1. Rackspace Hosting Success Story
Rackspace optimizes banner ads
Leading hosting company increases clickthroughs
with targeted ad spending
Location Challenge
San Antonio, Texas Rackspace Hosting, a world leader in hosting and cloud computing, allocates a portion of its online
URL marketing budget to display advertising, particularly to banner ads. The company needed a holistic view
www.rackspace.com of the role banner ads played in acquiring visitors to its website to continue to confidently dedicate
marketing budget to display. “We did not have a comprehensive measurement of our banner ads,” says
Industry
Sameer Khan, web analyst for Rackspace. “We had limited insight into which banners were driving
Internet
visitors to our site, which were driving visitors to paid and natural search and then to our site, and which
Products weren’t contributing to sales or leads at all.”
• dobe Genesis used for the
A
integration between Adobe
SiteCatalyst, Adobe Discover, and
Solution
Eyeblaster MediaMind Rackspace selected Eyeblaster to automate the distribution of its display advertising. Using Adobe®
• dobe SiteCatalyst and Adobe
A Genesis, powered by Omniture® Rackspace then integrated Adobe SiteCatalyst® powered by Omniture,
, ,
Discover used together to and Adobe Discover, powered by Omniture, with Eyeblaster’s MediaMind, a campaign management and
determine the percentage of visitors ad serving platform, to gain insight into the role banner ads played in visitor acquisition. The company
came to the site through a banner
ad and the percentage who who used Adobe SiteCatalyst and Adobe Discover together to determine the percentage of visitors who came
viewed a banner ad and then came to the site through a banner ad and the percentage who viewed a banner ad and then came to the site
to the site after clicking on a paid or after clicking on a paid or natural search listing.
natural search listing
The company then used the integration to create a campaign attribution model. Rackspace assigned
Results visitors a score based on how often and how recently they visited the site from a banner ad. These
• an now forecast ROAS from
C
frequency scores helped Rackspace determine the value of different types of visitors so that Khan’s team
banner ads with increased accuracy
could allocate the appropriate budget to market to those segments.
• an now justify allocating more
C
budget to paid and natural search
marketing as well as display Increased clickthroughs from banner ads
• ncreased overall clickthroughs
I Rackspace can now forecast return on ad spending (ROAS) from banner ads with increased accuracy.
from banner ads “Using the Adobe Genesis integration, we know what percentage of banner ads is bringing direct leads
and what percentage is bringing visitors to search. Then we can assign budget to these banner ads
accordingly, which directly impacts the leads we generate from that channel,” says Khan.
Khan also determined that more visitors than he previously thought were visiting the site after viewing a
“Using the Adobe Genesis
banner ad and then clicking on a paid or natural search result, which allowed him to justify allocating
integration, we know what more budget to paid and natural search marketing as well as display. Visitors viewing a banner ad and
percentage of banner ads then clicking on a PPC ad have also increased, while overall clickthroughs from banner ads have
is bringing direct leads and increased due to more effective channel optimization.
what percentage is bringing “With Adobe and Eyeblaster’s MediaMind, we now have additional data to prove that the banner ads are
visitors to search. Then we driving more leads and sales,” says Khan. “We have been waiting to see banner impression data
can assign budget to these performance for a long time.”
banner ads accordingly,
which directly impacts the
leads we generate from
that channel.”
Sameer Khan, Web Analyst, Rackspace

2. www.rackspace.com
Adobe helps Rackspace increase overall
clickthroughs from banner ads.
“With Adobe and About Rackspace Hosting
Eyeblaster’s MediaMind, Rackspace Hosting is ranked #43 on Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to work for
we now have additional in the United States. The company provides its customers a portfolio of hosted IT services,
including managed hosting, cloud computing, and email and apps. For more information, visit
data to prove that the
www.rackspace.com.
banner ads are driving
more leads and sales. We
have been waiting to see
banner impression data
performance for a long
time.”
Sameer Khan, Web Analyst, Rackspace
For more information
www.omniture.com
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