Build affinity and boost Monetize base with
your website sponsored stories: "people targeted ads (ads for
are talking about this" fans)
Metric Facebook asset or Sponsored stories or External with campaign
external page targeted ads IDs
In the beginning, brands focus on fan acquisition. Once a base is built, the focus turns to engagement, but it is
important to consider the nuisances of Facebook. The site uses an algorithm called EdgeRank that makes
relationships with fans the highest priority. If fans aren’t actively engaging with a fan page, then wall posts aren’t
included in newsfeeds.
Activity that actively engages fans and their friends are on topics that are
fun to talk about, such as travel, media, sports, fashion, luxury goods, Cold call targeting
cars, blogs, etc., that are easily shared and commented on. Conversely, averages .05 percent CTR.
wall posts that use language such as “percent off,” “sale,” and “coupon,” Ads for Fans reap a .35
attract lowest rates of fan engagement. That said, if there is budget to percent CTR. That’s 7X
advertise, Facebook ads are a highly effective medium for acquiring fans greater.
and building a solid fan base. However, unlike traditional pay-per-click,
more is not better on Facebook. The broader the reach the less relevant
ad units will be.
Facebook’s ad interface allows brands to be very specific with ad targeting. Consider the results: cold targeting
click-through rates (CTR) for ads average .05 percent, while targeted ads gain a .35 percent CTR. That’s 7X
greater, and a measurement of social marketing maturity.
MOBILE MARKETING: DEMONSTRATING VALUE
Mobile devices, from smartphones to tablets, have become the remote controls for daily living. Usage is big and
ramping fast, and global brands are rushing to invest billions of dollars in mobile apps, sites and advertising - even
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6. before they have a marketing strategy in place. As with other digital channels, knowing how customers are using
mobile is vital to determining where marketing budgets and resources are best spent.
Setting up a plan for measurement before launching an app or a mobile ad campaign is key to a successful
endeavor. That's why it's important to know what metrics are meaningful at each stage of mobile marketing. Initial
metrics differ slightly than those for social marketing, but the plan for success is the same.
Again using the crawl, walk, run analogy, mobile channel success is a three-stage measurement process of
adoption, engagement and effectiveness, a continuous process where brands gain and identify users, learn their
behaviors, iterate offerings, measure effectiveness, and improve efforts.
Mobile Measurement Maturity Model
Crawl: Adoption Walk: Engagement Run: Effectiveness
Operational Reporting Metrics Measure Usage and Do Testing Insight and Optimization
Count app downloads Frequency of visits and visitors Understand mechanics and
drivers of conversions
Site or app visitors, sources of Depth of use – event/visitor, Improve efforts based on
traffic and SMS subscribers duration, SMS and QR response, engagement in high-value
sharing activities
App usage (percentage of Retention rate (percentage of Expand testing efforts
downloads) returning visitors)
Geographic distribution of visitors Develop programs, sites and apps Integrate mobile data into eCRM
around data insights
It's clear that the number of downloads or site visits is just the beginning of measuring mobile success. Are
customers using their phones and iPads on Twitter, Facebook or texting? For QR codes, banking, purchases,
comparison shopping, reading the news, locating a restaurant? Or have they ignored your app completely? It’s
important to know. The more data available, the more opportunity there is for consumer engagement that is
meaningful, influential and ultimately, profitable.
While brands are quickly engaging in both social and mobile marketing, neither effort should be treated as
stand-alone activities, but rather as complementary to other digital channel activities.
NOT ALL MARKETING MEASUREMENT “ Webtrends has given us a
TOOLS ARE CREATED EQUAL better way of spending our
marketing dollars, and the
While it can be tempting to use a free analytics tool, it may deliver better I spend them and
create Return On
inadequate or inaccurate metrics, which can give brands a false or
Investment, the better off
incomplete reading on important milestones.
we are as a business. ”
For instance, there are analytics programs that can only measure Android TED SCHWEITZER
Director, e-Commerce,
or Microsoft smartphones. If you know for certain that customers use La Quinta Inns and Suites
only those platforms, then measurements may be fairly accurate. But in
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7. the real world, consumers use a wide range of smartphone platforms – you'll want a more comprehensive
analytics tool that can provide data on all mobile platforms.
Measuring results on Facebook can be a challenge, too. iFrames, an HTML structure that allows an external page
to be embedded within another page, can't see campaign IDs in the referring link from an ad or post in Facebook.
This requires a tracking or analytics tool that supports passing app data, allowing brands to track a Facebook
campaign, just as is done on a website. And to follow a Facebook visitor through to another property, such as a
website, the analytics solution has to support cross-domain tracking.
Open platform enables deep channel measurement
Rich data is needed to
measure a return on marketing
investment. A robust analytics
solution recognizes the
difference between channels,
provides deep metrics from
each channel, and then
enables graphical reporting
across all channels. This
means using an open analytics
platform that is designed to
accommodate the peculiarities
Being able to compare, contrast and unify of diverse technologies.
data from web, social and mobile channels
requires an open platform analytics solution.
With open platform, brands can compare and contrast data across all digital channels for a unified view of overall
marketing performance. An open platform also gives companies the ability to incorporate data into customer
relationship management tools.
UNIFIED ANALYTICS = MAXIMIZING RETURNS ACROSS
CHANNELS
Marketers are warily navigating their way through the digital landscape. While uncertainty is a factor challenging
even the most seasoned brand, fragmentation presents opportunities for customer engagement on many levels.
A concern about a return on investment is a valid one, and the issue is made even more complex by the fact that
there is no consistent metric across channels. However, by following this four-point recipe for digital marketing
success, brands can achieve a competitive advantage:
• Collect data across all your digital channels
• Measure and improve online user experience across your website, social media channels, and mobile
devices
• Segment your customer base according to online behavior over time
• Optimize and deliver the most relevant content and promotions that drives your customer acquisition,
conversion, retention and engagement)
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8. Digital marketing starts with a solid plan for measurement and optimization. Webtrends is built on an open
platform and has the capability of funneling separate channel data upward into a holistic view of the marketing
landscape. Working with Webtrends is how major brands achieve the power to connect with customers in
meaningful ways, while unifying their marketing intelligence and justifying investment.
Call us, let’s talk.
North America – 877.9 32.8736
EMEA - +44 (0) 1784 415 700
®
About Webtrends Inc.
Webtrends is the global leader in unified mobile, social and web analytics and engagement. We help marketers create, measure
and improve campaigns for more than 3,500 global brands including: The New York Times, Microsoft, BMW, RIM, China
Telecom, China Mobile, CCTV, Tencent QQ, Hitachi, The Associated Press, HSBC, Barclays, Vivo Cellular and Petrobras. Our
leadership extends beyond the web analytics industry we founded to the measurement, optimization and integration of all digital
content and customer intelligence, including web sites, social media, mobile and paid-search advertising.
Webtrends is a registered trademark of Webtrends Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and
registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
851 SW 6th Ave., Suite 1600 Webtrends Sales Europe, Middle East, Africa For offices worldwide, visit:
Portland, OR 97204 1.888.932.8736 +44 (0) 1784 415 700 www.Webtrends.com
1.503.294.7025 sales@Webtrends.com emea@Webtrends.com
fax: 1.503.294.7130
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