Measurement is a pillar of effective marketing. Without understanding how to collect complete data, where it comes from and why it is important, marketers cannot make intelligent decisions.
Why is it important?
Measurement of data is fundamental to any successful marketing campaign, as today’s customer journey is highly fragmented across channels and devices. With proper measurement, marketers can track each touchpoint in a user's journey – even if that person uses multiple devices and interacts with various channels. Understanding this relationship is more important than ever in today’s digital world.
What is measurement?
In the ‘classical’ definition, measurement is ‘values made meaningful by quantifying into specific units. Measurements act as labels which made those value more useful in terms of details. (Source: www.business dictionary.com/definition/measurement.html)
In simpler terms, measurement is the action of counting everything that matters.
Measurement can be defined as the assignment of a number to an action or event, which can be compared with other actions or events. For example, most often these will apply to KPIs (key performance indicators) or events of value. These can include sales, leads, revenue, or any other action the end user may take.
How we categorize measurement is important because it allows us to compare measurements. Advertisers are constantly trying to optimize their investment, website, and everything about their online and offline experiences. In addition, measurement underlies everything that marketers evaluate, including attribution.
Intelligent business decisions
Accurate and complete data can only be collected through good measurement practices. Bad data leads to poor or misguided decisions.
Organizations that tie marketing metrics directly to business objectives are 3x more likely to hit their goals. (Source: Google/IPSOS Connect, March 2016, Digital Devices Bridge the Physical World.)
Three key principles of good measurement are:
1. Choosing the right KPIs
Many advertisers are still using outdated KPIs to measure their marketing activity. Essentially, they’re using bad data.
As an example, for many businesses the days of looking only at lead forms is long gone. Why? Because users may not always fill out forms on mobile devices. So, the number of lead forms is no longer an accurate way to measure things.
In a similar way, the practice of advertisers still looking at clicks as their main metric is not as reliable. Advertisers need to focus on other metrics that drive business results; impressions and viewability for example.
2. Understanding the customer journey
With more than half of all web traffic now coming from smartphones and tablets, the user journey is becoming more and more complex. In fact, data shows that 75% of online adults begin an activity on one device but continue or finish it on another. As user behavior evolves, advertisers must adapt their approach to measuring and analyzing it.
Source: 1 Google/IPSOS Connect, March 2016, Digital Devices Bridge the Physical World, n=2013 US online respondents 18+
3. Measure the correct KPI for users along the customer journey
With digital advertising, clients face increasing pressure to differentiate their advertising based on the individual user. Measurement is the backbone of this concept.
