AOL is giving its multitouch attribution system, Convertro, a little extra juice by adding contextual data that measures the impact of ZIP code-level weather data within marketing mix models.
Other forthcoming additions to Convertro will include conditions around the local and national economy and gas prices.
Convertro claimed, even before it was acquired, that it differentiated by measuring things like call center and TV data.
Although Convertro GM Amy Mitchell notes weather considerations aren’t necessarily new factors for marketing campaign models, she claimed AOL is able to move these insights from the aggregate to user level and gauge revenue impact, not just campaign performance.
“We’ve created 27 different weather model variables based on weather type, time of day and measurement type (absolute or relative) and then overlay that across all of our other user dimensions,” Mitchell said. “We want to show [what’s] happening in Manhattan at this day at this time and what future assumptions can marketers make with data based on decisions in the past.”
As more mass media types – like TV advertisers – are influenced by audience data, Convertro is refreshing its attribution model to handle more variables.
With parent Verizon’s investment, and the recent addition of Microsoft’s ad business, Convertro says it is still determining what additional data it can use. Given Verizon’s mobile chops, much of it will impact mobile and over-the-top TV advertising.
Although AOL had previously developed a tool called tRatio, a TV targeting system that matches advertisers’ anonymized first-party data against TV data parceled by program, network and daypart, Mitchell sees more opportunity with the growth of connected TV.
“This is an area we’re in high collaboration with Verizon, getting more into the mobile programmatic space,” she said. “Coming from the multitouch attribution space, that would be our expectation – to start doing programmatic TV and more mobile advertising. It will supercharge our multichannel attribution in the areas of cross-device and set-top box data.”
