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Beating the "Results" Drum Is Great, But What Data is Most Relevant?

Posted by Michael Lazerow on March 03, 2009 at 09:42 AM PDT

Not to beat up on an overused phrase, but "Show me the money" has turned into "Show me the results" when it comes to brands and marketers allocating their budget in these challenging economic conditions. It comes as no surprise that 59% of attendees surveyed at last month’s iMedia Brand Summit said they will be "heavying up on measureable, ROI-driven strategies."

But what do “results” mean, exactly? There are so many different ways to spin it that it can be hard for even the savviest of marketers to get to the bottom of what is actually relevant to them. At Buddy Media, we consider results to be engagement, or "someone doing something with your brand." That something may be sending a virtual gift, playing a fun game or finding the cheapest gas in your area, either way, people are taking an action as opposed to delivering an impression.

What can be done to further clear things up? For one thing, there is plenty of data out there. That of course is one of the benefits of digital marketing - it is all trackable. But is it the right data? This is something we ask ourselves and our clients every day at Buddy Media: what data do we need to prove success?

When it comes to social media campaigns, we believe strongly that engagement will be the key metric used to measure effectiveness. Facebook’s launch last year of its innovative "engagement ads" is a big endorsement of this move toward engagement-based advertising, or app-vertising, and away from standard banners.

In line with the social media mantra of transparency, we’ve launched our latest research report: "Social Math: The Economic Case for Branded Applications." The report aggregates data from more than 80 Buddy Media app-vertisement programs for 60+ clients and compares it to public data on digital display campaigns and data provided by clients, partners, and other publishers.

Key findings of the report include:

-App-vertising campaigns yield 398% more engaged users than social media display advertising campaigns
-App-vertising clients pay 78% less for each engaged user than social media display advertisers
-App-vertising campaigns deliver six times the number of impressions than traditional banner display campaigns

Want to find out the breakdowns on your specific campaigns? We also created a "budget calculator" that allows marketers to analyze their online marketing budgets and compare the cost of different solutions and how effective they are at generating engaged users. Give it a whirl and see how many users you can engage with your current budget!