1STATE OF PERFORMANCE MARKETING 2017
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CONTENTS48121620
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING
RETARGETING
MOBILE MARKETING
EMAIL MARKETING
ATTRIBUTION
FULL-FUNNEL PERFORMANCE MARKETING
TRENDS ACROSS EUROPE
CREDITS
APPENDIX: METHODOLOGY
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3STATE OF PERFORMANCE MARKETING 2017
Introduction
In previous editions of this report, our primary focus was on how industry
professionals approach the concept of programmatic advertising. While this is still
important, the industry has evolved as the knowledge and skill sets of marketers
have grown. So, when we surveyed 1,000 US marketers* this year, we decided to
shift our focus to understand how they’re reaching prospects throughout the entire
marketing funnel. Our mission was to uncover how marketers coordinate various
diferent channels and technologies to achieve their goals.
Attribution is king
Last year, we reported on how attribution had become one of the most discussed
topics in digital media. In the time since, interest in marketing measurement has
only intensifed in order to better evaluate eforts and optimize decision-making
processes. While a majority of marketers currently rely on frst- or last-click models,
almost 60% reported that they plan on changing their approach in 2017. To underline
the growing importance of attribution, 40% also reported spending the majority of
their budget on measurement alone.
Email marketing becomes dynamic
Originally, email marketing consisted of drafting one piece of content and sending
it to a large, varied batch of recipients. However, this has changed over time.
Marketers evolved by creating behaviorally triggered campaigns that grouped
together audiences of similar users and, today, this trend has continued. Campaigns
are now being created from dynamic content personalized to an individual user. In
fact, a majority of marketers in this year’s report stated that their email campaigns
are dynamically focused on user behavior. This means that their email sends will
populate with content based on the actions a person has taken online.
Programmatic continues to shine
In addition to these new insights, some of the trends from past years persist. For
example, marketers have continued to embrace a programmatic approach to digital
marketing. Over 50% responded that they are currently investing more than half of
their budgets in programmatic initiatives alone. Additionally, more than two-thirds
of marketers state that programmatic advertising results in a greater return on
investment (ROI) than traditional media buying.
Conclusion
One way to characterize the overall trends we’re seeing is that the technology is
actually starting to line up with the promise and vision marketers have had for
many years—but didn’t necessarily have the tools to deliver. We’re seeing real-world
applications of data-driven decision making, machine learning, and automation.So
where are we in the evolution of technology’s ability to solve marketing challenges
What attribution models are marketers moving toward How are strategies
changing to ensure ads reach prospects at each stage of the marketing funnel What
challenges are marketers seeing when creating mobile campaigns We’ve compiled
the answers to these questions and more in order to provide insight into how modern
marketers are approaching digital advertising in 2017.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
By Adam Berke, President and CMO, Founding Team, AdRoll
*We also surveyed over 300 European marketers. Results on pages 16-17.
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5STATE OF PERFORMANCE MARKETING 2017
Programmatic advertising involves the buying and selling of advertising space
in real time. It uses data and machine learning to target and optimize campaigns
instead of relying on human performance. Companies that provide programmatic
marketing technologies, like AdRoll, can help marketers with this process. With
these technologies, advertisers can ensure that the right message is served to the
right consumer at the right time—without having to pull all the levers themselves.
While programmatic advertising was new to the scene only a few years ago,
performance marketers have rapidly adopted the practice in recent years. In 2013,
only 7% of marketers dedicated more than half of their budgets to programmatic.
By 2015, that had increased to over 30% and, in 2016, it jumped to over 50%. What’s
perhaps most surprising is that the number of marketers reporting to spend less
than 10% of their budgets on programmatic has fallen from 40% to under 8% over
that same period. Backing up this trend, almost two-thirds of marketers state that
they will increase their programmatic budgets in 2017.
PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING
PERCENTAGE OF MARKETERS RUNNING PROGRAMMATIC ON EACH CHANNEL
Social Media
77%
Mobile
53%
Search Engine Marketing
38%
Video
37%
Display
32%
of marketers are familiar to extremely familiar with
programmatic advertising.80%
of marketers report that programmatic advertising
results in greater ROI than traditional media buying.66%
Programmatic ties your ads to the web, social, mobile, and beyond
Programmatic ads aren’t restricted to desktop users and website visitors. Last
year, over 75% of marketers decided to run programmatic advertising on social
media platforms, up over 10% from 2015. Marketers are also seeing the benefts of
running programmatic advertising on mobile devices—with almost two-thirds of all
marketers expanding their campaigns to mobile devices in 2016.
AdRoll gives marketers the opportunity to programmatically serve ads to
customers wherever they go online—whether it be on desktop, social channels
like Facebook, or mobile. When examining AdRoll customers that had extended
their campaigns to include a social media platform as well as the web, we
noticed an average increase in click-through rates (CTRs) of over 66% and a
43% overall increase in the number of impressions.1 Now, AdRoll customers
can even retarget customers through their email, helping them to coordinate
campaigns across previously siloed channels.
l <10% of Budget l 10–50% of Budget l 50% of Budget
YEAR-OVER-YEAR INVESTMENT IN PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING
14%71%15%
50%42%8%
32%62%6%
7%53%40%
2014 Marketers
2015 Marketers
2016 Marketers
2013 Marketers
THE ADROLL CONNECTION
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7STATE OF PERFORMANCE MARKETING 2017
RETARGETING
Because retargeting can have such a high ROI, it became the frst real breakout use
case for programmatic marketing. Retargeting works by leveraging behavioral data
from your site or app to deliver personalized messages to your users wherever they
may go online. And, while retargeting can usually help boost the performance of any
one marketing goal, nearly 70% of advertisers reported using it to fulfll multiple
diferent campaign objectives at once.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of marketers still view social media as the hottest
topic in retargeting—with email following closely behind. Viewability and attribution
were new additions to this year’s list, as both topics dominated many aspects of
advertising throughout 2016. Looking into the next year, the majority of marketers
are planning on increasing or maintaining their retargeting spend—and only 8% are
planning to allocate under 15% of their budgets to the strategy.
RESPONDENTS THOUGHT RETARGETING PERFORMED THE SAME AS, OR BETTER
THAN, THEIR....
Email Eforts
78%
Search Campaigns
79%
Display Campaigns
82%
THE MOST POPULAR CHANNELS FOR RETARGETING
of marketers spend the lion’s share of their budgets
on retargeting.42%
Brand Awareness
57%
Lead Generation
46%
Social Engagement
Cust