Wasted digital advertising spend hit a record $123 million in the second quarter of 2024. This figure is up $25 million from the previous quarter’s ad wastage data and nearly $50 million from the same time last year.
In the dynamic world of digital marketing, every dollar counts. Marketers are constantly seeking ways to stretch their budgets further while maximizing the impact of their campaigns. However, media spending waste remains a prevalent challenge. Inefficient budget allocations and wasted impressions not only drain resources but also affect the overall effectiveness of marketing efforts.
Media spend waste occurs when marketing dollars are spent on impressions that do not contribute to campaign goals. Ad spend can be wasted in many different ways, so it can be hard to point out one specific reason why your campaigns aren’t getting the results you expected. Invalid traffic, ad clutter, and poor landing page design are a few avenues to consider as possible hindrances to KPIs. Other key factors are neglecting historical performance data, using unrefined target audiences, and forgoing investment in accurate measurement solutions that offer real-time optimization.
According to eMarketer, maximizing return on ad spend (ROAS) and measuring campaign effectiveness are among the top 10 concerns for executives when it comes to building their digital ad strategies. That’s why choosing a measurement partner that offers accuracy and actionable insights in real time is crucial. This is where Foursquare Attribution steps in, a powerful solution to measure how effective advertising campaigns are at driving store visits across all channels. Foursquare Attribution provides instantaneous insights that allow marketers to make optimizations in-flight, thus resulting in reduced ad spend waste and enhanced return on investment (ROI).
The Role Of Real-Time Campaign Optimization
Optimizing a media buy involves pulling on available levers to improve outcomes of interest from a brand’s perspective. Typical levers include budget (re)allocation, frequency, creative, bidding strategy, managing audiences and tactics, and more. For brands with physical locations, Foursquare Attribution enables them to calculate Cost per Incremental Visit and Incremental Visit conversion rates. Advertisers can analyze which parts of a media buy are driving high store visits most efficiently, and then correctly allocate additional budget across the buy.
Foursquare also enables advertisers to understand the optimal frequency at which users see ads, the reach driven by partners, and the volume of impressions and visits that result from the media buy. All of these metrics should be tracked and considered when making optimization decisions to ensure that shifting focus to specific parts of the media buy does not negatively impact other important KPIs.
Real-time campaign optimization helps minimize media spend waste in many different ways:
Effective Targeting
Real-time optimization allows marketers to constantly refine their target audience. By analyzing insights on consumer behavior and understanding your customer loyalty groups, campaigns can be adjusted to focus on the most relevant and responsive audience segments. This reduces wasted impressions and ensures that ads reach potential customers who are more likely to convert.
Flexible Budget Allocation
With real-time insights, marketers can dynamically allocate their budgets to the most effective channels, partners, and strategies. If a particular channel or tactic is underperforming, budgets can be reallocated to higher-performing areas. This flexibility ensures that marketing dollars are used where they generate the most impact, reducing overall waste.
Optimal Day & Time Set Up
Delivering the right message at the right time is crucial for campaign success. Granular insight reports, such as the ones marketers can access via Foursquare Attribution’s UI, allow them to make real-time optimizations and analyze conversion patterns so that adjustments can be made to ad delivery times to coincide with peak audience activity. This ensures that ads are seen when the target audience is most likely to engage.
Relevant Creative & Messaging
Delivering messaging that resonates with the target audience is extremely important, an irrelevant ad can drive low performance and high exit rates. By leveraging real-time insights from a measurement provider you can trust, underperforming creative versions can be quickly replaced or adjusted, ensuring that the content remains relevant and engaging. This not only improves conversion rates but also reduces waste from ineffective ads.
Test and Learn
Real-time optimization supports ongoing testing and experimentation. Marketers can test multiple creative assets, different targeting tactics, multiple channels, and budget allocations to identify the most effective and efficient approach. This helps in refining campaigns and reducing waste by focusing on what works best.
It is clear that being able to make real-time optimizations can minimize wasted ad spend. In a time when every marketing dollar matters, minimizing wasted ad spend is crucial for achieving campaign success. Here at Foursquare, we constantly reiterate to our customers the importance of clearly defining KPIs when planning their next campaign as a first step.
To learn best practices on campaign optimization tactics and how to execute effective media campaigns, contact a Foursquare Attribution expert.
Authored By: Annabel Cermeno
