Thoughts on Analytics in Advertising

As little as 5 years ago, Advertising was about getting eyeballs. The more ad $$$ you spent, the more visibility you had resulting in increased sales. However, those ads were always designed to be generic — cater to the masses. Never personalised, never speaking to me. No one in the history of advertising has seen an ad and gone, “Oh my gosh! I have to buy this now!!!”.

Fast forward to today, and the internet has woven itself intrinsically into the fabric of our lives. Social Media-related communication tools have flourished and for the first time in the last 2 decades, consumers using these tools have the choice to say ‘no’ to advertising. Evidence of this is AdBlock being one of the most downloaded browser extensions across all browsers.

Those born in 1995 will be 20yr olds this year! They have never known a world without the internet. They are already oblivious to advertising i.e. bittorrent, Netflix, TiVo, Amazon, etc. They don’t use the same tools marketers use to communicate. They believe in individuality and personalisation. They want to hear from brands when they are interested, not during product launches or ad campaigns.

This is where Analytics comes in. The smarter marketers today spend a lot of money in targeting very niche audiences. They are always listening — like an air traffic controller. Today, Analytics allows marketers to not only understand what the customer wants, but also when and where they are most likely to make their purchase.

The days of putting your ad on a billboard and hoping for the best are over.