InMarket | Real-Time Marketing and Measurement

Report:

The Impact of Real-Time Attribution and Measurement on Eliminating Media Waste

June 10, 2024

A new study from Gartner found that marketers’ budgets have returned to post-pandemic lows of 2021, while marketers face increased pressure from organizational leaders to drive growth.

When evaluating where to allocate spend, the top question on marketers’ minds should be—what tools or platforms enable us to ensure performance, optimize growth, and most importantly, prove the impact of our advertising efforts?

It’s no secret that today’s world focuses on real-time relevancy. As marketers, we understand the importance of reaching consumers in real-time throughout the purchase journey to ensure specific brands or products are top of mind. Just as real-time activation, empowering brands to connect with consumers in the moments that matter most, has become a pillar of success for marketers, measurement and attribution must follow suit.

In a joint study with the CMO Council titled “Getting Smart About Ad Waste,” InMarket analyzed the impact of real-time measurement and optimization on campaign performance and results, and here are highlights:

1. Always-on attribution and real-time, in-flight optimization can deliver an 11x improvement in media effectiveness.

Brands that continuously utilize the always-on real-time, in-flight optimization achieve up to an 11x reduction in media waste compared with brands that don’t. One QSR brand in the study, for example, realized 10x better media effectiveness than another QSR who didn’t fully leverage always-on attribution and real-time optimization.

2. Utilizing always-on attribution and real-time optimization also proves to eliminate up to 94% of media spend.

In fact, the highest performing brands, utilizing real-time, in-flight optimization, drove positive incremental results for 94% of their media. On the other hand, for brands in the bottom quintile of the study, there is an opportunity to optimize more than 75% of media impressions.

3. The opportunity cost of wasted media can be highly significant, especially as overall campaign spend increases.

Marketers frequently concentrate on negotiating a lower cost of media. While this makes sense, it’s not where the real money lies. For a $20 million campaign, optimizing against, say, 75% of non-performing impressions equates to $15 million that can be more effectively spent to deliver against key KPIs, including driving incremental visits and sales.

Why is this important as marketers are pressed for driving greater ROAS with smaller budgets?

It’s simple: “The future of media measurement is about improving effectiveness and aligning KPIs to the metrics that matter most. Demonstrating the ability to measure and improve performance will change the nature of the conversation between CMOs and CFOs.”

When it comes to budget cuts, it’s not just about cutting costs—reallocate your spend and invest in solutions that ensure every dollar spent generates the greatest impact.

Don’t wait until after a campaign to find countless opportunities for improvement. Lean into the solutions that empower you to enhance efficiency while your campaigns are inflight.

Download the full report to learn more