Tag: Blogs

Brand vs Performance Marketing

Posted on by Coegi

As marketers, we often preach about setting separate KPIs for campaigns in different funnel stages. We are comparing brand vs performance marketing depending on campaign goals. While this is needed, we must understand the synergies between the two to fully optimize campaigns.

At Coegi, we define ourselves as performance marketing practitioners. Does this mean we ignore branding and top funnel efforts? Of course not. We believe that all marketing efforts can ladder up to business goals.

What’s the Difference Between Brand vs Performance Marketing?

A Forbes article explains, “Brand marketing encourages customers to raise their hands. Performance marketing makes it as easy as possible for a customer to get your product into their hand after they raise it.” Branded campaigns are structured to build brand affinity, recall, values, and other emotion-based results.

Performance marketing, conversely, is all about the numbers. Finding ways to build efficiencies and grow total results. These measurement-focused campaigns are built to drive conversions, leads, purchases, and purposeful clicks. All while lowering the cost per action based on channel, audience, and creative learnings.

How To Hold Brand Campaigns Accountable

Marketers that have historically leaned on traditional channels are shifting to digital platforms to have a more targeted approach. However, brand campaign dollars are generally not held accountable like performance dollars. Yet, there is an increasing demand from CFOs and CEOs for those quantifiable results and clear ROI.

A marketer’s job is to showcase the value of upper funnel marketing on long and short term business results. For example, a McKinsey study reported, “With a clearer understanding of consumer preferences and behavior at the early stages of their buying journey, companies report marketing efficiency gains of up to 30% and incremental top-line growth of up to 10% without increasing the marketing budget.”

Measuring Branding Campaign Results

How can you start to measure brand campaigns? Identify business objectives towards awareness that indicate a positive sentiment towards or engagement with your product. Ask the right questions, determine the right methodology, and understand what actions are truly driving interest in your brand.

Taking Full-Funnel Full-Circle

A MarketingProfs article explained this by saying, “brand-driven insight is your truth—the WHY behind all that you do. The performance marketing is your plan put into action—the HOW and WHAT of manifesting that truth.” By understanding this full customer journey, brands can make audiences feel understood. This is accomplished through using data-driven insights to build meaningful messaging on the channels where they are most present and receptive. Ultimately, this builds trust while optimizing budgets simply by being relevant to your core audience. This sets the stage for lower funnel campaigns and creates a more seamless path to conversion.

Coegi built a full-funnel marketing campaign to increase emotional brand connection and drive product trials for  a CPG client. We executed a performance branding study on Facebook to evaluate brand lift and conversion lift for key website events. This blended approach allowed for valuable insights into multiple stages of the consumer journey, from awareness to purchase intent. The results surpassed various CPG benchmarks and highlighted the importance of creating synergies between creative execution and operational strategy. It also placed more accountability on the incrementality of our branding efforts.

Key Takeaways

  • Treat all marketing campaigns as performance-based
  • Hold brand campaigns accountable with custom measurement frameworks that then inform business outcomes
  • Pull insights from bottom funnel campaigns to inform top funnel campaigns (and vice versa)

For more, read Boost Customer Lifetime Value with Awareness Marketing.

Balancing the Art and Science of Advertising

Posted on by Coegi

 

Advertising may elicit thoughts of uniquely designed print ads and Super Bowl commercials; the output of creative minds with the ability to persuade consumer decisions. For some people, advertising seems to be a strictly artistic discipline when all one sees is the final creative product. In truth, the art and science of advertising must blend together in order to maximize marketing campaign results. 

“The solution to capturing consumers comes down to a sophisticated blend of art and science.”

– Paul Robson, President International at Adobe

On one end of the spectrum we have science, the known and the unknown, for the analytical and curious minds looking to uncover unique insights and trends. At the other end lies art, a subjective and ever-changing expression of unique thoughts and imagination in which there is truly never a right or wrong. There are a variety of perspectives on what the core of advertising is, when realistically both science and art’s synergy are central to achieving sustainable, successful strategy and activation. 

Why you need both art and science to build a brand

With art highly visible and science working behind the scenes, both pillars are critical to build the brand foundation. Our President, Sean Cotton, recently said that data is best used as a guide to craft engaging campaigns inspired by the numbers, keeping creative at the forefront while ensuring it is impactful with analytics. Sometimes this synergy is simple when you are working with a full-service agency. But, it is often more effective to work with separate creative and performance media agencies. As long as both sides communicate and prioritize business outcomes, the brand is set up for success.

How to optimize creative with data insights

At Coegi, we are the science fueling the art. We dig deeper into the what’s, why’s, and how’s of digital media through robust data analysis and industry research. The basis for our campaigns is research and analysis of our brands’ audiences. Then, we rely on machine learning and human intuition to optimize.

However, when it comes to strategy, it all really starts with the measurement framework.  This ensures we can understand if the research and thinking we put into action is actually impacting the brand’s bottom line. As a result, this process is not completely devoid of art. In fact, around 75% of an ad’s impact can be attributed to quality creative.

However, great creative pieces need data-driven insights to be delivered effectively. Our teams have to get creative with how and where we reach audiences to make the greatest impact. By doing so, we can better deliver solutions that make the art work harder, thus building up ROI. In essence, our strategy is our art.

Collaboration is key to success

At the end of the day, effective collaboration is at the core of the art and science of performance advertising. Communication and transparency between departments and our partners offers balance, allowing for seamless work processes and better results for clients. When this is done well, the lines between art and science begin to blur – proving that advertising isn’t black and white. It’s the molding of colors as the science and art of an agency work together to create a balanced composition paving the way for brand growth.

“The purpose of marketing is to influence the behaviors of others to bring them closer to your brand, organization, product, or service. The best way to achieve it is to strike a balance between the hard data and evidence that support the best path to take, and the human appeal and creative approach necessary to solidify its impact.”

– Eminent SEO CEO, Jenny Stradling

 

 

Best Practices for Targeting in Pharmaceutical Campaigns

Posted on by Coegi

Who makes the rules?

In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without consent. When it comes to understanding HIPAA for uses of health information for advertising, there’s lots of room for interpretation leaving advertisers unsure if certain marketing capabilities are compliant and ethical. This especially holds true for pharmaceutical advertisers using health information to target audiences for prescription drugs, medical devices and other pharmaceutical brands through media. To provide an industry standard and best practices, there are committees devoted to providing this direction to advertisers like the National Advertising Initiative (NAI), the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) and others. 

One of the leading bodies in defining the regulations for digital advertising is the NAI. Founded in 2000, the NAI published a set of code for advertisers to abide by that is supported by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The most recent revisions to the code enables advertisers to reference media targeting best practices according to the NAI, including a definition for Sensitive Health Information to provide pharmaceutical advertisers with more concrete direction.

How do regulations affect healthcare targeting?

The first step is to understand if the brand falls under the ‘sensitive’ category. This will impact targeting capabilities. According to the NAI, there are two subsets of sensitive information: 

  1. Data about a health condition or treatment derived from a sensitive source 
  2. Data about certain sensitive conditions regardless of the source of the data

Determining whether a health condition is considered ‘sensitive’ is unclear in the industry. The NAI only provides a few sensitive categories. These include drug addiction, STDs, mental health, pregnancy termination, and all conditions predominantly affecting children not treated by OTC and Cancer.

There are resources to help guide the analysis of determining whether the brand falls into the sensitive category. The NAI provides guidance to help determine whether pharmaceutical targeting segments are considered sensitive.

However, this guidance does not give advertisers a clear list of the targeting capabilities that are compliant. Coegi recommends using this guide to drive direct conversations with the client. It is useful to create a mutual agreement on whether the brand falls into either the sensitive category to influence compliant targeting solutions. 

There is no clear list provided by any regulatory source. So, Coegi recommends working with the client to align on the brand’s definition of sensitivity. This will greatly affect compliant targeting capabilities. 

The Trade Desk (a NAI member) also takes precautions and has a healthcare targeting policy. Because there is no official list deeming health conditions sensitive or non-sensitive, TTD has its own process. It defines whether a condition is deemed high, medium or low in the sensitive category  to then determine permitted targeting capabilities. This policy uses a multi-factor analysis to take into account many considerations when calculating each condition’s category. 

Other advertising platforms have similar protocols for brands in the healthcare space. Before running paid ads through Facebook, advertisers must gain permission according to its Promotion of Prescription Drugs policy.

How to Approach Pharmaceutical Targeting Compliantly

Once you determine whether the target is in the sensitive or non-sensitive condition category, use these tactics to target consumers: 

Healthcare Consumer Targeting:

Behavioral Targeting

  • This form of targeting is typically not a compliant way to reach a consumer given it’s ‘data about a health condition or treatment’. However, there are third party data providers who use de-identified information. This is compliant according to the NAI. 
  • It is critical to understand how any third party data is being collected if used to reach patients. Coegi does a detailed analysis to determine whether a data provider is compliant according to industry best practices. 

Contextual Targeting

  • There are no known regulations for using contextual targeting for a consumer audience. This is a popular approach in reaching a patient and caregiver audience in a compliant manner. 

Geotargeting

  • For both sensitive and non-sensitive conditions, geotargeting a consumer audience is not compliant. According to the NAI, unless the user’s opt-in consent is given to target by precise location data (like an HCP’s office), this falls outside of best practice.  
  • While precise location data requires opt-in, other forms of targeting that can reach a patient audience using geographic data. This data needs to be further vetted to ensure it’s not precise location data. 

Retargeting  

  • According to the 2020 code, retargeting is a form of Tailored Advertising. Sensitive health segments require opt-in consent in order to retarget a consumer audience. 
  • Even for non-sensitive health segments, Coegi recommends having a conversation with the brand team to gain alignment prior to execution.

Healthcare Provider Targeting

Because you’re targeting by profession, there are fewer restrictions for HCPs. ID-based targeting allows pharmaceutical brands to reach HCPs with a compliant audience-first approach.

Various forms of audience targeting for HCPs can include: 

  • Dx Targeting – ICD-10 code for specific diagnosis 
  • Rx Targeting – prescription code for specific drugs  
  • Specialty Targeting – target HCPs by specific medical specialty
  • List Match Targeting – target HCPs by specific NPI number

Depending on a particular client’s goals, Coegi will provide a recommended targeting strategy to reach a HCP audience 

Even with less restrictions, we recommends investigating and understanding the source of the data segments associated with NPIs. We have a conversation with the brand team to gain alignment on certain targeting efforts, especially retargeting.

Interested in learning more about pharmaceutical targeting marketing best practices? View our white paper to learn more on targeting patients and providers with best-in-class digital tactics.

The Do’s and Don’ts of TikTok Advertising

Posted on by Coegi

As new social media platforms roll into our day to day lives, it is important to understand their marketing powers and which audiences fit best with your brand. TikTok is the newest social media platform that has really captured the attention of individuals globally. Tiktok advertising popularity has accelerated within the past couple of years. Brands want the opportunity to present their brand on a platform.

The TikTok opportunity

TikTok has reached a total lifetime user spending of $2.5B globally, has about 1 billion monthly active users since February 2021, and an engagement rate of 18% – higher than any other social platform.  It provides a huge opportunity for brands to not only introduce their brand but drive incremental conversions.

We know TikTok for its authentic, personalized, funny, and relatable content. Many brands use this tactic to show their brand’s personality and connect with their customers on a more personal level. True, Millennials and their younger peers in Generation Z are tired of ads. In fact, many of them use ad blockers when they browse.

But since engagement on TikTok is so high, advertisers can promote consumer advocacy rather than pure marketing strategy. This way, “you build brand awareness with an audience that talks about you because they’re genuinely impressed.” Many brands are focusing on reaching younger demographics on TikTok. However, 53% are aged 30+ – leaving a large reach for brands not going for the typical Gen-Z audience. 

How to create successful TikTok advertising campaigns

TikTok is a place for authenticity and personality – differentiating from a majority of social platforms in which highly-produced and staged ads perform better. Brands should strive to make their advertising blend in on TikTok. Create a seamless user experience and minimize viewing disruption. The ad should not look like a typical ad seen on other platforms because it will be not resonate. However, if it uses trending audio, popular dances, or tells a funny story,  it is more likely to gain attention.

Here are some topics to utilize while creating ads for TikTok:

  1. Get comfortable with comedy – Find a way to show the personality of your brand through relatable funny content. This could be of your product/service or of your company culture. 
  2. Show how your brand can be a #lifehack – Your brand’s main goal is to make people’s lives easier, more efficient, and/or more enjoyable.  Find that #lifehack your brand offers, and present it to your audiences in a quick video story. Overall, this hashtag has 78.6B views – allowing for a huge increase in reach for your brand.
  3. Bust a move – People love to show off their dance moves on TikTok. Use dance to keep up with trends and utilize popular audio at the same time. One example of a powerful brand deal was the partnership of Charli D’Amelio and P&G #distancedance at the beginning of the pandemic, which generated over 8B views.
  4. Utilize trending audio – Audio is a necessity on TikTok for a high performing ad. 88% of TikTok users said that sound is essential to the TikTok experience, and ads with sound-on are 2.2x better at increasing brand awareness. Brands can amplify their voice by creating an original audio clip or utilizing existing trending audio. E.L.F. Cosmetics commissioned a song for their TikTok campaign “Eyes Lips Face” and collaborated with influencers to aid in the promotion. The #eyeslipsface hashtag has been used in over 9.4B videos created by TikTok users.
  5. Find Your Niche – TikTok’s powerful algorithm, which is based on videos users watched, liked or shared, allows users to be served content that is extremely relevant to them. Understanding and reaching niches on TikTok is a great way to get your content in front of high potential audiences. 
  6. Don’t Shy Away from Activism – TikTok is a very popular platform for spreading awareness on social issues.  According to Reach3Insights, nearly 77% of TikTok users say that the app has helped them learn more about social justice and politics. As an advertiser, it is important to be sensitive to the social issues on the platform. 

TikTok is a great platform to show your brand in a new authentic light. Create genuine ads that blend in with content users are already viewing. Because of this, it is important that advertisers remain up-to-date on the latest TikTok trends so they can advertise in a way that does not seem invasive or out of place.

Take some time to scroll through the For You Page. Find the niche audiences you are looking for. Then create ads that fit the trends.  As previously mentioned, when creating a TikTok ad, look out for trends in comedy, life hacks, dancing, social justice or audio – depending on your audience. A little effort to understand your audience’s interests can go a long way on TikTok. Finally, always keep in mind that authenticity and personality are key. 

Written By: Julia Read, Sr Social Media Specialist and Rachel Vibbert, Data Architect

3 Key Steps To Maximizing Your Marketing Campaign’s Success

Posted on by Elise Stieferman

When developing a robust marketing campaign strategy, there are many different components to consider to drive success. For example, who is your target audience? Where do they spend their time? What do they care about? When are they most engaged?

The common denominator of all those questions is the consumer. Without understanding the persona you are reaching, your marketing strategy will fail to meet goals and expectations. The best way to ensure your campaign reaches the identified goals and KPIs is to take an audience-first approach. Place the consumer at the center of the strategy then base your campaign choices on those individuals.

Finding your ideal audience

Sometimes it is challenging to know who the “ideal audience” is. It often involves a lot of considerations such as customer lifetime value and advocacy. However, while often a substantial time investment, it is the most critical step in having a successful marketing campaign strategy. Here are some tips to better understanding your current customers and prospective consumers:

  • Analyze your first party data: What makes your core customers similar and how can you use those learnings to find new prospects, and looking at historical quantitative and qualitative data to understand who your “best” customers are to-date
  • Review Google Analytics data to reveal key insights: By looking at data cuts such as demographics, interests, and geos, your brand can gain some insight. Find out who your current customer is and ways you can use targeting them.
  • Place a pixel on your site: This let’s you go a step further than Google Analytics and understand where your audience is highly indexing in terms of behaviors, interests, and demographics
  • Use audience research tools: By using panel-based research, you can better understand consumer thoughts, opinions, and decisions that are driving behaviors

Maximizing campaign success through placements

Identifying the right media channels should be a balance of your business objectives and the audience scale on each platform.If the goal is to truly get in front of as many people as possible, billboards may be best investment.However, if you need a more targeted approach with cost-efficiency metrics to optimize against, understand creative performance that is moving the needle, and gain insight into your top performing audiences, digital is likely the way to go.

Now, whether you choose video, social, display, or search depends on your goals. However, having a full-funnel strategy is almost always the ideal way to guide the consumer journey.

Cutting through the clutter with the ideal message

Consumers are confronted with thousands of ads a day, which makes it easy for them to ignore. So how do brands make an impact? For many, the answer is personalization. Personalization can mean a lot of different things. And, it can be done effectively without feeling invasive. Personalization can include aligning copy and messaging to:

  • Your audience’s interests
  • The time of the day for the consumer
  • The location of the consumer
  • The consumer’s stage of life
  • The consumer’s demographics
  • Where the consumer is in their journey with the brand

It’s also important to consider what is distinctive and relevant. Distinct brand assets are consistent sensory & semantic cues (i.e. colors, logos, taglines, jingles, etc.) that makes it easier for consumers to identify your brand and recall the selling points associated with it. Yet, understanding the most impactful components of a creative requires analysis. This can involve A/B testing various messages, imagery, and CTAs. It can even be conducting a panel-based survey to hear first-hand from consumers. Brand growth occurs when marketers leverage their distinctive brand assets effectively to build mental availability with the consumer.

Determining marketing campaign success

Evaluating whether your marketing campaign was a success depends on your definition. Coegi always aligns the campaign measurement strategy to business goals; however, how granular the measurement insights are dependent on client expectations. If the goal was awareness, some brands feel satisfied by hitting an ideal reach and frequency. Thus, using media metrics will be sufficient. However, if a brand wants to show an incremental life in unaided brand awareness, that will require an advanced measurement strategy.

At the end of the day, remember is to prioritize the data that matters most to your business. Don’t get distracted by vanity metrics that do not answer the question of whether you achieved your company goals.

 

The Importance of Empowering Employees in the Workplace

Posted on by Julia Read

Within the last year, workplaces have accelerated into a digital world. How we communicate, work, and live have changed dramatically. The year labeled “exhausting” by the Washington Post, was also the year people grew and re-evaluated their needs in the workplace.

So, right now, what exactly do employees value the most? According to recent studies, flexibility, abstract ways of measuring productivity, growth opportunities, and recognition are some of the top employee needs. Finding an employer that can adapt to these needs not only improves the lives of its workers, but also its quality of work.

The implementation of these variables leads to overall happier and invested employees. Flexibility is the new normal. In fact, “88% of knowledge workers say that when searching for a new position, they will look for one that offers complete flexibility in their hours and location.” In 2020, employees proved that working remotely can be just as effective as working in the office. Now, people have a choice to match their work with their lifestyle. And workers need that flexibility – especially after experiencing it for a year.

This empowerment improves employees’ wellbeing and willingness to work, and in return, employees will be more invested in their company. As for the day to day work, individuals are wanting a more collaborative way of measuring results. For example, “86% of employees said they would prefer to work for a company that prioritizes outcomes over output.” This goal drives companies to focus on the final result vs the amount of time it took to complete. It empowers employees to focus on efficiency since time spent doesn’t always equal the quality of the result.

As an employee continues to drive high quality results, they need internal opportunities to work towards. “Organizations that want to retain their talent need to help employees identify their next internal opportunity so they don’t feel that the only way they can progress their career is to look externally.” Such opportunities could include an internal open job board, promotions, a new assignment, or connecting employees with resources to reach their goals. Results deserve to be recognized, and when they are, employees appreciate it. In fact, “Giving well-deserved recognition increases self-esteem, enthusiasm and boosts morale.” That personal support can carry along to a team, a department, and an entire company. Positive reinforcement can drive a team to excellence when done authentically and consistently.

The company I currently work for, Coegi, has not only listened to what  employees need to feel empowered, but have also implemented our highly supported ideas. Personally, the flexibility provided to me has been wonderful. After I graduating in May, I wanted to travel to Austin and explore a new city. However, I was unsure about remote options. After speaking with a few people in the company, they were flexible enough to make this happen for me. In response to their willingness to work with my personal goals, I feel extremely invested in the company. I want to show my appreciation through my work and relationships within the company.

Coegi also does a great job encouraging growth and learning within our departments. The conversation to grow and try out new roles started when I first began working as a part-timer. It involved learning about other departments, checking the internal job board, having a choice in the types of clients we want to work on, etc. That encouragement to learn also relates to how we interact on a day-to-day basis.

The team I am on currently has many different options outside of the office to  support one another. We use “appreciation gifs” to say thank you when needed on our tasks. We also have company wide “cheers” for when someone goes above and beyond. This positive feedback encourages us to work hard and recognize the pieces that fit into our bigger goals.

How Other Members of the Social Team Feel Empowered at Coegi

“In my short time at Coegi, I have been continually impressed with how the company and its employees support each other every day. It is so uplifting to work at a company that values and actively promotes teamwork, collaboration, and continual learning. I love how the team recognizes others achievements and hard work so we can all celebrate and uplift together!”

“Over the course of my year working at Coegi, I have been empowered with a flexible schedule, positive feedback, and a voice in my role. However, the most important aspect is my supportive team. Ever since I began working, I picked up on the uplifting and supportive culture that is present both online and in person. This dynamic gives me confidence to take on new challenges and relay that encouragement to others on my team.”

“Since I have started at Coegi, I have felt empowered through the support of my colleagues. Everyone is willing to help at any time, and it is a teamwork-oriented environment. I know that my teammates respect my opinions and are willing to work together to achieve our common goals.”

“Although I have only been working at Coegi for a few weeks, my experience has been nothing but positive. Everyone is more than willing to assist with the transition and support my progress within the company.”

Creating an empowering environment has proven to be extremely beneficial to the well-being of each employee and their quality of work. Flexibility, growth/measurement opportunities, and recognition are just some of the variables that empower employees. It is important to continue this open conversation about these topics and find ways to support each employee.

Why Walled Gardens Will (and Won’t) Be More Critical in the Future

Posted on by Coegi

 

As we explore the world of cookieless digital advertising, marketers will be focusing much of their attention on walled gardens with valuable first-party data. However, even walled gardens have issues we will need to navigate through in order to achieve business goals which are tangible to the financial guardians of brands.

Most analysts predict that walled gardens (in particular Google) will be the safest place to conduct audience targeted buys in 2024.  Even while Google’s DSP allows marketers to buy a lot of inventory, it is currently more limited in audio, connected TV and DOOH inventory.  These are channels where context is probably more important than the precision of the audience and where there is likely going to be a need to diversify to other advertising platforms to achieve a successful omni-channel strategy.

Using Facebook User Data

Facebook does have robust behavioral data from signed-in users; however, iOS 15 makes it more challenging to perform audience-based buys and to attribute conversions.  Some of our early campaigns showed a 15x increase in CPA within the platform, but nearly no impact on actual sales.  This means that conversion data on the Facebook platform was (and is) solely directional for most advertisers. While good for the business, this might be more challenging for marketers trying to prove their marketing is “working.”

Should You Trust the Algorithm?

The big ad tech players, and thus some agencies, will likely advise brands to ‘trust the algorithm’ even more than they have in the past, as Google, Facebook and Amazon don’t give specialists a lot of control over or insights about many aspects of their buying decisions.  Facebook in particular makes it challenging to control frequency, and DV360’s lookalike modeling is very opaque.  Against a lack of accurate measurement across each walled garden, brands and their agencies need to develop more holistic, advanced measurement frameworks.

How Will Cookie Deprecation Affect CPMs?

While scale is impacted slightly outside of Google Chrome and Android apps, there are still ample opportunities to bid for inventory in these environments.  However, with fewer buying platforms to conduct audience-based buys and fewer impressions to scale against, CPMs will likely increase, in particular on video.  This might put pressure on agencies to ‘keep the costs down’, which in turn may increase traffic from bots and fraudulent inventory.  Brands need to expect an increase in CPMs while not incentivizing a decrease in inventory quality.

A Walled Garden SWOT Analysis

Strengths – Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple each have huge first-party data sets.  And not just in volume of users, they have robust metadata around each profile as well, from account information, purchase history and behavior.  Even if ID-based solutions grow in count, it’s possible we may not be able to append significant amounts of secondary data to each profile to be scalable for marketers.

Weaknesses – You will undoubtedly need adjustments in terms of attribution and measurement.  Even today, if you were to believe the metrics from each platform, nearly all of your automated marketing channels would have +ROI for the same purchase. Paid search, Facebook conversion ads and programmatic retargeting can’t all have a CPA of $10. They can’t produce 10,000 sales when you only sold 3,000 products. This is because each is taking credit for any time a user touches their ad. Because the walled gardens don’t share a common user profile, multi-touch attribution can be disjointed and inconsistent. It’s safe to say the methods of achieving measurement will have to change.

Opportunities – Lean into zero-, first- and second-party data in walled garden platforms, and rely less on retargeting. This allows for stronger prospecting and less reliance on audiences that were likely to “convert” anyway and, therefore, inflate marketing metrics.

Threats – Because many marketers and brands will be leaning into walled gardens, there will likely be an increase in advertising costs on these platforms. Budgets will need to increase to achieve the same scale as before.

So what does this mean?

At present, our suggestion is to lean into walled gardens for precise audience targeting. But, begin measuring success of your advertising program at a higher level.  Some examples of this include matched market tests, media mix modeling, and control vs. exposed methodologies.

Yes, this will make it more challenging to know which 50% of your marketing spend is effective. But, it’s the best solution with the reduction of transparency in algorithmic data and therefore less understanding of success from a conversion data standpoint.

This will also force marketers to start looking at the data as a whole. It’s time to get away from optimizing towards last-click and last-touch metrics. They have provided misleading signals for years.

Regarding measurement changes, advertising campaigns need to be set-up to reach business goals rather than just media metric KPIs.  To achieve this, individual channels and tactics will need to identify leading indicators to optimize toward.  Engagement rates, reach, completion rate, and measures of media effectiveness like CPM/CPC should become more of a focus rather than CPAs.

Check out our 5 Step Guide to Measuring Marketing ROI to get started:

Download Coegi’s Measurement Guide

What is the Coffeyville Effect and Why Does it Happen?

Posted on by Coegi

Coffeyville, Kansas

Have you ever seen an excessively large amount of US traffic supposedly coming from Coffeyville, Kansas in Google Analytics? This specific geolocation may even contribute the most amount of sessions worldwide. It is known as the Coffeyville Effect. 

What is the Coffeyville Effect?

Even though you may not be targeting Kansas, internet users who enable IP masking tools will report their location back as the exact geographical center of the U.S. which is Coffeyville, KS. 

This effect can also happen with some mobile devices that report back incorrectly or as “unknown”. 

Analytics and Ad Serving programs will often attribute those unknowns to Coffeyville. An example of this that you might have experienced is when your phone’s location service (such as on Google or a weather app) estimates you are in a city several hours away when you are connected to mobile data instead of home wifi. 

Is Google the Problem?

Google Analytics provides a number of geographical dimensions, such as City, Country, Continent, etc. The values for these dimensions derive automatically from the IP address of the hit. The Coffeyville Effect occurs when a location is not accessible by the data.

Google sends the IP addresses of traffic sources to a third-party data source to determine the location. If the third-party source determines the record of the visitor location is accurate, Google Analytics populates the fields with the location data. If the third-party source cannot find the location, the value of the corresponding fields will register as “(not set)” and then assigns the default location to the center of the US.

When Coffeyville, Kansas pops up as one of your traffic sources, it’s likely that this is the fault of one of the third-party data sources that Google uses, rather than Google itself. Unfortunately, Google does not disclose these data sources.

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