Been too long since the last post but hopefully more to come!
Digital analytics and ad fraud expert Augustine Fou provides an overview of why and how to start upping your digital advertising. Especially handy is the approach to getting started with simple on/off tests in different markets.
Getting Started is Better than Not
Not perfect but excellent training wheels for harried digital marketers in need of a starting point for an experimental design approach.
A recent Webinar by Flashtalking, an ad serving/attribution technology company brought up the digital media analytics elephant in the room: 3rd party cookie tracking by display ad servers is unreliable and providing poor measurement to advertisers and their agencies.
The slow and steady decay of cookies is nothing new (Digilant 2012 Cookie Deletion Study), but seeing actual numbers that impact specific metrics is troubling. For digital advertising analytics the quantifiable impact on digital advertising campaigns is severely compromised for several key metrics.
Ad server metrics like reach, frequency and viewthrough conversions are way off!
Given the focus of Viewthrough.org, it is worth specifically focusing on the relevant findings of Flashtalking’s recent Cookie Rejection Index research that was shared during the Webinar.
By testing legacy and their proprietary methods together in the same campaign, Flashtalking is able to observe a strictly 3rd party cookie-based count and a machine fingerprinting (plus cookie) count, compare them and then determine and report on actual 3rd party cookie measurement efficacy.Discerning digital marketers need to check for themselves and benchmark their current tech stack’s accuracy.
The typical Viewthrough Conversion Process
For the regular research study, Flashtalking analyzes 25 of their client’s brands, Flashtalking analyzes tracking simultaneously using both cookies and their proprietary machine fingerprinting methodology called the ftrack ID, which probablistically establishes digital identity on a given device. Not perfect but a major step forward and better than legacy ad serving methods.
Machine Fingerprinting 101
Before diving into the affected metrics, a quick primer on machine fingerprinting will be helpful. This alternative method of digital identification arose because of the problems with cookies which require a Web server to place them via browser on a user’s machine and then to retrieve them. Better analytics solutions and ad networks have been using this method for years. Unlike cookies, machine fingerprinting tracking cannot be rejected, blocked or deleted. However, they are not as precise hence the term probablistic (likely).
For those unfamiliar with this passive method of tracking, visit and test a Web browser on Panopticlick from the Electronic Frontiers Foundation. Machine fingerprinting relies on the unique combination of browser characteristics, e.g. plug-ins and extensions that are shared with the Web server being accessed. Nothing new there.
Recent Web browser test results showing a sample of the fairly unique combination of traits that enable probalistic identification
Unreliable Ad Server and Attribution Metrics
The fact is that legacy ad servers, certain analytics and multi-touch attribution platforms that have not dealt with this problem are providing junk metrics. None of them are providing any transparency on how bad their count really is or trend data. As a result most digital marketers are blissfully unaware.
Unreliable and unstable 3rd Party Tracking Cookie impacts ad servers, analytics, attribution platforms, ad networks and more.
On the flip-side, many ad networks have solved for this problem as it immediately impacted their bottom-line. Worse campaign optimization on their side leads to worse advertiser results. That said, rarely is it mentioned or internal research about it shared with digital advertiser clients or their agencies. Most are usually only concerned with results and don’t ask questions.
For their part, Flashtalking’s research is revealing just how bad it is and found the following ad metrics seriously compromised:
Conversions are understated by an average of 40% (this includes viewthrough conversions and by extension viewthrough visits)
Reach is overstated by 97% meaning that ad server reporting are exaggerates
Frequency is understated by 41% meaning that ad server reporting misses more than half the repeat impressions
If digital Reach/Frequency matter…better look elsewhere for accurate metrics.
The above figures include desktop, mobile and tablet device types. Flashtalking also provided additional reporting that compares desktop to mobile showing the true story. Ad server performance for mobile platform metrics is significantly worse:
Conversions understatement from 11% to 79%, about 7x worse for mobile
Reach overstatement from 26% to 128%, about 5x worse for mobile
Frequency understatement from 20% to 50%, about 2.5x worse for mobile
The impact of the above should be a cause for concern for digital marketers seeking to understand display’s passive branding effects, multi-touch attribution and even ad viewability. Considering that many digital advertisers are not incrementality testing or calibrating viewthrough measurement the metrics from ad servers are almost worthless.
We’ve been tinkering with the open-source Piwik analytics for some-time now and are pleased to be retiring Google Analytics page tagging. Soon we’ll be moving to WordPress, so long Google!
As you may have noticed, the blog has moved to a WordPress system provided by the nice people at hostmonster.com. No more will the high-value audience of yourselves be harvested from visiting this blog, data-mined by the Googleplex and retargeted. It IS possible for digital advertisers to limit the data vacuum and take control of their ad stack – yes, you can!
Not to mention the sites you visited, what you did, saw ads on (possibly clicked)
and what you searched for!
And yes, The Tip of the Spear Blog is still rocking Piwik, open-source analytics!
With the growing interest in defining viewthrough by multiple participants from across the ecosystem, many digital marketers are still scratching their head. This is the first of a short series of posts to provide an analytics-first view of viewthrough measurement and how you can get started.
We’re pleased to announce that this blog and site is now using Piwik for Web analytics!
If you are unfamiliar with Piwik, check it out it is a free tag-based site analytics solution that is open source. That’s right, your site behavior is yours alone…unless of course you are using a free blog site.
Suffice it to say, there has been a lot going on since my last post.
I’m pleased to announce my return to the digital analytics consulting business, rejoining The Encima Group (TEG) as VP of Digital Analytics & Operations. TEG is a technology-independent digital analytics consultancy that sweats the details and is led by founder David Clunes.
It was a tough decision leaving the dedicated marketing analytics and media teams at Sears Holdings. I’m very proud of the great work that we did (alongside Digitas, Vivaki AOD and WebHue) to advance digital marketing for a top American brand and innovative multichannel retailer. I’m confident that the Adverlytics team working with several top technology vendor partners will continue to build on the great progress that we made together.
While I won’t mention the several critical ad technology stack partners by name, one in particular stood out by enabling much of the amazing advances that we made in capabilities and strategy. After working with the team at BrightTag for over18 months on some the toughest tag, data management and performance engineering problems, I’m honored to announce that I’ve accepted an invitation to join their strategic advisory board.
It is really great to see the team getting so much traction in the marketplace and finally receiving some of the recognition that they deserve. They were great people to work with that are attacking some of the thorniest solve-resistant problems plaguing the digital marketing industry today.
Meanwhile back at TEG, I’ll be having a blast knee-deep in analytics across several clients while working on several aspects of TEG’s business. I’ll continue to push forward with a special emphasis on audience research, advanced targeting, offline measurement, algorithmic attribution and of course process. If your company needs analytics support, operational resources or an objective strategic POV – get in touch.
