Microsoft has announced “Engagement Mapping,” a new way to track online advertising that takes into account all user actions before they eventually make an online purchase. Essentially, this means a lot more data than is currently available in most online ad platforms – including Google AdWords – where the reporting primarily consists of which ad was clicked and what percentage of those clicks lead to a sale.
According to Brian McAndrews, Microsoft’s Senior VP of Advertising & Publisher Solutions, the new measurement service, “conveys how each ad exposure — whether display, rich media or search, seen multiple times on multiple sites and across many channels — influenced an eventual purchase.”
Simplifying it further, this means that if a user sees an ad for Expedia as a banner, a text ad, and a video over the course of several weeks and then purchases a plane ticket, Expedia will know (provided they are using Microsoft of course). Thus, while you may not know exactly what made a user choose Expedia over Travelocity, you can see patterns in terms of which ads eventually lead to purchases.
With banner ads recently receiving criticism for poor performance in terms of the quality of click-thrus, an engagement metric can help the ad networks make the argument that display ads are at least getting a strong branding message across. VideoEgg made a similar announcement last week, introducing a pay-for-engagement model to video advertising.