Interactive Media Education: Value of the View-Through

In the last couple of weeks, I have talked to agencies and clients alike about the value of how Microsoft's Atlas utilizes Engagement Mapping and MediaPlex' MOJO utilizes Path to Conversion. Both products are fantastic, and they help you establish the number of online touch points it takes from start to finish of a conversion cycle (among many other things of course). But when I try and talk to people about it in "plain English", I find myself referencing View-Through Data - which seems to instantly draw a red flag.

For those of you relatively new to the industry, it might not conjure up negative connotations, but for those of you that have been in interactive media for a few years, it probably takes you back to the early days of publishers claiming credit for everything. A great example is when you are running ads on an ad network like Advertising.com that has approx. 90% internet market penetration, and at the same time you are running ads on a search engine. When an ad is displayed by advertising.com, a cookie is instantly set and when the conversion happens, that cookie pings the ad server letting it know a conversion has happened. If the ad was only served, and not clicked on - it is considered a view-through conversion. The problem is, the last click may have occurred on the search engine you were running on, and now your publisher (advertising.com) is taking claim for a conversion and your search engine is taking claim for a conversion - but you only have one conversion. So naturally, the view through got discounted in the past and was instantly labeled a black sheep.

Jumping at least 14 years ahead (FYI - Internet years are the equivalent of dog years), the view through still has a negative connotation, and when I speak to people about it now - they immediate stop me and say "oh no - I'm not paying for view through conversions again!" The reality is - a view through is just another metric that helps me do my job better. If we know that 12 people viewed your ad on Yahoo and eventually converted on a google search term - then we know our ads were targeting the correct people - but the offer just didn't immediately resonate to the "buy" mode. That being said, we have started to compile frequency data through the help of our ad servers that let us know exactly how many view-through's or touch points it takes our clients to convert an offer.

Imagine if you knew that it took your ad being displayed 12 times before someone actually purchased your product or service. You could tweak your messaging and work to get that down to 6 times, and essentially cut your advertising costs in half. Then imagine if you were able to insert an offline ad right after your first touchpoint... Imagine what your media mix could do if it all worked together seamlessly!

So before you cringe when I talk about view-through's... Just know that like everything, the view-through has evolved as well, and its making our job of defining the media mix all that much more enjoyable.

My First Media Buy

A little over a week ago, I got to experience what it's like to be a media strategist/planner...for reals. I work closely with our strategists on a daily basis, but never had I been the main point of contact for a media buy. With some help and guidance from an AE, I was able to set-up and implement a CPM deal with a publisher. I even signed the IO, that's insertion order for you youngsters out there. I was told that your first online media buy is the equivalent of having your first child. I don't have children, but it was awesome. Although the campaign didn't produce as anticipated, no computers spontaneously burst into flames on my watch...that's a success in my book.

As I try to articulate this introspection, I realize the importance of that experience. Hold up...I'd like to give a shout-out to college for that last sentence, much love. But, truly, one of the advantages of being part of a small agency is that positions are not one dimensional. The size of Media Two allows for exposure to many different roles and in turn promotes diversity amongst employees. My experience is a case in point. I'm not a strategist by any means (yet), but I feel confident enough to talk to a sales rep without consulting Rosetta Stone. It's hard to imagine that I would have been trusted or even given the opportunity to make such a deal at a larger agency. So thanks Media Two!

Furthermore, such exposure makes me truly appreciate what my colleagues bring to the table. Not only for the development of the company, but for my professional development as well. I am very grateful to be surrounded by such a talented group. I also now understand why Jon and Amy are a few nuts shy of a trail mix (1) Tons of Emails (2) Tons of phone calls following-up on those emails. I kid, I kid, you guys are the coolest. If Amy were here she probably would have karate chopped me by now so I'm going to stop writing and pretend to get a band-aid from HR.

Wild Week at Media Two

So just so everyone has it - we're now keeping score on our interactive marketing news page, but last week warrants a post of its own...

On Monday, CNN posted a story about Media Two's recent Microsoft win, and how more and more larger firms are choosing the nimble interactive firms to represent them.

On Tuesday, DM News posted a portion of a thought paper on "Driving search conversions with display advertising".

On Wednesday, I spoke to an audience of agency members and marketers alike at the DMA's DM Days conference in New York. The specific topic was on what defines a full service advertising agency - and the answer that the room delivered was a resound "they don't exist anymore". We followed the show up by an in-person meeting at the IAB to discuss the results of the UGC / Social Media event as well as outlining guidelines for the future.

On Thursday - we learned that great results don't always lead to great things, and the David's of the world can always be replaced by the Goliath's of the world's promises (apparently not everyone read the CNN article on Monday). That being said, you can see the roll Media Two is on, and we're excited to continue that roll and focus our efforts on other accounts. Growing a firm with no interactive department or spend to being one of the top 25 interactive advertisers speaks volumes for the talent in this office, and we're looking forward to our next challenge!

On Friday, we resumed our overall great week by being named the #1 internet marketing and design firm in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area by the Triangle Business Journal. That's extremely exciting news - especially seeing as how all of our clients happen to be outside the state of North Carolina!

Not to be outdone of course - on Friday the offices of Media Two were also closed for a good cause... The Learning Together organization in Raleigh put on their annual Tees for Tots program - and it was a smashing success. Media Two was the title sponsor for the 2nd year in a row, and the team I played on destroyed everyone else, posting the highest score in the tournament of 79! P.S. As the title sponsor, we chose to change the rules and say that the high score wins. Thank goodness for interactive marketing!

Buy the Cow

Business is good I have to admit. Recession be darned, Media Two is continuing to forge ahead on the notion that one day soon the sleepy little town of Clayton will be the interactive capital of the world. With corporate marketing budgets becoming more and more focused on the DR that interactive media provides, the comment I’m hearing more from new clients is “We’ve tested online, but it wasn’t great. How do we make sure another test is successful?”

Hmm... good question! Unfortunately there’s rarely enough time for me to complete a response. Two things will generally happen. They lose interest and start snoring on the other end of the line, or I lose my voice. Either way, it’s a struggle to try and package all of that into a nice neat box. That said, if you want an analogy I say you should buy the cow rather than the steak.

It seems to me that over the last few years the buzzwords have been piling up. Quite often we’ll get referrals that want very specific campaigns… email only, behavioral, or affiliate for example. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s good to have a client with vision, but the thing that always comes up under those circumstances is that the “need” for a (insert buzzword) campaign is unfounded. I’m not trying to advocate that every campaign should incorporate every single element of interactive media. That would admittedly be a huge strategic mistake. What is important, however, is that the research and due diligence be done to warrant a campaign’s strategic parameters. Buy into the notion that success comes from a well rounded approach rather than trying to throw darts while blindfolded. So in keeping with our theme to define best practices, here’s a quick hit list of what should be done between both client and agency to ensure that another test is successful.

1) Set the bar – Is it a certain CPA, a target ROI, number of leads, or brand reach. Define goals from day one so the strategists and designers have a focal point. This helps not only as a negotiation point with publishers, but it ultimately leads to clearer communication between agency and client.

2) Study hard – The test we’re talking about here is not multiple-choice. As an agency, we need the opportunity to define all possible scenarios, identify all target touch points, complete competitive research, and bring that into a comprehensive media plan that aims squarely at numero uno above. If this is done and done right, the parameters will become abundantly clear before the first dollar is spent.

3) Let the play develop – My coach drilled this one into my brain. “Son, you can’t throw a fade route if you don’t let the receiver fade first.” Same thing goes for optimization. It generally doesn’t happen overnight. You have to let trends develop before you can accurately assess the situation and react accordingly. There’s rarely been a campaign that has achieved its objective in the first few weeks. Much less the first few days. Let all aspects of optimization take place before judging success.

Sure there’s a ton of other intricacies that play into meeting end objectives, but as a general rule, following these three will put both the client and agency ten steps ahead of the competition. Now what did that funny ad say about keeping your business plan a secret? Oops!!!