pointroll real-time-marketing-paper: understanding the intersection of data, media and “big”...

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Real-Time maRkeTing, Dynamic cReaTive OpTimizaTiOn & The empOweReD maRkeTeRUnderstanding the intersection of data,Media and “Big” creative

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Online media, paired with an influx of data sources, has made it easier for advertisers to reach consumers at scale and specifically target the best audience possible to receive their ad messages. But one single piece of creative will not elicit the same reaction with each and every consumer.

Enter real-time marketing, where advertisers can dynamically alter their messaging and creative in real-time depending on data and the traits a consumer exhibits.

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While data and media advancements have enabled advertisers to identify and reach the best consumers, that’s only half the battle. Once found, marketers want to engage consumers with relevant creative, messages and offers that inspire action.

‘Big data’ must enable ‘big creative.’ Pairing real-time marketing with dynamic creative technology is a powerful tool for advertisers looking to deliver specific, targeted messages to their online audience, while adding flexibility and efficiency that was previously impossible.

“ Being able to be responsive and have a real-time conversation with your consumers or viewers is nearly essential now for any brand.”

Guy Slattery, Executive Vice President of Marketing at A&E Networks eMarketer’s Real-Time Marketing: Speeding up the Creative Process

As reported in eMarketer’s Real-Time Marketing: Speeding up the Creative Process, a 2012 GolinHarris survey indicated that consumers had more positive feelings about brands after they were exposed to real-time marketing than before the exposure.

Nearly half said they would feel more positive, while 46% would be more interested in the brand. Likelihood to recommend, to consider making a purchase and to try or buy all were markedly higher after exposure to real-time marketing.

While real-time marketing makes it possible for advertisers to better match a unique creative message to a target user to create buyers and brand believers more quickly, the dynamic technology that drives this tactic has overwhelmed marketers.

The following paper will explore how marketers can maximize real-time marketing via dynamic creative and will look at both the pitfalls and best practices that can effect higher performing campaigns and, ultimately, conversions.

Behavior of US consumers Before and after exposure to Real-Time marketing, Feb 2012 % of respondents

Note: likelihood of respondent to perform the action that same day Source: GolinHarris “Insights’ March 12, 2012 / eMarketer.com

Before real-time marketing

After real-time marketing

Feel positive

interested in

recommend

consider

try / Buy

33%49%

46%28%

26%44%

25%47%

37%23%

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Real-Time maRkeTing DOne RighT

Real-time marketing at its most basic is about matching the right ad to the right person at the right time. Yet the tactics and best practices can vary tremendously depending on the advertising vertical and the brand or agency’s overall goals.

There are two ways in which brands and agencies currently leverage dynamic content to create real-time advertising experiences.

Dynamic Versioning introduces efficiency when using multiple creative executions and focuses on delivering creative based on understood, pre-defined parameters.

Dynamic Optimization involves learning what works best and optimizing that result, improving the performance with each new impression delivered or campaign flight. Optimization is about learning what works and letting technology push forward better performing permutations.

While dynamic technology is a great tool, the approach has been incorrectly applied or not leveraged to its full potential. At PointRoll, more than 60 percent of all our campaigns utilize dynamic creative, across multiple verticals including auto, retail and CPG. The following case studies illustrate best practices and learnings – both do’s and don’ts – from real-time marketing utilizing both the dynamic creative versioning and dynamic creative optimization capabilities of real-time marketing:

Dynamic creative versioning When used properly, dynamic versioning technology can save a brand and their agency team hundreds of hours of time that would be spent generating thousands of creative permutations. A leading telecom company utilized PointRoll’s solution to produce 227 creative versions at once. This enabled the brand to act quickly during the campaign, matching creative permutations to the target. It also reduced campaign delivery time from 290 hours to 93, saving more than 60%. This gives the advertiser more time to study the results, adapt their campaign plan, and plot future media spend.

Use case: Dynamic creative OptimizationReal-time marketing is a remarkably effective strategy when brands know the customer profiles they want to reach and need a tool for delivering messages that align with their audience at each point in the buying cycle.

One automaker used its own site data to build dynamic ad permutations, so that it was moving beyond the basic targeting criteria (such as demo and geo) to segment based on intent as well as audience data. This auto brand identified consumers who had visited its site and built their own cars on the page, then labeled these consumers “decision makers.”

Building and targeting thoughtful segments constructed with an advertiser’s first-party data can help move consumers down the purchase funnel. The brand was able to target and optimize creative messages and offers based on their first party intent data to change messaging in real time, driving performance and closing the conversion gap.

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Real-Time maRkeTing: leaDing aUTOmOTive BRanD

Dynamic creative optimization is often confused with dynamic versioning. The goal of dynamic versioning is to introduce efficiency when using multiple creative executions, and ultimately, to drive performance. At the same time, creative optimization is about learning what works best and optimizing to that result, so that with every real-time impression you are improving the performance of the campaign flight. The dynamic nature makes it very easy to focus on versioning, rather than optimization, resulting in too many personalized messages.

Here’s how one auto company produced permutations and quickly learned that too many versions don’t allow for the most effective optimization:

Context: If the brand were optimizing based on conversion rate, with a goal conversion rate of 0.25%, then they would need more than 100 million impressions evenly distributed to optimize the full campaign for the first time.

Learning: Optimization is best utilized early and often, with no more than 10% of the flight dedicated to the first optimization. If the auto advertiser with 64,800 permutations followed this best practice, it would take more than 1 billion impressions to deliver an effective campaign that leverages the optimization learnings.

When optimizing against hundreds of variables, it’s easy to get carried away. Targeting on a granular level that produces thousands of permutations makes it impossible to measure performance lift, which really kills the power of optimization. Optimization is about learning what works -- by limiting the number of permutations, advertisers let technology learn and then push forward the best-performing permutations.

“ We found that one permutation was delivering conversions at a much higher percentage. Using dynamic creative optimization, we widened the audience we were delivering to, which helped achieve the highest conversions of the campaign by far.”

TOTal: 64,800 cReaTive vaRiaTiOnS FOR One BRanD.

TieR 1

8 CAMPAIGNSx 3 ad sizesx 200 DYNAMIC CREATIVE VARIATIONS PER CAMPAIGN= 4,800 CREATIVE PERMuTATIONS

TieR 2

125 CAMPAIGNSx 3 ad sizesx 160 DYNAMIC CREATIVE VARIATIONS PER CAMPAIGN= 60,000 CREATIVE PERMuTATIONS

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Real-Time maRkeTing leaRningS: mcDOnalD’S

Through the use of an optimized call to action and creative messaging, the fast-food chain’s agency H&L Partners was able to increase performance for a localized campaign.

McDonald’s launched a digital campaign to drive more brand awareness to their breakfast sandwiches and coffee in the St. Louis, Missouri market. The campaign featured social media tie-ins with the ability to tweet and Instagram to share photos and comments on how a consumer’s morning was going.

After the initial launch drew minimal clicks, H&L Partners and PointRoll recommended utilizing a dynamic text field to revise and optimize the call to action (CTA). The stronger CTA, “Click to tell us about your morning, STL” and subsequent updates increased performance significantly, driving users to the brand’s #GoodMorningSTL website where they could share and view other user’s McDonald’s breakfast photo submissions.

The Dynamic call to action drove higher results than the initial impressions: • McDonald’s saw an overall campaign click-thru rate increase of 65%.

• Dynamic campaign click-thru rate lift of 112%.

• Instagram click-thru rate lift of 124%.

• Twitter click-thru rate lift of 110%.

“ Our creative was obviously capturing attention but the original CTA wasn’t encouraging engagement. Being able to react and adapt in real-time was all of the difference to get outstanding results.”

Chris Kilcullen, VP/Digital Director H&L Partners

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aDDReSSing cOmmOn Real-Time maRkeTing challengeS

•A/BTesting. There’s a difference between optimization and versioning. Optimization is about learning what works and letting technology push forward better performing permutations, while versioning focuses on delivering creative based on understood, pre-defined parameters.

•Tryingtodotoomuch. The rule of thumb is that if you’re measuring and optimizing everything, you’re measuring and optimizing nothing.

•Noclearkeyperformanceindicator. Many advertisers use real-time marketing strategies to spit out hundreds of versions of an ad to see what works, and what it tells us. But without defining success up front, the brand won’t learn anything.

•Notenoughimpressions. Small sample sizes don’t allow the technology to learn prohibiting proper optimization.

Dynamic, Real-Time SOlUTiOnS FOR key veRTicalS

The following verticals have experienced the greatest lift in performance when applying a real-time marketing strategy powered by a dynamic creative solution.

•Tier2Automotive. Ideal for versioning vehicles, offers and local messages, retargeting and optimizing the consumer throughout the purchase cycle.

•LocalQSR. Version creative to deliver time of day driven offers and products, optimize based on features including coupon downloads, social media sharing and call to action.

•Retail. Create local promotions centered around retailer inventory data to drive in-store sales and easily change promotions in real-time across all digital channels at once. Optimize creative and targeting based on conversions tied your eCommerce site.

•CPG. Version retailer co-marketing campaigns more efficiently or target, deliver and optimize products and messages in one or multiple brand categories by demo, location, interest and more - in a single campaign.

•Travel. Origin location, destination or interest are ideal data-drivers for targeted and relevant dynamic travel campaigns. Retarget to stay top of mind or optimize messages to those that result in bookings or other conversions.

•Telecom. Family, individual, data plan or device offers can be versioned and targeted by audience and geo location in real-time. Optimize campaign performance to those messages that result in the highest rate of activation.

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At PointRoll, we’ve found that ads utilizing dynamic creative deliver a 471% lift in conversions over static ads. Additionally, real-time marketing campaigns powered by dynamic creative technology can expedite conversions and maximize media spend.

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hOw pOinTROll can help yOU implemenT SUcceSSFUl Dynamic campaignSReal-Time Marketing powered by dynamic ad technology is a powerful tool for advertisers looking to deliver specific, targeted messages to their online audience. At PointRoll, we’ve found that ads utilizing dynamic creative deliver a 471% lift in conversions over static ads. Additionally, real-time marketing can expedite conversions and maximize media spend.

Beyond the what, PointRoll focuses on why Real-Time Marketing can make a difference for brands, agencies and publishers and how to apply dynamic technology to meet their specific needs.

Delivering hundreds of real-time marketing campaigns driven by billions of dynamic creative impressions, PointRoll knows that executing personalized, relevant and responsive consumer ad experiences requires more than technology – it also requires a personal touch.

Brands •Get the right message to the right audience at the right time. •Target, retarget and alter messages quickly in response to your market, consumers, ad performance across any channel,

screen, publisher, and more. •Get ROI out of every message and consumer reached.

media agencies •Make the most out of your client’s ad spend and have the data and insights to prove it. •Less media waste, better performance and enhanced targeting. •Trafficking & tracking efficiencies, time savings, and more.

creative agencies •Alter creative messages for relevance and responsiveness. •Versioning, production efficiencies, time savings, resource management benefits. •Maintain creative flexibility and impact.

publishers •use your site data to inform targeting and creative decisioning, creating value for your brand and agency clients. •Real-time functionality can leverage site content to create native ad experiences.

PointRoll is the leading multi-screen digital advertising technology and services company that advertisers, agencies and publishers turn to when they want great creative, intelligent ad delivery, exceptional results and a consultative partner to help them build once, publish everywhere, and measure everything.

PointRoll’s technology platform empowers our clients to intelligently create, deliver and measure relevant and responsive campaigns across video, mobile, rich media, social, standard display and emerging channels.

Delivering the insight, innovation and experience that inspires the limitless imagination of our clients while maintaining focus on strategic needs, more advertisers and agencies turn to PointRoll than to any other company to help them do more with digital.

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