Performance in 2022

search-performance-summit-ig

Performance in 2022

search-performance-summit-igMediaPost hosted the 2022 Search & Performance Insider Summit in Charleston, South Carolina in early June, and Harmelin, and we (Tim O’Malley, Media Director, and Jason Schell, Associate Media Director), were happy to attend. In addition to meeting some great professionals from across the industry, both agency and client side, Jason was able to join the Driving Performance in 2022 panel discussion to talk about how Harmelin Media is approaching three key topics: the cookieless future; the demographic shifts we have seen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic; and leveraging automation to drive Paid Search performance. Please see the video below to watch the full panel discussion. 

Approaching a Cookieless Future 

The deprecation of 3rd party cookies is an important topic in our industry, so it was no surprise that there were multiple discussions at the conference around how the use of 1st party data will be integral as the industry continues to move away from 3rd party data.  At Harmelin we have a cross-channel team focused on cookieless preparation plans.  The key elements to these plans include ensuring our infrastructure is built around optimal tagging for all clients, leveraging the proper modeling configurations to utilize data and to ensure that Google Analytics 4 creation and migration is top on client’s internal roadmaps.  A full data audit is also standard to analyze the current reliance on 3rd party data and understand 1st party data volume and quality.  From there, we develop a custom cookieless learning agendas to test into more durable targeting and measurement tactics in order to better understand the true impact of cookie loss based on a client’s business objectives.  

Demographic Shifts since COVID-19 

With the COVID-19 outbreak and shutdowns that happened across the world, people had to rely on the internet more than ever.  This was more challenging for older demographics that were not as internet-savvy as younger generations.  The pandemic forced these users to embrace the internet so they could connect with their loved ones as well as purchase groceries and other necessities.  Ericson internal data shows how seniors aged 60-69 had been closing the digital gap in time spent online in comparison with the total population over the past two years.  With the pandemic slowly fading away, these new online searchers are going to remain online and not fully return to their old offline habits.  At Harmelin, we continue to ensure that our strategies include targeting older demographics with messaging that resonates so that we can continue to connect with these newly savvy searchers.   

Leveraging Automation 

The way we implement and leverage automation and machine learning will be crucial to driving client performance and business results in 2022 and for the foreseeable future.  Automation is a powerful tool that allows us to set CPA and ROAS targets that will make the biggest impact on our clients’ business results.  But automation is not a set-it-and-forget-it-solution; it needs to be used in conjunction with human intelligence and historical data so that we are able to maximize results.  Our Digital Activation team has embraced automation and we have empowered our team members to continue to push the envelope when creating an automation strategy.  We have seen strong performance across multiple verticals leveraging both tCPA and tROAS targeting.  For example, our Paid Search team was a first mover within the healthcare search space to implement tROAS targeting that used weighted conversions to drive increased revenue for our client.   

One of the conference’s keynote speakers, who works for a national brand, outlined their strategy and provided results of how leveraging automated bidding optimizing towards tROAS has positively impacted their bottom line.  At the end of the day, it is all about driving business results for our clients and our expertise in automation will be integral to their success. 

 

For more information contact us.