2020 was what it was – a unique exercise in destruction and disruption. And though learning from past data is essential for informing your next steps, this doesn’t mean that looking at past precedent is always the right way to approach the future.
A recurring theme we’ve seen in the analysis of 2020 has been the acceleration of pre-existing trends in terms of much broader digital adoption at the expense of physical shops.
But when we look at this situation from a multi-touch attribution (MTA) perspective, there is the clear potential to garner new data points in these spaces that can shape and strengthen the value of our marketing tools.
The changing dynamics between digital and physical consumer behavior is obviously a huge opportunity – more so than ever before.
Online and offline sales reports and their respective marketing plans have historically been siloed. While the industry has talked about omnichannel approaches for years, those able to embrace these models were limited to either huge advertisers with large capital means or progressive outliers.
One of the ‘gifts’ 2020 offered, though, is the opportunity to blend all of these touchpoints into a single customer experience.
Whether this presents itself as physical stores being used in a more experiential manner and websites being used as the ‘cash register’ will remain to be seen. However, habits that started to change many years ago have been significantly accelerated.
Therefore, marketers will now be compelled to plan their strategies holistically, which can only be properly undertaken using a combination of planning models that predict how the physical and digital worlds interact. Access to data that can inform this strategic thinking is obviously key.
Presently, the greatest data sources that digital marketers use are from the likes of Google, Facebook, Amazon, and similar gatekeepers. Aside from any issues of confirmation bias, access to transparent data is critical when looking to truly understand how consumers are behaving.
There are simply too many touchpoints and unique journeys occurring to continue to plan and deploy media budgets using linear tracking models like last-click. However, access to this level of data has been a prohibitive cost for most advertisers.
As businesses continue to reboot their marketing efforts in 2021 and are forced to relearn their internal marketing blends, accessing honest, transparent, attributed data is utterly essential and will become further democratized.
For many advertisers, digital marketing channels will continue to take a greater share of budgets in the post-pandemic world. This will place an increased focus on the need for transparency and the subsequent identification of value and investment opportunities. Affordable access to granular customer data has been made available to offline marketers for decades; now it is time for digital marketers to enjoy the same.
2021 is a chance to meld the physical with the digital, not to grow one at the expense of the other.
Read our whitepaper to find out more about why multi-touch attribution is an essential framework for understanding marketing effectiveness. Featuring exclusive insights from Awin clients using the SingleView solution, this downloadable PDF sheds new light on many marketing myths.
But when we look at this situation from a multi-touch attribution (MTA) perspective, there is the clear potential to garner new data points in these spaces that can shape and strengthen the value of our marketing tools.
The changing dynamics between digital and physical consumer behavior is obviously a huge opportunity – more so than ever before.
Online and offline sales reports and their respective marketing plans have historically been siloed. While the industry has talked about omnichannel approaches for years, those able to embrace these models were limited to either huge advertisers with large capital means or progressive outliers.
One of the ‘gifts’ 2020 offered, though, is the opportunity to blend all of these touchpoints into a single customer experience.
Whether this presents itself as physical stores being used in a more experiential manner and websites being used as the ‘cash register’ will remain to be seen. However, habits that started to change many years ago have been significantly accelerated.
Therefore, marketers will now be compelled to plan their strategies holistically, which can only be properly undertaken using a combination of planning models that predict how the physical and digital worlds interact. Access to data that can inform this strategic thinking is obviously key.
Presently, the greatest data sources that digital marketers use are from the likes of Google, Facebook, Amazon, and similar gatekeepers. Aside from any issues of confirmation bias, access to transparent data is critical when looking to truly understand how consumers are behaving.
There are simply too many touchpoints and unique journeys occurring to continue to plan and deploy media budgets using linear tracking models like last-click. However, access to this level of data has been a prohibitive cost for most advertisers.
As businesses continue to reboot their marketing efforts in 2021 and are forced to relearn their internal marketing blends, accessing honest, transparent, attributed data is utterly essential and will become further democratized.
For many advertisers, digital marketing channels will continue to take a greater share of budgets in the post-pandemic world. This will place an increased focus on the need for transparency and the subsequent identification of value and investment opportunities. Affordable access to granular customer data has been made available to offline marketers for decades; now it is time for digital marketers to enjoy the same.
2021 is a chance to meld the physical with the digital, not to grow one at the expense of the other.
Read our whitepaper to find out more about why multi-touch attribution is an essential framework for understanding marketing effectiveness. Featuring exclusive insights from Awin clients using the SingleView solution, this downloadable PDF sheds new light on many marketing myths.
Ted Baker is a global lifestyle brand that offers menswear, womenswear, accessories (and everything in between). Renowned for unswerving attention to detail and a quintessential British sensibility, it delivers that certain something a little out of the ordinary.
That characteristic attention to detail was something the brand wanted to extend to its marketing approach as well, to evolve its affiliate program beyond the ordinary. So, the decision was made to partner with SingleView via Awin to explore how Ted Baker’s customers were interacting with its multichannel marketing to better attribute value.
Over a five-month period, the Awin and SingleView teams provided in-depth insights that demonstrated the effectiveness of specific partners and campaign placements, revealing how these contributed to the brand’s overall objectives.
By looking beyond a last-click attribution model, Ted Baker could increasingly recognize and reward the marketing investments that were most valuable to the brand.
Establishing a benchmark to reveal the true value of partnerships
Following integration of the new SingleView attribution model, Awin set up bi‑weekly meetings with the SingleView team to review recent findings and assess performance in relation to specific promotional periods the brand was running.
These sale periods included campaigns featuring affiliate exclusives, broader seasonal sales that were being promoted, as well as looking at the performance of the channel during business as usual periods outside of sales to establish a benchmark.
As Ted Baker invests substantial amounts during these sales periods it was vital to closely scrutinize the effect these campaigns were having on the affiliate channel’s performance. In doing so, they could understand whether the brand was investing its money wisely.
Thanks to SingleView’s analysis, several partners were revealed to be providing previously unrecognized value that warranted further investment.
Marie Claire & ESBConnect: Two partners with hidden value
One of these was Email partner ESBConnect. Previously, this publisher had not been considered of any great value. However, SingleView’s analysis showed ESBConnect contributed the highest upper-funnel value to Ted Baker’s current program, as well as a steady stream of solo sales independent of any other channel or partner’s influence.
Following SingleView’s recommendations, Ted Baker invested further placement budget in this partner and ESBConnect has since grown +445% YoY in generated revenue.
One partner Ted Baker was eager to invest in from the outset was Editorial publisher Marie Claire. The female fashion magazine had the perfect brand-aligned audience, yet it was difficult to know if their partnership was as beneficial as they’d hoped when viewed on a last-click basis. However, SingleView demonstrated Marie Claire had the strongest return on ad spend (ROAS) of all Ted Baker’s partners, thereby giving the brand the reassurance it required to continue investing in this partnership.
Thanks to this continued investment, Marie Claire has witnessed revenue growth of 195% on the Ted Baker program YoY.
Reassessing the role of Incentive partners
A key question for Ted Baker was understanding the incremental value being delivered by their top publishers. If Ted Baker was to continue investing in these partnerships then the aim was to initiate new purchase journeys, bringing customers to the brand’s site that were previously not in the market to purchase from it.
SingleView was able to establish which publishers were making incremental contributions along the customer conversion path and provided rich insight around the impact on customer spend levels when a publisher was involved at any stage in the customer journey. These ‘Incrementality Indicators’ enabled Ted Baker to optimize spend to drive acquisition from new audiences.
Looking at Incentive partners like TopCashback, Quidco and VoucherCodes.co.uk, the brand found that these sites were driving incremental sales thanks to their loyal userbases.
These were not simply websites whose customers were visiting at the last moment to find a discount, but instead were offering a great source of brand awareness when launching sales campaigns.
SingleView’s insight showed that placements in newsletter and solus emails to these partners’ members were particularly valuable and so Ted Baker allocated more budget for these, culminating in an average revenue increase of 31% YoY across these partners.
Looking beyond the last click
Following this insight, Ted Baker refined their ad placement strategy, moving from a broad array of different pieces of coverage to more targeted placements that could drive new purchase journeys.
Taken together, these tactical improvements contributed to Ted Baker’s affiliate program seeing significant growth in 2020 despite the difficult circumstances.
SingleView’s value to the brand in helping to determine where marketing investments should be placed has proven integral to their ongoing strategy.
As Ester Rodriguez, Ted Baker’s Digital Marketing Manager, and Olivia Deith, the brand’s Senior Affiliate Executive, explained:
“SingleView is very much an extension of our digital marketing team. They have been instrumental in navigating through the toughest peak period to date, providing data that has allowed us to make strategic decisions regarding budgets and placements through looking at publisher value beyond the last click.”
Setting the agenda for partner attribution in 2021
With SingleView’s multi-touch attribution model now established as a vital part of its affiliate strategy, Ted Baker is approaching partner marketing investments in 2021 with supreme confidence.
Following planning sessions with the Awin and SingleView teams, a set of clear new objectives have been set for the brand’s program in the new year, including:
With these objectives in place, Ted Baker’s use of SingleView promises to continue to provide strong returns on their marketing investment.
