Are you using the metrics that matter in your mobile marketing?

Thankfully, we’ve moved past the time when publishers and ad networks push impressions like a street drug to media buyers desperate for some pure clicks.

Or have we? 

While tracking, reporting and overall accountability in digital advertising has massively improved, mobile still gets plenty of flak for being not quite there yet when it comes to metrics. We are here to tell you that it is.

Smart CMOs have realised that post-viewing metrics on video ads such as coupon downloads, form fill-outs or “find store near me", are far closer to achieving ultimate marketing goals than a simple click or even completed video view. By using these action-based metrics instead of the higher-funnel KPIs, marketers can more closely attribute their mobile campaigns to the growth of their business.

To see how how far mobile marketing metrics have come, check out its remarkable evolution.

As you can see, it’s an exciting time to be in mobile advertising. Thanks to enhanced touch technology and embedded software development kits, the different types of interactions that users can have with an ad have multiplied, and advertisers have more data points with which to measure engagement on an ad. 

For example, a dynamic end card on a video might have up to a dozen different options for interaction, from social sharing to video replay—a common action for 360-degree videos that feel more like an exploration or game to users than an ad. As video capabilities expand, users will be able to interact with the video as it is playing, tapping on the screen to view more features of a product in live action, for instance.

One of the most long-awaited measurements, though, are the post-view metrics that can be directly correlated to purchases, such as mobile coupon redemption. Think about all the brands that have waited so patiently for this connection to be made, retail and food delivery/QSR are two categories in particular that have leapt onto the brand performance wagon. As an example, a QSR brand might start by driving post-install user actions on an app install (email registrations, coupon downloads), but then ultimately be able to see a lift in traffic to brick-and-mortar locations, measured by in-store coupon redemptions.

At last, the mobile channel can be used to to track and optimise for downstream metrics, not just top of funnel—and we can use KPIs that are more closely tied to real business outcomes. Now that it’s possible, it’s time for brands to start demanding it from their agencies and mobile partners.