• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 5, 2023

About 60% of respondents to a survey conducted in August reported moderate to “extreme pressure” from the brands they work with to drive even better advertising performance.

While marketers have been asked for years to deliver more with less support, a study from Frequence shows that 72% of respondents to a survey of 471 digital advertisers and marketers conducted in August said their organization expect them to deliver more results with less support.

Two-thirds of respondents said they are under moderate to extreme pressure to grow digital ad revenue, with 59% saying they are expected to grow ad revenue by 20% or more during the next 12 months.

The survey of advertisers and agency executives was conducted in August 2023 in collaboration with independent market research firm PureSpectrum.

Tracking and reporting campaign performance represent the most challenging parts of the job for respondents. When asked what is the hardest part of the job for a digital advertiser handling local advertising for media companies, 37% of reporting campaign performance or results, 27% tracking in-campaign performance, 16% draft proposals and determine the right omnichannel strategies.

Greater emphasis on performance forces media companies that sell ad inventory and manage campaigns for local and regional buyers to rethink strategies. They must continually navigate changing technology landscapes and the growing need for advertisers to achieve greater return on investment.

Performance is being affected by recent changes to digital advertising. Some 72% of respondents cited events like Apple's recent AppTrackingTransparency feature that led to a negative effect on their organization’s performance.

Some 70% said they struggle to keep up with all of the new strategies and technologies changing their industry, which include the rise of programmatic, streaming and attribution changes.

About 72% of respondents reported they have considering leaving their job for a competitor because of a lack of technology support.

Overall, 75% said their organization leverages some type of artificial intelligence (AI) to automate parts of digital media
management -- with media buying and forecasting comprising the most common function, at 53%, of those using AI.

What creates the most stress to improve performance when working with clients? Some 33% cited gathering and analyzing campaign performance data, 29% cited pressure to sell more third-party ad inventory, 19% cited managing and adjusting campaigns in real time, and 18% cited determining an optimal mix of omnichannel campaign tactics or building a personalized proposal.

Moreover, 37% said reporting ad and campaign performance or results is the most difficult part of their job, 27% cited tracking in-campaign performance, 16% said drafting proposals and determining the right omnichannel strategies, 14% said adjusting strategies while campaigns are in flight; and 6% say coming up with and managing creative assets.

An in-depth report shows how a combination of media can help to dramatically outperform single channels for local advertisers.

The report from Frequence shows that combining media products and taking an omnichannel approach leads to much higher conversion rates. In some cases those higher rates are as much as three-times the amount for local advertisers compared with running one media product at a time.

Frequence conducted the controlled research study of advertisers from August 1, 2021 to April 31, 2022.

The survey analyzed 32,000 local advertisements and 2.2 billion impressions to determine the best media combinations for advertisers that want to reach a local audience.

The study analyzed advertisers across auto, education, entertainment, home improvement, media, politics, retail and services that were using large enterprise media companies for distribution.

The survey measured conversion rates and cost per conversion from advertisers that ran only display campaigns and advertisers that ran a combination of display, video pre-roll and connected television (CTV) and out the top (OTT) campaigns.

Adding video to a display campaign increased on average the conversion rate by 3x.

Combining pre-roll video with a display campaign increased the conversion rate by 3x, and CTV with a display campaign increases conversion rates by 14%. Combining CTV with a pre-roll video campaign increases conversion rates by 28%.

Consumers who saw a display ad and a pre-roll video ad converted at a rate of .43%, whereas consumers who saw only a display ad converted at a rate of .16% and consumers who saw a pre-roll video ad converted at a rate of .15%.

By adding pre-roll video to display, the cost per conversion (CPC) is reduced by nearly 50%.

The CPC for CTV is lowest when paired with other channels suggesting CTV is best used in an omnichannel approach.

This report did not test search, but other research from companies like Microsoft reports a better conversion rate when paired with search.