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Have you ever tried to explain Internet marketing to a relative newcomer (or even a relative for that matter)? Once you start talking about the area that you specifically work in (SEO, PPC, social media, etc) you find you have to start to explain to some degree the other areas because none of the disciplines of the Internet marketing world exist in a vacuum. To truly understand the effectiveness of Internet marketing one has to look at the picture as a whole but as we can all attest to, that is easier said than done.
A new study from eMarketer (Note: There is no financial relationship between eMarketer and MP) discusses this very issue and helps to show just how critical it is to make sure that as marketers we are not relying to heavily on one metric to measure success or failure of Internet marketing efforts. A study from last year from iProspect and comScore is one reference point about the importance of making sure that messaging happens in many ways across many channels.
The eMarketer article states
“Most conversions occur as the result of long-term, complex interactions among a variety of ads and marketing channels,” said David Hallerman, eMarketer principal analyst and author of the new report, “Integrating Search and Display: Tactics for More Effective Advertising.” “However, even after years of research, some marketers still give more weight to the consumer’s last click—often on search results, both ads and organic listings—than any other step in the purchase funnel leading to conversion.”
Another interesting study referenced comes from late last year and it looks at what tools marketers are using to manage mountains of data that come from different areas. The trick is to see the relationship between the various efforts and the impact it has on marketing goals.
Attribution modeling done right takes an enormous amount of data from a wide range of sources over a period of time and unifies it into a tool that’s useful both for analyzing what occurred in a campaign and for planning elements of the next campaign.
Considering that many marketers are using spreadsheets this can’t be an easy process.
So how do you manage the various channels of a marketing campaign so they can come together like an orchestra to play one marketing song? Are you looking for more intelligent tools or is how you are doing it fine for now? Where do the available tools for marketers today meet or fall short of expectations?
