13 January, 2016

What Happens When Ad Tech And Martech Collide?

By Luke Frost

MediaMath ANZ country manager Stuart Bartram shared his thoughts with us on how the industry is working together to deliver streamlined, relevant messaging to consumers across multiple channels.

Whether a consumer is browsing the internet for a new car or comparing car insurance providers, the primary objective for brands is to target the consumer with relevant communication at the right stage of their decision-making journey.

Yet achieving the goal of timely cross-device targeting is more complex than it sounds. With half of consumers in Australia describing themselves as ‘digital omnivores’ – owners of a tablet, laptop and smartphone – cookieless mobile devices create data blind spots that prevent a unique user from being identified across different channels.

For example – consider a consumer who has been researching a car on their smartphone for several weeks. The consumer then books a test drive from their laptop at work, before completing the purchase in a physical showroom, triggering a data input in the auto seller’s customer relationship management (CRM) system.

In an ideal world, marketers would be able to understand from these data points that the purchase has been completed, allowing them to target the consumer with relevant post-purchase adverts such as car insurance offers.

However, the cookieless environment of the smartphone means that the consumer cannot be recognised as the same person who booked the test drive from a laptop. This leads marketers to perceive that the consumer is still in the decision-making stage and will benefit from being retargeted with car adverts.

Not only is this a wasted opportunity for brands, but it risks irritating the consumer with irrelevant adverts.

So, how is the industry working together to deliver streamlined, relevant messaging to consumers across multiple channels? The key lies in the amalgamation of ad tech and martech, and it’s fast becoming a reality.

While martech uses personal data to engage consumers through owned marketing channels, ad tech typically focusses on paid media optimised via anonymous data points such as cookies or mobile IDs. The net result is that ad tech and martech businesses use different platforms and technologies to reach the same consumer. The integration has several key benefits for the industry:

More effective targeting

A 360-degree view of consumers enables marketers to improve campaign effectiveness by targeting the right people, with the right ads, at the right time. By integrating ad tech and martech, marketers can unify paid and owned media to leverage targeting capabilities.

Merging owned consumer data – which paints a richer picture of individuals – with CRM data that provides insight into customer interactions and behaviour, enables faster and more effective consumer acquisition.

The collision presents an opportunity for marketers to improve the customer experience from awareness and engagement, to purchase and retention.

Cross-channel messaging

Another benefit resulting from the convergence of ad tech and martech is the ability to breakdown data silos and engage consumers across all channels from a single platform. Doing so allows marketers to deliver consistent messaging and brand storytelling across mobile apps, social, display, email, and web, ensuring better performance on marketing strategies.

For example, marketers using mobile advertising strategies can boost mobile conversion rates by creating relevant and personalised experiences using customers’ profile and historical engagement data readily available in CRM or marketing automation systems.

CRM onboarding also enables the targeting of offline consumers online. From event attendees who provided registration details, to shoppers who have only ever made a purchase in store, offline contacts can now be reached via digital channels.

Re-engaging previous customers

In addition to acquiring new customers, the collision of ad tech and martech is highly effective for retargeting purposes. The ability to personalise ads over the entire customer lifecycle keeps consumers engaged for longer and promotes brand loyalty.

The integration of customer data with advertising technology makes it simple to re-engage existing, previous, or lapsed customers through paid digital media.

Collaboration of marketing teams

As organisations become larger, it becomes common for marketing departments to operate in silos. For example, there may be separate demand generation, email marketing and programmatic teams who focus primarily on their own budgets and metrics, rather than working together to increase customer engagement and revenue.

The collaboration of ad tech and martech will enable marketing teams to share online and offline data, enabling better targeting and an improved overall customer experience. While this will require an organisational shift in thinking or an investment in integrated technological systems, businesses will reap the rewards in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

The lines between ad tech and martech are blurring and an amalgamation of the two is inevitable. When marketing data is used to inform advertising strategies, and insights gained from advertising are used in marketing, an ongoing circle of optimisation is created, allowing CMOs to run seamless holistic campaigns that generate the maximum ROI.

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