Search Engine and Display
Marketing: Data Challenges
Rahul Nim
Architect, Efficient Frontier
1
Agenda
• What is Online Performance Marketing?
– How is it done?
– How is performance measured?
• What constitutes performance data?
• How is it collected?
• What are the issues in data collection and
analysis?
• What is the future of online marketing?
2
Overview
Customer
Content Ads
TV
Print
Other
Search
Display
Content
Content Sites
Advertiser
Analytics and Tracking Services
3
Display Overview
Customer
Ad Networks
Display Ads
Display Sites
Advertiser
Analytics and Tracking Services
4
Performance Marketing and
Information
• Companies need to get the most out of their
marketing dollars.
• How do we measure the performance of
those dollars?
– Broadcast Media (Traditional, but mind the future)
– Direct Marketing
Profit = Revenue - Cost
Performance = Profit/Cost
– Ad Networks
– Search Engines
– Social Networks and Mobile
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Marketing on Search Engines and Ad
Networks
• How do Search Engines make money?
– Organic Search Results
– Paid Search Results, PPC/CPC model
– Content Ads
• How do Ad Networks make money?
– Premium inventory
– Biddable inventory, CPM model
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Organic and Paid Search Examples
7
Paid Search Concepts
•
•
•
•
•
Advertiser Accounts
Campaigns
Ad Groups
Ads
Keywords
8
Search Marketing Optimization
• SEO
– Landing Page Optimization
– Best practices
• SEM
– Optimally bidding on keywords
– Designing effective ads
9
Performance Indicators (SEM)
• Impressions
• Clicks
• Conversions
10
Collecting Performance Data: PixelBased Tracking
Click
Data
Bat.jpg
Redirect/Pixel
server
Conversion
Data
3. Redirect
…
Cricketbats.com
11
Performance Data Elements
• Browsers and Cookies, Unique IDs for events
• Tracking URLs
• What goes into the cookies
– Tracking information: relating events to ads
• Click and Impression data from search engines
and Networks
• Conversion data from web servers
12
Tracking Elements
• Installed Ad URL
url=http://pixel2002.everesttech.net/2002/rq/3/s_3aa8e5aa1261d038a0fe6ff
010d01ed9_2671584663_{keyword}_{creative}/url%3Dhttp%253A//www.vita
minshoppe.com/store/en/index.jsp%253FsourceType%253Dps%2526source%
253Dgo%2526adGroup%253DVitamin%2526keyword%253Dvitamins%2526cm
_mmc%253DPaid%252520Search-_-Google-_-Vitamin-_-vitamins
• Click (generated) URLs
http://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=CHdAMUkv7S8HMpisnwevg7Ac64yWyQGj4YqVCt6g7AQIABACKANQyeOVuwJgye7thsijoBnIAQ
GqBBxP0HFcOLaERWbapnR_ZsmWw6q-L_64wP2v93j&sig=AGiWqtw1di18T6otSuXIM6tGzpvtXwmTqg&adurl=http://pixel2002.ever
esttech.net/2002/rq/3/s_3aa8e5aa1261d038a0fe6ff010d01ed9_2671584663
_cheap+shoes_creative101/url%3Dhttp%253A//www.vitaminshoppe.com/sto
re/en/index.jsp%253FsourceType%253Dps%2526source%253Dgo%2526adGro
up%253DVitamin%2526keyword%253Dvitamins%2526cm_mmc%253DPaid%2
52520Search-_-Google-_-Vitamin-_-vitamins
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Collecting and Using Performance Data
• Build
– Data generated and collected in-house from Web
Servers
– Analyzed internally
• Buy
– Tracking service from providers like Omniture, Google
Analytics, Dart
– Analytics providers like Core Metrics, Google Analytics
– Combined like Efficient Frontier, Kenshoo
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Collecting Performance Data:
Mechanisms
• Collecting data for self
– First Party Cookies
– Setting up web servers to log events
• Collecting for clients (as a service provider)
– HTTP redirect mechanism
– Tracking info
– Third party cookies
– Javascript
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Issues
• Data quality
– Detecting Duplicates
– Detecting Click Fraud
• Scalability
– In collecting the data
– In modeling
– Redirecting
– Example architectures
16
Performance Management in Display
Networks
• Similarities to SEM
– Clicks and Conversions
• Differences from SEM (and challenges)
– Impressions
– Campaign structures
– Analysis and modeling
– Real-Time Bidding (RTB)
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So what should you do as a CMO?
• People are spending increasing amounts of
time on the internet
– $6.3 Billion spent in Q4’09
• Develop an effective online marketing strategy
– Budget for Online Advertising
• Get ready for Online Video
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…And as a CIO (from data perspective)?
• Engage with service providers (Buy)
– Evaluate Quality of Services
– Evaluate future readiness
• As service providers
– More data
• Social graph data for segmentation
• Online video
• Display impressions
– (Real-time) Biddable media slots
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References
• SEM:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_marketing
• Online advertising revenues:
http://www.iab.net/insights_research/947883/adrevenuer
eport
• Cookies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie
• Generating unique IDs for events:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_unique_id.ht
ml
• Tracking URLs:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/au/yahoo/ysm/sps/start/overview
_trackurl.html
• Click Fraud: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_fraud
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