As more and more people consume media across multiple screens, device-based measurement has become increasingly inaccurate and incomplete. Thunder and TiVo recently partnered up to discuss some of the challenges with people-based measurement from TV to digital, and ways marketers are tackling this tricky problem.
Challenges with Measuring:
Marketers are scrutinizing their approach towards measurement to make sure they are truly understanding what goes into their media spend, and how this spend translates into results. Some of the areas they’re focusing on include:
- Quantifying sales and brand impact
- Increasing marketing ROI
- Measuring omnichannel campaigns
- Integrating in-store transactions with digital media data
- Linking cross device data
- Improving media attribution and optimize media mix
Applying traditional cookie- or device-based measurement approaches to these areas leads to imprecise, incomplete, and sometimes incorrect insights. As such, marketers have embraced People-Based Measurement as the new way forward.
What is People-Based Measurement
People-based measurement refers to the use of persistent identifiers to capture user behavior across channels and devices. This approach provides a more holistic view of user behavior compared with traditional cookie- or device-specific measurement. Here’s a simple video that explains the differences in approach.
There are two common ways people-based measurement is done: panel-based measurement and direct measurement.
Panel based measurement refers to the use of certain technologies that monitor how certain subgroups of individuals behave, and uses those observations to make general conclusions about the population. The advantage of this method is that you can make conclusions with far fewer data points. The downside, of course, is that your extrapolations are prone to sample bias and may be inadvertently distort reality.
Direct measurement, in contrast, provides far higher accuracy. Unfortunately, this approach requires collecting more more data via a persistent identity, which is a technological challenge for marketers who do not have access to this type of technology.
Both approaches of doing people-based measurement provide far greater accuracy relative to cookie- and device-based approaches. In a cookie-based world, ID’s are temporary rather than persistent, and impressions are subject to fraud, deletion, and blocking. In the device-based approach, each device may offer a persistent, unique identity, but one individual may have multiple devices.
Omnichannel with People-based Measurement
People-based measurement connects ad exposures across all environments – from open web to walled gardens, including linear and OTT video. Ad exposures can be connected to a persistent identifier, which can then be tracked against both online and online conversions. For example, TiVo’s data set includes exposures from three million active households across 210 DMA’s. Using TiVo and Thunder’s people-based measurement, the marketer can combine the data from television with data from open web and walled gardens to provide a true view of the customer journey.
What is the Impact of Measuring by Person
When marketers evolve from device- or cookie-based measurement to persistent people-based measurement, they typically notice some startling changes in their reach and frequency. These observations include:
- A decrease in reach (which happens when you connect multiple devices and cookies to a single person)
- An increase an frequency (which happens because your audience may see the ads on multiple screens)
- An increase in conversions that are ad attributed (which happens via events that are not tracked by cookies or devices such as offline purchases).
Looking to make the transition to People-based measurement?
There are two ways for marketers to embrace people-based measurement.
The quick and easy approach is a Wrap & Measure test, which uses a people-based ad server to track your ad exposures, person counts, and digital conversions for a particular campaign, and provides a report on a particular campaign to see the people-based difference.
The more comprehensive approach is the “Always-On” People-based ad serving, which uses a people-based ad server to track and personalize your message across all campaigns by person. Marketers using a people-based ad server switch from “per campaign” or “per channel” mindsets to “customer-centric” mindsets that focus more on customer journeys and lifetime customer value. Relative to the quick and easy approach, this more comprehensive approach can fill your data lake in real-time with people-based data.
To get the full scoop of the webinar, see the video below:
