Trusting Data: Bots Don't Buy

Let39s immediately break the shorter words principle by saying it39s with some trepidation that I meander into the world of attribution and modellingYou39ll notice I write quotworldquot in the singularAdvertisers advertise in order to sell more or sell the same amount at a higher price In effect to make more money Everything else is geared around that aimA quotfeel goodquot banking ad Designed to make you feel better about the bank of course but with the desired end goal being that you39ll open an account or save moreA charity ad created to tug on your heartstrings Done to persuade you to give or give moreDon39t get me wrong there39s nothing wrong with this and yes it is obvious but mysteriously we often forget it We39ve convinced ourselves or been convinced that actually the end point is reach Or frequency Or GRPs Or clicks Or likesWhereas a moment39s thought makes you realize that these are at best mere staging posts steps along the way to selling more stuff And that when it comes to clicks there are bad players corrupting the data we get to seeThe bit of the advertising industry that has always interested me is those brave men and women who spend their time trying to understand why things work and thus how to make them work betterThe problem we all have is that to understand we need confidence in the data going into the models Garbage in garbage out as someone saidIf bots infect click data then click data becomes pretty meaningless as an indicator of what39s working It may not matter actually it does if all you39re interested in is clicks like someone selling advertising on an online channel but with respect if that39s the case you39re looking in the wrong placeAll of this can be summarized in the title of an excellent piece of work by my Crater Lake colleague David Beaton called Bots Don39t BuyDavid39s premise is simple If you want to understand what drives people to buy stuff look at the people doing the buying not the quotpeoplequot doing the clicking Because some of those quotpeoplequot aren39t peopleThere is another principle at play here too If you really want to understand how things work you have to look at every influenceSo yes online advertising works but it usually works better in combination with other media formsIt stands to reason that any model seeking to explain effect and what drives it has to take in data from all channels used something else the Crater Lake approach does That39s online and offline so that advertisers can be properly advised on the best balance between channels for their businessIt39s why Crater Lake takes in data from MESH Experience in David39s modelling given that MESH collects realtime data on all consumer touchpointsIt39s why I wrote quotworldquot in the singular Attribution and modelling may be presented by those digital experts who think advertising was only invented when they came along as different things but actually they39re part of the same thing and should be treated as suchKeeping it simple to understand what works means you have to consider every option Media forms work together and bots don39t buy stuffamp8220To understand is to know what to doquot as my old mate Wittgenstein put itFull disclosure BJampampA is a founder of the Crater Lake collective mentioned in this postClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Trusting Data: Bots Don't Buy

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Brian Jacobs

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