Ad networks outperform campaign norms for select metrics
A recent study of industry normative data culled from Dynamic Logic’s MarketNorms®, noted media researcher, Michelle Madansky, discovered that in many cases, advertising networks outperform publishers in key brand metrics.
According to Madansky’s work, campaigns running on ad networks resulted in 61.8% of the exposed target experiencing aided awareness compared to 59.2% of the unexposed audience. An even greater differentiator was seen between the exposed and unexposed groups in the Brand Favorability metric. The group exposed to the ad on the network resulted in a 4 percent increased favorability ranking compared to the unexposed group (41.8% and 37.7% respectively).
13% lift
on brand recommendation intent seen on campaigns running on ad networks.
Campaigns run on the top 20% of ad networks showed lift in key metrics that were well above average and outperformed industry norms in near double digit percentages. Over the last three years, campaigns on ad networks experienced a lift of 15% for online ad awareness compared to the 3.6% industry average. Lift for aided brand awareness was 10% and the increased lift for brand favorability far surpassed the industry average of 0.7%, by reaching a 9.9% lift level.
Recommendation Intent Rises
Of considerable note were the action, message recall and recommendation intent metrics that outperformed publisher sites significantly when measured on ad networks. The highest lifts came in the categories of Website visits and recommendation intent. For Website visits, a 14% impact increase was seen with the exposed audience on ad networks – only a 2% increase was seen on publisher sites. Recommendation intent saw a 13.6% lift on ad networks compared to a 1.4% lift on publisher sites. This is a convincing counter-narrative to arguments that brands benefit most from direct-to-publisher advertising.
Ad networks have proven to be effective and efficient for brand advertisers. Quality contextual environments, premium targeting and creative units are all factors that drive successful branding campaigns online. As brand marketers search for these factors along with greater value and measurable results, ad networks will continue to prove to be the viable solution.