Most advertisers are failing to give credit for their campaigns’ success where credit is due, according to a recent study by Microsoft’s Atlas Institute.
By measuring only the ads that drive the clicks resulting in conversions, marketers are shortchanging all the sites that exposed those converters to advertising before the click, the report contends.
In a study of more than 17 million online conversions resulting from the campaigns of 250 advertisers across thousands of sites over 90 days, Microsoft’s Atlas Institute found the average converter was exposed to 18.5 of the marketer’s ads within 90 days of the conversion.
What’s more, the study found that half the ad exposures happened between seven and 60 days before the conversions took place.
The study contends that while most marketers are at least familiar with the so-called purchase funnel, where consumers follow a path of awareness, interest, desire and action on their way to conversion, online marketers often ignore most of the top of the funnel in their campaign calculations.
“By measuring the last ad seen or clicked by a converter, they focus entirely on a brief time span at the bottom of the funnel,” the report written by Andrew Martin said.
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