• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 6, 2010

Online ad network Undertone Networks has developed a model that measures the effectiveness of campaigns. The strategy taps data from comScore, Dynamic Logic and others. The product, dubbed Undertone Qualified Insights (UQI), provides a method to assist companies in analyzing how advertising campaigns influence consumer behavior, interaction, and long-term commitments to brands.

Supported by measurement tools, a team of research experts at Undertone Networks works with clients in automotive, consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, telecom and travel industries to integrate data and processes that help brands learn about potential and existing customers.

Undertone Networks has 350 sites in its ad network, so supporting all agencies and clients meant revamping its platform to analyze incoming data from multiple sources. The challenge required engineers to build out the company's internal platform to take in information not only through APIs, but sometimes emails, too.

"Some vendors are good at deep dives into audiences and how they interact with Web sites, and others are good at analyzing how online advertising might impact in-store sales," says Alan Schanzer, chief strategy officer at Undertone Networks. "Still others are good at looking at short or long-term brand awareness and influences."

Measurement tools that measure click-through and impression rates sometimes fail to provide data that advertisers need to plan for future campaigns. Schanzer says companies need data and insights they can learn from to ensure they can make advertising decisions today that easily allow adjustment in the future. He says this enables them to reallocate and scale budgets to guarantee the best-performing components of online programs long-term.

Those programs include comparisons of online and offline performance with traditional post-buy measures of demos, reach, frequency and gross-rating points (GRP), as well as data on who saw the ads, visits on Web sites, and searches on key terms. It also means recording measurements on brand awareness, imagery, favorability, purchase, intent and cross-media effects, which demonstrates the impact of campaigns, as well as analysis of increases on Web site traffic from specific investments, search and offline purchases to monitor the return on investments.

Agencies and marketers can use UQI programs to determine whether campaigns attract an unexpected audience segment, impact social media strategies, influence online or offline sales, and change the competition.

ComScore partner reports include a Campaign Essentials Report that provides a view of audiences exposed to campaigns, Action Lift Report to measure audiences, Brand Survey Lift Report that analyzes attitudes and behavior, and Sales Lift Report to monitor the ROI.