Numerous reports coming from independent research entities such as Forrester, eMarketer and others, are highlighting a significant trend suggesting that marketing budgets allocated to digital channel advertising are increasing year on year.

It seems that experts believe that it all boils down to measurable marketing. Digital, similar to some aspects of direct marketing, can be precisely measured at a 1:1 level. Above-the-line marketing does not provide the same precision.

The iterative, maturing nature of digital advertising is not to be overlooked. An array of different business models are highly dependent on efficient, high-performing advertising (eg. Facebook, Google, etc.), and it isn’t digital ad channel proliferation alone that excites us; it is the ever-increasing intelligence and relevance being delivered.

This phenomenon is attributable to technology now being able to process massive amounts of structured and unstructured data, and ‘gleaming actionable insights’ (i.e. prescriptive analytics). Objectively, what does a chief marketing officer want to do? They  want to allocate spending to advertising tactics that work, and digital analytics provides transparent attribution.

The evidence would suggest that marketers are counting on digital data.

This is what Jeanne Sherman, chief marketing officer of CheapCaribbean.com has to say: “Data proliferation will enable micro segmentation of customers, so marketers can place the right message, for the right product at the right price in front of the customer when they have the highest propensity to purchase.” 

EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta talked to Sherman about how digital data is going to be an important tool in the arsenal of marketers going forward.

EFT: How do you try to make the most of every digital interaction that your customer has with your brand?

CheapCaribbean.com has put considerable effort into uncovering consumer insights and mapping out the customer journey by user segment. With this roadmap, we intercept the customer with the right message at the right time. Everything we do is designed to lead to a conversion. Data collected from digital interactions helps with our decision making processes  -  from what types of market segments to pursue, to how much to pay for each type of digital ad.

EFT: What’s the most accurate way of measuring the value of digital data?

Big data can be applied against every business driver to significantly increase performance: identify, size, and target most profitable market segments, identify new products and services, target user groups, evaluate and optimise ad spend and pricing, drive resource allocation, enhance productivity and improve competitiveness.

Essentially data can improve decision making and help uncover insights that may not be readily apparent, utilising traditional methods.

EFT: The focus is on making every ad dollar count via initiatives such as attribution. How can digital data be relied upon to prove the value of digital marketing?

At CheapCaribbean.com we can match purchase data with the advertising element that was either viewed or touched during the purchase path. This enables better resource allocation to the advertising media type and content that drives customers down the purchase funnel.

EFT:  What’s your view on how social data analytics has progressed?

In the not so distant past, social analytics focused on soft measurements of brand awareness, brand reputation, share of voice, reach and engagement. With the explosion of advertising and targeting options within social media sites, more advanced analytics can be conducted to track campaigns to drive direct purchase or contribute to views that lead to purchase.

EFT: How important is the value and breadth of social data in making business decisions?

Social data provides instantaneous feedback on product weaknesses, preferences, brand trending, relevance and engagement. It provides both quantitative and qualitative feedback that is very useful in making decisions if used in conjunction with other data. 

Social data can contain sample bias, and requires artful interpretation. We believe it is one of many tools in our arsenal. 

EFT: Many brands that are active on Facebook, Twitter, and other social channels, see interaction data (likes, comments and so on.) as the gold standard for success. What’s your opinion on this?

Interaction data is valuable in measuring engagement and upper funnel lead capture.  However, ‘likes’, ‘comments’, and ‘shares’ are valuable in as much as they can drive awareness of the brand among consumers interested in eventually purchasing the product.

At CheapCaribbean.com, we are generating several million dollars in sales on a direct click basis from our social channels. So while interaction data contributes to an eventual booking, we focus on conversion and bookings from our social channels now.

EFT: How critical do you think digital data is going to be in knowing customers better and optimising the overall marketing budget?

Companies that utilise digital data to better understand customer behavior, target product offerings and messaging, will be more likely to convert customers more economically than companies that do not have digital data capability. Think of this as two companies competing against each other by using paid search for lead generation. A company using sophisticated, dynamic bidding technology will have more conversions at a lower CPA than a company relying on manual search optimsation.