Despite the masses of data available from various channels, marketers are still struggling to consolidate insights in effective ways.
The Getting Media Right: Marketing In Motion study by Kantar surveyed 488 senior marketing leaders globally, and found data measurement to be a significant obstacle when it comes to digital marketing.
More than three-quarter (76 per cent) of the marketers surveyed reported they struggle with cross-channel measurement, with ‘blind spots’ from walled gardens like Facebook and Google posing a significant channel, according to 81 per cent of respondents.
Despite these problems around measurement, the study still found 84 per cent of marketers plan to increase their investment in online video advertising over the next 12 months, while 70 per cent plan to increase spend on social media networks and 63 per cent plan to increase spend on podcasts.
“While the rapid growth in digital ad spend comes as no surprise, this new research indicates that marketers still have a long way to go to when it comes to cross-channel measurement and proving ROI,” said Kantar global head of media effectiveness Jane Ostler.
The solution?
“Marketers should aim for the best of both worlds: they need to create a framework to monitor impact on business and brand metrics,” Ostler said.
“That means harmonising measurement tools, building an infrastructure that enables measurement across the diverse marketing mix, and creating meaningful insights to improve performance across all channels.”
Cookie changes a challenge
The report found that while some marketers have already started preparing for life after cookies, many still haven’t.
Nearly half of the agencies surveyed and nearly three-quarters of advertisers haven’t begun preparing for a cookieless world, according to the study.
In addition, 43 per cent listed ‘somewhat agree’ when asked if they were concered about the impact removing cookies would have on measurement, while 48 per cent ticked the same box to show their concern around the inability to track digital media without cookies.
European marketers were the most concerned about the impact of a cookieless ecosystem, no doubt a result of the GDPR.
