As discussed in an earlier article, all of our ability to measure activity from a DR standpoint changed with the adoption of the third party ad server. We outlined the virtues of third party ad serving in our first article in this series. From a tracking standpoint, this category of companies gives us so much depth of data and are really the backbone of DR tracking metrics for the Internet.

Whether a consumer comes in to a site through clicking on a banner or through just remembering the site and going to it later, their session, and in many cases, the life of their relationship with the site and the products or the services it sells can be tracked through the use of cookies. While the traditional direct response market called this CPR or CPO (cost per response, or cost per order), the Web has added its own acronyms. As mentioned in the earlier article, these include CPA: Cost per Acquisition (customer), CPS: Cost per Sale, CPL: Cost per Lead, CPO: Cost per Order, CPT: Cost per Transaction or what has been called CPW: Cost per Whatever (i.e., any of the above and more). If you can devote a page to an action on your Web site, it can be tracked.

A number of technologies have been added by 3PAS companies or other companies outside of them to track much more. For example, it is possible to accumulate information on multiple transactions over time, while still keeping it anonymous. As such, the advertiser can attribute total lifetime value or other parameters back to specific advertising. It is also possible to marry the information with customer database information to suggest future purchases through email that are consistent with prior purchases. This CRM function of email is an extremely efficient means of maintaining a profitable customer relationship.

Through these and other methods, ROI can be documented on the Web in a way that no other medium has ever been able to provide. And, this kind of tracking interactivity is being built in to the next generation of other media. Interactive TV is fairly well documented. But there are technologies being developed for other media including radio, magazines and out of home that will use Web sites and then provide the same granularity of tracking.

The goal of many of the top advertisers is not direct response, it is branding. In many cases this is the only practical goal as the product or service is sold exclusively by others on a retail basis. Branding represents many things, but from an advertising standpoint, it definitely includes advertising recall and advertising persuasion.

In early 2001, Dynamic Logic, Doubleclick and the IAB released a study that became the backbone for Dynamic Logic's current business. A similar service is offered by Milward Brown Intelliquest and other research companies. With this type of study, it is possible to measure the uptick in awareness and persuasion metrics before and after a campaign. While this has been done for decades for all media campaigns by CPG companies and others, the use of the Web has added several positives. For most traditional research in this space, ad exposure is dependent upon the recollection of the consumer. With the current technologies, we know who was exposed and also can set up a pure control group that is queried in the research but who were not exposed. This type of research has become common for Internet branding campaigns and is generally more affordable than the traditional "offline" AU&A research.

There are also custom research studies available from other sources. This topic was addressed in September of 2003 by the ARF in a white paper entitled, "Cross Media and the Web: Best Practices for Using the Internet to Measure Cross-Media Advertising Campaigns". While only available to members, this important paper defines a new category of research referred to as Internet Based Cross-Measurement (ICM). One of the foremost of these is XMOS, a method developed for the IAB by Rex Briggs. These XMOS studies help advertisers to see the potential gains that can be made through an upward increase in Internet spending. The IAB is active in recruiting companies for these studies. There is more information on cross media research on the MSN Advertising site. Recent studies have been performed for McDonalds, Colgate and Kleenex.

		David L. Smith is President and CEO of Mediasmith, Inc. David L. Smith is a nationally known expert in the areas of new media application, media strategy and media planning. A thirty-nine year veteran in the advertising media management arena, Smith has a major involvement in national committee work to establish and refine standards in metrics, business practices and financial issues for Interactive advertising with organizations such as the AAAAs, IAB, OPA and the ARF. He currently chairs the Online Media Council for the ARF. A University of Washington graduate, Smith is married with a twelve-year-old son; plays guitar; and is a gourmet Chinese cook. He is an active member of the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Boys Chorus. You'll find him at the office early most mornings unless he is traveling with his family.
	Karen T. McFee is Executive Vice President of Mediasmith, Inc. Karen T. McFee has twenty-five years of experience in advertising media management with Foote, Cone and Belding, Ketchum Advertising and Hawk Media. As Executive Vice President of Mediasmtih, Inc. Karen has become a recognized expert in optimizing the execution of media to secure the best of what's available for the client. Her account experience includes retail, food, business-to-business, apparel, travel, entertainment, media and technology with broad expertise across all media categories. Karen is a graduate of Northern Illinois University, is married with one child, and enjoys travel and photography in her free time.