Automation and ad agencies- Match made in heaven

Understanding how automation will redefine ad tracking in 2023

With declining television viewership from 94% in 2018 to 82% in 2022 (Source – Broadcasters Audience Research Council (BARC) India), and subsequent increasing online video advertising, brands in India are pivoting to performance-based marketing to increase their outreach (Source- Omdia’s Multi Subscription TV and Video research 2022). Online advertising tools help brands achieve an edge, with affiliate marketing being one of digital marketing strategies’ most favourable and crucial elements. Affiliate’s performance-based structure has witnessed tremendous growth and is poised to be valued at USD 835 million by 2025 (Source-Tata Strategic Management Group’s whitepaper, ‘Affiliate Marketing in India- The Next Frontier’), helping brands to reach new customers and drive sales in India.

The mobile-first strategy, the shift to an omnichannel approach, the growth of influencer-based marketing, and increasing digital marketing spending are observed to be the key factors that will drive more investments in affiliate marketing in 2023. In fact, some conventional industries in India, like automobile, BFSI, and real estate, will be seen pumping more money into affiliate marketing. 

Marketing leaders still struggle with roadblocks despite access to innovative marketing technologies.

Even though marketing technologies in affiliate marketing (expected to be valued at USD 6.4 billion by 2024; Source- Marketing Automation Market by Component-Software, Services), can help engage customers and increase brand recall- marketing leaders ironically still struggle to achieve results. Budget constraints for automation as well as the absence of upskilling initiatives and a collaborative digital workforce continue to pose a roadblock for marketers. 

Involving and encouraging participation from other teams (customer service, IT, sales, etc.) coupled with support from C-level executives for budget approval is critical yet backbreaking to implement marketing automation technology successfully. Over and above, APAC marketers have to tackle this region’s linguistic, cultural, economic, and technical diversity. 

Despite its rewards, online advertising has its complexities, and one of them is effectively managing multiple campaigns across diverse channels. Instead of strategizing, planning, and instilling creative ideas, marketers are snowed under analyzing campaign data from several sources cumulated in various spreadsheets and pivot tables. So, if they run 1,000 campaigns across ten channels and ten platforms, they have tons of data to deal with, and that too manually. 

The right way for ad agencies to apply automation and optimize it to help grow their client’s business

Scaling up a business requires the right set of tools, and marketing automation can help companies in India to reduce the amount of time spent on repetitive manual tasks. Businesses in India can integrate marketing technology during every touchpoint of advertising campaigns, ensure personalization and increase customer engagement. However, many brands and marketers lose business as they don’t have ad-tracking capabilities in place. It is essentially helpful for ad agencies that work around the clock to give the desired numbers to their clients. 

Ad agencies can utilize customer data to refine targeting and messaging, optimize campaigns, and improve ad metrics like CPC, CTR, and conversions. 

Furthermore, ad agencies can leverage tracking solutions to evaluate ad budget spending and target customers that bring a difference in the bottom line. Taking a proactive approach with tracking platforms can help ad agencies cut down on wasted ad spend, unlock new opportunities by leveraging customer insights, and increase client ad budgets, compounding to a higher ROI for the agency. 

Likewise, affiliate marketers can use tracking solutions to implement channel-specific strategies and run multichannel campaigns hassle-free. 

Affiliate marketing will continue to evolve, giving users more freedom about what content they wish to see, when, and where. Here are five ways ad tracking platforms can help affiliate marketers achieve their goals in 2023. 

Access to Critical Analytics through a Unified Dashboard

Most digital transformation initiatives fail due to limited access to data. Tracking platforms with analytics dashboards support marketers’ planning and performance, and foster data-driven decision-making in daily routines. Access to rich data to glean through a unified dashboard puts marketers on a path to success, empowering them to a marketing program’s effectiveness and showcasing its impact. 

Ability to Scan Tracking Links without Third-party Integrations

Controversies around sharing data make it critical to have a holistic tool that helps affiliate marketers examine tracking links without involving a third-party agent. Tracking platforms constantly monitor the health of a link and ensure traffic is not directed to a broken link, saving money. 

Know best-performing Publishers

Coupled with access to data, knowing which publishers are performing the best is a boon for marketers. Tracking solutions with real-time insights can improve marketers’ performance by helping them select, segment, and discontinue publishers that are not giving desired results.

Empower Network Integrations for Transparency

Traditional marketing solutions do not offer network integrations, and affiliate marketers would spend much time evaluating offers on different networks which is quite daunting. 

Tracking platforms automatically analyze and approve offers based on past performance data from different networks, fostering transparency and saving time. 

Intelligent Automation

The best element of an innovative tracking platform is the automation of routine and tedious tasks. It can set ad budgets, approve or disapprove publishers, chalk payouts, etc., without hassle.

A case in point is that of Ads and More–a London-based mobile marketing agency – which employed a reliable performance-based tracking solution to achieve its client marketing goals. With best-in-class campaign management and advanced automation features, the tracking solution helped the agency to increase its revenue by over 1000% in the first three months of its launch, followed by a month-over-month growth. 

Marketing processes will get more complex in the future and ad agencies need to be more involved in affiliate programs to optimize campaigns and increase revenue. Affiliate marketers can entrust several manual routine tasks onto a tracking platform and achieve value-added business growth. Combining data, automation, and creativity can result in excellent outcomes and significant business growth, and with endless data possibilities, adopting an innovative tracking solution is an ideal step to start with.

Author:
Yogeeta Chainani, co-founder, Swaarm

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