By Jennifer Pelino, EVP, Media Center of Excellence, IRI
Modern marketing technology generates vast amounts of data on activities, such as campaign spending and tactics, consumer engagement and sales. Marketers need to access the latest marketing measurement and optimization (MMO) tools to help them quickly and easily analyze and optimize in-flight campaign performance, quantify the true financial impact of campaigns, allocate spending across marketing tactics and plan for expanded growth efficiently.
A recent report from Forrester, "Now Tech: Marketing Measurement and Optimization Solutions, Q2 2021," analyzes the current MMO marketplace, including the firms that can support clients through an array of MMO tools. In the report, Forrester explored measurement at a deeper level, breaking down MMO into five specific segments:
- unified marketing performance measurement
- marketing mix modeling
- multi-touch attribution
- TV attribution
- marketing performance monitors
Forrester offers marketers the opportunity to understand the value they can expect from an MMO provider and select a company based on size, functionality and key product segments. Here's a closer look at four of the five key segments, why they're important and what marketers should be looking for when they are selecting an MMO solution or firm:
Unified Marketing Performance Measurement
Unified marketing performance measurement (UMM) is considered the most sophisticated approach by Forrester. UMM uses an ensemble of statistical analytical methods, including marketing mix modeling, multi-touch attribution and TV attribution.
UMM unifies disparate metrics across near-term and longer-term activities to make confident planning decisions.
Advanced UMM providers allow marketers to monitor sophisticated KPIs and activate changes at a campaign or program level. The ideal solutions should allow manufacturers and retailers to have data-driven conversations on product selection, placement, pricing and promotions.
Marketing Mix Modeling
Marketing mix modeling (MMM) measures a combination of channels, creative and targeting and defines the most impactful to ROI across all marketing efforts. Because MMM tools process granular data quickly and constantly update marketing performance as data enters the system, MMM is important to marketers who need to quickly shift gears based on up-to-date data and performance numbers.
For CPG marketers, preferred solutions should have proven and measurable success in quantifying clients' volume driven by the various media and consumer promotion touchpoints and their effectiveness and efficiency. We've seen these solutions drive 12-15% improvement on ROI for total marketing spend consistently.
Multi-Touch Attribution
Multi-touch attribution (MTA) uses machine learning algorithms to attribute credit of all the paths taken against all touchpoints to define the optimal sequence throughout the customer journey. It defines and measures how specific campaign elements like placement, offer or creative drove a customer action.
Forrester explains that MTA solutions are becoming more difficult to execute because of increased limitations to identity-based marketing approaches resulting from the demise of third-party cookies. However, by measuring information across multiple channels and having a strong deterministic data set, optimal solutions should be able to identify individual and joint impacts on sales lifts and answer key questions about attribution, allowing for improved real-time redirecting.
These solutions should enable clients to conduct multi-touch attribution (MTA) across measured channels, including digital and TV. They should combine frequent shopper, panel, and online and offline sales data.
TV Attribution
TV attribution links individual campaign elements from ad exposure data to a sale to understand which elements of the campaign should be improved to get the most ROAS. Purchase-based data helps media planners target their brand buyers, competitive brands, category shoppers and custom research segments. By leveraging this custom and purchase-based data, marketers can test out elements to help improve ad efficiency and return on ad spend.
To be effective, CPG marketers need a highly accurate media optimization and measurement solution, fueled by granular data sets like frequent shopper or first-party data. The larger the data set, the more accurate the analysis. The ideal solution can measure digital, TV, social, CRM and out-of-home advertising's impact on in-store sales. And deploying the optimal solution can drive up to 80% greater ROAS.
To learn more about these areas and why they are important to your marketing measurement and optimization, as well as the MMO strengths of IRI and other vendors in this space, read this complimentary report from Forrester. To learn more about IRI's solutions in these areas and how they can help you achieve better business results, reach out to your IRI representative or IRIMedia@IRIworldwide.com.