So why does digital still lag traditional media from a marketing effectiveness POV?

By Kevin Goodwin – SVP of Strategy & Growth @ New Engen 

It feels like all we do is spend time with digital media – social, apps, online browsing, streaming etc.

So why does digital still lag traditional media from a marketing effectiveness POV?

On average people spend 54% of their waking time with digital media (8.5 hours in total: 4+ hours on mobile, 2.5 hours with CTV, 1 hour with desktop/laptop, and close to an hour with other connected devices). And yet, traditional still beats digital in nearly every study.

Why the disconnect?

• Traditional channels (TV, Radio, OOH) can deliver broader reach more effectively than digital: digital can sell at a premium due to targeting capabilities and “measurability” leading to higher CPM’s & lower reach.
• Active attention time is much higher with traditional: TV/radio are strong mediums for longer form storytelling (15-60 sec spots, “non-skip” in some ways), while many digital spots get only 1-2 seconds of attention.
• Digital media can deliver a lot of waste – through non-viewable or hardly-viewable ads, bots/fraud, and generally low quality inventory bought through a programmatic engine.

But I actually believe digital can perform much closer to traditional media than the historical research suggests. It just requires a lot of rigor and experimentation. Buying digital media has become TOO easy, and to do it well demands a bit of hard work.

Here is where I’d start to make your digital dollar go further:

• Scrutinize your inventory: specifically avoid/scrutinize blended packages of placements or spots that aim to deliver an outcome based on automated levers. While the ease of this can be appealing, the waste is often quite significant. On platforms like Google and Meta, we have seen instances of 10-20% “waste”.
• Intentionally overweight high attention placements – the platforms are unlikely to do this for you, and often these placements are more scarce in digital. Focus on non-skip inventory where you can, and cut low visibility, low cost placements that platforms use to keep CPM’s low.
• Consistently retest automated vs. manual buying solutions – i.e. PMAX vs. Standard shopping or ASC vs. standard conversion campaigns. I believe its critical to test new buying tools/features, however its important to retest them on a consistent basis. As noted above, the automation provided by these tools can lead to sub-optimal outcomes in the details, and more importantly, those outcomes & details can change over time as the products evolve.
• Test no-targeting vs. targeting – research suggests that most advanced “targeting” available to marketers (in-market, specific income etc) provides no additional return over broad targeting. I don’t think this research is universally true, but you should scrutinize the cost of these audiences and test this for yourself.

– Manage Fraud/Bots

Oh and one last thing – for the digitally native brands and marketers, it might be time to dip your toes in the traditional world.