So not only a bunch of startups, but also Microsoft criticizes the way we measure advertising:
“Microsoft Corp. today announced Engagement Mapping, a new approach to managing and measuring the effectiveness of online campaigns that goes beyond the current “last ad clicked” standard. For the last decade, virtually all ad campaign reporting methodologies associate sales, leads and Web traffic simply to the last click or ad exposure. Engagement Mapping takes into account for the first time all the various online touchpoints and interactions a consumer experiences before an eventual sale.”
Ohhhh goodness. I guess the chaos is almost perfect and I am not astonished that all these companies (incl. Microsoft) question the way we measure advertising. There is just too much money in the business and everybody wants his share of Google’s the cake.
But don’t we remember the CTR issues for years? Coremetrics for example was is able to measure not only the last action that triggers a lead/subscription/sale, but also can go further back to previous actions.
Anyways, Microsofts statements certainly support new web analytics companies like NuConomy, who now might have a good shot at gaining some traction.
