By Justin Thompson, General Manager of Identity and Healthcare Services, Semcasting

As we’ve moved into a more multi-channel, multi-device world, multi-touch attribution (MTA) has stepped into the spotlight. The problem is that MTA is notoriously hard to do. Not only is it complex and often difficult to convince senior leadership to prioritize, but, it also takes internal process changes, modifications to incentive structures and new technology investment.

Many brands have historically settled on reaching most of the users in their target audience through digital advertising. This means that even if you properly track all the touchpoints through which you might engage a user, there’s still a certain percentage of media waste you’re going to have.

According to Next&Co’s annual Digital Media Wastage report, $5.6 billion of digital ad spend was wasted in 2022, accounting for 41 percent of overall digital ad spend. Continued digital ad spend waste is one of the main reasons why senior leadership and stakeholders remain skeptical of ad budget value. How can brands appropriately allocate their ad spend on certain channels to accurately reach audiences and measure the impact of their reach?

To avoid wasted spend and unsatisfactory measurement, brands must look to a future where measurement and attribution are found at the audience level. Enter “member service marketing” – a new approach to targeting and measuring in which brands prioritize reaching a particular and precise constituency of users who are either brands’ current customers or a professional prospect group brands want to engage.

The Crown Jewel of Measurement

Unlike traditional TV advertising, connected TV (CTV) advertising is delivered via streaming services and connected devices that make it hard to track viewer engagement and behavior accurately. Not to mention that CTV viewers have diverse preferences and it’s challenging to determine how well a particular ad resonates with each viewer. There is currently no standardized metric for measuring CTV ad performance, making it hard to compare results across campaigns. Despite these challenges, brands continue to invest in CTV advertising due to its potential to reach a highly engaged audience and the ability to target ads more precisely than linear TV.

“Member service marketing” is a core function of marketing, as it’s often paramount to a brand’s success to nurture further business from known users or subscribers. Being able to identify on a day-to-day basis who is being reached, how often, on which platform, and with which creative positively impacts communications, whether that is to prospects or as a part of a digital membership campaign.

A member service methodology creates a multiplier effect in messaging efficiency, cost-savings opportunities, and an ability to optimize your member outreach like never before. As traditional targeting methods fade into history due to privacy changes, precise results are dependent on the measurement of accurate, real-time customer engagements in a cross-platform manner. Proof of cross-platform performance is all about matching individuals, not cookies or devices. The common denominator must be the person or the audience member,  who is independent of the marketing tactic or platform.

“Member service marketing” saves money, as brands can more precisely target their messaging to those who are most likely to respond. Additionally, this transparent understanding of match rates and audience advertising engagement enables brands to optimize their outreach. Brands have the power to monitor impressions within a campaign, to see who has already been served an ad and continue to move them down the funnel, achieving greater messaging efficiency and ROI.

Choosing the Right Channel

According to Statista, global programmatic ad spend is projected to reach $558 million in 2023. Much of the growth is coming from CTV spend being included in more omni-channel campaigns. However, to effectively see return from the higher priced CTV buys, brands have to ensure they are accurately reaching their audience and not throwing media budgets out the window. For example, in terms of CTV advertising spend, LG Ads reported that brands often put 50 percent of their ad budget to CTV, only to reach 10 percent of the total audience.

One key benefit of “member service marketing” is the ability to understand which channels perform best for specific audiences, allowing brands to better nurture existing business relationships or target potential customers more effectively. By analyzing data from customer interactions, brands can determine which channels (such as social media, display ads, or CTV) are most effective in reaching specific demographics. This information allows brands to tailor their marketing efforts to specific groups and nurture further business from known users or subscribers.

The data extracted from customer interactions also helps brands frequency cap advertising across platforms. This is crucial to avoid viewer fatigue and ensure that the ads remain effective. Instead of showing the same ad repeatedly, brands should focus on moving the audience through their advertising narrative and down the funnel.

For example, say you are a financial services brand. Your campaign consists of four separate ads that when put together tell a story. Once one viewer has seen the first ad of the campaign 2-3 times creating brand awareness, then they will be served the next ad in the narrative, moving them down to the next “chapter” of the story. This approach keeps viewers engaged and interested in the brand’s message, leading to better ROI.

Fast Forward to the Future

So how can brands get started? Start with a clear understanding of the desired audience and a strategy for reaching them across all channels. Ensure you have the infrastructure in place to monitor that audience across platforms.

“Member service marketing” is a powerful alternative to MTA. By focusing on a precise constituency of users and optimizing messaging across all channels, brands can achieve greater efficiency and cost savings while nurturing existing business relationships and targeting new prospects with unprecedented precision.