Retargeter

Why Are Post-View Conversions Important?

Post-view conversions are often undervalued.

Most advertisers only focus on the most direct conversions (post-click), and aren’t eager to attribute post-view conversions to their retargeting efforts. This is short-sighted, however, as there is tremendous value in identifying an assist percentage of conversions.

In display advertising, views do matter. When you’re on a page, you’re reading through content and an ad catches your eye. This is very different from paid search, where you’re intentionally searching for a term to click on.

Programmatic media works through optimization, and retargeting campaigns are facilitated via programmatic media technology – essentially the stock market for advertising. Optimizations are made based on logical, subjective observations, but there’s also a large component of optimization that is facilitated through algorithms to determine which users (out of the universe of users that are being targeted) are most likely to convert.

The ability to leverage these logical and subjective observations to make improvements is hindered without additional success events.  You’re essentially selling yourself short.  Any soft success metrics that can be tracked as secondary conversions are valuable to a well rounded retargeting campaign.

While it’s easy to be focused on the direct result, advertisers are simultaneously limiting their access to valuable information about their business.  For example: Who is converting? When did the user see an impression? What actions are users taking? And how are your retargeting campaigns working within your ecosystem of advertising programs?

A good real-life example of the value of post-view conversions can be seen in the process of purchasing a car. You wouldn’t give sole credit to the salesman at the dealership, but rather would consider all touch-points, such as customer research, recommendations from friends, TV commercials, and advertisements they saw online that helped drive the purchase.

Measuring Post-View Conversions

How you ‘count’ or measure your campaign’s success overall depends on your business.

It may depend on how long customers are in market, what you are selling, or the action you’re trying to get people to perform. But having the information to better understand your customer and their journey is very valuable, and should be given the appropriate credit.  

When advertisers are skeptical of attributing conversions, we typically recommend to continue to track everything. It not only helps to justify your other marketing initiatives, but can give you the guidance to readjust where you spend money on the user journey.

Applying Post-View Conversion Data

Here are two applications of post-view conversion data.

Take an e-cigarette company, for example. If they’re running display media with Retargeter and observe that converted users are constantly returning to their website to purchase e-cig refills over a disposable e-cigs, it’s clear that new customers should be targeted with disposable e-cig, while returning users should be excluded from any disposable e-cig ads.

This same strategy applies for recruitment. Eligible candidates will see an ad for a certain job, click on it, and then begin the application process.  Its expected that most applicants won’t submit the application in one session, directly after clicking the ad, so most recruiting campaigns result in post-view conversions.