Digital advertising measurement not up to par in Singapore

Source: IAB Singapore.

Digital advertising measurement levels in Singapore are below average say senior marketers in the country, according to a State of Digital Measurement in Singapore study released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Singapore.

The study found that senior marketers, on average, only rate the level of sophistication of digital measurement in Singapore at four out of 10, with 10 being on-par with most advanced markets. Measurement on mobile was highlighted as the biggest gap that needs to be addressed in the near future.

With the goal of developing a deeper understanding of digital measurement in this market, the IAB Singapore’s State of Digital Measurement study combined data from 25 in-depth interviews with leaders in the Singapore digital marketing industry with a quantitative online survey of 50 senior marketing professionals from brands, publishers and agencies.

Peter Hubert, Head of Insights APAC, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions and Co-Chair of the IAB Singapore Measurement and Standards Committee said, “Digital marketing is still relatively new in this region and with technology evolving as rapidly as it is, we’ve unfortunately fallen a little behind in tracking and measuring our efforts. In fact, 88% of survey respondents said that the metrics they used were not effective enough in measuring campaign performance against business objectives. This needs to change if we are to prove the value of digital in the boardroom – it is the medium of the now and the future, after all.”

The study also shows that there is a lack of understanding and engagement with key digital measurement techniques across the market, with 64% of marketers increasingly looking for help to improve their understanding and use of digital measurement and metrics.

Other key findings from the research include:

Marketers highlighted difficulty in capturing data, with 50% of online survey respondents complaining that it is difficult to get accurate results from existing measurement practices due to data being captured in silos and a lack of integration amongst existing data sources.

Marketers also said that they lack certain resources such as Singapore or Southeast specific case studies (76% respondents), benchmarks to provide context and gauge success (64%), and support to gain a better understanding of measurement and metrics (64%), all of which would help narrow their spending gap in digital.

Interestingly, despite the overall agreement that better technologies and standards are required to help the industry improve their understanding of mobile tracking, measurement and cross-platform attribution, there is a lack of urgency within the industry in seeking a resolution to the problem.

Hubert added: “The IAB Singapore’s role is to highlight the areas where the industry needs to focus their attention, and collaborate with members and stakeholders to soothe any pain points. Using the results of this study as baseline, over the next year our goal will be to help brands in Singapore establish a robust and sustainable digital measurement framework.”

Interested?

Download the State of Digital Measurement in Singapore study

Fraudulent clicks and pageviews can inflate digital marketing results

So you've done your due diligence and purchased your online advertisements on a portal which produces really good results, perhaps better results than average. You sit back and watch the clickthroughs rise by the week, paying for 'leads' as users are attracted enough to visit the store locator pages of your website; but sales aren't increasing. What gives?

What might be happening is fraud, and not necessarily from the portal itself.
According to the US-based Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), there needs to be more awareness about non-intentional traffic which is affecting the accuracy of measurement for Traffic of Good Intent.

"The companies that participate in the digital advertising supply chain have been struggling with how to handle criminal enterprises intent on gaming the system,” said Steve Sullivan, Vice President, Advertising Technology, IAB.

“These fraudsters are diluting the value of all legitimate inventory while simultaneously diminishing the integrity of the entire digital marketing industry. The introduction of these best practices is a first step in reducing the marketplace repercussions of these illegal activities.”

The IAB and its Traffic of Good Intent Task Force have released the “Best Practices – Traffic Fraud: Reducing Risk to Exposure” guide to meet this challenge. The document explains how robotic traffic or 'bots' can infiltrate legitimate publisher platforms, and advises premium publishers and networks as well as buyers how to reduce risk.

According to the IAB Traffic of Good Intent Task Force, 'non-intentional traffic' can even occur without the knowledge of a user. In one method, users are automatically redirected to other websites after closing a website. In another, content such as ads or even full websites load invisibly in the background, at a  minute 1x1 pixel size for example, while a user is intentionally viewing content from other sites. 

What do perpetrators of non-intentional traffic get out of it? Huge volumes of pageviews leads to advertising inventory that can be sold on advertising exchanges. Alternatively, driving up traffic can increase the perceived value of infected browsers to both marketers and targeters. 

For example, bots can simulate 'clicks' on the invisible ads or through hijacking the browser software to record a 'visit' to the sites of marketers whose ads have been invisibly run. They may even produce a 'lead' by visiting the store locator page. 

“When only a handful of companies act to reduce fraud, the criminals win. We need to band together to effectively put a stop to the destruction of our industry at the hands of racketeers,” said John Battelle, Founder and Chairman, Federated Media, and co-Chair of the IAB Traffic of Good Intent Task Force. 

“Even the most scrupulous publishers and networks can be hit with non-intentional traffic propagated by criminals. If we want to truly address the problem, it is incumbent upon all stakeholders to embrace uniform levels of vigilance.”

The document on best practices for reducing the risk of online traffic fraud can be viewed here.