Study: Majority Of Digital Marketers Up Investment In ‘Outcome-Driven Media’

A survey of almost 5,000 digital media marketers across 16 key global markets reveals that the vast majority plan to increase their investment in the emerging field of ‘outcome-driven media’.

The move will address growing media complexity and better understand the impact of their campaigns on business results.

The research, by Outcome media company, Xaxis, which is also GroupM’s programmatic media arm, assessed how satisfied marketers around the world were with their existing methods of measuring the success of digital display campaigns, especially in terms of how they deliver against their strategic business and marketing goals.

Speaking on the research, Xaxis Australia managing director Imran Masood said:

Imran Masood, Xaxis Australia MD says: “It’s an incredibly exciting time in our industry. In Australia, 80%+ of our advertisers are asking Xaxis to create custom outcomes.

“The goal is to drive greater efficiency for a brands investment and align marketing strategies to business objectives.

“The opportunity for us is to elevate the conversation away from basic media metrics and guarantee outcomes that matter for a brand.

“We do this by leveraging the scale of our market trading advantage, speed and science in connecting our proprietary and partner technology solutions, and the smarts of our amazing people.”

It also asked what the main barriers were to moving to new metrics, and whether they were planning to increase their investment in ‘outcomes-driven media’.

This was defined as “planning and optimizing campaigns against KPIs – often tailor-made for an advertiser or campaign – that are much more closely aligned to the marketer’s ultimate marketing and business goals”.

For example, outcome-driven media might be focused on custom-made footfall, ‘cost per incremental visitor’, or brand lift and viewability metrics, rather than less direct proxies for success such as cost per thousand (CPM).

The results of the survey found that 88 per cent of marketers in the Asia Pacific region are planning to increase their investment in the emerging field of ‘outcome-driven media’ over the next two years.

However, there is a mixed picture in relation to how marketers view existing ways of measuring digital media success.

The majority (90 per cent) of APAC marketers surveyed said the primary metrics they used – most commonly cost per acquisition (CPA), cost per completed view (CPCV), cost per click (CPC), and click-through rate (CTR) – were very or somewhat effective in evaluating the success of campaigns against strategic marketing goals.

However, almost three quarters (74 per cent) either strongly or somewhat agreed that evaluating digital media spend had become more difficult over the past five years and almost four in five (79 per cent) said they were very or somewhat likely to change the primary metric they used to measure campaigns over the next 12-24 months.

For marketers in India, the need was even clearer, with 91 per cent agreeing they were likely to change how they measure campaigns.

The research highlights that linking digital media spend to business impact is critical for marketers.

More than nine out of 10 (92 per cent) said they use one or more custom KPIs to link the impact of digital display campaigns on ‘measurable business results’ and more than four-fifths (87 per cent) strongly or somewhat agreed that it was “essential for digital campaigns to drive a direct correlation”.

However, this figure varied between countries region.

While 94 per cent of Indian marketers felt that this connection was vital, only 80 per cent of Australian marketers agreed.

The research also reports that 84 per cent of marketers surveyed agreed that being able to link business objectives to digital media spend ‘positively impacted’ their marketing budget and the same majority agreed that understanding how media can meet business objectives allowed their organisation to have a measurable advantage over competitors.

When asked what their organisation’s priorities were for media spend in 2019, the top answer for APAC marketers (45 per cent) was ‘increased efficiency’, followed by ‘demonstrating that marketing strategy aligns with business objectives’ (42 per cent), ‘improving ad viewability levels’ (36 per cent) and ‘effective allocation of resource’ (36 per cent).

‘Gaining full transparency of campaign performance’ and ‘Establishing effective benchmarks in measuring campaign success’ were tied fifth – with 33 per cent of survey respondents each.

Xaxis global CEO Nicolas Bidon commented: “The research clearly demonstrates that outcome-driven media is a key priority for APAC marketers moving into 2019, with a continuing focus on proving the link between digital media spend and business success.

“The research sends a clear message to the industry that, when business objectives are linked to digital spend, there is a positive uplift on budgets to enable those businesses to secure a greater competitive advantage.”

Xaxis Asia-Pacific president Arshan Saha added: “This is an exciting time for us right now as the advertising industry in the APAC region continues to grow and advance.

“Survey results for the APAC market were closely in line with global trends, and indicate a clear need for marketing that can drive real-world results that accrue to the bottom line.

“This approach will empower marketing to solidify its position as a center for revenue enhancement, which could ultimately change perceptions of its role within the organization.”