As the internet continues to become such a dynamic part of everyday life for many people, advertisers and marketers alike are relishing in the new opportunities to expose their companies to new clients. However, they are struggling to track their return on investment along the way. They no longer have to track just the traditional mediums like print, radio, and TV. They also have to watch their presence on social media and other online platforms like YouTube and Yelp.
Before the internet, companies and advertising agencies could track their commercials on TV by the amount of views, use the circulation count for print ads, and check the demographics and amount of listeners to their radio ads. But now with the internet, it becomes much harder to track a company’s online presence. The web has so many areas where customers or future customers can find out a business that it’s so hard to track it all. So when budgeting rolls around it is increasingly harder to track whether or not advertising investments are worth the money.
Mary Huston, founder and President of Integrated Advertising, weighs in. “In a world where cost per lead or acquisition cannot be accounted for without a response from leads that are generated from websites and calls from the internet, one must expand their tunnel vision of X media or ad generated Y result. We don’t live in a tunnel anymore. We live where the response from ONE ad or campaign can come from a phone call generated from the actual ad, internet lead, lead from YELP, LOCAL.COM, YELLOWBOT.COM, Google ads, your mobile device, website, text, live chat, and the list goes on.
One must know their markets and mediums and then the demographics of both of them enough to know what response is coming from where based on the bottom line. If one month you did A, B, and C and had a good Return on Investment, and the next month you didn’t do A and had less of an ROI, and that occurred consistently, one might make the assumption that A is an important media or ad. This is why the analytical mind in media buying, the mathematician, and algorithms are going to be important in the future of advertising. Creativity still plays a critical role equally with the one who knows the data and whose vision lies outside the lines of a tunnel.”
It’s More Than Just Return on Investment
In a recent article by Susan Gunelis for Forbes, she talks about the fact that many companies are finding that the digital world has created the idea that it’s not just return on investment anymore. Advertising and marketing agencies are finding that they need to consider their return on impressions, opportunity, engagements and objectives.
Social media and online presence has made it difficult to always have hard data and companies are realizing that “soft” data is just as important. The customer engagement online that revolves around the ads and the company is almost or just as important as the number of people who see the advertisements. All of views and engagement together amount to the creation of a brand.
If you need help developing a brand or wading through the new surplus of metric data available, we can help. Integrated Advertising Inc. is a full service agency based in Jacksonville, FL that can help you with all aspects of promoting a company. We are known for our expertise in strategic planning and negotiating, our award-winning commercial production, and promotional and event management. Visit http://www.intadvertising.com/ or call (904) 296-2585 for more information.
