Today we are in one of the most dynamic phase of our marketing journey. Gone are the days where it was difficult to exactly measure the impact of an ad in TV, Print or Radio. With the advent of internet and technology marketers have gotten better and faster at not only measuring results but also improving them – real time basis. Today’s best online marketers are performance marketers.
The question always looming large over our heads is what if marketers could accurately predict the return on the marketing dollars before even starting the campaign? What if they could pay media only when the target consumer has taken a certain action, For example – asking for more information, asking for a brochure, or setting up appointment with a sales representative? Also while the campaign is running, the marketer could change campaign elements such as media mix, creative, the deal, the call to action, in order to optimize sales related to the advertising program? If this is possible, in true sense a performance marketing campaign is being carried out. This is truly a great revolution since this will make advertising cost a variable cost; hence the concept of budget becomes obsolete all together. This is the core of online performance marketing!!! Organizations looking to fuel their customer acquisition strategies, while building profits, will increasingly turn to performance marketing to power their growth. The ability to improve results during a live campaign makes online performance marketing a game changer.
Last decade saw whole new world opening up for marketers. The ability of marketers to actively manage the “new age media” and drive more profitable sales from marketing has caused a surge in the advertising dollars being spent online. Good online advertisers know how far their dollars are going to go and how much they can expect in profits. We can take advantage of the near real-time flexibility of the Internet to actively manage campaign elements and improve marketing to sales conversions. Inspite of such a powerful medium and strong proposition aligned to revenue and sales targets, why then is online performance marketing still underutilized? Why aren’t more marketers, advertisers, and companies taking advantage of these tools? There are only a handful of marketers using it to full potential, rest are debating, mulling or sitting on fence.
That once again brings me back to question how and why online medium is accountable for brands. Is there an un-necessary pressure on medium to perform? The above arguments clearly indicate the potential of the medium; however that’s the strength of medium, not product or consumer needs and psyche. The final sale is a function of logical and emotional connect a user has with a brand. Once again, is the expectation from medium much more then it can deliver? It can for sure deliver measurable results, but can it solely change perceptions, create brands, or create affiliations with a brand? Once again, we come back to the question of measurement gap or frustration gap I spoke about in my earlier post. Let’s use the digital medium as one stronger medium for brand experience, engagement and interaction rather than putting un-due pressure on medium to make it a sales channel!
We deliver results which are measurable, we deliver experience which is customizable, and we deliver performance which is trackable, measurable & is optimized.
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Undoubtedly, digital revolution (perhaps, coin it as digital renaissance) is the next ‘big thing’ to happen over a passage time. But most importantly, standing in 2013, we continue to grapple with the mental receptiveness of digital advertising or display networks; even in the mammoth(but traditional) corporate —surprisingly not from the end-user but from the traditional marketing ‘head honchos’, who see digital marketing & advertisement as ‘just another’ medium to augment sales budgets.
In South-Asian countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, for example, executing digital campaigns for FMCG, (except television ads) would not have significant impact on ROI– owing to the lack of 3G/4G internet connectivity, bandwidth, and a very limited reach of these digital mediums to the majority of ‘target audience’ in suburbs and rural demographic.