• by Anto Chittilappilly , Op-Ed Contributor, January 6, 2015

How many times have you declared on Jan. 1 to lose weight and never followed through? After stepping on the scale and seeing the number, you immediately set a weight loss goal, plan your meals, and even create a fitness plan — but then never hit the gym.

This same philosophy is also applicable to marketing measurement. After recognizing the inaccuracies of last-click measurements, you resolve to transition from traditional “siloed” measurement to a more advanced, holistic approach. Upon implementation of an advanced attribution solution, you now have access to more sophisticated metrics that take into account the cross-channel influence that exists within your marketing ecosystem, so you can make more informed optimization decisions.

You’re able to explore the virtual performance of future investments before they are made, so you can fine-tune your marketing mix and generate optimized media plans. You’re even able to accommodate the real-world optimization constraints, such as limits in available display/search inventory or pre-contracted media buys that can’t be changed. But unless you activate your plans by putting the optimization recommendations into market, you’ll never achieve your ultimate goal of improving marketing results and ROI.

Activation is Key

While accurate measurement and optimization are critical components of an overall marketing performance management strategy, the third component — activation — is  equally important. The most successful marketing organizations are able to activate optimization recommendations in near real-time by automatically sending media buying instructions to programmatic execution platforms, such as demand-side platforms (DSPs), search marketing bidding tools, and real-time bidding (RTB) engines. Not only does this approach ensure your media buys are based on the most accurate information and you’re getting the best out of the programmatic buying, but it also accelerates media buying time to market and reduces the exposure to human error that comes with manual execution.

An Omni-Channel Imperative

With a focus on the consumer rather than the channel, omni-channel marketing is about creating personalized, contextually relevant experiences across all the channels and devices through which someone interacts with your brand. To realize this omni-channel vision, marketers must go through a cycle of buying, measuring, reporting and optimizing the media purchases they put back in market. The ability to automatically push out recommended media buys to programmatic buying platforms is imperative to omni-channel success. By linking insights into programmatic media buying engines, marketers can instantly change media buys and marketing plans to improve targeting and optimize delivery across all marketing channels and devices. The result is a smoother, more efficient and more accurate execution of omni-channel marketing tactics and strategies, and the ability to put the right offer, in front of the right person, at the right time and in the right context in order to drive a conversion.

This year, make a New Year’s resolution you’ll actually keep. When you resolve to measure, optimize, and activate the insights achieved with cross-channel measurement and attribution, you’ll not only boost agility and marketing ROI, but also lay the foundation for delivering true omni-channel customer experiences — anytime and anywhere.