Your guide to brand and ad tracking software (and why it matters)

Ad tracking software was an estimated 845.33 billion USD business in 2023. It’s not surprising because they help you make the smartest decisions with your marketing resources. Some ad tracking platforms even help you get smarter the more you use them! 

Ad tracking tools help you make targeted future predictions so each campaign performs better than the last. As you gain better customer insights, you can custom-tailor your ads so they resonate with your target audience.

Advertising tracking software with built-in AI can be your not-so-secret weapon for success. 

In this post, I’ll show you the top ad tracking methods, some of the top ad tracking software companies and proven ways to choose the right ad tracking tools. It all starts with deciding what you want to track.

You’ve probably heard about data-driven storytelling. This emerging discipline uses data plus visualization tools and your narrative skills to tell a story. Your brand has a story, and impressions, clicks and engagement metrics help tell it. 

For example, imagine your customer loves chai tea, and you’re considering adding new flavor variations to your line. After surveying your consumer to find out if this is something they’re interested in, you can also test ad concepts with them to see what specific images and concepts resonate best. 

Once your ad is optimized and out in the world promoting this new flavor line, you need to know what specific metrics would be most beneficial for you to track, such as: 

• URLs

• Pixels

• Retargeting

Tracking these can help you learn more about your customers’ behavior. However, ad tracking goes beyond campaigns and assesses your overall brand health. Some AI-driven ad tracking software leans into user behavior to understand real-time reactions and deliver hyper-personalized ads.

Brand health tracking studies 

“Brand health is the way a company or brand delivers on its promises to customers.”

- Qualtrics 

This big picture view includes brand health metrics like:

• Brand awareness 

• Brand reputation 

• Net promoter score (NPS) 

• Customer loyalty 

When you use ad tracking platforms to tie the big picture to specific campaigns, you develop a deep understanding of your customer. 

Examples of ad tracking studies in action

Marketers remember the Nike and Colin Kaepernick partnership. Nike’s 2018 “Dream Crazy” campaign sparked as much quarterbacking over the ads among marketers as it did with market sentiment. Some customers burned their shoes, while others thought it was inspiring and motivating. 

Zappi and Voxpopme partnered to test the ad sentiment using Zappi’s automated consumer insights platform. Using a second-by-second analysis of the ad’s effect and comparing it to other culturally aware ads, they got feedback from over 500 US consumers and found it resonated with the core audience.

Another great example is Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign to promote body positivity. The results show a purchase boost and campaign longevity. It’s run for twenty years! 

Advertising tracking studies

With ad tracking software, you can measure ad effectiveness so you have the data you need to impress your boss and inform future ads. Some tools can even help you decide which concepts to develop further (imagine ditching the duds before you invest much time and effort). 

A few metrics you can measure: 

• Brand recall - Do your customers remember your brand from the ad? 

• Brand lift - Did your holiday campaign improve brand perception with your target demographic? 

• Engagement - How much do your customers engage with your brand online? 

• Conversions - What and how many actions did people take after viewing your ad? 

You can use ad tracking software to measure these with survey panels, polls, A/B testing, eye-tracking studies and predictive analytics like AI to find out what resonates with your customers. 

TV ad tracking and ad spend tracking insight

You’ve probably heard of Nielsen ratings. It started way back in radio days, expanded to TV and now includes digital. This ad tracking tool monitors what people listen to or watch and for how long. The Nielsen company uses a blend of diaries and technology to track people’s interests. 

Ad tracking companies like Nielsen often add survey panels to their data collection for deeper consumer insights. SmartTVs can collect “automatic content recognition” (ACR) data, which tells when and where ads run.  Streaming TV on mobile devices opens the door for additional digital tracking through mobile device IDs that can build a broader user profile.

Industry tracking and customer satisfaction tracking

Would your customers miss you if you disappeared? You hope so! 

Tracking customer sentiment is a powerful tool because it can help you catch headwinds. Like a dog following the scent of grilling meat, you can capitalize on positive feedback or do early damage control if necessary. 

How to track customer sentiment and industry shifts

Social listening tools like Brandwatch or Hootsuite Insights can measure public perception trends. For example, social media posts can give feedback if you release a new drink flavor and share it on your page by looking into reactions and comments, or if consumers are talking about it in their own social posts. 

Online reviews like Yelp and Google are also powerful tools for gauging customer perceptions. Recent and favorable reviews boost brands in search and provide social proof. 

Ongoing surveys can help you keep tabs on customer satisfaction and how they might be shifting. After all, markets are like the ocean; they never stop moving.  

Stay connected with your inner sleuth by doing competitive analysis and following industry reports. These can offer useful benchmarks for understanding your brand’s spot in the marketing landscape. 

“For a new shake flavor, I analyze the drivers of interest & purchase in all the shakes we’ve tested before. I can see how consumers play those concepts back, & what they want us to do differently. There’s a lot I can do easily with the data set.”

- Matt Cahill, Senior Director of Consumer Insights Activation at McDonald’s

No one wants an over-bloated tech stack. Tools that don’t integrate well or silo data so you have to run multiple reports make your job harder. That’s not the intention. The right ad tracking tools make it easier to get great results. 

Here are ten of the best ad and brand tracking tools. 

1. Zappi Brand Health KPI Tracker and Amplify Ad System 

Inspired by the ‘How Brands Grow’ framework, Zappi’s brand tracking tool helps users maintain a pulse on your brand and competitors with continuous data collection and real-time reporting on up to 15 brands, as well as detailed insights on your category and what's important to your customers. 

With key indicators of mental availability, users get continuous insights on metrics that matter such as awareness and consideration, as well as a deeper understanding of category and brand drivers. 

🔍 Learn more about Zappi’s brand tracking tool 

On the ad tracking side, Zappi also offers a complete advertising system that allows you to see how well your ad concepts, storyboards and fully produced ads resonate with your target consumer. 

With solutions that are specifically designed for each stage of campaign development, you’re able to bring a consumer-centric view to influence and shape ideas from the start through second-by-second emoji responses to key ad KPIs and social risk. 

Zappi is also the only ad testing platform that creates a learning loop, connecting your insights to make you smarter the more you use it. 

🔍 Learn more about Zappi’s ad tracking tool  

 2. Google Analytics 4

This update of the familiar Google Analytics measures events (like page views and clicks.) It focuses on user behavior across devices and platforms so you have a more well-rounded view of your customers. 

3. AdRoll 

Developed for e-commerce brands, AdRoll tracks engagement, distribution and traffic. It uses AI to help e-commerce brands analyze customer data, create improved segmentation and develop retargeting campaigns to reduce cart abandonment.

4. Adstream 

This all-in-one digital asset management and delivery platform connects your media at every stage. You can create, store, manage and deliver your ads from one location and collect data on their impact. 

5. Adjust 

Measures mobile app attribution and fraud prevention. It helps marketers understand where their customers come from and reduces ad fraud to improve ROI. 

6. Sprinklr

This social media management tool works across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and more. You can use it to manage, schedule, publish, engage and track ad campaigns. 

7. SEMrush

This OG SEO tool does more than keyword research. You can use it to track your own and competitor’s paid media campaigns to see which perform better. 

8. Voluum 

This cloud-based ad tracking tool partners with over 70 platforms to manage your ad data. You can measure ad performance across platforms and automatically send more traffic to the best-performing pages. 

9. Mixpanel 

Analyze user behavior like engagement, retention and conversion so you can make the recommendations that ratchet up your results.

10. Brandwatch

A social media intelligence tool that analyzes online chatter and tracks customer sentiment to deliver trends and insights.

Ideally, you’re using these tracking tools continuously to build a better customer experience.

"When insights processes happen on an ad hoc basis, the consumer sits at the periphery instead of at the center."

- Nataly Kelly, CMO, Zappi

Choosing an ad tracking partner  

There’s no one-size-fits-all ad tracking partner. Some platforms focus on single-channel data and deliver basic analytics, while others track across multiple platforms and deliver robust data. Choosing an ad tracking platform is about your needs and resources. Will the basics do for now, or are you ready for AI-enhanced advanced data? Here’s how you can evaluate the right partners for you.

Evaluating ad tracking agencies and companies

Out of all the ad tracking companies, which ones can best help you achieve your goals? Some specialize more in social listening, while others help you develop concepts pre- and post-campaign so you develop more winners. Assess your goals to develop your initial criteria so you choose the right ad tracking partner.

• Define your goals 

Are you focusing on brand awareness or boosting conversions? Choose one and make it specific, such as boosting conversions by 5% a quarter. That gives you a defined goal so you can work backward to achieve it.

• Choose key metrics 

If you’re focusing on customer engagement, you’ll measure clicks, shares, and dwell time. If you’re measuring brand health, awareness and recall can be good metrics. Match your ad tracking software to your goal metrics. 

• Real time data 

Imagine tracking Black Friday promotions in real time and making changes on the fly.      That’s possible with the right tools. 

• Third-party integrations Does the ad tracking tool work with your existing tech stack? Seamless integrations will make your life easier.

• Specialization Do you want a tool tracking online customer sentiment, or are you looking for a dynamic retargeting tool?

• Compliance and privacy Ask about the privacy policies of ad tracking software and how they stay compliant with digital privacy laws.

No matter your goals, there’s an ad tracking company to help.

Top brand tracking companies and their offerings 

These ad tracking companies all help you develop data-driven insights, but they specialize in different things. 

• Zappi: For ad and concept testing pre and post-campaign, as well as brand tracking throughout. 

• Nielsen: This legacy brand delivers excellent intelligence cross-tracking across platforms – TV included. 

• Sprinklr: Excels at measuring social media campaigns. 

• AdRoll: For ad retargeting and optimization of digital display ads. 

When to use an ad tracking agency

As a marketer, you know NOT tracking your ads is like wearing a blindfold while you drive down the street. You can steer and hope you don’t run into anything. Yet, it’s not your fault if you don’t have the tools (or time) to take off the blindfold and figure out the best direction for your goals.

That’s where ad tracking agencies come in. They have the experience and tools to guide your in-house team to ask the right questions and find you five minutes to think. See how your ads are performing and what that performance tells you about your customers.

"Agile and fast tools along with solid databases means one can answer business questions reliably and in a fast fashion."

- Georgios Papadopoulos, Senior Insights & Analytics Manager, Reckitt

Cost vs. value of outsourcing brand tracking research

When hiring an agency, you’re paying for their time, expertise, data and sophisticated tools. Many agencies bring the experience and access to industry tools like Nielsen, Brandwatch, Zappi and others without your team needing to add another thing to your already crowded plate. 

When you have limited internal resources and are planning complex multi-channel campaigns and product launches, the right ad-tracking agency can be your BFF.

Outsourcing brand tracking research is an investment in clarity and frees up resources to create based on insights rather than gathering data.

Ad tracking and brand tracking software is about more than just the numbers. These tools can help you uncover patterns, predict future trends and create hyper-personalized customer experiences. Your customers will appreciate relevancy and relevancy is the future of marketing. 

Find out how you can expand your ad and brand tracking journey with Zappi.