How to Measure Digital Marketing

The emergence of the Internet – a wholly new medium – and its implications are probably the biggest change that marketing has faced since World War II. It is no longer just a fad, but a truly new order.

The digital market is growing fast and is expected to account for at least 20 percent of advertising expenditure by 2017. Through its various levers – search, display, affiliation, email, mobile, and social media – it allows brands to implement their complete marketing strategy, from the development of awareness and the image through to acquiring new customers or developing their loyalty.

Measuring without an analytic framework is a pointless exercise: the AIDA model allows the objectives targeted by digital marketing and its effectiveness to be articulated.

For most brands, “paid” advertising or communication has always been one of the most natural ways of raising awareness. This is also the case for digital media. Yet, while the monitoring of effectiveness is well established for advertising in “offline” media, it is not always implemented on the Internet.

Measuring owned media is fundamental because it is the only point of contact that the brand directly controls: it is the center of the brand’s digital ecosystem.

Measuring earned media is a matter of some complexity, linked to their inherent nature, which blends both spontaneous actions and/or reactions, as well as the diversity of social platforms.

Brand communication is becoming more and more difficult, with the fragmentation of media, shrinking advertising budgets, and increasingly “ad zapping,” “mediavore” consumers (those with a voracious appetite for any form of media).

The relative measurability and immediacy of digital media can give advertisers the impression that it is comparatively simple to monitor their effectiveness.

As marketing and communications professionals are well aware, marketing has never been more difficult, but, at the same time, it has never been so exciting. If it is, and must be, in the service of the consumer, then today we have entered an era when this is so. Some authors and specialists even see in this a degree of “revenge” by customers, long treated “en masse” (in the sense of mass marketing) and in some cases, on occasion, “mistreated.” The digital world, with its interactivity and immediacy, appears to be rebalancing the power relationships between the brand and its customers. More informed than ever, customers have also never been so “resistant” to advertising and its influence. Customers are now “mediavores,” that is, they consume ever more media, but in an increasingly fragmented way. They are constantly connected through multiple screens (computers, tablets, and phones), and although their average TV consumption is not decreasing, their online consumption continues to increase, reaching a minimum of 20 hours a month in most developed economies and growing fast in developing economies. Ever more eager for interactive and social experience, customers immerse themselves in digital in all its forms. Switching from email messaging in favor of social networks, they become increasingly difficult to locate and reach; the customer is a constantly moving target. The exponential growth of mobile connections – for example, during the first quarter of 2013, tablets were the most popular connecting device sold, in other words, people now buy more tablets than PCs; and, in 2012, there were more than 25 billion application downloads from the Apple’s App Store – has revealed a major trend that brands must adapt to: SoLoMo. SoLoMo refers to the social-local-mobile character of today’s consumers: they connect with friends wherever they are, access information while on the move, and want information that is increasingly personalized and relevant, particularly in relation to their locations, desires, and needs. So should we give up? No, of course not, because although they are very demanding, these customers can recognize brands that progress and make the effort, and will respond positively to them with loyalty and by making recommendations on their networks.