Marketers have long been obsessed with metrics. From print ads that measure sales uplift, to Nielsen’s audience measurements, marketers have always searched for ways to quantify the success of their ad campaigns. But the internet took measurement to a whole new level with its ability to provide exact figures on metrics like views & impressions.

Agencies and CMOs love touting Impressions and views as success metrics. It’s because they’re easy to visualise and compare to other forms of media: How many people drove by our billboard? How many people heard our radio ad? How many people watched our commercial? Marketers love impression and view counts because they require little explanation and are extremely easy to inflate. Need more impressions at a lower cost? Dump more money in and widen the targeting to keep cost low. Problem solved. But in an increasingly ROI driven world, these numbers don't cut it.

Sure, an ad was displayed or a video viewed, but did it truly have an impact? Was your target audience engaged? Social platforms often count a “view” after your video was played for 3 seconds, which is hardly enough time to make an impact on consumers. Even with the buffet of new measurements from online advertising, it can be difficult to analyze the actual success of a campaign. 

Impressions, views, retention rates, click-through rates, view-through rate, and influenced conversions are only a fraction of what is available when analyzing your campaigns.

Instead, marketing and advertising professionals should be hyper-focused on measuring a select few that truly drive ROI, mainly direct engagement. When consumers promote your brand through content creation triggered by a campaign, they are directly interacting (engaging) with your brand...way beyond just viewing an ad. This is a high-value touchpoint that can’t be overlooked. Sure, overall engagement can be measured through metrics like CTR, likes, and comments, but all consumer engagement is not created equal. Those metrics are passive engagement, and with bots and rampant ad fraud it’s difficult to measure what is true engagement and what is generated by a robot. These high touch points are the centerpoint of why UGC campaigns have become so popular in recent years.

Since direct engagement measures consumer creation and interaction, consumers feel closer to your brand and are far more likely to share amongst their networks as they were involved in the creation process. And what is a more effective form of marketing than authentic recommendation (i.e.word of mouth)?