Problems, causes and solutions of advertising research

The US http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/9866.html "> Interactive advertising agency, the most stable and important source of guidance in the industry, has just released a study. The report's research is the most people in the industry have used advertising research methods: website interception. What about the results of the report? It's not really good.

The report eventually shows that the users who capture the Web page, and ask them about the brand, product and (most important) advertising ideas have some serious flaws. The report identifies the three most common and serious problems of this approach:

Keyed rate: Obviously this problem can stifle any real research. If you can't reach enough respondents, you can't draw any reasonable conclusions. For example, when you are going to conduct an opinion poll, there is usually an error margin. You can do some simple calculations with the following two data: The estimated total number of respondents and actual real respondents. You can calculate by yourself, or by using an online calculator. The overall projected number is fixed, but the actual number of sample interviews depends on how successful you are in covering the respondents. If your method is unsuccessful and results in a larger margin of error, your research will be worthless.

Untested research methods: This problem usually becomes the subject of debate, especially in some forums about advertising data. Although there are already some better methods of research, this is not immutable. In this regard, the United States Interactive advertising agency may be relatively traditional, but in the question of the skills and analysis of user response methods, it is really important to let the respondents understand, and express clearly. I think in this respect, it is generally possible to follow this rule: If this approach is reasonable for a suitable respondent, then this approach will be acceptable.

Improper proportion: The proportion is a very important task of analysis, compared with the scientific nature of the number, it is more of a digital art. Some respondents will be more important than other respondents, but some key data needs to be validated throughout the sample. Determining which are the key respondents, which are critical data, and their share, requires us to judge by common sense (for example, in family finance, women know more than men) and apply it to research methods. However, this proportion needs to be based on authoritative or proven analysis.

Of course, these are not the problems peculiar to the online advertising institute. In fact, many studies, such as academic and political studies, also have these problems.

But in the area of online advertising and marketing, I have a question: why do we encounter these problems?

"Hunting" culture and "self-sufficiency" culture

The modern society has undergone a crucial moment in the development process, that is: Humans began to go out to find food less frequently, but began to cook in their own backyard. Similarly, the field of advertising research is beginning to undergo such a transformation. Over time, we should reduce our reliance on third party survey data and other tools to get data, and we should get more information through our own facilities and understand the meaning of these data.

All the related questions of research methods derive from the fact that, as researchers, we cannot directly observe the interaction between consumer and product (or product advertising), nor can we learn more from consumers and brands.

But that claim was quickly overturned. Now, through the data, we can know the consumer. We can look directly at how they interact with the ad, we can see what consumers are doing when they see the ads, and through social networks, we can learn more about consumers. As mobile tools continue to be powerful and interactive technologies are constantly seeping into our lives, the data are growing.

That being the case, why do we have to devote so much time to finding more data, and there may be potential problems with that data?

To put it simply, we don't know what the data means, let alone how it is handled, and the data is typically stuck in different servers in different formats, and it's like mixing oil with water if you want to integrate that data together.

However, our development trend is: through these data, let our future work more effective. These platforms are slowly consolidating, and when they are finished consolidating, we hope that these platforms will be better, and that the data will be more flexible and practical.

I sincerely hope that the United States Interactive advertising agency is considering this issue and will make an in-depth understanding. The agency had set up a special group to address one of the problems of the research project. But I hope they're not just looking at how to make intercepting ads more effective, but also to focus on how to better understand consumers.

If not, I think we will provide some suggestions to improve the situation.

(Original: August 13, 2010, compiled: Zeng Cui)