70% of EMEA Marketers Say Attribution Is Key to Success Yet Only 14% Have a Handle on It
Adroll, the digital marketing specialists, released their State of the Industry EMEA 2016 Report, revealing that only 14% of EMEA marketers have adopted multiple touchpoint attribution models (down 4% points from last year) despite 70% confessing that attribution is critical and important for their marketing success.
The report, which includes the views of more than 330 EMEA marketers, found that solving the attribution riddle is key for marketers to boost ROI in their organisation however, 45% of marketers are not sure how to effectively implement or analyse attribution tracking. Additionally, the number of marketers using multiple touch models to track and analyse the success of campaigns fell from 34% to 14% as EMEA marketers struggle to fill the knowledge gap when it comes to ad-tech.
Marius Smyth, Managing Director EMEA, AdRoll, explains “If marketers want to succeed in the boardroom and with customers, it is crucial that they fully embrace attribution models that track multiple customer touchpoints, not only to analyse and understand the impact of all of their hard work across the marketing mix but to finesse, refine and execute robust strategies while staying ahead of the curve in their industries. If an attribution model doesn’t include all touchpoints then marketers are not seeing the entire picture. It is as simple as that.”
“At AdRoll we have 25,000 customers globally and attribution is not just an EMEA specific conundrum. We work closely with our clients to not only understand their data and move their customers down the funnel but also to highlight how each interaction contributes to a buyer’s journey and decision-making process. Successful brands focus on their customers’ entire journey and not just the end point. Our report also found that 47% of marketers feel that the future of attribution lies with better multi-touch modelling, with viewability tracking a close second which shows that marketers are working on improving the way they think about the customer and the business ROI.”
Retargeting
When it comes to retargeting, over the next three years marketers are keen to see retargeting on messaging apps like Viber and WhatsApp (38%), Instagram (37%), eBay (36%) and Pinterest (32%). Retargeting continues to be in favour with EMEA marketers with the majority (86%), agreeing that it performs as well as or better when compared to other display ads while 85% agree when compared to email and 84% compared to search. The main objective for retargeting with EMEA marketers is to raise brand awareness (52%) closely followed by lead generation (46%).
Programmatic
AdRoll’s State of the Industry EMEA 2016 Report uncovered that 58% of marketers say programmatic ads provide a greater return on investment than traditional media. 95% of marketers expect their programmatic budgets to increase or stay the same this year. With its time-saving capabilities, automated ad-buying continues to dominate the continent’s media consumption with respondents buying programmatically on social media (62%), display (47%), mobile (38%), video (26%) and TV (22%), figures which strongly indicate programmatic’s inherent ability to drive performance.
Marius Smyth, managing director EMEA, AdRoll, comments: “Our research shows that marketers are on board with retargeting and have welcomed programmatic into the mix. While adoption is great, brands and marketers must remember to keep an eye on fragmentation especially with programmatic which can make it more complex to measure success. When it comes to retargeting in EMEA, social media is the the single hottest topic for its potential to drive performance for 42% of marketers which is up from last year and this is where marketers are investing in.”
Mobile
AdRoll’s report also shows how EMEA marketers are focusing on mobile, with 52% already retargeting through this medium, while 56% of respondents plan to increase their investment this year. Marketers are focused on bringing their brand to the customer, where they spend the most time – on mobile. Over half of the marketers surveyed do this to increase app installs yet 24% don’t have an app. EMEA marketers are concerned that users are not converting on mobile, many citing a poor user experience as the number one challenge. This highlights the gap the industry still needs to fill before mobile reaches its full marketing potential.
AdRoll’s report, ‘State of the Industry EMEA 2016’ can be downloaded here.
For more information please contact Anahid Basmajian anahid@adroll.com, call +44 20 7025 8023 or message @AdRoll.
Methodology
AdRoll partnered with third-party research firm Qualtrics to survey a diverse group of 334 individuals in EMEA who are in marketing and advertising positions or in executive roles, and they represent a cross-section of company sizes and industries. The surveyed marketers regularly plan and run day-to-day campaigns, and 57% are at manager level or higher. Respondents who were in non-marketing roles or who identified as being ‘not at all familiar’ with digital display and paid social advertising were excluded from this study.
About AdRoll
AdRoll is a leading performance advertising technology company. It offers the most widely used retargeting platform, with over 25,000 active advertisers worldwide. To reach beyond existing audiences, the introduction of AdRoll Prospecting helps businesses attract new customers. This innovative and easy-to-use marketing platform enables businesses of all sizes to create personalised ad campaigns based on data from their websites, driving maximum return on online advertising spend. AdRoll provides a high degree of transparency and reach across the largest display inventory sources, including Google AdX and Facebook Exchange. The company is backed by leading investors such as Foundation Capital, IVP, Accel Partners, Merus Capital, and Peter Thiel. For more information, please visit www.adroll.com.