Marketers need to reevaluate how they convert audiences throughout each stage of the purchasing journey, according to a new report.

Criteo surveyed 901 direct response marketers in partnership with Euromonitor International to better understand the challenges of converting customers in today’s digital ecosystem.

The results underscore how fragmented ad budgets have become as marketers look for results across so many different channels.

From paid display and social media marketing to content and SEO, marketers were asked where they spend their money and which channels are most effective.

Key findings include:

• Conversion Metrics are Different Across Different Companies: Marketers have a lot of different ways of defining what makes effective conversion. New revenue (35%), new customer rate (33%), and cost per action (30%) proved to be most popular.
• Data Availability and Quality Represent Key Challenges in the Conversion Phase: Nearly half (40%) of marketers struggle to find data on the online/offline shopper connection. This negatively impacts brand conversion given the prevalence of omnishopping. In addition, fragmented data makes it difficult for marketers to gain a true understanding of customers and to optimize future campaigns.
• Reengagement Across Web and App Grows in Importance: Existing retailer customers spend more on average than new shoppers (51%) and shopping app customers have high loyalty tendencies (41%). Compelling discounts, personalization, innovative ad formats and engaging designs were reported to be three of the most successful tactics for reengagement campaigns.

The Criteo State of Ad Tech Report surveyed over 900 digital marketing managers and executives working in retailing, brands, travel companies, and other services companies with online sales channels.

“Marketers understand that conversion can happen at any point in the shopper journey,” said Jaysen Gillespie, Vice President, Head of Analytics & Insights, Criteo. “We found that fragmented data, tech giants, and personalization are all top-of-mind for marketers going into 2019.”

View the full findings at: https://www.criteo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/StateOfAdTechReport_Global.pdf.