Digital Media StrategyISM 6910 – Week 2

Week 2 Topics

• Tagging & 3rd party ad serving

• Digital media Strategies

• Site KPIs and metrics

Tagging & 3rd party ad serving

Cookie • Is a file placed on your computer that helps identify your

computer/browser

1st Party Tags• A script the site owner (i.e. the site domain) uses, that places a

cookie on your computer and collects data. Some examples are when sites save your password or login info.

3rd Party Tags• A script the site owner places on the page but the data is collected

by a 3rd party. Some examples are tags used for web analytics tools like Webtrends and Google Analytics, and also ad serving tags that track paid media (banners and search).

Tags and Cookies, and how they work

3rd Party Tag Data

Impressions• Tracks if a page or ad banner loaded. Note, an impression doesn’t

always mean the user actually saw the ad or all of the content on the page. Content or banners that fall below the fold (i.e. you have to scroll down to see them) typically count as an impression even if the user doesn’t scroll further down the page.

Clicks• Tracks a click on a page.

Other Examples• Video starts and completes• Page interactions like scrolling, filling out forms• Survey responses• Shopping cart and purchase info

3rd Party Ad Serving

Individual publishers (web sites)

Ad Networks (which sell inventory for groups of sites) determine their ad inventory and sell that space to Agencies or Advertisers.

3rd Party Ad Serving

Atlas Ad Server(img server,

CDN)

Ad delivered based on placement/ad assignment and other rules such as:• Schedule• Frequency Caps• Weighting• Sequencing

Data is passed to Atlas:• User Agent String• Time/Date• CookieID• PlacementID• Adtag

Atlas

Using Atlas as an example, the process is very similar for DoubleClick (Google) and other ad serving companies.

3rd Party Ad Serving

Data is passed to Pub/Network:• User Agent

String• Time/Date• CookieID• PlacementID• Target

Publishers/Networks often resell their inventory to other Networks. When preparing to deliver an ad, there can be many “jumps” from network to network.

Network

Network 2

Atlas Network 3

Ad Conversions

When a user clicks on an Ad they re-directed through Atlas to the destination page.

Atlas

Atlas records the click and re-directs the user to the destination page.

Atlas Ad Server(img server,

CDN)

Atlas

1x1

If the site has an action tag on the landing page the visit can now be directly tied back to the ad.

Atlas can then tie each ad impressions and click back to the action tag, (per cookie). This is data is then used to optimize the ad campaign.

Action Tags

“Conversions” don’t always have to be landing on a page. An action tags can also be placed on buy buttons or pages deeper in the site.

ReportingAll Atlas reporting derives from three basic metrics: Impressions, Clicks and Action Requests, as well as the properties of the placement and action tag (as entered into Atlas).

Atlas Data Centers

Imps

Clicks

Actions

Atlas can report on the following:• Impressions & Clicks• Conversions• Cost Accrued• Extended Data• Reach & Frequency• Anything derived from the

above

We use Atlas reports to:- Determine effectiveness of

campaigns- Optimize Placements & Creative

Atlas Reporting Processor

Imps

Clicks Actions

Placement Properties

Atlas Reports

Placement Properties

All you really need to remember…

Reporting - Impression

An impression implies you saw the ad, but in reality if only tracks if the banner or content loaded.(Fol

d)

Reporting - Click

A click is a click.

Reporting - Conversion

1x1

A conversion can be based on anything that can be tracked with an action tag, and is used to optimize the campaign.

Reporting – Extended data tags (Atlas)

An extended data tag acts the same as an action tag but can also collect additional data passed to it from a page variable.

Digital media strategies

Direct response campaignsDR campaigns focus on driving users to an “end action”, typically a product purchase trial sign up or some other action that can be taken on the company’s landing page or web site.

Brand and Product campaignsBrand and product campaigns focus on awareness and reinforcing positive brand and product perceptions.

RemessagingRemessaging, also sometimes called retargeting, targets cookies that have taken a previous action. For example visited a site, abandoned a shopping cart, or didn’t complete a sign up form.

...ever feel like you’re being fallowed all over the web?

PersonalizationRemessaging, but with targeted content. Personalization not only retargets cookies but includes relevant content in the ads.

...ever feel like you’re being stalked on web?

Another example… Serve SKU-level message based on what

she last looked at

Serve a vendor message based on investment

(in this case, from Toshiba)

Serve a category-level message based on

category she browsed most

“Last Action”

“Category”

“MDF”

Shopper visits BestBuy.com

She browses the computer category

Views a Dell Inspiron laptop…

Scenario:

After I made the last slide…

...the next there it is!

True Lift Study

• Hawaiian Study

Remessaging ROI

• Best Buy Study

Campaign goals and tactics

Campaign landing pagesOften times referred to as a CLE (Campaign Landing Environment), is a page or micro site built specifically for an ad campaign or promotion.

• Look and feel matches the banner, and campaign creative.• CLE’s can be built outside of the typical company page dev. cycles.• Agency or 3rd party can build the CLE with fewer technology constraints.

Site side metrics – “Outcome based metrics”

Ad serving Data vs. Web Analytics Tools

Ad Serving Web Analytics

Can handle large volumes of traffic

Can track multiple metrics with one tag

Little to no business rules Lots of business rules

Can get cookie level data No access to cookie level data

Metrics vs. KPI

Metric – is a quantitative measurement of statistics describing events on a website.

Examples: Impressions, clicks, CLE page visits

Key Performance Indicator (KPI) – is a metric that helps you understand how you are doing against your objectives. A KPI should be relatively high level and tactical.

Examples: Free trial sign-up, online purchase

Avinash’s eight critical metrics

• Visits and Visitors• Time on Page and Time on Site• Bounce Rates• Exit Rates• Conversion Rate• Engagement

Visit metrics

A visit typically means someone came to your site and spent some time interacting and or browsing the site.

• Web analytics tools should tie all of the pages into one visit.

• A visitor can have multiple visits• Most tools end a visit after 30 min of

inactivityExample: Every day during my lunch break I go to MSNBC.com and read the news. I typically read a few articles and watch a video clip or two. Each lunch break should be counted as a single visit.

Visitor metricsA Unique visitor should count the number of people who visited your website.

• Cookies for most web analytics tools are unique to the computer and browser.

• Browsers that block 3rd party cookies will be seen as multiple visitors. (now 30-40% and growing)

Example: In my MSNBC.com lunch example I should only be counted as one visitor. But my wife and both use our home computer, but we will still only be counted as the same unique user, this can create some interesting retargeting issues.

Time on Page & Time on SiteTime on the page or site should track how much time someone spent on your website.

• Note: time on a page or site can mean a lot of things. It could imply people find the site and the content interesting and are spending a lot of time engaged. But, it might also indicate people on the site looking for specific information or help and are getting lost or can’t find what their looking for. 10:0

010:0

110:0

5 Exit

Bounce Rates

Bounce Rate – percentage of visits that only had one page view and left (no clicks).

• This is particularly a useful metric for tracking how well a CLE is performing.

10:00

Exit

Exit Rates

Exit Rate – percentage of visits that left through a particular page.

• Metric doesn’t always indicate an issue. For example visitors who exit via a purchase thank you page is probably normal, or for example they found the info they were looking for and then left.

• Exiting via a product info page might indicate people are shopping around, but it could also indicate a pricing issue or poor content.

• This metric can help identify purchase path issues.

Exit

Conversion Rates

Conversion Rate – percentage of visits or visitors that convert.

• Conversions should be tied to a site or business objective, like a purchase.

• Conversions per unique visitor is typically more appropriate than per visit.

Example: Unique visitors who purchased a copy of Windows 7 visited Microsoft’s Windows site 3-4 times before making a purchase.

EngagementEngagement – Is term used in the industry that can mean a lot of different things, but typically it is an attempt to measure how much visitors are interacting with and consuming content on the site.

Examples:• Reading content• Watching videos• Interacting with calculators, widgets, etc.

Note: hard to know if high engagement rates are positive or negative, very similar to the issues faced with the time on site metric.

Metric Lifecycle

Define

Measure

AnalyzeAction

Improve

Macro Insights

1. How many Visitors are coming to my site?2. Where are my visitors coming from?3. What do I want visitors to do on the site?4. What are visitors actually doing?