Context, Intent and Data: How to Make the Perfect Mix for Optimized ROI?


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In modern times, everything we do is recorded in the form of data. Oil, money, wealth and assets are not the most powerful things in the world. It’s ‘Knowledge’. The way knowledge is leveraged, makes it a magic lamp for every marketer. Data is like clay, everyone has it but not everyone can shape it into a beautiful sculpture. It requires skill and ingenuity to convert a ball of mud into a masterpiece. Thus, converting data into actionable insights is a game everyone must master. To start with, here is a question you should consider asking yourself.

Are you doing it right?

Delivering Right Ad to the Right Audience at the Right Time has always been the sacrosanct aspiration of every Brand custodian and can only be done with great data analytics. Every single activity done by a user online becomes a part of your data logs and it is up to you how you want to use it. For example, a user exploring weekend getaways have higher possibilities of conversion if you show him an advertisement for outstation cab services. Nothing can speak more volumes than this utopian measure for the importance of Context, intent and Data, in turn, to be declared as the most decisive factors.

All the forms of intelligence and analysis that have been built so far around data are aimed towards building the utmost proximity to the intent of the end users to attain max ROI.

How fresh is your data?

We can’t agree more to data being the main pillar around which all the evolutions and innovations are worked, but it is more important to keep it fresh. Brands need to focus on information which is less likely to change. Name, age, gender, phone number and primary email ID have fewer chances to get obsolete in comparison to business email, income, credit score or the mode of transport. This means you can control the decaying of your database.

On average, only 2%-3% of your database becomes obsolete every month, this figure definitely varies based on the industry you are in.

Are you achieving digital ROI using Data?

‘TG’ (Targeted Group) is a marketer’s favourite terminology yet very difficult to reach. There cannot be any product or service without a defined TG as some ROI is expected from an advertisement by reaching the TG. Though the base still is Data, here are two more factors which can help you achieve bigger ROI;

1.    The Intent- First and foremost requirement is to know the user’s intent to purchase.

2.    The Context- You might have the best product available, but if the context is wrong, everything is wrong.

A user looking for a phone with good camera quality and better battery life has the intent to buy a new phone. Showing him an advertisement of DSLR would be a wrong context, hence, wrong placement. However, the same user will be keen to explore more through an ad of Bluetooth headphones or phone cases.

According to Salesforce Advertising Index, advertisers who have connected data to Facebook had 47% higher engagement rate which proves that data gives you better ROI.

Fetching Intent

Digital marketing is evolving day by day, so are the methods of targeting the user. Defining user persona based on the kind of apps one uses, showing ads based on the location one is at, sending notifications based on the content consumption or clubbing it all together to reach to unique users have become very common. Many more similar techniques are used nowadays to make sure the data is used to the utmost accuracy & most relevant ads are shown to the most relevant TG.

Fetching Context

Google AdSense is the biggest example of contextual advertising and it has been with us for a couple of years now. With the addition of DMPs and AMPs, it is becoming better day by day. Behavioural advertising is set to be the next addition here as ads are shown based on on-going behavior rather than just a few articles.

An ad on movie booking platform will be relevant on a movie review blog and an ad of Tyre Company will be perfect on an article on used cars.

Be it the DMPs or DSPs, Ad Exchanges or Programmatic Exchanges, all have been aiming towards contextual data segmentation and segregation to figure out an intent-based approach for the end user.

Thus to sum it up, Context, Intent and Data are the three major checkpoints that open the gates to find answers to the three core questions important for marketers trying to determine how to optimize their campaigns –

•    Where should I spend my money?

•    Which are the channels used by my target audience?

•    When and what type of creative and messaging does my target audience respond to?

To understand the above concerns, it requires specialized marketing tools to be deployed with advanced attribution models. The model should offer granular person-level data on each touch-point engaged with while considering external factors as well. And that’s exactly what digital marketing solution providers must focus on to help brands thrive in this competitive digital era.

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