IAB Singapore’s new guides aim to bounce brands away from clicks

SINGAPORE - As digital marketing in Southeast Asia matures, companies need to adopt a more holistic approach to campaign measurement, according to IAB Singapore (IAB SG).

The organisation reported that digital advertising spend in four areas—content marketing, mobile marketing, social media and digital video—is expected to grow this year by amounts ranging from 21 percent for digital video to 50 percent for mobile marketing.

As digital advertising budgets increase, marketers are coming under greater scrutiny to justify their spending. However, many campaigns in SEA are still driven by cost per ad click.

In addition, advertising platforms are becoming more granular and sophisticated, but many companies in Southeast Asia are not fully utilising the insights available to them.

In a statement, IAB SG CEO Miranda Dimopoulos said marketers in SEA recognise that smartphones, broadband and digital video consumption are growing rapidly in the region and are redesigning their campaigns accordingly.

“As businesses fully embrace digital advertising, they need to move beyond ad clicks and provide greater transparency with smarter reporting processes, including measuring engagement, time spent and conversions,” she added.

To remedy the situation, the organisation’s Measurement & Standards (M&S) Committee has released a series of whitepapers aimed at guiding digital marketers on how to buy and assess the performance of digital advertising campaigns.

The frameworks offered in the whitepapers are a result of collaboration across the M&S Committee, which comprises representation from companies such as Google, LinkedIn, comScore, SPH, MEC, Mindshare, BBC, Kantar Insights, Unruly, Adobe, Nielsen and Xaxis.

The insights combine industry best practices from managing global, regional and local campaigns with extensive market knowledge.

Peter Hubert, head of insights, APAC, LinkedIn and co-chair of the M&S Committee said that as digital marketing matures, historical campaign data and new reporting metrics provide more reference points for campaign measurement.

“The framework outlined by the IAB SG allows marketers to use this data for far more educated advertising buys than before,” he said.

Here are the IAB's whitepapers:

• Digital Video in South-East Asia
• Social Measurement & Standards in South-East Asia
• Measuring Mobile Marketing ROI
• Content Marketing Measurement Guide