Multiscreen Marketing: The Seven Things You Need to Know to Reach Your Customers across TVs, Computers, Tablets, and Mobile Phones

Chapter 8Measure Consumer Metrics, Not Device Metrics

Avoid the Device-First Measurement Trap

Our industry is currently faced with significant challenges around how to accurately measure multi-screen campaigns. We find ourselves in the classic chicken-and-egg conundrum: we know we should be developing and deploying multi-screen campaigns to align with consumer behavior, but if we can’t measure whether these campaigns drive business results, then how can we justify the investment?

We’ve made strides in measuring digital advertising, moving from click-through rates to engagement metrics to brand and sales uplift. The next frontier is mobile—do the same metrics apply, or do we need different ways to measure smartphones and tablets? And what about social? Which metrics are meaningful, and how do they sync with digital and mobile metrics? Not only are we struggling to measure impact on newer devices, but connecting them together to assess how a campaign delivers across different screens seems almost insurmountable. We scale one mountain only to see four more peaks on the horizon.

In Chapter 1, we identified three factors underlying many of these measurement challenges: first, the functional complexity of digital devices; second, the legacy of a television-dominated advertising world; and third, the way media is bought and sold. Let’s revisit each in turn.

Device Complexity Drives Measurement Complexity

It is very easy to get sidetracked from a measurement perspective when focusing ...