We are all very well aware that the online space would not be moving at the pace it is today without this remarkable tool called tracking. Tracking and accountability in the realm of online advertising is arguably the leading concept that has moved many advertisers (and traditional ad agency’s for that matter) into the space.

Accountability by one definition, is defined as “A is accountable to B when A is obliged to inform B about A’s (past or future) actions and decisions, to justify them, and to suffer punishment in the case of eventual misconduct.” This form of accountability has been taken to the next level at EDU Interactive.

Our proprietary “Lead to Acquisition” report tracks the amount of time it takes individual leads to progress through the multiple milestones that make up a schools unique enrollment process. By weighting and averaging this time variable for each lead/milestone combination, a complex algorithm is used to calculate an overall quality score. This quality score is then used to instantly and accurately measure the lead quality for every vendor/school combination.

From a media planning and buying perspective, this report has proven to not only allow us to create the most effective and efficient online lead generation campaigns, but has also increased enrollments and return-on-investment at each of the institutions we partner with. Just imagine, at a glance, we can understand the effectiveness of our campaigns by school, vendor, placement and/or date range for each of the particular milestones; thus producing results for our Clients promptly and punctually — just in time for classes to commence.

I had the opportunity to attend the Online Media, Marketing & Advertising Conference & Expo 2007 this year in New York. It was an excellent conference with great presentations and panel discussions on Video Trends, Media Fragmentation, Monetizing Content, Analytics / Reporting, Search Marketing / Optimization.

Is it right to give attribution to the last click? Does this give too much credit to search? What if you could measure all of the consumer touch points and create algorithms that properly weight credit for each? Methodologies are being developed and tested that will change the way we attribute credit for Web and search campaigns, creating a model for multiple digital platforms in the future. Some call it Multiple Attribution Protocol. In my opinion, this was the most interesting topic. This protocol examines the life of the relationship with the consumer, providing a weighted attribution, and credits the most significant points of contact with the sale or conversion. Each point of contact impacts the others, and nothing can be defined in a vacuum. The most-recent-exposure reporting approach is where only the final point of contact is credited for the sale or conversion.

Brand Awareness, Offline Purchases and Pass Along (Telling a Friend) are not accounted for in the Multiple Attribution Protocol at this point. Hopefully some day, new technologies will enable us to include these missing areas in some capacity.