connecting_adNearly all marketers increased their mobile ad budget in 2014 - 93% worldwide - according to a June 2014 study by Forrester Research for Acxiom and 4INFO. But more spending means more measurement to prove that increased investments are worth it, and the research found that marketers hadn’t quite mastered this part yet. Besides, mobile is just one part of the consumer journey, since people are jump today from mobile to other digital and offline channels. Hence, measuring ROI requires tracking consumers’ actions on other channels after they see a mobile ad. Here, just 8% of digital marketers were able to connect mobile ad viewers across online and offline channels with no limitations.

As consumers bounce from device to device throughout the day, marketers are trying more and more to figure out how to track them across platforms. As a result, cross-channel marketing was a top priority for the majority of client-side marketers worldwide queried, as a May 2014 study by Econsultancy in association with Oracle Marketing Cloud showed. More than two-thirds of respondents agreed that integrating all marketing activities across channels was a main goal.

However, a look at the other cross-channel capabilities cited by respondents showed that just because cross-channel was a priority didn’t mean they were actually doing it. For example, 43% said that they could understand their consumers’ journeys and change their marketing mix as a result, while 30% had implemented teams to work on integrated marketing. Less than one-fifth of respondents could measure the financial impact of cross-channel efforts—a problem, considering that marketing results matter—and the ability to determine customer retention as a result of integrated marketing trailed even further behind.

Just 7% of respondents said their organizations were prepared to execute cross-channel marketing, while 35% said they were “not really” ready. And fully 62% of respondents agreed that their messaging, execution and delivery strategies weren’t aligned across touchpoints, compared with just 10% who disagreed with this statement.

Of course, mobile plays a huge role in cross-channel marketing, and this year, more marketers were focused on integrating this channel into their strategy: 76%, vs. 60% in 2013. However, respondents still had a long way to go here as well. Just 23% had integrated mobile messaging, and only 16% said the same about push notifications.

Source: eMarketer