South African brands need to get up to speed with what attribution software is and how it can help them to track, measure and optimise their TV plans. To make the most of shrinking marketing budgets. Why do they plan digital campaigns to maximise ROI but TV campaigns are bought based on gut feeling?
Irina Herf, General Manager of DCMN South Africa has some insight below.
“For far too long now, South African brands have been buying digital ad space based on ROI data but have been throwing good money after television advertising without tracking its performance. Why? Partly because attribution software is yet an unknown in South Africa, but also because brand managers are still coming to terms with the difference between media performance (reach, frequency) and client performance (website visits).
Performance TV marketing measures the success of a TV campaign based on the number of website visits that are received as a direct result of a TV ad. By using the data from attribution software, channels, days and day parts that don’t contribute positively to the KPIs can be replaced with better performing options in the next campaign. The data gathered also allows for better decision making when it comes to creating spots – length, call to action, etc. Even when a brand decides to use the same creative repeatedly, making small changes can have an impact. Using attribution software therefore takes the guessing game out of TV planning and buying.
In 2018, a well-known South African online travel booking platform saw a 650% increase in sales generated by TV once they started using attribution software to track the performance of their ads. By using the software to track, measure and optimise their campaigns, an immediate increase in sales linked to TV was recorded.
At DCMN, we believe that 2019 will be the year that South African brands start taking full advantage of available solutions to track, measure and optimise both online and offline media to make the most out of shrinking marketing budgets. Through DC Analytics, our free-to-use attribution software, we are also able to start tracking radio and out of home campaigns this year, which takes performance marketing to the next level.”