The 6 Sides of Every Customer

Are we all hexagons under the skin? No, I am not talking about some sort of new geometric philosophy. Nor am I making a mock profound assessment of the human condition. Rather, I want to spark a discussion about the consumer data that matters to developing rich, genuine customer understanding -- powerful insights to drive the best possible program results.

A person is a lot more than a gaping maw relentlessly focused on consume, consume, consume and/or making a rational and detailed assessment of the options in your category. Yes, Virginia, people are complex, and their motivations, needs, and actions emanate from a complex set of mindspaces. Analysis of a variety of successful digital and integrated campaigns shows us that comprehensive customer insight comes from six different types of data -- a range of information types that, in aggregate, reveals the six sides of the customer that drive persuasion.

Let's consider each of these data types and what they reveal about your customer.

Demographics and lifestyle

Most products and services companies have a demographic skew in their audience base. In addition, many brands have recognized that there's value in getting far more granular in their demographically based segmentation. Consider a popular target like moms 18-49. Take a look at the two photos below, and then imagine how different the perspectives and lifestyles of these two mothers might be.

Yes, looks can deceive, but they can also be revealing. This is why more and more brands are pursuing granular demographic segmentation and personalized media to better deliver relevant messages to prospects.

Traditionally, digital media has used a great deal of inference to identify demographics and lifestyle. Many audience definition models use browsing -- and other habits -- as a proxy for known facts about a person. The quality of those inferences is based upon the amount of data analyzed, the quality of that data, and the standards with which we make inferences.

Inference isn't inherently bad, but more and more brands are seeking more verified forms of demographic and lifestyle information to drive better audiences for their programs. Those focusing on personalized media are also looking to data sources that use known facts versus inferences. Working with Nielsen and comScore, my company has compared inferred audiences against verified offline-derived demographics. The results found big gaps in the accuracy of inference. Inference, after all, is simply educated guesswork.

But the crucial value of demographic and lifestyle data is well established. And a combination of verified demographics and rich digital behavior provide an excellent -- and often essential --foundation.

Passions and interests

Digital has long leveraged browsing and interaction data to unlock insights about a person's passions and interests. From browsing reviews of crossover SUVs to spending hours on recipe sites, what people choose to do online helps us identify the right people for targeting. Passions also help us determine more compelling messaging for individuals and segments. For example: Does a person's behavior indicate that they respond better to the perceived prestige of a brand, or evidence of its quality? Or, family-centered messaging or ads that are all about me?

 

One example would be in the use of content to determine passions. Knowing that someone looked at 10 pages of sports content in a month is less valuable than knowing that they've watched three hours of UFC video in the same period. The latter shows a greater time commitment and a clear, deliberate choice to consume large amounts of such content.

Interest data can help us segment or personalize messaging to individual interests. For a pickup truck manufacturer, reaching people who have a passion for monster truck sporting content might be preferable to avid consumption of equestrian dressage videos. Better still might be an approach that speaks one way to the first group, and highlights the horse trailer towing power to the second. In short, uncovering a person's passions helps us deliver far more compelling communications.

Device usage

ComScore says that 51 percent of total digital time is now spent on devices other than a PC. Given this, we need to understand user behavior across all device types in order to truly understand their needs and passions. After all, if we see only PC-based data, then we understand less than half of what someone does online.

Real-time cross-device browsing, interaction, shopping, and purchase data help us create a holistic view of how our target is spending their time right now. That informs message timing. From there, understanding the particular cross-device behaviors of an individual (for personalized media) or a group (in segmented marketing) helps us to deliver the right mix of messages at the right places on the right screens for maximum impact.

As we all know, connecting devices for either data analytics or media delivery is tough stuff. Methodology matters a great deal. But behavioral and device usage data from PCs, smartphones, and tablets is becoming essential to driving maximum results for marketing investments.

Social media interactions

People spend a lot of time in social environments -- this is true across demos and devices. According to GlobalWebIndex, people spend two hours per day -- about 27 percent of internet time -- on social platforms. Other data sources show similar percentages.

 That's too big a block of time to ignore, which is why many solutions providers now offer social advertising solutions that leverage first-, third-party, and/or social network audience data to extend digital programs.

Now, not all social time is relevant to your category or product. In fact, much of it probably isn't. But some may well be, and given that it represents more than a quarter of the average person's digital time -- and even more for younger, more urban folks -- you shouldn't ignore social.

Brand relationships

I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that the big change in digital advertising, over the next two to three years, is going to be the nearly ubiquitous use of first-party brand relationship data to inform targeting and messaging. Brands will embrace the idea of putting their big customer data to work in all of their digital programs and campaigns.

Traditionally, it has been tough for agencies to convince clients to share their first-party data for targeting -- it can seem like a hassle and requires the heavy participation of client IT teams. But that is changing fast. Tag management has made it easier, and the value of first-party brand data for targeting has proven massive.

Integrating site interaction data -- available when a brand tags all of its pages -- is a great start because it helps reveal the preferences, interests, browsing, and even purchases that customers conduct online. Further, by using third-party data and cookies you can actually identify more of your customers and hand raisers as they browse the web. When you rely on third-party cookies, a high percentage of your users are hiding in plain sight because it's unknown that they have a pre-existing relationship with your brand.

Data from other digital interactions can also enrich your insights, and through them your overall program effectiveness. In addition, in most categories 80 percent or more of products are purchased offline. Offline brand interaction data is very powerful in order to understand and measure the offline impact of your online programs.

Actual purchase data

We've saved the biggie for last. There is no better way to predict future purchases than with a comprehensive understanding of past purchases -- both historical and recent transactions. Real-time or recent data helps predict both need and stage in the decision process. Historical data reveals seasonality, purchase cadence, and other insights that pinpoint people who are most likely to buy in the immediate future.

First-party purchase data is an unparalleled resource for targeting and messaging. In addition, companies with access to broad sets of purchase data -- in the same and related product categories -- have a great advantage. Again, the keys are the quantity, quality, and recency of purchase data.

Conclusions

You don't need to understand all six sides of your consumer to get good results. Companies prove this every day with campaigns and ongoing programs that drive good results. But while good results might have been good enough in the past, these results are insufficient to achieve today's KPIs. Marketers need every potential tool in their arsenals to drive the best possible results.

As you think about the programs you are planning now, ask yourself whether you are leveraging all six types of data -- and in the best ways possible. If you are on the agency side, one of the big opportunities might be in convincing your clients that putting all of their first-party data to work will yield great benefits.

Although this kind of client persuasion might not be easy, the results will be worth it. In fact, putting that first-party data to work might be the key to demonstrating the agency's value today and in the future. After all, our industry is only getting more competitive.

Thanks to iMediaConnection for publishing this first.

8 Ways Digital Retail Marketing is Changing

Retail is using its rich consumer insight and data -- and some of the newest creative engagement tools -- to create greater consumer satisfaction and maximum sales. Here are eight of the biggest findings and insights from the study -- results that reveal some of the fascinating ways retailers are thinking and acting in 2014.

They're becoming digital experts

Given the amount of spending now pouring into digital from merchants, it makes sense that retailers would be working hard to understand and master key digital strategies and trends. In fact, almost half of retail marketers rate their digital knowledge as "expert" or "high." Just 10 percent rate their knowledge as low or very low.

 

Digital is increasingly core to the capabilities of retail marketing leadership. It's a far cry from the time when digital was the bastard stepchild -- a time that digital pros know wasn't all that long ago.

They're spending almost $4 of $10 on digital

Respondents to the survey reported that they are spending an average of 39 percent of their total marketing budgets on digital. That share is 58 percent above the average company across all verticals, as reported by eMarketer. While retailers were among the first movers into digital -- given its power as a direct response (DR) medium -- what's interesting today is that retailers are actively unlocking the value of digital as a branding tool. In the survey, 58 percent disagreed with the idea that digital is for DR only.

That shift in perception is a big deal because it reflects the need to connect with more people at various stages of the product decision journeys -- not just the "bottom-funnel" demand fulfillment stages.

They're caring deeply about personalization and personalized marketing

While personalization is certainly a hot topic across the digital universe, it's particularly viewed as important by senior retail marketers. In fact, more than 70 percent of marketers surveyed said that personalization represented the future of marketing.

While personalized marketing may once have seemed like a pipedream to those that have heard pundits talk about the promise of it for years, most retailers know that it is possible today. Retail leads the pack in understanding and implementing personalized marketing. In fact, 70 percent of these marketers said that personalized marketing is possible.

iMedia SVP Marti Funk posits that retailers are so interested in and focused on personalization because they understand that they need to turn real-time experiences -- like 24/7 shopping -- into "me time" experiences. It's ultimately an extension of "consumer control" -- the idea that we need to tailor our brand experiences to the wants and needs of individuals in order to connect and convert.

They're increasingly concerned about partner glut

Anyone who has seen a Lumascape understands that the world of digital marketing solutions is highly complex and fragmented. Seen from the perspective of a client like a retailer, all of these point solutions mean that it's tough to identify, select, and work with vendors in digital.

Many of the retailers surveyed say they are working with a very large number of vendors. Sixty-five percent say they are working with six or more vendors. The mean number of vendors per retailer was 12.

All those vendors add to the unprecedented management complexity of retail digital marketing. In addition, almost half (48 percent) of retailers are reporting that it's increasingly difficult to select the right vendor from the many options available. In addition, many retailers say that integrating all of these vendors is a major challenge.

So how is all of this changing the market? The consequences of all of this are that retailers appear to be seeking more comprehensive solutions from vendors, so that they can work with fewer partners and do more with more comprehensive and integrated consumer data sets. This in turn appears to be driving consolidation across digital as larger companies acquire or build new service lines to bring more capabilities under one roof.

They're rethinking their approach to measurement

One of the reasons why retailers fell in love with digital in the first place is the ability to measure it in so many ways. From simple models like last click, to more complex rules-based and algorithmic ways of assigning credit for sales to certain marketing tactics, today there are a variety of different approaches to measurement.

According to the survey, last-click attribution remains the most popular among retailers, with more than two-thirds saying that they use this format for at least part of their marketing measurement.

These figures appear to be poised to change given other survey results; many retailers say they plan to deploy more advanced measurement methodologies in 2014.

They're concerned about finding alternatives to the third-party cookie

Sixty-two percent of retailers reported that they are concerned about the implications of cookie tracking and cookie deletion. Given the importance of accurate measurement to any commerce-focused company, it's natural that retailers have expressed some misgivings here.

One way retailers are addressing these challenges is by placing more importance on their existing customers -- people with whom they have first-party relationships. By refocusing resources onto growing lifetime value and leveraging rich understanding of individual product preferences, retailers are finding powerful ways to grow their businesses, despite the challenges facing the third-party cookie.

They're rightsizing retargeting spending

Retargeting is a popular marketing tactic, with 74 percent of senior level retail marketers rating it important. That said, nearly half of our respondents believe that retargeting takes too much credit for sales that would have occurred anyway -- without advertising.

Although few doubt the intrinsic value of retargeting, what this conveys is a growing recognition that at some point there is a diminishing return for retargeting an investment. And at some point it is more economical to invest at other stages of the purchase journey. What's happening isn't an abandonment of retargeting, but rather a more reasoned approach to marketing allocation across the consumer journey.

They're hungry for more knowledge

We've seen that many senior retail marketers rank themselves highly on digital knowledge. But at the same time, they also say they are anxious to learn more about many topics in digital -- especially those that appear to reflect the key trends expected over the next several years.

Specifically, when asked which topics retailers are most interested in learning more about in 2014, they gave us these results:

Perhaps not surprisingly, topics related to data, ROI, and cross-device marketing led the pack. Almost half also said they were interested in learning more about how best to integrate online and offline data. Social media marketing also showed strong interest, though it no longer dominates the list of marketer interests as it did just a few years ago.

Parting thoughts

This survey -- conducted in the first quarter and soliciting the opinions of 81 senior level marketers at leading U.S. retailers -- underscores the dynamism in today's retail environment. Since retailers often move before other business sectors in digital, these results may portend larger cross-industry trends in the months and years ahead.

What's plain to see is that merchants aren't resting on their digital laurels -- not by a long shot. As they embrace new ideas and trends, it's safe to bet that we'll be seeing radical innovation in this vertical -- just as we have in the past.

If you'd like a copy of the full study, you can get it here.

For this study, senior-level retailer marketers were contacted via phone and email to take a 10-minute survey. Contacts were informed that the research was sponsored by Conversant (then ValueClick Inc.), Bovitz Inc., and Edelman; they were also informed they would receive a monetary incentive and a copy of the aggregated research results. 

Thanks to iMediaConnection for publishing this first!

Nice eMarketer feature on a recent Conversant study

eMarketer highlighted a few of the findings of our latest research opus- How the Media Buying Process Really Works. Check out the complete article by clicking here or on the mini below. If you want to download the entire Conversant study, please click here.

The Cross-Device Manifesto - New Conversant Presentation Available

Our Mobile General Manager Kurt Hawks delivered a great presentation on cross-device marketing this week at the Direct Marketing Association of New York. Get the latest stats on consumer behavior and the marketing effectiveness in just 22 slides!

View the presentation in the player above. ;-) Visit Slideshare to download a pdf (no reg required)

How to get 5400 Media Buyers to Answer the Phone...And Take a Meeting

The case study below is a synopsis of the presentation I delivered during the iMedia Agency Summit.

It’s getting tougher than ever for media and technology sellers to connect with media professionals at leading agencies. A big part of that challenge comes from the sheer number of sellers trying to break through. For example, a dear friend – who is planning director on a medium sized for-profit education brand – tells me she averages about 35 unsolicited seller phone calls a day, and at least as many emails.

It’s the flip side of those crowded lumaScapes – every one of those companies are wangling for an hour of a buyer’s time.  That kind of environment is tough on everyone – buyer and seller alike. It’s only natural that buyers tend to be skeptical of seller promises, and frugal with their meeting time.

When our company began planning our relaunch as Conversant, we knew that breaking through and getting agency people to care was one of our biggest challenges. We were prepared to “go big” – but wanted that bigness to help deliver our differentiation and make our transformation as exciting (well, okay, ALMOST as exciting) to them as it was to us.

So how could we create outstanding brand awareness in just a few days, vividly exemplify the meaning of our brand, and make buyers excited about hearing more?

INSIGHT

Every marketer knows that the best initiatives start with an insight into the target audience. Ours came from conversations our sellers had with clients over the course of 2013. Many agency pros talked about the challenges they face in a constantly changing media environment. But where was the fun? Where was the creativity? Where was the excitement that drew them to the ad biz initially?

One area where buyers reported that they saw virtually no imagination was in the ways that sellers tried to connect with them. Emails. Calls. Drop-bys. Lunch invites. All okay for what they are, but hardly the sorts of things that help a company stand out from the pack.

We wanted a program/concept that would encapsulate our new positioning and mission. 

We wanted to be understood as a different kind of company, focused on giving brands richer, individual–level consumer understanding – understanding that helps them deliver individually relevant marketing messages and create lasting customer relationships. Unique. Individual understanding. Brand conversations. A big deal.

PROGRAM

To attract the attention of buyers and get them to take a meeting with us, our team devised the “Answer the Call Program.” On the day of our brand launch, 8,200 media planning professionals arrived at their desk to find an interoffice envelope. We had actually prearranged with the office managers at many large agencies to have them hand-deliver these “interoffice” envelopes – to stand out and grab immediate attention.

These days, getting an interoffice envelope is pretty rare, so you know there’s something important inside. And in this case, that was definitely true.

Inside the envelope was an actual working “burner phone” and a mini brochure explaining that Conversant would be calling that phone sometime in the next three days. If the recipient answered it when we called, they’d be eligible for a great prize.

The timing of that call was a mystery, but the prizes definitely weren’t. They ranged from a Roku 3 or $100 in UBER credit to UBER for a year or a great trip. The prizes were enough to get the blood going, but what we were really counting on was that the need to wait for a call – and heck, the inside joke of a media person actually wanting to answer a vendor call – would take us a lot farther than some simple prizing.

On the Conversant end, our sales team conducted a three-day sales blitz, with each seller placing 100+ calls apiece. Some more than 300 calls. Thousands of names and phone numbers were loaded into Salesforce to ensure accuracy.

Marketing ordered prizes to arrive in time for the first scheduled meetings. Well, we thought we did. (Note to selves – make sure you build in a couple of days for when an East Coast blizzard strands thousands of prizes in Lackawanna County, PA. Fortunately, the agency pros in those first meetings were forgiving. Thanks!)

In addition, a special sales intro to Conversant deck was created – low on hyperbole, high on real, substantive points of difference.

GOALS AND ACTUALS

We felt our goals were pretty aggressive – to get 2,300 answered calls (28% of total mailed).  From there, to get 820 booked client meetings (35% convert to meeting) to showcase Conversant to clients and prospects.

But response was much greater. Much much greater. Our first inkling that we were onto something was when hundreds of posts began appearing in social media, from phone recipients. Comments like:

When our sales reps started making calls, we heard that entire departments were taking their phones everywhere. One agency even sent us a picture of their whole team clutching their phones!

Phones were answered on toilets, in a funeral procession, on Manhattan subways, the Chicago El, and in the 11^th lane of the 405 by the The Getty. Agency people pranked each other by calling a neighbor’s burner phone and pretending to be Conversant. I got an email from a rep at another leading media company complaining that our call made the AMD they’d been trying to get in front of for 4 months leave their meeting.

By the time the dust settled three days later, our sales organization had successfully:

·         Placed 7,264 answered calls (89% of received phones)

·         Booked 5,345 meetings (74% convert to meeting,  651% of total meetings booked goal)

In a world where a rep can expect perhaps 1 answered call out of 40 placed, and about 0 call backs when they leave 40 messages, these figures stunned us. The program has since driven remarkable growth in our RFPs received and revenue booked.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

So what was it about this program that reached out and shook the industry, and, according to one West Coast GMD, “made time stop for all media people everywhere for three days in February?”As you can imagine, our team has put a lot of thought into this. We think it boils down to five things. We challenge the entire “sell side” to try and reflect these ideas in their future programs:

1.    Focus on your KPI, not a Surrogate. It’s easy to blow a lot of money trying to drive awareness and interest with buyers. But if it doesn’t translate to meetings, what have you got?

2.    Find a Leverageable Target Insight. We built our program around the buyer lament that there just isn’t enough creativity in the business anymore. And tied that to the “truth” that buyers have created great strategies and tactics to avoid unsolicited meetings and messages. It’s not that buyers don’t want to meet with us – but they do want to know that the meeting will have genuine value. While we offered a promotional layer to our program, what we’ve been told is that it was the size and depth of this program that convinced buyers that our news was more than a name change and likely warranted a listen.

3.    Bring the Creativity. There’s a reason why people join agencies instead of accounting firms. The passion and creativity of our business are arguably its greatest draw. And then we try and do business with the same dishwater dull strategies and tactics as everyone else. What’s wrong with this picture?

4.    True Success is in the Details. My little narrative above doesn’t really give you a sense of the mind boggling amount of planning that went into this program. We worked with a promotions agency, Deare|2 who were invaluable on that score. In addition, our team spent weeks ensuring that we had the right contacts, prizing, programs, recycling partner, collateral, and the million other things that made it possible to deliver and call 8,200 phones to 8,200 people at over 1,000 separate addresses on one cold day in February. So many members of our team spend nights, weekends, and yes, even New Year’s Eve preparing this program. And it really paid off.

5.    Sales/Marketing Partnership Was Essential: Ask anybody at Conversant who made this program possible, and you’ll hear it was hundreds of people, because virtually everyone had a role to play to ensure this went off right. The time demands on both Marketing and Sales were enormous, and it was the willingness of everyone to commit and follow through that made it all possible. We drove each other crazy kvetching and demanding and wanting and needing and delivering, and through all of that we made something we can all be proud of.

New Research Studies from Conversant Media

Conversant Media has released three new studies about digital marketing and advertising that are worth a look.

1. First, What's Driving Marketing in 2014 summarizes the results of a recent survey of digital marketing and advertising pros on what they expect to do with their marketing resources for the balance of 2014. It's worth a look. Download here. (No reg req)

The second is a fascinating study of the agency media planning and buying process. Learn important information about the media that planners consume regularly, the details of the RFP process, and who actually makes the media buying decision.Download here (No reg req)

The third is a major study of senior retailer marketers. The paper outlines their plans, attitudes and interests as 2014 unfolds. Download it by clicking here. (Reg req)

Hope you find them valuable!

A little Friday Levity

http://www.honestslogans.com
http://consumerist.com/2013/10/24/11-company-slogans-that-say-what-we-know-to-be-the-real-truth/

Great post by John Conley of Dotomi on the power of big data to drive personalization and improved marketing results

Find it here:

3 Steps for Using Big Data to Drive Faster Marketing Growth

Anyone else feel ancient after seeing this video?

The Simple Rules of Cross-Device Marketing

Every year we have a white-hot topic in digital marketing. This year it's cross-device marketing.

And apparently it's not just something we're talking about; we're also implementing it in a big way. In a recent survey of hundreds of senior buyers conducted by research company Ad Perceptions, more than 89 percent of respondents expected to pursue cross-device marketing efforts in 2013. The survey, conducted in February of this year and underwritten by ValueClick Media and Greystripe, also revealed that buyers expected to spend an average of 30 percent of digital dollars against cross-device efforts.



That's a lot of money, which makes it absolutely critical that we figure out how to spend that money the best way possible. Here's my list of the six essentials to doing cross device marketing right.

Focus on the consumer, not devices or channels

We all know that it can be problematic to think and plan in device or channel-based silos. Doing cross-device right requires that we build plans around the customer and their particular cross-device usage patterns. Consumer media time is highly fragmented, and they use different devices for different tasks. True cross-device marketing refers to targeting the same individuals across the devices that they use to access the web.

Reaching some people via PC and other people via a separate mobile campaign isn't really cross-device marketing, and a great deal of industry research has shown that reaching people across their devices drives significantly better results.

This isn't a semantic nuance -- it's fundamental to marketing in a multi-device world. According to research from Sophos, the average American spreads their digital usage across about three devices. And comScore says that fully one-third of digital time is now spent on mobile devices. To reach and persuade the user in the most powerful way we need to move our messages with them as they flip between devices throughout their days.

Ensure sound user-to-device matching

It's darn hard to link all of an individual's devices and behaviors to a single user ID. The Sophos study I mentioned earlier said that on average our digital behavior is stored across 12 IDs. An ID for your PC, another two or more for your phone and tablet browsing, and a number of IDs for the various apps you use. Uniting all of these data spaces to one common ID is very difficult -- very, very difficult.

I'm going to outline two different approaches companies use to accomplish user-to-device matching: inferred device matching and login-based matching.

Inferred device matching is a multistep process that, like it says on the tin, infers a match between a user and a set of devices. Broadly, doing it involves a couple of steps. First, you need to associate everything that happens on a single device to one device ID. All the data sets for each of the IDs on a device must be aggregated to a single profile.

Then you have to find ways to associate devices together to a household level. One of the key methods used is by examining the IP addresses we use. Multiple devices on a home IP, for example, are much more likely to be used by the same user than devices that connect via different households.

Household level matching is an important advance for the industry. But it is not -- emphatically not -- user-level matching. Consider a household with a family of four -- mom, dad, and two teens. If these users are typical Americans, there would be 12 devices associated with a household ID. A brand might get better results by targeting the dad across all these devices than by advertising on 12 random devices. But a great deal of that media would be wasted because pops really only uses three of them.

Device-to-user matching is inexact. Broadly, matching is enhanced with more data points. So, for example, seeing two devices connecting on the same IP address provides some evidence of them being used by the same person. But if that IP address is for the Starbucks at 40th and Lex, the likelihood for user-to-device accuracy based upon one recorded connection per device is quite low. We need more data to make a more accurate determination.

Now, if two devices both connect at the same 16 distinct IP addresses over a five-day period, there's significantly more certainty that they share the same user. It's still possible that those two devices aren't used by the same person, but the more data points you add to your equation, the greater that likelihood becomes. IP addresses aren't the only thing that can be used to infer a match. Similar browsing habits, for example, could also provide some additional assurance of a match.

Shared devices have the potential for clouding the soup even more, though new methodologies for associating sets of behavior on a device with different users have been deployed by some providers. 

Inferred device matching is the most common method in use today. The other method is based upon recording first party logins on different devices and then matching these PCs, phones, and tablets using that login as a data point. If, for example, I login to the same financial portfolio account on PC and smartphone, the odds are pretty good that both devices are mine, or at least often used by me.

This user-to-device matching method works best for a company that has a lot of logged-in users. Otherwise, scale would be a real challenge. Further, what's absolutely critical here is that any PII must be disassociated from that profile. Note also that login-based matching has a high degree of accuracy, but this method also has the potential for mismatch if the logins are shared. Nothing is 100 percent -- at least not yet.

Shared devices can create problems here as well, and it's likely that login-based solutions have or will deploy inferred device matching in some form in addition to login-based matching. In short, the level of accuracy is a very important consideration because it's reaching the same users across multiple devices that has such a great impact on results.

Leverage rich behavior and interest insight across all devices and channels

The availability and depth of user interest data to target individuals often varies significantly by channel and device. You can, for example, get really granular in audience development in PC-based display, but interest-based targeting in mobile is often more rudimentary. One key reason is that pure-play mobile vendors see less of a user's total digital activity.

But they do have some really valuable information that pure-play PC vendors don't have: rich, reliable understanding of the mobile behavior of a person. And you need both.

In my view, doing cross-device right requires use of a profile that has both rich interest and behavior data and sound device-usage insights. Interest-based targeting should be just as rich for tablet and phone users as PC users. That requires great user-to-device matching combined with deep audience behavior and interest data.

Look for three kinds of cross-device scale

Whether your brand is large or small, make sure that you field cross-device programs with the scale necessary to really move the needle.

In cross-device, you need to pay attention to three kinds of scale:

• Number of cross-device profiles: How many cross-device profiles can be reached? Potential cross-device reach varies quite widely.
• Number of data points per profile: You can ignore this if you are truly a mass marketer. But if your targeting is at all granular, make sure that your partner can provide enough profiles at the necessary level of specificity. Note also that unique data points are more valuable than common ones.
• Number of potential cross-device ad opportunities: Bigger inventory footprints increase the odds that appropriate inventory can be associated with a cross-device profile so that more impressions can be delivered.

Note also that scale is in many cases inversely related to profile accuracy. To some degree, higher accuracy standards may reduce the number of profiles available. It's like any QA standard -- the more precise the spec, the fewer things that will pass it. The implication here is to inquire about the accuracy standard and ensure it lives up to your needs.

One other thing to be aware of is that scale is constantly increasing for many vendors in the industry. Today a partner might have 30 million profiles, next month 34 million. Just make sure that your expectations match the scale they can offer when you sign that IO.

Engage using the interactive strengths of each device

This is where I'm going to lose some of you. We have to make a real effort to capitalize on the characteristics of the medium if we are to maximize cross-device campaign results. Recognizing that standard units are easier to execute and sometimes key to delivering an acceptable overall CPM, we also need to identify and include more engaging and interactive units in our programs.

Many people choose mobile programs, for example, made up almost entirely of 300x50s, those little slivers at the bottom of your iPhone screen. Reported interaction and click rates for such units are rather high -- but much of that performance probably relates more to fat-finger syndrome than actual noticing value.

Make units with real stopping power a centerpiece of your programs. Add multiple ways to interact. Give people a choice of CTAs. These are all good best creative practices -- but they are arguably even more important to maximizing cross-device performance metrics because they increase the likelihood that they will actually see and experience the multiplicative effects of brand exposure on multiple screens.

Make learning and insights a priority

Cross-device is not something you can set and forget. All industry stakeholders are learning and improving their approaches -- and results -- every day. Set learning objectives with every campaign. What additional cross-device target insight can I learn from this effort?

Genuine multi-device behavioral understanding is in its infancy. Help your baby grow. Your programs can progressively reveal unique aspects of your audience's unique cross-device behaviors. They can provide perspective that can also help guide strategies in other areas of marketing. Ensure that you the partner or internal analytical resources necessary to determine more than your campaign CTR and CPA.

Conclusions

For years many marketers have approached mobile and tablet advertising with a combination of facts and hunches. Let's make a concerted effort to minimize the hunches in 2013. As you formulate your cross-device programs, ask the questions necessary for you to identify the strategies that can really meet your needs. Lots of people are getting great results from cross-device marketing, but the best results are going to go to those that focus on the essentials as they formulate their action plans.

Thanks to iMediaConnection for publishing this first.