Adcore Asks the Experts with Ronit Moll

In our latest edition of Adcore Asks the Experts, we are delighted to feature Ronit Moll, the Chief Data Officer at Adcore. With an impressive career spanning over a decade in digital advertising, Ronit has worked with industry leaders like 888 Holdings and Reprise Media before taking the helm at Adcore’s Australian operations. A graduate of Florida International University with Cum Laude honors in Computer Engineering, Ronit brings a blend of technical expertise and strategic acumen to her role. Today, she discusses the transformative role of data in digital advertising and how Adcore leverages cutting-edge technology to drive client success.

What is your role at Adcore??

I'm the Chief Digital Officer, and I focus mainly on data. My main mission is to try to formulate a better proposal for our clients in terms of data. Nowadays, data components are critical, with all the changes in our industry, and I think it's greatly important, especially as automation, smart bidding, and AI become bigger factors in digital marketing

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Can you explain how diversity in advertising channels affects your strategy??

Back in the day, our strategy was mostly concentrated on two main performance-based channels, Google and Facebook. Today, 57% of consumers use 5+ platforms with an average of 7.1 touchpoints in a single journey. The scenario has changed significantly with a much greater diversity in advertising channels. This expansion isn't just about adding more channels; it involves a strategic integration across all stages of the marketing funnel—from awareness at the top to conversion at the bottom, aligned to the complexity of consumer behavior.

We now implement specific strategies tailored to each funnel stage, utilizing appropriate channels that align with the customer's journey. For instance, social media might be used for top-funnel awareness, targeted email campaigns for mid-funnel engagement, and search advertising for bottom-funnel conversions. The key is not just managing these channels in isolation but understanding their interdependencies and measuring their collective impact on our overall strategy. This approach ensures that we optimize each channel's contribution to our goals, enhancing efficiency and ROI.

How significant are smart bidding and AI in your operations?

Smart bidding and AI are foundational to our operations, significantly impacting how we manage campaigns in response to ongoing shifts like cookie deprecation. By leveraging these technologies, we adapt to changes by focusing more on data and behavioral signals than ever before. This approach involves predicting user behaviors and modeling future interactions, effectively replacing traditional methods like cookie tracking with more secure and compliant strategies. The ability to process these complex datasets in real-time enables us to maintain the effectiveness and relevance of our campaigns. Moreover, AI tools help us optimize bid strategies and budget allocation, ensuring that we are not only meeting but exceeding performance expectations. This integration of smart technologies into our operations is crucial for driving success in a digital landscape characterized by rapid changes and increasing privacy concerns.

What changes have you seen in how campaigns are managed today compared to the past?

Today’s campaign management has transformed from manual adjustments and monitoring to a more automated and data-driven process. Automation now plays a pivotal role, utilizing smart algorithms to process data and make decisions swiftly and efficiently. This evolution allows us to respond to market dynamics and consumer behaviors dynamically, enhancing the precision of our campaigns. By integrating and interpreting complex data streams, we can optimize campaigns in real-time, significantly boosting their performance. These changes have not only streamlined operations but have also enabled a deeper understanding of key performance drivers. As a result, we can quickly adapt strategies to maximize impact and efficiency, which is essential in a competitive digital marketing environment.

How do you address the measurement of business transactions and their real value?

With the complexity of the user journey and muti-channel strategies nowadays, measuring the effectiveness is crucial to bring real value to the business. The key is to have a diversified measurement approach, there's no one-size-fits-all answer, and the best approach will depend on the specific questions you have about your marketing, which is crucial for a solid understanding of the performance.

At Adcore, we use different techniques, which can include tracking customer journeys with MTA (multi-touch attribution), which considers all touchpoints leading to a conversion. See the bigger picture with MMM (marketing mix modeling), which shows how different marketing channels contribute to overall revenue and helps in understanding the impact of various activities.?

Attribution models: such as multi-touch attribution (MTA), which considers all touchpoints leading to a conversion; first-touch attribution, which credits the initial interaction; and last-touch attribution, which gives credit to the final interaction before a conversion.

Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM): This approach analyzes how different marketing channels contribute to overall performance and helps in understanding the impact of various marketing activities.

And don't be afraid to experiment! Geo tests, lift measurements, and incrementality tests, amongst others, can all reveal hidden gems that help you optimize your budget and craft winning creative strategies. This nuanced understanding of transaction value helps us optimize our campaigns more effectively, ensuring they deliver not only immediate results but also long-term profitability and customer loyalty.

With the expansion of advertising channels, how do you adapt your marketing strategies?

The expansion of advertising channels has significantly enriched our marketing strategies, allowing for a more diversified approach to budget allocation and campaign execution. This diversity is beneficial as it allows us to leverage different channels for varying stages of the customer journey, from awareness through conversion. Each channel offers unique advantages, whether it's broad reach on social media or targeted conversions through search ads. Our strategy involves harmonizing these channels to work cohesively, maximizing reach and impact across the customer funnel with a diversified approach withing the measurements. By adapting to how people now search and interact with content, which has evolved from simple queries to more complex and intent-driven interactions, we ensure our marketing remains relevant and effective. This adaptive strategy not only helps in mitigating risks associated with channel over-reliance but also enhances overall campaign effectiveness by tapping into the specific strengths of each channel.

Conclusion

Ronit Moll emphasizes the importance of embracing smart bidding and AI and a diversified approach to measurement processes in order to enhance marketing spend efficiency and adaptability. Moreover, she stresses the significance of going beyond surface-level metrics to understand the true value of business transactions, advocating for a deeper analysis that considers the lifetime value of customer interactions. Utilizing platforms like Adcore's advanced tools and analytics capabilities can be instrumental in implementing these strategies effectively.

For more expert advice - check out our previous interview with Ashira