tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11782476.post-13944756086316422832007-11-12T14:42:00.000-08:002007-11-12T14:58:20.910-08:00Getting Closer To Closing The LoopA colleague of mine and I were in New York for Ad Tech last week and had the pleasure to schedule time with a few of the leading ad serving and tracking <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">providers</span>. Our core focus for the meetings was to ultimately unlock that holy grail of advertising - closing the loop from customer awareness to purchase. This concept goes far beyond just direct awareness to conversion it also includes identifying the multiple <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">touch points</span> a consumer experiences with a brand. From hearing a radio spot to viewing a banner to finding that brand via a search engine. There are many steps to this process and many funnels to how these conversions may take place. <br /><br />Fortunately, solving this challenge is at the forefront of these vendors' minds and they are making some strong steps to get there. One vendor for example will soon provide a report illustrating the relationship between media spend, impact on brand name searches and whether these brand searches converted. Another report shows the most frequent searches clicked on for a keyword prior to a conversion on that keyword. Reports such as these are a solid step toward a far deeper understanding of customer behavior.<br /><br />We must remember however, that while this is a step in the right direction, it is still a baby step. 3rd party cookie limitations and the inability to track organic placements are just a few of the challenges that are still to be faced...and oh yeah, what about those offline campaigns? The good news is, we're getting there.rockcoastmediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04060142192670424343noreply@blogger.com0