This chapter discusses the evolution of marketing from siloed tactics to integrated digital marketing. It highlights how point solutions led to complex, fragmented data that prevented marketers from gaining insights and taking unified action. True integration involves centralizing tools, data and measurement to achieve goals across channels. Overcoming organizational and technological barriers is key to fighting past isolation and achieving future marketing success through a unified approach.
The Integrated Marketing Playbook: How to Create Simplicity from Complexity
1. The Integrated Marketing Playbook:
How to Create Simplicity from Complexity
A fundamental guide for digital marketers
2. The Integrated Marketing Playbook:
How to Create Simplicity from Complexity
A fundamental guide for digital marketers
3. 4 Foreword
7 Chapter 1 The Evolution of Direct Marketing to Integrated Digital Marketing
17 Chapter 2 Setting Your Organization Up for Success
27 Chapter 3 Tools and Technologies for Integrated Marketing
37 Chapter 4 Centralized Data for Actionable Insights
43 Chapter 5 Bridging the Gap: Advertising, Conversion Optimization and Marketing Automation
49 Chapter 6 Optimization: Get More, Do More, Learn More
57 Chapter 7 The Future of Integrated Marketing
65 Chapter 8 Discussions on Integrated Marketing
78 Glossary of Terms
80 About IgnitionOne
3
4. Foreword
Will Margiloff, CEO | IgnitionOne
The Integrated Marketing Playbook: How to Create Simplicity from
Complexity
D
igital marketing has the potential to with their own data sets and their own way
achieve the dreams marketers have of looking at the conversion path. In addition
held for generations: the ability to to data and tools, the silos set up in our own
directly reach potential customers at organizations end up working against central
the right time, with the right message, every time. marketing goals by putting the focus on the
This dream consists of the extraordinary ability to success of individual tactics or channels.
track marketing efforts and consumer behavior
This structure does not have to be the norm. It
in order to optimize budget and understand the
is possible to integrate your marketing. Break
audience and what is most effective, as well as down those silos, break down the walls, connect
the innovation and technology to manage all of the dots and centralize data, tools and efforts.
this efficiently and easily.
We have written this guide to serve as a
While achieving this dream is closer than it has valuable resource when mapping out how to
ever been, digital marketing has become so approach integrated digital marketing in your
complex due to the multitude of point solutions organization. It is our goal to answer some core
that have flooded the digital landscape, each issues marketers face:
4 Foreword
5. What are the central challenges to achieving
We hope that the discussion won’t stop here
integrated digital marketing? and that you will continue to comment and
How do I set up my organization to facilitate
share your thoughts on integrated marketing.
and take advantage of integration? Please reach out and share your feedback with
us anytime at info@ignitionone.com or on
How do I centralize tools, data and
Twitter @IgnitionOne.
measurement to achieve integrated
marketing?
Will Margiloff
What is the payoff for integrating my
CEO
marketing?
IgnitionOne
Many people assisted in the creation of “The
Integrated Marketing Playbook” and their time
and efforts are thoroughly appreciated. We
would also like to thank our CMO contributors,
Julie Cary of La Quinta Inns & Suites and Peter
McDonough of Diageo for graciously agreeing
to share their insights with us.
Technology
Centralized
Media
Data
INTEGRATED
MARKETING
User Site
Behavior Experience
Aligned
Goals
www.IgnitionOne.com 5
8. The Evolution of Direct Marketing
to Integrated Digital Marketing
Stephan van den Bremer, Managing Director, Europe | IgnitionOne
New Data = New Opportunity, New Responsibility
T
he phrase, “integrated marketing” requires data resources and ways to
now seems as ubiquitous as analyze them.
“synergy,” “thinking outside of the
box” and of course, “paradigm shift.” Our industry has spent a lot of time recently
But how many companies are actually moving talking about how we navigate lots and
beyond the hype and executing the integration lots of data, so much in fact that we’ve just
of marketing efforts well? In a survey done by decided that it’s, well, BIG. Beyond the buzz,
the Association of National Advertisers (ANA ), 1 Big Data is about processing, segmenting
51% of marketers claimed to be developing and and understanding large amounts of data to
executing integrated marketing programs for all be actionable in real-time. In that sense, the
brands/products/services. This is up from 19% term “real-time actionable information,” would
in 2006. So who are these brands and what are be more appropriate. Data is meaningless to
they doing? Are they any more successful than a marketer, unless it can be translated into
those brands not using integrated strategies valuable information. Similarly, a pile of bricks
and tactics? is not a house.
Reaching the level of having a unified and To be “actionable in real-time” is a very big
holistic view on digital marketing programs statement in and of itself. For years, marketers
1 ANA Survey 1/2012
8 The Evolution of Direct Marketing to Integrated Digital Marketing
9. have been able to piece together data for Point Solution Innovation:
disparate media optimization systems, but Our Savior and Secret Enemy
that data is crunched in a third party solution
(often something as unsophisticated as Excel), Online marketing has come far in the last 17
years. In such a young field, we’ve seen so
and then the decisions made off of that data
many chapters of innovation as the industry
are usually delayed as humans determine the
has matured. From the early days when the
proper action. This is a far cry from making big
Internet was poised to change every facet of
data “actionable in real-time”, and it is not really
our daily lives and create world peace, to the
possible to act in real-time with such disparate
days after the “dot com bust” when people
media optimization.
thought digital marketing would never pan out
Put simply: If your marketing team is managing - we’ve seen many concepts come and go. But
over time, the establishment and acceptance
online media and site optimization via a series
of core digital marketing channels has sped
of point solutions while attempting to stitch
innovation that marketers can, and must, keep
together big data sets, you are already behind
pace with to stay competitive. This innovation
your competition.
has created huge expectations of the benefits
We are already seeing the most innovative that new technology, new devices, and
marketers racing to consolidate their online new monetization allow people to connect,
communicate and convert.
marketing budgets into a unified Digital
Marketing Suite (DMS). In order to keep up with big data, marketers have
added new point solutions, tested new tactics,
This is the challenge that this playbook will
collected new data and sometimes created new
address. The innovative marketers we have
metrics. In the beginning, the siloed results were
worked with to create this playbook call this
amazing in comparison to offline methods – you
The DMS Imperative.
could see, track and improve upon ROI much
faster. For every marketer who’d ever promoted
a product launch on a billboard, placed an ad
in the paper or bought a radio spot – this was
www.IgnitionOne.com 9
10. More on BIG Data Challenges
Companies that are attempting to process
and utilize massive data sets do so with the
intention of making good things better for 1 Day = 2,250 movies
companies and the customers they serve.
What we’ve seen so far is that data can either
do very good things or very bad things. And Let’s bring this back to companies and their
more data is not always a welcomed thing. It’s customers. Customer data is growing by
an immense new opportunity, but at times an 50% every year. Two billion people access
overwhelming new responsibility. the Internet each day with over 4.3 billion
mobile devices across the globe. That’s a lot
Sifting the good data from the bad sounds like
of devices, each creating its own share of
an easy enough task. But in 2004, Facebook
data, resulting in 2.5 quintillion bytes of data
was a mere 1 million members strong and now it
developed every day. More significantly, 90%
has over 1 billion. Every day, 15 Terabytes of data
of all digital data was produced in the last two
are created by Facebook members alone. What
years. This trend isn’t expected to reverse. We
do we know about these Terabytes? A Terabyte
are creating increasing amounts of data each
could hold about 3.6 million 300 Kilobyte
year. With all this in mind, online marketers
images or about 300 hours of good quality
have to be creative and technical while finding
video – that’s 150 movies or 1,000 copies of the
ways to transform this data into actionable
Encyclopedia Britannica. Ten Terabytes could
information and remain competitively nimble.
hold the printed collection of the US Library of
We’ve never before faced challenges like this.
Congress. That’s a lot of data. I’d even say BIG2.
But our history as an industry shows that as
So everyday Facebook alone creates more data
online marketers, we can prosper by adapting
than the entire US Library of Congress. You’re
with innovation and technology. That’s the
starting to see the state of affairs that today’s
only way to transform data into information
digital marketer faces.
and shift to actionable information.
2 http://www.whatsabyte.com/
10 The Evolution of Direct Marketing to Integrated Digital Marketing
11. a major evolution. And this evolution also made by a sea of data but now a deluge of technology
tracking consumer behavior and customizing vendors. Marketers struggle with separate data
user experience on websites a reality. streams that don’t communicate, in addition
to disparate and often competing teams that
However, with all of these new methods of
suffer from a lack of centralized and shared
digital marketing, things became very complex,
goals. The results are silos across the marketing
very quickly. We‘ve now come to a point where
organization that separate people, data and
marketers find themselves separated from the
budgets, making the attainment of goals ever
customers that they wanted to reach not only
more challenging.
www.IgnitionOne.com 11
12. How Did Digital Marketing Enter Integrated Marketing
Get So Messy?
While integrated marketing is not a new thing,
This culture of analytics and innovation being to some marketers it seems like a goal that
built within silos has failed marketers in a major moves further away as they run toward it. But in
way. Click-through rates plunged from around fact, the attainment of this aspiration is closer
5% when the dot-com market collapsed, to than ever.
about .1% by 2011. In consolidating all the buying
power, local advertising markets went under By integrating online efforts, marketers are
with the promise of lower costs. able to merge all of these silos, eliminating
the complexity that has been created through
More recently, low barriers to entry have created
individual solutions. By merging resources,
a myriad of these start-ups, applications and
tools, data and measurement, you gain the
point solutions. They are often funded and
unique ability to score all data sets in relation
supported by venture capital backing that
to each other. It’s the discovery of these
looks to solve an immediate problem without
relationships that allows integrated marketers
the context of larger issues. And although each
to categorize, prioritize and act across multiple
tries to solve a problem (search, mobile, content
channels in a unified manner to achieve a goal.
personalization, etc) at a micro level, in doing so
they create isolated online data sets, in addition
Once we have taken a step back to see the
to existing offline sets. And these disparate data
forest from the trees, we‘re reminded that in
sets ultimately become the major roadblock
the midst of solving problems, we’ve lost sight
barring the online marketer’s ability to interpret
of the core goal: increasing customers and
and act on a macro level.
revenue. Messaging and efforts must be aligned
So with every innovation to solve an immediate and prioritized across teams and technologies
problem, a quieter and more detrimental to create a common language that can be
paralysis spreads through an organization. leveraged across channels. The good news
Resource allocation and prioritization is central is that this alignment can result in a single
in determining a company’s success or failure methodology and metric that every team can
and it requires actionable information. But relate to, interpret and act upon together.
adding additional separate layers of data can
actually result in less action being taken.
12 The Evolution of Direct Marketing to Integrated Digital Marketing
13. Fighting Past Isolation company at large. Budgets and goals were set
at the beginning of the year for each channel
for Future Results
and the teams work feverishly in seclusion to
As obvious as the solution may seem, many earn a bonus for results within their channel.
marketers are sitting in a sea of isolated data,
Many senior marketers are incapable of
unable to develop insights and take action
reallocating resources after budgets are set
in union. The most common roadblocks are
before the start of the fiscal year. So they find
the bi-products of two antiquated elements
themselves beholden to a quickly obsolete
– corporate structure and incentives. Just
snapshot of business while operating in a rapidly
like data and reporting are siloed, people are
shifting environment.
also forced into arbitrary divisions due to
technology, budgets and goals. We find the
person running lead generation sitting next to,
but not speaking to, the guys running the search Where is the Art?
program or the Facebook community manager
As much as organizational incentives and
not communicating with the Facebook ads
collective technology decisions can serve as the
manager. They all might as well be working for
foundation for success, unifying the message
different companies.
is also critical. The core message should be
Each group is focused on its own narrow area consistent across all channels, whether website,
and in many cases, is hitting its goals in isolation mobile or print (leveraging the unique strengths
while unknowingly becoming a detriment to the of each). Achieving data-centric precision but
communicating a fragmented message may be
the most painful type of failure in integrated
Technology, Data and Measurement
marketing efforts. Marketers should always
In order to properly centralize data, to use know their audience and voice. The key tenants
that data to measure a unified metric and of good marketing shouldn’t be lost in the midst
then to use that metric to optimize your of wrangling data and technologies.
marketing efforts- a clear technology inte-
gration plan is needed.
www.IgnitionOne.com 13
14. The Origins of and the opportunity for consumers to react to,
create and influence them through social. For
Integrated Marketing
the first time, people have the ability co-create
During the last century, direct marketing came their experience with brands.
out of the realization that someone’s age, income,
education, place of birth, etc., would make them
more or less likely to be affected by certain Modern Digital
messaging. Instead of one message and identity, Marketing Channels
suddenly a brand could cater to the desires of
people in unique and meaningful ways. Today marketers can take advantage of all
channels and tactics that comprise digital
This was a massive change in how brands
marketing, including: paid search, natural
started telling stories and creating desire within
search, retargeted and traditional display, social,
consumers. This simple idea revolutionized
email, affiliates and site optimization. Each
marketing and in many ways was the birth of the
of these elements is based on the principles
modern day advertising industry.
of direct marketing. What differs is how the
Online marketing does not go against the brand engages and interacts with that targeted
foundation of marketing. The principles of audience - an important point as one starts to
direct marketing still apply in full. Advanced orchestrate channels to work together in an
segmentation of an audience through online data “integrated” way.
allows the long-held vision of direct marketing to
What makes a channel different is the
be realized – a one-on-one relationship between
experience it offers and where in the purchase
the brand and the consumer.
funnel it will be most successful. The purchase
Understanding that online is not a new funnel is a useful organizational concept, used
marketing method, but simply the purest form to see where a consumer is on their path to
of direct marketing to date is important. And making a decision. This is especially useful in
while the fundamental rules still apply, there digital marketing where it can be easier to track
are two things that have changed – the ability the progress of a user through the funnel and
to experience brand messages dynamically interact with him appropriately.
14 The Evolution of Direct Marketing to Integrated Digital Marketing
15. digital version of a hardcopy until the actual
Attract content could be individualized based on data.
Search was the first experience that put
Engage
the consumer in control of their own media
consumption. Instead of being the passive
Nurture recipient, the individual had direct input to the
type of content and advertising he saw. Then
Convert social changed everything: consumers had the
ability to broadcast their thoughts and feelings
and those messages were able to become
advertisements in their own right.
When display ads were introduced they simply
replicated traditional ads until they were
Bringing it Together
animated and interactive. The same was true The key to considering successful integrated
of email marketing — a newsletter was just a marketing is to remember that while all online
channels are based on direct marketing
principles, each interacts differently with
• Inspire your organization with an a consumer’s journey. To properly bring
integrated vision and incentives everything together you must understand how
• Align your technology and data to channels interact with the consumer, as well as
support those priorities each other. This is the only way to allocate your
marketing budget in the most effective way.
• Unify but individualize your message
across all platforms
• Act and react by allowing the data to
emphasize the experiences needed to
carry the message to result in a conversion
www.IgnitionOne.com 15
16. How Do You Get There? What Will You Get?
In order to achieve integrated digital By fully integrating digital marketing, it is
marketing, it takes a cross-organization effort possible to achieve a wide range of benefits.
to align resources, goals, technology, data Marketers can work smarter by having
and measurement. This is not to say that a centralized data, clear measurements, and
marketer will not benefit at all from achieving unified metrics. Transparency of media mix
partial integration. Marketers should not effects will enable the marketer to allocate
lose motivation by the size of the task. Every budget most effectively. It will be possible to
step toward integration is a step toward work more efficiently by having aligned teams
improvement. and unified goals working with a streamlined
and coordinated technology stack. Marketers
can react more quickly and synchronized to
new challenges and be able to truly leverage
the insights gathered to reach and surpass
goals. While there is a lot of work ahead, it is
very much worth each step. Suddenly “big data”
can mean better business, because above all,
integrated marketing will deliver better returns
on your marketing investment.
16 The Evolution of Direct Marketing to Integrated Digital Marketing
18. Setting Your Organization
Up for Success
Roger Barnette, President | IgnitionOne
Does this Sound like Your Organization?
Y
our company spends about the same alternatives by examining the incremental
amount of money this year as last. effect on total revenue and total cost caused by
Each channel gets slightly more sales a very small (just one unit) change in the output
than the year before. It sounds like it’s or input of each alternative.
time to celebrate and promote people, right?
This aligns the organization. Marketers should
Not so fast. look forward to optimal holistic potential.
The lesser alternative is looking through the
When you think about integrated marketing, rearview mirror with the satisfaction that you
here’s the golden rule for the organization: it’s aren’t operating quite as inefficiently as last
not about more channel specific conversions, it’s year. Unfortunately we can spend our budget
about identifying the greatest possible potential only once, so we need to be sure that we spend
for your spend across all digital channels using it in its most optimal way.
Marginal Return Analysis and then tracking your
Truly integrated marketing is the end goal for
trajectory to reach that potential.
many marketers. However, there are so many
Marginal Return Analysis is the process of pieces to link and so many silos to knock down
identifying the benefits and costs of different along the way. While integrating technology and
18 Setting Your Organization Up for Success
19. centralizing data to act on is clearly important,
none of that will work without first addressing
the most important (and challenging) piece of
the puzzle: the organization.
➊
CHALLENGE #1:
ADOPTING MARGINAL
RETURN ANALYSIS
ACROSS YOUR TEAMS
There are four key challenges to address for
Marginal Return Analysis supports decision-
your teams to succeed:
making based on marginal or incremental
➊ All channels must be considered holistically changes to resources instead of one based on
using Marginal Return Analysis for goal
totals or averages. It is extremely important to
setting.
understand this principle and how to apply it.
➋ You must get creative in how you develop Without this core piece in place, little else will
data/performance-focused unity across result in an uptick in performance. Having a
your team by eliminating “my channel” good framework like this to foster teamwork
factions and identity distinctions. toward transparent, logical collective goals
➌ Get cozy with IT as your ability to affect is the most critical element in aligning the
change in digital is dependent upon this organizational structure.
close relationship.
PROOF POINT
➍ Ensure budget allocation decisions are both
Why is this so important? In a case
fluid and centralized with allocation based
study with Center Parcs, performance in
on performance data.
search and display were up by marginal
percentages. But after integrating search
and display they achieved a whopping 54%
increase in revenue. When benchmarking
performance by last year at the channel level
the outcome may have been a gain of 4%
when unknowingly the 50% gain was missed
out on. That is the scary and exciting part for
your organization.
www.IgnitionOne.com 19
20. What Often Happens Today related to the display program without any
connection to cross-channel efforts. This means
in the Absence of Marginal
that no marginal return is being considered
Return Analysis
holistically. This is the same in search, social,
Today, many siloed department heads are email, etc. Unfortunately that measurement
responsible for creating goals that incentivize of success does not map to the reality of how
their teams to achieve highly focused these budgets perform or support the health of
performance. The display team must get an overall business. Many organizations benchmark
ROI of 3:1 based on spend and conversion data against the previous year’s performance at
Start thinking possibility vs probability
Marketers seeking to advance their together? How do all channels assist each
organization will need to evangelize against other to reach a goal? Perhaps if all channels
the desire to constantly look behind. Each are optimally aligned, search may directly
person in the organization should consider produce less than last year as a channel,
what’s possible versus what’s probable. but it serves a more valuable role by making
That simple shift in framing questioning and significantly more total conversions possible.
rationale will start to change their thinking.
A short-sighted team can tell what will
For example, a search team has $100 and sells probably happen based on doing what they’ve
10 widgets this year with search ads. At the always done, just slightly better. Integrated
beginning of the following year, the manager is marketers need to implore what is possible. It
asked how many widgets she could expect to is possible to move past “what you’ve always
sell with the same budget. She might respond done, plus 1%.” Are you ready to see what’s
that with some refinements and testing that possible?
it’s probable she could sell 12 next year. But
This holistic perspective and the improved net
what is the potential of the search team, the
results are at the heart of the DMS Imperative
display team and the social team working
challenge and goal.
20 Setting Your Organization Up for Success
21. the channel level. And while every channel
may perform better this year than last in total
number of sales for the same media spend, it is
still possible for overall potential to be harmed
➋
CHALLENGE #2:
GETTING CREATIVE WITH
ELIMINATING BARRIERS:
MARKETING TEAMS ARE LIKE
by a significant margin. This seems like a
paradox, but it’s not. MEXICAN FOOD
The classic example is if there is land and a What’s the difference between a burrito, an
farmer plants a crop, the result would be the enchilada and a soft taco? Not much other than
amount of crops planted and the profit you get whether the sauce and cheese is inside, outside
from the crop if he sells it. If he buys a tractor or on the side. But people perceive them as
and the amount of farming land remains the different because they’ve been taught that’s
same size, productivity and profit will increase. how things are. The same concept applies for
But, if he buys another tractor, the profit will not the marketing organization. Each department
increase the same as before when he bought is a part of a greater whole and the sequence
the first tractor. In fact, his profit will decrease. and placement of these parts is what matters,
Looking at tradeoff decisions to maximize the not the parts themselves. So often people
performance of your digital teams differs little refer to “the display guys” and “the search
from the farmer maximizing crops. Everything guys.” But nobody prefers to eat sour cream
is interrelated. or cheese alone. Each piece contributes to the
resulting whole.
Three Keys: Make the idea of collective team performance
1 Adopt Marginal Return Analysis holistically a fun and inspiring effort. Start by finding ways
to change your language and team metrics.
2 Stop using last year’s channel-level
For example, search conversions and display
benchmarks
conversions should only be referred to when a
3 Strive to look for the greater missed single exposure lead to that action. Marketers
opportunity of integrated optimization like can uncover the most critical paths and create
Center Parcs identities around them. For example, if 20% of
www.IgnitionOne.com 21
22. conversions come from a display click followed to make this manageable for an organization,
by a search click, then maybe one should call there can be a number of integrated teams with
that a disearch. It’s not about the parts, so a digital head. Instead of having search, display,
marketers should be encouraged to create their social and conversion optimization teams
own language that embodies the parts and that focus on campaigns related to multiple
makes it fun to break old patterns of thought. products or promotions, smaller integrated
This new vocabulary can drive common thinking teams could operate independently. To foster
across the team. If that sounds silly to you, then discipline and excellence, there should still
just take to heart that changing old habits will be educational forums and events to refine
require new creative thinking. Simply saying, skills and share best practices, but the days of
“we are one team” won’t cut it. discipline departments as the primary structure
to which people identify themselves has come
to an end. If you want your team to produce
an integrated mindset and strive toward an
disearch /dis ‘s r CH/ integrated result, then you need to promote the
e
DEFINITION right team relationships and identity.
noun the conversions that come from a If you’re a small company, then by necessity this
display click followed by a search click. may come easy to you in that one person has
to manage and optimize multiple disciplines.
If you’re mid-sized, where there may be 3-5
people managing, then again this should also
be easy as long as there is one person adept
at actually optimizing multiple types of media
Today’s model of having a head of discipline to lead the team. The person leading the team
at the channel level will no longer do the should have hands-on experience in multiple
trick in our cross-channel world. While it’s still channels if you’re serious about getting good
beneficial to have discipline specialists and results. If you’re a larger corporation or looking
senior members on that team, any heads of to outsource your digital marketing to an
department should be cross-functional. In order agency, then the above applies. As the client,
22 Setting Your Organization Up for Success
23. you have the right to know how an agency is
structured and led. Structure reflects strategy.
If your integrated agency is still working in silos,
then it is time to take a deeper look at how
➌
CHALLENGE #3:
WHAT ABOUT I.T.?
With all of this data and technology in the
things are being managed day to day. mix, we haven’t mentioned much about new
necessities and dependencies. Surveys suggest
that the single biggest barrier to a company
Three Keys: embracing Big Data is creating the business
1 Get creative in the ways you use language case behind it. This is often tied to the fact that
and internal metrics to reflect your with all this new data there are increased costs
dedication to being an “integrated team.” not just in hardware, but the staffing to make
and keep it working. So with all this innovation
2 Evolve your team structure internally to
and technology most marketing teams are still
reflect your direction in implementing
yet to include technologists.
integrated marketing strategies.
3 Ensure that any agency you’re working
with to execute integrated marketing and
Are Your CMO and
has the right internal structure to make
CIO Best Friends?
it a reality.
We can see evidence of this in a study titled,
“Why Leading Marketers Outperform3.” It shows
that in companies where CMOs and CIOs worked
closely to build a “system of engagement” — an
integrated and innovative set of technologies
and processes that are born out of marketing
and IT collaboration, performance increases
were significant. As a group, enterprises with
forward-thinking marketing organizations that
engage customers effectively and invest their
marketing spend better have a three-year
3 http://asmarterplanet.com blog/2012/10/20181.html
www.IgnitionOne.com 23
24. revenue growth that is more than 40 percent So How is This Done?
higher than other companies. And their gross
profit is growing at a rate double that of their With results like this coming from the partnership
peers. Some highlights include that these between marketing and IT, it begs the question
companies are: as to what it would look like or how it would
work best. As much as some companies have
33 percent more likely to serve personalized
built highly specialized systems, others just
or targeted offers in at least four channels in
need a tag placed on the website for tracking
real-time.
capabilities or a new widget to work within the
36 percent use location-specific mobile homepage of the website.
messaging campaigns and ads compared
to the 20 percent without a system of In order to accomplish day-to-day functions
engagement. necessary for integrated marketing, some
basic functions of IT must be accessible and
48 percent of the top performers are using or
streamlined. More fluid changes needed for
plan to use, social/local group buying in the
websites, social media and tagging for analytics
next 12 months. As for the group without a
ideally will fall under the management of the
system of engagement, that number drops
marketing function. Many organizations fail to
significantly to 31 percent.
understand the size of missed opportunities
According to the study, currently 88 percent and the death of ambition when they face a
of leading companies engage in attribution six-month queue for any change to tagging. In
in some way and of that group, 93 percent order to have a positive relationship between
have a set process for determining marketing the CMO and CIO, these more base tasks of
activity results. Clearly integrated marketers accessibility must be made self-sufficient for
are getting more and they’re doing it not just the marketing function. Without the ability to
by selecting technologies but by building their make basic changes nimbly to fundamental
own internal systems. pieces of the marketing infrastructure, progress
will halt.
24 Setting Your Organization Up for Success
25. Three Keys:
1 With more data and technology, the
relationship between marketing and IT
➍
CHALLENGE #4:
CENTRALIZED, DATA-DRIVEN
DECISION MAKING + FLUID
BUDGETS = SUCCESS
has never been more critical.
2 Companies that have these departments Now that we’ve covered team structure and
working in collaboration consistently the relationship with IT, we should speak a bit
outperform the competition. about decision-making and budgets. In using
a data-driven approach along with Marginal
3 Basic necessities for integrated marketers
Return Analysis, it’s critical that the planning
like tagging, updating the website and
and allocation of resources is reactive. This
social media must be able to be executed
means that you can’t plan static budgets for
autonomously from IT.
each channel and expect them to work as part
of an integrated marketing framework.
Who’s Your Integrated
Decision Maker?
In the evolved team structure, heads of
integrated digital will do the budget allocation.
By leveraging attribution, you will gain the full
ability to correctly allocate this budget weekly,
monthly or quarterly. As there are no heads
of departments, the political fighting over
bigger budgets equaling more staff and more
supposed prestige in a company become moot.
When the budgets are fluid and reallocated
regularly and the person authorized to approve
www.IgnitionOne.com 25
26. the allocation is impartial to channel politics Where to Start?
and making the decision based solely on data,
the organization is free to act efficiently and When discussing these broader topics,
in the company’s best interest. We’ll discuss marketers often state that they feel
attribution analysis and budget allocation more overwhelmed and don’t know where to start.
in later chapters. But if you can’t re-allocate To overcome this, marketers need to focus and
more or less budget throughout the year based align budget with testable media. Marketers
on what the data is telling you, then that is a should start where they can achieve the biggest
major roadblock and making any other efforts impact and work downward. None of this has
toward success become significantly limited. to happen in unison to make a major impact on
efficiency in the near term.
Three Keys:
1 Allocation of resources needs to be Summary
reactive to data.
The alignment of the marketing organiza-
2 The person heading an integrated team tion needs to change as much as the digital
should be able to make that decision. marketing environment. Before making con-
3 The inability to reallocate budgets siderable investments in technology platforms
throughout the year is a major roadblock and partners, the fundamentals of the organi-
to integrated success. zation need to get ironed out. The easiest and
most significant step to take in getting there
is to move to goal setting and budgets based
on marginal return goals. With that initial piece
in place, other aspects will start to more easily
follow. The relationship between the CMO and
CIO will continue to evolve over time as market-
ing and technology become further intertwined
when discussing a company’s strategy.
26 Setting Your Organization Up for Success
28. Tools and Technologies for
Integrated Marketing
Dave Ragals, SVP Client Services | IgnitionOne
F
or marketers working towards true The Jigsaw Puzzle
integrated digital marketing, the
biggest obstacle in reaching this goal Choosing to go the path of integrating multiple
is often their technology and tools. solutions is a direction that many take, but it
The current arena of marketing management often proves an uphill battle. One initial challenge
technologies is oversaturated with single point is finding solutions that can truly integrate, as a
solutions with multiple platforms existing for majority of these systems have been developed
every aspect of digital marketing. Navigating this by independent companies. Finding a package of
complex landscape is a daunting task and presents platforms that all work together in a truly integrated
numerous challenges to managing integrated fashion — and will continue to scale that way– can
marketing. What is most frustrating for many prove next to impossible. Most systems have some
marketers is that the technology they sought out form of API integration, which essentially means
to make their lives easier actually is the piece of the they can import or export data: but how they
puzzle that will hold them back from integrating actually interact with another platform’s data can
their marketing in an effective way. be very limited. So just because two systems can
talk to each other doesn’t mean they can have a
To get to the next level of integration, marketers productive conversation.
can approach this challenge in two ways –
integrating multiple single-point solutions together Major insights may be overlooked as integration of
or leveraging a multi-point solution. the data is likely to be only surface-deep.
28 Tools and Technologies for Integrated Marketing
29. Trying to integrate separate solutions can be needs under a single platform. The goal of
inefficient from a business standpoint as well, integrated marketing is to consolidate the
as it means identifying the right solution for many silos that marketing organizations work
each part of a digital marketing program and in, and this is even more important for the
then managing numerous disparate vendor tools they use. In order to best take advantage
relationships. Each piece of the puzzle runs its of the benefits of integrated marketing, the
own risks and challenges and managing them marketer is advised to reject piecing together
together can be counter-productive. individual systems and instead leverage a
multi-point or centralized solution such as
Perhaps the biggest risk is that the market
a digital marketing suite (DMS). This type of
cannot continue to support all of these individual
centralized solution will allow the marketer to
point solutions long-term. Many of these
manage multiple channels, run cross-channel
nascent providers are backed by VC money and
attribution, view all marketing analytics in a
continue to operate at a loss. Consolidation has
single place and can include other features
already begun and in a few short years, many of
such as on-site optimization and even
the names out there will dry up, forcing users of
proprietary RTB systems. The challenge here
these products to scramble for replacements.
is finding an all-in-one system that has best-
of-breed solutions in each area, or at least
in the areas that are most important to the
Simplifying the Chaos marketer. These systems, too, often have API
integrations that allow the platform to tie into
Integrating your digital marketing tools can be
other single- or multi-point solutions to help
difficult, but the benefits are sizeable. Done
round out capabilities or to better meet the
correctly, not only does it allow for a more
marketers’ needs. As capabilities within these
efficient use of time and resources, but also
systems grow and functions centralize, the
offers the potential for deeper insights and
need for API integrations will decrease over
greater returns on marketing investment.
time but due to constantly changing needs will
Our recommended approach is to seek out a never fully go away.
unified, central technology solution that can
bring together all of the digital marketing
www.IgnitionOne.com 29
30. Paid Smart
Search Retargeting
Organic
Display
Search
Media
Mobile Facebook
Optimization
MEDIA OPTIMIZATION IS JUST ONE PIECE OF THE PUZZLE.
Marketers have begun to demand these This has already begun to happen with mixed
centralized solutions, and as the market results (Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick and
continues to mature, it will continue moving Adobe’s acquisitions of Efficient Frontier and
away from single-point solutions and toward Omniture are two examples), and this trend will
truly integrated platforms. Many of the likely continue. Others will build single systems
individual solutions will be acquired by bigger designed and developed organically around the
companies who, in turn, will look to invest idea of a DMS.
heavily in merging these disparate systems.
30 Tools and Technologies for Integrated Marketing
31. The Payoff Even little things, like whether you have to
hit “submit” after making a change, can differ
The benefits of integrating technologies are between platforms and can result in changes
immense. It is truly a situation where the whole a marketer thought they had made never
is greater than the sum of its parts. Some going through.
benefits that can potentially be gained by a
True Attribution. A single platform also means
central technology include:
that the data that lives within a given channel
Single Data Source. From a marketer’s is already de-duped and attributed without
standpoint, it creates a single source of going through a maze of technology, such as
data which leads to consistency throughout going through an API to a separate system
efforts. The ability to see paid search, display for attribution against another channel’s data,
and social marketing data, for example, which is coming in from yet a third platform,
in a single dashboard and with detailed to be processed and then sent back to the
reporting creates huge workflow efficiencies, original system. Unattributed data can be
as marketers only need to log into and very valuable for deep dive analysis, but it’s
understand in detail how to use a single of little to no use when trying to optimize
platform. Whether each channel is managed accounts in real time. Having this data
by a different user, a separate agency or by together opens the door to innovative ways
the same team, this continuity in data and to understand users, their actions and the
workflow ensures smoother and more reliable effect of media on them – such as optimizing
work. It also means not having to switch based on engagement levels. A single system
between browser tabs or applications to see also cuts down on potential points of failure
data for different channels. or lag between disparate solutions as well as
Fewer Errors. Not only is a single platform potential for delays or errors in one system
less confusing and more efficient, but it also creating problems downstream that then
cuts down on the opportunity for errors have to be fixed by multiple partners.
introduced by forgetting which system Removal of Silos. Properly-aligned technology
someone is working in or how to accomplish results in a single – and consistent – source for
the same task between different systems. training, technical support and best practices.
www.IgnitionOne.com 31
32. As digital marketing becomes more complex go beyond merely relying on human-built
and integrated, the lines between channels business rules. The result is a higher efficiency
and solutions blur. If a marketer has a through bringing the right message to the
question concerning the impact to attribution right people at the right time.
of paid search on a remarketing campaign, is
that an attribution question, an SEM question
or a display question? With an integrated What to Look for
technology, all that matters is that it’s a digital
marketing question and the expertise for all Navigating this landscape and selecting
aspects resides with the same partner. It the best solution can be very complex; it is
also cuts down on the wild goose chase that critical for marketers to understand their goals
results from each vendor pointing to another before initiating the process. Some important
for answers or fixes. considerations include:
Provide Deeper Insights and Greater Returns. Which channels and tactics need to be
By having data coming from a single source, managed through technology? Feature
attributing success across efforts and more sets can vary greatly, so it’s vital to consider
profoundly integrating marketing across the which tools are necessary for managing each
board, a marketer opens the door to deeper channel. Large, complex SEM accounts may
insights. With these insights, budgets can be need bulk editing capabilities, while creative
more intelligently, and even automatically, repositories can be invaluable for Facebook
managed and returns on investments can Marketplace Advertising. Make sure to match
reach new heights. your channels’ needs with the solution you
choose while keeping an eye on flexibility to
Steering of Marketing Automation. By having
handle future requirements that may come up.
a holistic view of data we can steer better
content and interactions on the website. Which other efforts, potentially managed
This, in turn, will improve user experience by other partners, need to be reported on
and conversions. Using all this data also gives and attributed in the same platform? While
us the possibility to create high performing specific channels may be managed directly
algorithms for marketing automation and in the system, other channels – whether
32 Tools and Technologies for Integrated Marketing
33. “unmanaged,” like organic search or managed What are the requirements for accessing huge
by other partners – can still be tracked within sets of data that typically can’t be transmitted
the same platform. This allows the marketer to and/or presented efficiently in a Web-
see reporting in one place and obtain a more based interface? Even the most advanced
thorough understanding of how channels Web-based UI can run into bandwidth or
work together. With this knowledge you can rendering limitations when trying to deliver
focus on solutions that allow for integration or manipulate extremely large sets of data.
with these externally managed channels. If huge files are necessary, how can they be
How important is cross-channel attribution? delivered and can they be pumped directly
Many marketers are still tied to standard into an internal data warehouse? Understand
models like last-click or, even worse, they allow your data and bandwidth needs and find a
each channel to be optimized in a vacuum, solution that won’t limit you.
without taking into account the interactions Is the primary goal branding, direct response
among channels. Integrated solutions or both? Being able to optimize to and report
can provide the ability to allocate partial on performance requires setting specific
credit across a range of exposures, allowing goals and identifying the right metrics. These
marketers to understand how certain channels can differ greatly between direct response
or campaigns feed the funnel. As almost all goals, such as CPA and ROAS, and branding
marketers are juggling multiple channels and goals, such as acquiring new users, propensity
customer touchpoints, attribution needs to be to convert and session time. It is important to
top of mind when integrating technology. find a solution that can meet your specific
What are the plans for growth? Managing goals.
integrated marketing together helps grow Who needs access to the day-to-day
the whole pie with continuous cross-channel management tools? Who needs access to
feedback, leading to growth in marketing reporting? Does management or the client
programs. By having an idea of long-term need to be able to log in to see how campaigns
needs, marketers can prepare for success are being managed or just view reports? Do
and choose a flexible, scalable technology reports need to be available on-demand, or
solution. can they be scheduled to run and be emailed
www.IgnitionOne.com 33
34. on a recurring basis? All stakeholders need to platform that best suits the company’s overall
be satisfied and armed with the tools to help needs and properly manage cross-departmental
them succeed. expectations.
What is the level of service needed? Even
the most sophisticated marketer can benefit
from experts who have deep insights into Pitfalls to Avoid
the challenges they face. It is key to find a
When attempting to develop the best
technology backed by top-level service. Talk
integrated technology solution for a marketing
to current clients. Ask questions about client
organization, there are many potential pitfalls
retention and relevant case studies.
for marketers to avoid. If the following are
How far do we need to link online channels side-stepped, a marketer will be more likely to
with click behavior on the site? Linking things succeed.
like keywords and display to conversion
Not looking long-term: A common pitfall
actions on the website is mandatory and used
in this process is failing to look long-term.
in most tools nowadays. It’s good but gives us
Marketers who consider how they may roll out
only a one dimensional view of our campaigns.
a platform across all channels – as opposed
Campaigns are ranked based on their ability
to just looking at, say, paid search for now
to convert people, nothing more nothing less.
and waiting on the others – will find much
Advanced metrics like brand awareness and
greater success down the road. Benefits of
engagement are not measured if we take
moving to an integrated platform can be felt
only conversion points into account. With the
almost immediately via easier workflow and
analysis of all click stream data we can not
more efficient reporting. But considerable
only measure conversion but also potential
value comes in the mid- to long-term with
future conversion and engagement.
better insights of how channels work together
A lot of these questions can only be answered through attribution, lower training costs for
by involving stakeholders. By seeking their new employees, business efficiencies through
involvement up-front, marketers can put fewer vendor relationships to manage, etc.
themselves in a better position to choose a
34 Tools and Technologies for Integrated Marketing
35. “Switching” costs between platforms can By allowing separate data sets in individual
be extremely high. Implementation, training point solutions, the marketer enters worlds
and simply becoming comfortable with a of parallel data which causes confusion and
new partner to help manage complex digital mistrust between departments. Combining
marketing campaigns is a big investment them into a single source prevents efforts
and not one that marketers want to have to from working at cross-purposes and allows
repeat frequently. Switching can also mean a the marketer to see how each piece supports
disruption in the constant inflow of data from the other to grow the whole pie.
one system to the next. Companies that move
from platform to platform every couple of
years can find themselves constantly behind Summary
the curve as they start from scratch and need
to get back up to speed on data collection, The technology decision is at the center of
implementation and training each time. This an integrated marketing strategy. The right
is exponentially true for those changing solution will best match the marketer’s needs
solutions for multiple channels. and create both operational and technical
efficiencies and consistency. It will lead to
Failing to think through the impact on data:
higher ROI through better performance and
Centralizing reporting across channels results
lower management costs. By merging channels
in a common data set used by the entire
together, the marketer gains the tools needed to
digital marketing team. It allows marketers
more effectively manage campaigns cohesively,
to de-duplicate orders and use attribution
cutting down on waste and ensuring that all
models to better understand how channels are
teams are working together. It also makes it
working together. It also creates a single set
easier for marketers to tout the results. From
of digital marketing data that is shared across
a cost-saving standpoint, picking the right
teams. This provides operational efficiencies
integrated solution can make this investment a
and cuts down on wasted media spend as
one-time cost that pays off over the long run.
individual channel owners can work together
instead of competing for the same purchase.
www.IgnitionOne.com 35
38. Centralized Data
for Actionable Insights
Dave Ragals, SVP Client Services | IgnitionOne
B
ig Data is a term we hear a lot about, of your users, how they interact with your
but it is easy to forget that bigger marketing efforts, conclude what is successful
is not always better. Marketers have and then automate your optimizations. Let’s
become buried under a mountain take a closer look at the situation…
of data that comes from a variety of sources
– separate marketing systems, analytics,
reports, vendors, internal teams, etc. We asked The Data Mess
for all this data, we wanted to be smarter,
to understand more. But the data that was The concept of centralized reporting is nothing
supposed to make us smarter in the end has new. Analytics platforms have been around
only paralyzed us. Having all of this data and for years, and many companies also manage a
no way to act on it in an instantaneous and separate internal data warehouse. These “back-
automated way puts us in a situation where we end” data solutions ensure there’s an archive
are data rich but insights poor. of website activity that can, through heavy
analysis, help businesses better understand
So what do we do now? In order to reach the their website visitors.
goal of truly integrated marketing you need to
wrestle this Big Data and centralize everything. But as digital marketing has evolved, the
A single repository for all your information granularity of data – and the ability to use it
allows you to actually obtain a clear picture in near real-time to make effective marketing
38 Centralized Data for Actionable Insights
39. decisions – shifts the need for centralized data engines – or display networks or affiliates, for
up front for marketers to use before and during that matter – work together.
campaigns, not just after.
The downside, of course, is this puts deep
Single-point solutions have helped part of this channel-specific data in silos. By shifting the
problem by providing marketers with in-depth depth and breadth of data back up to the front,
and instant (or close to it) access to data for their the marketer winds up back where he or she
individual channels. Paid search practitioners, started – with more actionable data, perhaps,
for example, can use a platform to access all but still in multiple sources. And there’s no
of their SEM data and pull various levers in means to look across channels to understand
real time based on this rich data. Marketers how they’re working together or how much
can better understand how different search someone is overpaying for a given action.
Third PARTY
• Blue Kai
• Exelate
• Others
FIRST PARTY (CRM)
• Customer ID TRANSACTION
• Subscription Info: • SKU, Data, package
Renewal date, package, • Attributed Exposures
lifetime value • Order ID
• Demographics • Conversion Events
• Anonymized PII: Credit
score, etc
EXPOSURES
PROFILE
• Display Requests – lost &
won: time, creative, bid, • Interests
URL,geo… • Propensity to buy
• Search Click – time, kwd,
CPC…
Visitor_ID: •
•
Device ID
Geo
• Site Optimization 18uqzyyfkrmxc
Interactions
• Other: email, affiliate
On-Site
• Click Path
CENTRALIZING DATA ALLOWS YOU TO FOCUS ON THE USER LEVEL.
www.IgnitionOne.com 39
40. Enter the data warehouse. Channel-specific Attribution to the Rescue
data can be exported out of all the various point
solutions and stored in a centralized location. Much has been said about attribution over
From here, an analytics team can run cross- the past few years. Most marketers agree that
channel analysis. But that still can’t happen simple first- or last-click models are no longer
until after the fact. And the marketer is back to viable and managing and reporting on each
where he started. channel in its own silo is completely inefficient.
Whereas with individual point solutions, the
same sale could be claimed by all the marketing
Break the Silos channels in the funnel. In a centralized system,
these can be de-duplicated at a minimum or
The way to break this vicious cycle is to have attributed through multi-exposure models that
data for all channels in a centralized platform, give partial credit across all channels.
updated as frequently as a point solution, while
running attribution at the same time. This This has given rise to an influx of attribution
creates the best of both worlds – real-time systems and services. Many follow the same
data, de-duplicated and attributed across all point-solution approach – a standalone system
channels, usable by the marketer and accessible that can import marketing data across channels
by all from a centralized system. This way, all and run attribution analysis to be returned to
media decisions, optimization and reporting are the marketer.
performed in the same place using the same
This, of course, is fraught with some of the same
data set.
problems as any point solution approach, and
it introduces some new ones. While data is
attributed and housed in a central location and
can be sent back to the other point solutions for
campaign management, it’s far from immediate.
Channel-specific data has to be passed from all
point systems to the attribution system, where
it’s processed and fed back to each platform.
40 Centralized Data for Actionable Insights
41. That has inherent delays and creates multiple Centralized Reporting
potential points for failure. And these can easily
is the Answer
cascade – a communication failure between the
search point solution and the attribution system The only sure way to avoid all of these headaches
has an immediate impact on all the other point is through truly centralized reporting.
solutions and the teams that manage those
Once the decision is made to centralize
channels. As with anything, a chain is only as
reporting, the next questions are what and how
strong as its weakest link.
to measure. A user’s path to a sale or sign-up
Not only does this put data at risk, it creates can touch on numerous marketing efforts. So
logistical and resource issues as well. making sure all of those channels are tracked is
Coordinating and managing each individual critical. Some obvious and common channels
integration and keeping tabs on these multiple include paid search, organic search, display and
flows of data can be a full-time job in and of itself. social media. But there are others to consider
It also means multiple business relationships as well.
and the risk that if one solution changes its
Marketers with active affiliate programs no
requirements or technology, it could impact the
doubt see high numbers reported by their
rest of this forced alliance.
partners. This makes sense, as affiliates rely
heavily on users who have already made
their decision and are about to take action.
But most of those users were driven through
awareness and interest nurtured by other
channels. So tying all of those efforts – up to
and including that “coupon” or “promo code”
search that got them to the affiliate site – is a
key piece of the puzzle.
paid search display organic search conversion
www.IgnitionOne.com 41
42. The same can be true for email, as the user has It goes beyond removing duplicates and proving
likely already engaged with the brand’s site that each channel doesn’t get full credit for a
when they provided their email address. Did that single action. This alone can create immediate
email blast close the sale, or did it re-engage the efficiencies, as the marketer is no longer paying
user to the point of interest? Once again, seeing double or triple the target CPA for a single
where email fits in the funnel is important. action that came after a paid search click, a
remarketing view and an email blast.
And once the user visits the site, what part does
user experience and content personalization
play? Communicating with your audience does
Cross-Channel Optimization
not end with advertisements.
When all is said and done, compiling all of your
There could, of course, be other channels too,
data together allows an understanding of what
so having a firm understanding of the different
efforts work together to move you towards
touch points before starting down this path is
your goals and where to best spend your
essential.
money. You begin to see that it is not about a
Another important consideration is that single campaign, a single keyword or a single
attribution is a means to an end. Crediting message. Your marketing is a holistic beast and
different exposures across multiple channels one that you can now tame.
provides the marketer with a better
understanding of how they’re engaging with
their users and getting them to convert. But it’s
what they do with that knowledge that really
matters. Unless marketers embrace this and
use attribution to help adjust their media mix to
increase the overall pie, it will be simply another
bright, shiny object. To keep the luster from
fading, it’s important to know what to measure.
42 Centralized Data for Actionable Insights
44. Bridging the Gap: Advertising, Conversion
Optimization and Marketing Automation
Filip Lauweres, VP Client Services, Europe | IgnitionOne
O
ne of the tasks of digital marketers and advertising is providing us with ways to link
– and marketing professionals in campaigns, analyze them and attribute the right
general – is bridging gaps. We value. Connecting the dots or tearing down the
advertise on the Internet to bring silos –when done in a proper way – will result in
people to our site, and once they land there, higher conversion rates.
we try to convince them to interact with us
Of course, there are already prospects ending
by filling in forms or by reading the content
their online journey by filling in forms and
we have prepared for them to eventually buy
starting chats with sales people, for example.
something or to better position ourselves in the
But this is only a very small percentage of all
consumer’s mind.
visitors. We can do more and we can do better.
Going from the Internet to your website and
The next step in bridging gaps is ensuring that
from there to conversion is about bridging gaps.
websites deliver concrete performance. Digital
Every step of the way, people are dropping
marketing strategies must convey relevant
out of the funnel and “great marketing” will
content and facilitate dialogue with customers
convince them to stay.
pro-actively without increasing spend.
As a digital marketer, we have tools and data
These trends – personalization and interaction
– “big data” – to optimize our advertising and
- will be key.
website strategy. Moreover, digital marketing
44 Bridging the Gap: Advertising, Conversion Optimization and Marketing Automation
45. Active personalization through behavioral of the website visitors. This analysis is called
targeting is the first key element. Because of the behavioral targeting and is far more powerful
near-infinite variety of content available online, than the current methodologies. If used in
customer engagement becomes increasingly a proper way – in line with privacy laws – this
important. Providing “sticky” content is not approach is highly beneficially for the online
enough anymore; matching this sticky content audience. Behavioral targeting can be used to
to the individual website visitor is becoming a show the right audience a specific white paper,
necessity. product information or video. But behavioral
targeting does not end there. It’s also used
The right content, delivered at the right
to assist with analyzing the vast amount of
moment and to the right audience will be one of
data generated with social, search and display
the leitmotifs of the e-future. If you look at the
advertising campaigns.
success of television on demand, web content
management systems and interest-specific This analysis is called engagement optimization.
blogs, you will see the huge potential. But … Engagement optimization is based on a
all of these technologies are based on declared combination of conversion and engagement
personal preferences. You have to actively metrics of a visitor (behavioral analysis) and
select your interest in jobs, news, movies and the was created to empower marketers to move
website will respond by adjusting its content. beyond last-click attribution. This encourages
key decision makers to gain true insights on
This approach is changing as we speak. More
how to attribute the correct credit across
and more websites are adopting their content
search, display, Facebook, email and affiliate
not only in line with the declared interest of web
visits before making decisions.
visitors but also based on their un-declared or
“behavioral” input. The result of active personalization – when
used in advertising or site optimization – is
This is done by analyzing the history of the
generating a much better user experience and
online behaviors of an individual or a group
more repeat visits to companies’ websites. In
of people and by observing their behavior in
other words, the results are higher customer
real-time. Using this data, websites today can
engagement and more conversions.
pre-determine the true, undeclared interests
www.IgnitionOne.com 45