News and Insights
MEDIA PULSE: NOVEMBER 2024
November 19, 2024
Short on time? We’ve distilled the latest media trends into digestible insights just for you.
tl;dr:
How balancing branding and performance is crucial for success, attention metrics like eye-tracking are redefining engagement, and new updates are coming to Performance Max with better targeting control for campaign efficiency.
#1 Marketing’s Hottest Debate: Branding vs. Performance
Gone are the days of campaigns focused solely on brand building (awareness-driving) or performance (conversion-driving). Both are crucial to maximize the impact of advertising dollars and drive full-funnel success.
💓 The Pulse
- You Can’t Fill A Funnel From The Bottom: Focusing on brand helps sustain the pipeline as users move through the funnel, keeping the business healthy long-term.
- Leverage TV as a Conversion Driver: Capture attention in premium environments to increase lower-funnel actions by up to 25%. Custom ad units with personalization or engagement features bridge the gap between conversion and awareness. Plus, addressable market targeting is that much better.
- Media Mix Modeling: Use such tools to measure the impact of all media (not just digital) and macro-influences on business outcomes. These insights can help you optimize your media spend across the funnel, maximizing campaign performance.
Our take
The combination of brand and performance in campaigns feels like a “best of both worlds” scenario, but it’s important to remember that there will be trade-offs. For instance, using brand-focused channels to meet performance goals may result in higher costs than you’re used to, but utilizing this approach enables more targeted and impactful results!
To maximize impact and efficiency, stay open to adjusting budgets between brand and performance, shifting funds as performance dictates. This adaptive approach will help you find the winning formula.
#2 The Art of Measuring Consumer Attention
Today’s fragmented media landscape demands more. Traditional metrics like impressions, CTR, and even viewability are no longer enough to measure real engagement and business impact. Capturing audience attention is what counts, and standard metrics just don’t cut it anymore to most CEOs.
Enter attention-measurement tools like eye-tracking and facial coding. These aren’t just shiny new toys—they give brands the power to truly evaluate ad effectiveness (not to mention, they’ve been used for UX purposes for 20+ years) by capturing where and how long consumers are paying attention. In fact, 47% of US brands and agencies will be more focused on attention metrics in 2024 and into 2025, according to recent data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau. This shift shows that marketers are realizing traditional KPIs need a serious upgrade.
💓 The Pulse
- Potential New KPIs: Expect eye-tracking and facial coding to become central to campaign success metrics. We’re no longer asking, “Did they see it?” but “Did it resonate?”.
- A Change in Channels: With attention-focused metrics taking the spotlight, media spend will likely shift to formats that better capture and hold attention—think video ads, immersive formats, and beyond.
- Real-Life Example: The BBC was one of the first to test this. Using webcams (with permission), they tracked emotional responses to show trailers, getting insights beyond clicks and views.
Our Take
Emotion drives more than 50% of purchase decisions. Measure it to supercharge your channel strategies and content. Start embedding attention into your measurement frameworks.
#3 Performance Max Gets a Glow Up
Google recently unveiled exciting updates, directly enhancing advertiser control and optimized workflow.
💓 The Pulse
- Strategic Audience Control: Google’s upcoming negative keyword controls for Performance Max represent a pivotal shift in campaign precision, enabling brands to protect their equity while maximizing ad spend efficiency. This enhanced control mechanism will help eliminate unqualified traffic and strengthen return on ad spend by ensuring ads appear only in highly relevant search contexts – a critical advantage for those seeking to optimize their digital marketing investments.
- Performance Optimization Imperative: Google’s shift to an Ad Rank-based system prioritizes quality and bidding strategy over campaign type, creating both opportunity and urgency. Marketing leaders who swiftly adapt their digital advertising framework and bidding strategies can capture market share from less prepared competitors.
- Improved Collaboration Features: Google’s new shareable ad preview capability eliminates approval bottlenecks, enabling brands to fast-track campaign launches while maintaining brand consistency. This enterprise-grade feature streamlines collaboration between brand teams and agency partners, driving greater agility in campaign execution without compromising creative control.
Our Take
With over 60% of eligible advertisers now using Performance Max, its adoption levels exceed those of Standard Shopping and Smart Shopping campaigns, experiencing conversion rates that are 15 times higher than traditional online ad campaigns. This reinforces the significance of Google’s updates, which are transforming the marketing landscape for many advertisers, while empowering advertisers who have felt limited by automation.