OptiMine
Software has created an attribution model that allows marketers to use display advertising impressions to optimize paid-search engine ads, rather than search terms used to target or retarget display
ads. The company introduced the model Thursday.
Display ads have been undervalued for years, according to Alan Higley, vice president, digital marketing and eCommerce at sun protective
clothing line Coolibar. "No one clicks on display banners any more; they get short-changed," he said, explaining how the company's old dashboards only gave attribution to the last click in the
conversion path.
All that changed in May after rolling out a cross-channel model that turns attribution on its head. Higley said display ad impressions make consumers aware of products, then
send them to search ads. Modeling the display ad impressions tells how each contributes to the impact on paid search.
OptiMine bids on the keywords across the Google display network. The
impressions become another factor in optimizing paid-search campaigns by giving some insight into the display campaigns that require either increased or decreased bids.
Understanding the role
of media is paramount. Bidding on it follows. Keywords are loaded in Google contextual display campaigns. When the network finds content related to the keywords, the display ads are served. It makes
tracking and cookies technology of the past obsolete because it takes into account impressions across devices.
Consumers might research products on a laptop and buy on a desktop. This model
enables marketers to target across devices, so no impressions are lost. The model enables Higley to determine the probable impact on search campaigns, organic and paid, for every display dollar
spent.
The platform models the impact of those display impressions on a keyword-by-keyword basis. "Attribution models tell you how things are having an impact across channels, but now we know
what to do with that information and how it will impact bids in display," Higley said. "I think this will become the new normal to model impressions."