In a new report from Forrester Consulting, 164 brand marketers across the retail, automotive and CPG industries were asked about their understanding and use of mobile advertising metrics. Here, we’re breaking down the most important insights from the results and how these can help marketers improve their efforts.
Read on to learn:
- Why traditional performance metrics are no longer sufficient and the major challenges arising from them
- Why an effective mobile measurement system will consider both brand and demand
- Why 80 percent of marketers are hungry for improved attention data and how this will deliver important business benefits
Old-School Performance Metrics Aren’t Cutting It
Consumers are spending increasing amounts of hours on their smartphones — and old-school marketing practices are failing to keep pace. As values and interests continue to fluctuate brands must be on the constant hunt to innovate but they’re no longer able to rely on their outdated performance metrics. Why? They’re losing their viability to communicate the full value of mobile.
Marketers are recognizing they’re getting only half the picture and are eager to find solutions. Less than one-half of respondents claimed to be confident in their current mobile KPIs poor satisfaction and optimization. On top of this, it makes navigating mobile behavior patterns that much more challenging. As digital matures, this will only escalate and become more visible without a new approach.
Effective Mobile Measurement Will Account for Brand and Demand
Aside from not fully knowing how mobile ad campaigns impact customers and shape purchasing lifecycles, the report points to several additional key areas being impacted. When ranked, top issues included lower customer satisfaction retention (83% collectively), lost opportunity for upsell (34%) and wasted advertising spend (33%).
In addition, branding objectives for mobile ad spend are catching up. Thirty-eight percent report they are unable to demonstrate the value of mobile as a branding channel as a result of this measurement gap. In fact, respondents reported that brand-building spend on mobile is about 90 percent of their direct response (DR) spend.
As a result, marketers are lacking a comprehensive view of how they’re using mobile metrics and exactly how attention fits into the grand scheme of their strategies. Without granularity into which metrics they’re tracking and how they’re being applied, they’ll have a tough time understanding how and why their consumers are making key decisions to engage with certain advertisements and why others aren’t performing. This is a big disadvantage in not only growing the business but staying abreast of the industry and competitors.
Customer Attention Metrics are the Future
A growing trend highlighted in the report is that marketers believe attention metrics could help fill the void and boost the efficiency and efficacy of mobile media at large.
Nearly 80 percent of marketers are very or extremely interested in the insights customer attention can deliver, and 63 percent plan to invest in customer attention metrics for their brands. The large value-adds identified span improved retargeting efforts, enhanced click-through-rates, a better understanding of brand lift, more efficient ways to test creative, and, most important, a successful way to demonstrate brand media value.
Based on these business benefits, more than half of marketers would up their investments towards consumer attention metrics. Sixty-three percent of respondents indicate they would slightly (45%) or significantly (18%) increase investment in customer attention measurement.
Mobile is only going to dominate more of brands’ ad budgets and success will require modernization of tactics beyond typical run-of-the-mill vanity metrics such as clicks, likes, and shares. Aside from adding more meaning behind their KPIs, having a deep and profound respect for where consumers are spending their time can pave the way for a new advertising agenda — one where audience data allows brands to deliver quality attention mapped to healthier, more productive ways of engaging consumers.
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