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Watch the Cookie Crumble

The industry is up in arms about cookies and regulations.  They shouldn’t be.  Cookies are a big part of the online problem and it time for cookies to go away.  The problem is that we rely on cookies to “track” activity, but most of us agree that the last click/last impression attribution model that is supported by cookies is broken and inaccurate.  If tracking cookies were to go away it would force the industry to find better, more holistic methods to track attribution and results.  Cookies track events and events never tell the whole attribution story.   Remove cookies from the equation and we will stop analyzing events and we will start looking at the whole sphere of influence that drives successful advertising campaigns.

I will post more on this subject as I flesh out my thoughts but I welcome the death of the cookie.  They are a bad crutch that we need to stop using because we have “nothing else” to lean on.  When cookies are gone,  it will help the industry grow up.

Q:  I have a  pool of 2 million cookies that I want to target on the exchanges and deliver X million impressions to that audience.  Why will I benefit as a marketer if I target those 2 million people using RTB vs Non-RTB?  What impact does RTB have on my ability to deliver an ad to the right target?  Is it all about the price I pay because it is a fluid market or does RTB offer other benefits to the advertiser?

I look forward to your insights.

Let's Get Engaged!

We need a paradigm shift in how we price and trade digital media.  We need to value interactive media based on a model that is aligned with advertisers need. We need to stop using impression and click metrics and move to engagement metrics and Facebook is the company that can make this happen right now.

Brands want engagement to create a connection with their customers.  The current impression driven model incentivizes publishers to maximize page views, impressions and clicks for sale to the advertiser.  It motivates publishers to manipulate the consumer experience to increase impression counts (i.e. unnecessary slideshows that could be one page lists) and it forces advertisers to rely on metrics that don’t reflect their goals (I don’t know many marketer’s whose goal is to deliver impressions). Engagement marketing would synch publishers advertising services with advertisers marketing needs by pricing engagements and connections, not impressions.

Engagement can take on countless forms, from user generated activities to simply interacting with content, the ways to engage are limitless.  Once we shift to an engagement model, creative will follow with more inventive and effective advertising formats than ever before. Digital advertising will shift from disruptive to constructive. Once we move to engagement metrics, companies like Adkeeper  make sense.

Facebook is uniquely positioned to introduce engagement pricing.  The average person spends more time with Facebook that any other web site providing the company with ample opportunity to create connections for their advertisers.  When you add in their offsite reach (Like, FB connect, gaming), the company has dominant share of voice and reach on the internet.  They also have massive amounts of valuable 1^st party data that can be harvested to target the right audience at the right time and drive engagement efficiently.  They should create a cost per engagement pricing now.  Facebook has little risk from adding this new model and a lot to gain. Facebook has the time, information and functionality needed to deliver engagements for a wide array of brand advertisers at scale.

Cost per engagement pricing will also enable publishers to monetize their audiences at a higher rate than the current impression model and it should usher in a new wave of brand advertising dollars to the digital space.  Facebook – make your move and all publishers boats will rise with the Facebook tide.