Targeted Marketing or Brand Awareness? Which Works Better Online?

Online marketing has travelled a long way over the last decade and now supersedes traditional advertising media in the majority of channel categories. The online advertising world is not yet fully developed and will transform over time to include higher capabilities. A paper by Attia (2014), discusses how metrics will need to change to ensure the current click-through model is replaced by more holistic measurements. Successful campaigns have been built by adding brand image to the overall marketing plan. Is targeted marketing or brand management better?

Click-Through is the most common method of online advertising but people have become sensitized to the marketing channel. The rate uses a simple formula like Clicks/Impressions X 100 =Click Through Rate (CTR). As more people click on an impression (showing of ad) the rate moves up and is considered effective.   

When customers become desensitized to click-through ads, pop up banners, etc. they begin to ignore the display ads making them less effective in attracting their attention. As effectiveness and cost drop advertisers will view the ads as less important, putting pressure on the market to develop new channels. 

The author argues that companies may increase their effectiveness if they use a matrix of measures and focus at least some of their attention on brand awareness. Brand awareness occurs when customers understand the brand and can recall information about it. Such awareness is often calculated by polling whether or not people remember the brand. 

Trends are showing that brand management is increasing and needs better methods of marketing. Online brands are difficult to measure without an appropriate battery of marketing metrics. A single channel with a single metric skews the brands actual place and success in attracting customers. 

The study successfully explains that single channel marketing focused only on drawing immediate purchases is slowing down due to the growth in the Internet. Companies can build brand images by using both online and offline advertising. The totality of different marketing metrics is a stronger predictor of performance than a single click-through measurement. As an organizations builds its online marketing campaign it should keep in mind that brand is important in attracting visitors beyond click models. 

Attia, K. (2014). The shift from online performance to more holistic brand efficiency measurement and the need for standardized online ad formats. Journal of Brand Strategy, 3 (1).