Ad networks and content and lifestyle sites have the most to gain from a new approach to online measurement, research from The Atlas Institute shows. When campaigns from over 500 advertisers were analysed using both traditional ‘last ad’ reporting and the more balanced engagement mapping model, the advertising effectiveness of these sites increased significantly in the engagement mapping results.
The advertising networks featuring in the campaigns received credit for 5 per cent more conversions on average, with significant numbers of sites improving their measured conversions by up to 15 per cent. The story was similar for ‘vertical niche’ content-driven sites in general and for lifestyle sites in particular. Music, city guide and auto sites were credited with over 15 per cent more conversions on average, once their role at the top of the purchase funnel was better recorded. Significant numbers of these sites saw their credited conversions rise by over 30 per cent.
Search engines emerge as the big losers under the engagement mapping model, losing 5 per cent of credited conversions on average with many engines responsible for 15 per cent fewer sales or registrations than under the ‘last ad’ standard of online advertising measurement.
The study provides further evidence of the weaknesses of the ‘last ad’ approach to measurement, which gives 100 per cent of the credit for a conversion to the last ad clicked. With 44 per cent of sponsored search clickers exposed to display ads prior to the click and 71 per cent of searchers using engines as navigational tools rather than sources of new ideas, the ‘last ad’ standard inevitably distorts advertisers’ view of online advertising effectiveness.
Read this Digital Marketing Insight in full
Find out more about Engagement Mapping
