Marketer's Digital Dilemma

The million-dollar question before marketers is whether they are allocating the right investment on various platforms in the absence of a uniform measurement tool.

- AJITA SHASHIDHAR

Beauty and personal care marketplace Purplle.com has started spending 100% of its marketing dollars on digital platforms such as Google, Facebook and Instagram. According to chief business officer Nippun Aneja, the digital-only strategy has increased the company’s efficiencies by more than 50%. “It helps us create demand in relevant geographies, which is difficult in traditional ways,” he says.

The new-age beauty company extensively uses Google’s Ads Data Hub to get granular insights. “Like, for instance, consumers in Kolkata in the 18-34 age group organically download our app after three or four exposures, while in Delhi two-three exposures are sufficient to convert. Similarly, ROI Hunter helps us understand which of our products out of the 30,000 SKUs are giving good CPR (cost per rating point),” adds Aneja.

Though both Facebook and Google offer high return on investment (ROI)-driven data measurement, it is limited to their respective platforms. Aneja’s challenge is to get a holistic view of a consumer’s journey across platforms, which would help him allocate money efficiently.

The challenge is similar for legacy retail brand Raymond as well. “Facebook, Google and other platforms are not synchronised. Whether your sale is coming from the Google or Facebook click isn’t clear as the consumer may have viewed both. Marketers like us struggle since the data given by both platforms are different,” explains Ravi Hudda, chief digital officer, Raymond. Over 80% of digital spends in India happen on Google and Facebook.