Engagement Mapping

I recently met with the good folks of Atlas to talk with them about new technologies and methodologies for reporting on my agency's digital marketing efforts. Because of the level accountability offered with digital, I was very interested to hear their thoughts on how we, as agencies, can better use their data to inform our clients ROI.

Right now, the standard in reporting is based on the "Last Ad model." This model attributes 100% of the credit for a conversion to the last ad seen, or clicked on. The problem with this approach is that it ignores the contributions of any previous ad that led the customer down the road to that conversion. So, by placing such a high importance on the last ad, other aspects that support the advertising success are left out of the ROI equation.

Take a look at some existing Research:
- The last click or view typically only accounts for 6 percent of the touchpoints (impressions, clicks, and interactions) between a given advertiser and converters. Said another way, the average converter has a frequency of over 15 to 20 touchpoints.
- Nine out of 10 converters were exposed to ads from the same advertiser across two or more sites.

Based on this research, I am really beginning to question the Last Ad model and becoming a fan of what is called "Engagement Mapping." Engagement Mapping is basically a technology that reveals the entire conversion funnel. So, unlike the Last Ad reporting model, Engagement Mapping tracks all online customer touch points which occurred prior to a user clicking on an ad and making a sale. This is extremely powerful as it gets us away from only looking, and making recommendations, on the Last Ad that was clicked on and gives us a more holistic view of what actually led to the sale being made.

This is even more important when you look at the effect that SEM has on conversion. According to latest research, 72% of all SEM clicks were navigational in nature (i.e., exact-match brand names and URL's). Obviously, the users clicking on these ads must have seen an ad somewhere to get them to type in the exact brand name. By employing Engagement Mapping, we can truly tell our clients the effect of their overall advertising spend, versus what a single ad did for them in driving a sale.

While I don't currently use Atlas as a third-party ad server, I am very interested to see what my current partner offers that will get me the kind of insight that Engagement Mapping promises.

Anyone had experience with this? Thoughts?

- Chris