In May, I blogged about the tendency of marketers to measure campaign success by calculating the click-through rate (CTR). This easy-to-obtain statistic is used by 60% of the companies represented in the most recent Chief Marketer’s Interactive Survey. But analysts at Lotame Solutions argue that “the click—is at best inadequate and at worst deceptive for measuring campaign success against many key brand metrics.”

To date, Lotame has found that CTRs correlate negatively to desired brand metrics  in the following ways:

• People who click  spend less time on the ad and are less likely to remember what the ad is about.
• Marketers that optimize for CTR will end up with fewer consumers who have ad recall or intent to view.

What would work better to measure online campaign success? The company’s findings point to these metrics:

• Brand awareness
• Purchase intent
• Likelihood to recommend
• Favorability

Lotame’s recently published white paper on this topic shows that marketers who carefully identify metrics that correlate positively to campaign goals can significantly improve purchase intent. Analysts cited one example which resulted in a 12% improvement in purchase lift. The improvement resulted from identifying a narrow population based on behavior trends and then calculating cross-metric relationships  via techniques such as Pearson correlation coefficients. With this information, Lotame was able to help clients better target an audience that was likely to buy and therefore improve campaign results.

Lotame CEO Andy Monfried, says “brand-lift measurements can break that addiction [CTR], by showing all of us what really matters: Engagement, ad recall, and purchase intent.” This trend toward more sophisticated targeting and measurement is increasing as marketers feel growing pressure to demonstrate meaningful ROI for online campaigns.

[Source: Online Brand Optimization. Lotame. May 2010. Web. 7 Jul. 2010]

We’ve heard plenty about how members of Gen Y want information on the go. Most of these younger consumers are constantly attached to their mobile phones. So marketers figure that the best way to reach these consumers is to deliver mobile ads. Unfortunately, the results of one consumer survey indicate that a significant percentage of college students is less than pleased to receive a mobile ad.

Currently, only about half of college students have smart phones but that number is expected to increase over the next few years. Marketers have already begun mobile promotion of products and services to this demographic. In the group of female students recently studied by Ball State University, about half had seen ads on phones. Here’s a summary of their response to the ads:

• Annoyed 40%
• Neutral 17.6%
• Pleased 1.2%

Marketers understand that consumers often have a negative response to advertising. It’s the action taken after seeing an ad that is most important for campaign success. In the case of this survey pool, it’s more bad news for marketers. Students said they’d take the following actions after seeing an ad on their mobile phones.

• More likely to buy in response seeing the ad: 4.5%
• Will not buy in response to seeing the ad: 44.3%
• Will accept watching an ad if they are offered a  free ringtone or free music: 37%
• Will watch ad if the marketer pays them at least a dollar: 66%
• Will accept a coupon via a text message: 57.8%

In addition, students had clear preferences for the type of coupons they’d like to receive. They’re most open to coupons from full-service, fast casual and quick serve restaurants as well as cinemas.

For now, restaurants and movie theaters may realize strong returns on mobile coupon campaigns targeting college students. Otherwise, marketers should tread carefully when using mobile media to reach connected younger consumers.

[Source: College Students Annoyed by Mobile Ads. Emarketer.com. 28 Jun. 2010]

After marketers launch their e-mail campaigns, they wait. Consumers will either respond to the e-mail message or delete it. How long might this process take? ExperianCheetahMail regularly studies this topic and its most recent report sheds light on the industry.

Late last month, the firm’s findings, based on over 44,000 mailings, showed that the first 24 hours after a mailing launches are most active for the marketer. During that period of time, about half of the transactions relating to the e-mail will have taken place. In addition,  75% of opens or clicks related to the mailing also occur during the first day.

By industry, the results varied a bit. For example,  the following details stood out:

• Business Products/Services: 52%  of responses occurred within 24 hours along with 79% of revenue.
• Travel: 13% of transactions took place on day one along with 11% of revenue.

And the type of e-mail campaign also makes a difference. Transactions occurred on the first day of an e-mail campaign at the following rates:

• Limited time offers: 59%
• Coupons enclosed: 36%
• Abandoned cart messages: 52%
• Welcome e-mails: 33%

Rachel Bergman, general manager and SVP, Experian CheetahMail says “[b]eing able to anticipate customer response time can help businesses optimize everything from forecasting and budget planning to timing the launch of cross-channel promotions and sales.” Her organization’s findings point to the importance of understanding the nuances of e-mail marketing before clicking the send button.

[Source: Experian CheetahMail research finds almost half of transactions occur within one day of email receipt. Experian CheetahMail. 21 Jun. 2010 Web. 1 Jul. 2010]

With retail sales still coming in at the low end of forecasts, online vendors are looking for any edge to beat the competition.  For many of these businesses, the key to sales increases includes mobile applications and paid search.  The recently published State of Retailing Online: Marketing, Social Commerce and Mobile Report released by Forrester Research and Shop.org contains insights about how these businesses are spending their marketing budgets.

Here is a summary of their findings on mobile apps:

• Consumers are being offered product and price data, along with store information and coupons.
• Stores responding to the survey spent an average of $170,000 on their mobile site in 2010.
• Mobile browsers, to date, generate 3% of traffic and 2% of revenue.

The study also revealed that nearly ¾’s of online retailers are either working on their mobile platform or have one in place.

While the vendors are seeking a boost from mobile marketing, they’re still spending on paid search. The surveyed group reported spending about 40% of their marketing budget on paid search but  variability by industry exists:

• Apparel, accessories and footwear 42%
• Beauty and personal care 43%
• General merchandise retailers 39%
• Home retailers 34%
• Sporting goods/accessories 44%

Surprisingly, online retailers only spend 2-3% of their marketing budgets on social media. For now, these retailers are intrigued by social media, especially because of its low cost. Managers are for the most part still experimenting with this marketing channel and don’t yet agree on which metrics will best measure the ROI from this new format.

[Sources: Stambor, Zak. Paid search marketing remains king. Internet Retailer. 29 Jun. 2010. Web 1 Jul. 2010; Online Retailers boosting mobile marketing initiatives. ChainStoreAge.com. 29 Jun. 2010. Web. 1 Jul. 2010]