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Marketers plan more ad spend measurement in 2017

Marketers plan more ad spend measurement in 2017

Forecasters say marketers are planning to focus even more on performance advertising next year as personalization becomes the name of the industry game. And they’re hoping their 2017 advertising budgets will include money for the tools that can make that happen.

In a Forrester study in January, 70 percent of marketers surveyed said they plan to improve measurement of their ad spend effectiveness, while 64 percent plan better integration of their CRM data to do so.

“Performance advertising is a competitive differentiator today; it will be table stakes tomorrow,” the study reports. “Consumer expectations demand brands reach their customers with the most relevant advertising content possible.”

If you’re a marketer making a case to your company for more performance ad funding next year, you might share with decision makers these points from the study:

Marketers who don’t adopt advanced personalization capabilities are in danger of being left behind. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they’ll invest in technology to deliver retargeting campaigns across devices in the next two years.

Marketers who invest in at least two advanced retargeting tools along with retargeting campaigns are seeing a better ROI across all marketing activities and increased effectiveness compared to peers. Such tools allow for unified customer data from disparate data sets sourced from CRMs, inventory management systems and social media. “That data helps marketers better understand how online behavior and advertising transfers to in-store activity,” writes James Smith on Marketingprofs.com.

Performance marketing continues to be challenged by ad fraud, ad blocking, data privacy and mobile ad effectiveness. As such, 46 percent of marketers are retargeting across multiple devices and channels including mobile web, mobile in-app, email and social platforms to reach consumers who have already expressed interest.

Key difficulties remain in customer data integration. Forrester identified other challenges as “a lack of internal knowledge and skills to handle enhanced retargeting programs; retention of the quality of consumer data and the ability to secure the right allocation of funds.”

To overcome some of those challenges, Forrester says some 35 percent of marketers are already combining cross-channel attribution programs, internal resources and resources of external agencies or consultancies to manage their programs.

“Marketers are taking the necessary steps to delight their customers by creating more personalized, targeted marketing programs across channels, thereby delivering more relevant content for customers,” states the report. “The challenge is to not just excel at individual channels, but to tie your marketing strategy together across channels in a comprehensive way.”

RingSquared can help design a performance marketing plan that significantly raises your ROI. Contact us at 1-800-700-1987.