More than four fifths (83%) of UK-based brand marketers find measuring the impact of branding more challenging than measuring the impact of direct response, according to a new survey.
The study – “Branding Measurement in Today’s Accountable World: A Tale of Two Marketers” was conducted by Visual IQ and polled over 150 brand marketers in organisations with over 200 employees.
The report highlights the challenges faced by brand marketers when it comes to quantifying performance. It found that whilst 71% of UK marketers believe branding metrics are very or extremely important to campaign measurement and optimisation, only one in five (20%) of the UK marketing community rate their organisation as very good at measuring which combination of digital channels and tactics will produce the greatest lift on branding metrics.
The rise of digital marketing and the advent of advanced measurement solutions have made it easier than ever to track traditional, direct response marketing results, but for brand marketers who are tasked with measuring harder to quantify engagement metrics, it’s a different story.
The study supports the fact that brand marketers have little confidence in the key performance indicators (KPIs) they are producing.
When asked what obstacles they face when it comes to measuring brand performance, more than half (51%) of marketers said they lack advanced measurement tools and/or methodologies, and 37% are unable to calculate a single engagement score metric.
“After ten years of explaining online to marketing professionals, I spent the next ten years explaining marketing to online professionals. Brand recognition and affinity are crucial to the success of any product but measuring it remains complex and convoluted. With the arrival of ever more powerful analytics, the pressure on the branding side of the house is measurably elevated,” said Jim Sterne, Board Chair of the Digital Analytics Association and founder of the eMetrics Summit.
“As branding initiatives don’t necessarily result in conversion, measuring their success has always been far more tricky than with direct response tactics, as it’s harder to link to real business outcomes” explains Vanessa Tadier, General Manager of Europe, Visual IQ. “This study has made it clear that the industry has significant work to do in addressing the challenge of accurately measuring the impact of branding initiatives.”