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IAB Singapore urges marketers to move away from cost per ad click measurement

IAB200x200Singapore’s Interactive Advertising Bureau has released guidelines for marketers on how to buy and assess the performance of digital advertising campaigns amid fears they are not analysing data as much as they could.

The series of white papers, released today, covers the key areas of digital advertising – content marketing, mobile marketing, social media and digital video – all of which are expected to attract greater ad spend than ever this year.

The papers recommend a move away from cost per ad click to a more “holistic approach” to campaign measurement.

Too many marketers are failing to use the insights available to them in an era when they are coming under greater scrutiny to justify their spending, the bureau said.

IAB Singapore chief executive Miranda Dimopoulos said advertising platforms are becoming more “granular and sophisticated”.

“Smartphones, broadband and digital video consumption are growing rapidly in APAC. Marketers in south East Asia recognise this and are redesigning their campaigns accordingly,” she said.

“As businesses fully embrace digital advertising, they need to move beyond ad clicks and provide greater transparency with smarter reporting processes, including measuring engagement, time spent and conversions.”

LinkedIn Asia Pacific head of insights, Peter Hubert, who co chairs the IAB’s marketing and standards committee which drew up the guidelines, added: “As digital marketing matures, historical campaign data and new reporting metrics provide more reference points for campaign measurement.

“The framework outlined by the IAB SG allows marketers to use this data for far more educated advertising buys than before.”

The IAB pointed to previous studies to underline South East Asia’s poor performances, with one eConsultancy report finding that 54% of in-house marketing teams in Singapore rated their ability to measure ROI from social media as ‘poor’ while only 11% rated themselves as ‘good’.

“It is clear that the ability to calculate ROI on social media marketing activities is ineffective,” the IAB said.

The IAB has forecast all major areas of digital advertising will see growth in ad spend this year, with digital video spend expected to climb 21% and mobile marketing by 50%.

Senior executives from companies including Google, LinkedIn, ComScore, Singapore Press Holdings, BBC, Nielsen, Mindshare and Xaxis sit on the IAB’s marketing and standards committee.

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