Why are cross-platform consumer panels so important in Ad Tech?
Eyes are the window to the soul. ❌
iPhones are the window to the soul. ✅
It’s not an exaggeration to say that your smartphone knows you better than anyone (no offense to your partner, therapist, best friend, and mom).
That’s why consumer panels that track browsing and purchasing activity across social media, eCommerce sites, and other applications – i.e. Google, Facebook, Amazon, TikTok, Spotify, etc. – are indispensable to agencies and brands in 2021.
The “direct from source” concept behind panels and first-party data is nothing new; focus groups have been around since the 1930s, and Nielsen has hired panelists for more than 50 years to monitor TV viewing habits in the real world. In turn, they compile and sell that audience data, which percolates through the mass media industry, informing thousands of downstream decisions and transactions.
As brands seek new ways to understand digital-first and social-first consumers (we’re looking at you, Gen Z!), panels have again ascended in importance.
Why? First-party panel data is – in theory at least – the silver bullet to these three dilemmas that agencies and advertisers are currently facing:
Marketing attribution has never been more complicated. Data standardization and hygiene challenges threaten the growth of the entire Big Data Analytics ecosystem. Third-party cookie bans, iOS cross-app tracking opt-out, GDPR, private search engines and VPNs, ad blockers, walled gardens, etc. have made it much more difficult for agencies and advertisers to understand their market and measure the effectiveness of their marketing.
Consumers have never been more fickle. The Coronavirus pandemic triggered record brand disloyalty – a trend that is continuing in the post-pandemic normal. Customer journeys are wildly non-linear and hard to measure and monitor. And younger consumers also expect frictionless end-to-end eCommerce and even sCommerce (Social Commerce) experiences. Oh – and brands are also expected to take stances on social justice issues.
Competitors have never been more creative. Pushed by innovative Direct to Consumer upstarts with nothing to lose, even Fortune 500 corporations are getting more ambitious with where and how they spend their advertising budget. Facebook and Google still account for the lion’s share of digital advertising spending, but brands recognize the greater upside in Sponsored Content, Influencer Marketing, and Amazon advertising. And they’re taking more chances than ever with the ad content itself.
At best, panels authorize brands to take a peek behind the curtain and actually follow customer journeys from start to finish. And even if they fall short of that lofty goal, they will at least help marketers understand how people interact with paid and organic content across multiple channels and platforms.
But while collecting online browsing and purchasing behavior from consumers is easy enough for market research companies – loads of people are willing to trade their mobile browsing data for dollars – attributing and analyzing visual media yielded from panels is another matter entirely.
Check out our Panel Attribution page to learn how we scan and annotate panelist data using computer vision!