Why vanity metrics really need to die
Liam Shaw, Wrappr’s co-CEO, argues why advertisers should make it their new financial year resolution to measure metrics in a more meaningful way.
While it may not be as resolution-filled as January, the end of the financial year is a time of to reflect on what is and isn’t working. Let’s begin with metrics.
Marketers have plenty of metrics to get lost in; impressions, reach, frequency, and media mentions all sound good on the surface. However, none of these ‘vanity metrics’ matter unless they are contributing to the ultimate purpose of the organisation.
Picture: Karolina Grabowska
I can see how measuring the impact of Wrappr in the context of other media would be challenging and frustrating, but to claim REACH as a vanity metric does to my mind somewhat undermine the rest of the article.
Hey Alex, I’ve got nothing against reach as long as it’s acknowledged what its limitations are, and it’s not being relied on when there are much better ways for demonstrating campaign effectiveness. I see how the second paragraph may have read like I was dismissing it entirely, which wasn’t the intention. Appreciate you calling it out.
Always have to be careful with taking things from overseas- hat single source data are you discussing? The single source that is at an always on scale that I know of that you could use for this in other markets is in fact fused data in Australia. Which means it’s technically not single source as it uses the horoscopes version of data matching to say people are the same and match purchases with media consumption. That’s definitely not scientific- it’s in fact worse.
Yep, you don’t want to touch that stuff!