The recession and still-sluggish economy may have decreased total ad dollars, but economic uncertainty doesn’t seem to slow the increasing number of new media-tactics or investments in them.

Which of these emerging media are most effective? In the past, that question could be answered with relative ease: Media choices were limited to print, radio and television. Today, the so-called traditional media triumvirate is quickly being displaced (or at least augmented) by a plethora of digitally-driven options — and yes, that includes the aforementioned media types, which are increasingly “delivered” via digital channels.

Each media tactic performs differently — both on its own and as part of a multimedia plan. The variables are endless: Offer; message; execution; format; size and position — coupled with product demand, competition and the overall economy — are all factors in forecasting performance projections.

Certainly, television is not appropriate for many campaigns given its broad reach and propensity toward waste and high costs. Other tactics, such as print and more finely targeted vehicles like direct mail and display, often need to be given further exploration when television is not the solution.

That said, search-engine optimization (SEO) has become — and will continue to be — a must-have for building strong return-on-investment for any media plan and at virtually any budget. Search capitalizes on the power of mass media and is almost a requirement when investing in them.

On the flip side, clients with very small budgets need search to capitalize on consumer demand in the category and to complement a strong SEO approach. Search has taken over media planning by storm because of its ability to drive at the heart of the new world of media planning — customization.

There has been an evolution away from mass media where the same package of content is directed toward everyone, and search has established itself as the “pull” media-of-choice in this emerging consumer-driven reality. Here are some guidelines to help navigate these new-media choices:

Establish key performance indicators. That all media are not created equal is not debatable. Therefore, establishing performance measures upon which a campaign is to be evaluated is complicated. Oftentimes the goal is quantified only in terms of an unabashedly large number of annual sales. While direct-response advertisers have long been in the business of managing ad dollars to specific cost-per-lead and cost-per-sale goals, others have not yet worked out these key success metrics.

The evolved media landscape and multitude of options create a greater sense of urgency to understand what success looks like, right down to the level that will impact the media management and optimization of ad dollars. Many marketers are short on patience, given the pressure to deliver goals quickly, and don’t have the tolerance to wait out the results of test/learn scenarios. However, the volume of multichannel platforms — as well as the range of executions and ability to understand the target more precisely — begs for testing new approaches.

New tactics require a deliberate testing approach that proves the value and justifies roll out, which often means shifting budgets from other potentially longstanding tactics. This goes back to the basics of good, old-fashioned direct marketing in that fewer — and smaller-scale — tests may actually increase, rather than minimize, risk.

Measurement and analysis. Given the volume of data required to plan and evaluate media performance, the interplay between media and analytics is stronger than ever. The amount that can be learned by understanding the consumer’s interactions with multiple touchpoints represents a natural wealth of information.

The introduction of digital both accelerated and complicated the ability to read performance. Media-mix modeling has gained importance in helping to understand the relative contribution of multiple tactics. Deeper-level analytics are also needed to determine the ability of offline media to drive online, as well as in-store behavior and sales. Many agencies are responding with significant investment in technology and resources dedicated to building richer competency in media analytics.

According to Forrester: “This is a period of testing and experimenting with new media-measurement options. We have not yet entered true cross-media measurement convergence where all media channels will drive adoption of new measurement technologies and techniques. This will be a time when television advertising gets treated more like interactive marketing and branding gets measured more like direct marketing …”

Full-partner agency briefs. Winning ideas are born out of a tight collaboration from the kick-off forward. If the media plan and creative concepts/sizes/specs aren’t in sync, time and money are lost. The assets won’t align with the media recommendation and the execution may not be appropriate to the environment.

Creative executions aren’t as versatile as they used to be (i.e., create an ad for television and adapt for print). Careful attention needs to be given, especially when emerging platforms are being recommended, so that a brand’s presence in these environments is relevant. If not, the risk is the loss of impact and credibility. Spending all the time on the big idea where strategy and creative reign followed by, “Oh — I need a media plan?,” no longer makes for a successful campaign.

Fundamentals are even more important. Some brands are using emerging media to their clear advantage and they are winning in the process. Many others, though, aren’t using the new tactics successfully, and it looks like a game of “me too.” What can marketers do?

The goal of certain social-media tactics, like blogs, reviews, forums or discussion groups, is to build relationships through engagement. The value of these resulting conversations should be looked at qualitatively and not in terms of fleeting transactions such as web hits. Marketers risk employing less effective tactics for the sake of being able to measure everything the same way and in quantitative terms.

Where there are quantitative metrics for comparison, it is important to set up test scenarios that measure against key performance indicators, which are all the more critical in this evolved landscape. The volume of multichannel platforms, as well as the range of executions and ability to understand the target more precisely, begs for testing new approaches.

New tactics require a deliberate testing approach that proves the value and justifies roll out, which often means a budgetary shift from other potentially longstanding tactics. This will require patience, which is often in short supply given the pressure to deliver goals quickly.

The whole team owns the results. Results reporting should not be a media-only conversation. Weekly reports and discussions need to include strategy, creative, and analytics, together with media. Buy management is only part of the equation; it is not going to solve for any shortfall against goals on its own. It won’t turn around a campaign where the target consumer, offer, or creative needs to be re-evaluated.

Ascertaining what is successful in this evolved landscape is complicated and not the customary straight line of standard digital media banners/keywords: impressions, click volume, click through rate, and so forth. “Softer” engagement metrics must be considered as we build deeper, two-way relationships where the value is less well understood — like on Facebook, for example.

Then, there are myriad other factors — such as tweet volume, blog content and customer reviews. This is an all-hands process where the results are rich and should inform much more than just the next version of the media plan.