Recent articles have shed new light on the controversy surrounding the reality vs. the myth of programmatic advertising performance metrics, as claims of fraud are starting to grow. With marketers spending $60 billion annually on this channel in the U.S. alone, these claims are making marketers think twice about their own programmatic campaigns. The truth is, whether it’s software, insurance or another transaction, we’ve all continued to receive retargeted ads months after we’ve actually made a business purchase, right?

OMI has been watching the uncertainty around programmatic metrics unfold and we have an answer – one that is already delivering verifiable, concrete results, enabling organizations of all sizes to reach high-value business contacts and generate new revenue streams. It involves intent data and here’s what you need to know:

• The rise of buyer intent data: Marketers are looking to get more use out of the data they already have and are seeking to use that data to build buyer intent insights. These insights are obtained when buyers’ online activities are anonymously monitored, captured and analyzed based on website visits, content downloads, product reviews, registration for webinars, etc., to uncover purchase intent signals that can be used to improve and tailor email campaigns, content marketing, programmatic advertising, account-based marketing, audience building and more. These insights not only empower marketers to identify buyer interest but also augment lead scoring, account prioritization and the process of analyzing and retaining customers.   
• Add programmatic or email for added impact: Let’s say your company makes and sells business insurance, and your target market is small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). As part of your marketing initiatives, you implement an email or programmatic campaign to your list of SMB  contacts and ask them to click on your call to action (CTA), which leads to your landing page. However, because only a small percentage may be actually looking for an offering like yours at that point in time, you’ll likely only get a small number of email opens or click throughs. Here’s where intent data can have an impact.

Instead of shotgunning your campaign to your list, you can use intent monitoring to obtain the company IP addresses of the individuals searching for signage like yours. From there, you can then partner with a reputable data provider to secure SMB contacts aligned with those IP addresses. While the list may include various job titles, what creates impact is that each one has expressed a recent interest and intent to purchase SMB insurance.

You can then go on to create your campaign -- with content customized for each role -- and benefit from significantly higher response rates than you would by targeting your standard list. Key point: after you’ve zeroed in on the digital intent signals, it’s crucial to make sure you identify the correct prospects associated with the intent behavior, along with the correct prospect functions that align with the purchase decision. This ensures you’ll target your audience accurately and avoid wasteful spending.

• Reach the right prospect, at the right time, with the right message: Intent data paves the way for marketers to reach the right prospect, with the right message at the exact right time – through email, programmatic advertising and other channels. This strategy becomes more precise when you factor in OMI’s value-add, which is why one aspect of a recent DemandGen report recently caught my attention: it said the two most widely used data fields that marketers use and pursue are the contact name and the email address. At OMI, we differentiate ourselves in the data business by providing both of those fields, allowing our clients to reach a very precisely targeted audience, right down to the title, industry, size of the organization, geographic location and much more. That’s very powerful – and it’s an important component of what OMI delivers to our clients via our high-impact programmatic/audience building services. You can find more information here.

While all marketers strive to reach targeted, high-value business contacts, some paths to making that happen are proving to be more valuable – and transparent – than others. Combining business contact data with intent data is a winner in our book, and definitely a game changer for the clients we serve.

Outward Media’s proven data cleansing services and targeted, accurate email data can enable you to achieve better email marketing ROI and, ultimately, convert more prospects into customers. Take a look at our case studies to find out more.