Hey! That’s My Conversion!

1. Hey! That’s My Conversion! Sean Marshall Director of SEM

2. Agenda Conversion Tracking 101 (5 Minutes) What is Attribution Why You Need Cross-Channel Attribution

3. What’s A Conversion? • Definition: A conversion is an event – either online or offline – that is an indication of success for your business. • Typical “success events” that can be measured: • Contact us form submitted • Ecommerce order placed • A visit to a page that indicates purchase intent (e.g. view map to store)

4. Conversion Pixels are Everywhere • Dozens of pixels are available: • All PPC engines • Web analytics • Campaign management software • Display advertising • Comparison shopping • Email marketing • Most conversions are tracked through a “pixel” or “cookies” • You install a tiny bit of code on a page that can only be accessed if a user has converted • When a user gets to the “success page”, the pixel fires and reports a conversion back to you

5. Conversion Tracking Best Practices • Make sure to match the pixel code to whether a page is HTTP or HTTPs • Put the code right before the /body tag to avoid freezing your page • Put the code only on pages that you are certain are “success pages” • Don’t try this at home (ask your Web developer to do it!) • Test the code after you’ve installed it

6. Agenda Conversion Tracking 101 (5 Minutes) What is Attribution Why You Need Cross-Channel Attribution

7. What is Attribution? • Definition: Giving credit for a conversion. Attribution can be given to one source or many. • Common attribution elements: • Source (Google or Yahoo?) • Keyword • Ad text or creative • Landing Page • Advanced attribution elements: • Geography • Demographics • Time of day • Day of week • IP address

8. Important Attribution Elements

9. Who Get’s the Credit (Quiz) • User Click Path • 9/2/11: AdWords: User searches for “widgets” and visits your Web site, BobsWidgets.com • 9/7/11: Yahoo: Search for “blue widgets” followed by Web site visit • 9/9/11: Shopping.com: “Blue water-resistant widgets” • 9/10/11: AdWords: “Model 2600A widgets” • 9/11/11: AdWords: “Bob’s Widget store” and user converts! • Conversion Pixel Used • Google AdWords: Conversion occurred on 9/11/11 with keyword “Bob’s Widget store” • Google Analytics: Conversion occurred on 9/11/11 with keyword “Bob’s Widget store” • Yahoo: Conversion occurred on 9/11/11 with keyword “blue widgets” • Shopping.com: Conversion occurred on 9/11/11 with keyword “blue water-resistant widgets”

10. Many Conversions Get “No Respect” • Giving No Credit • Cookie is erased • Conversion occurs after cookie expires • Conversion occurs offline • Pixel lost when user jumps to different browser • Pixel lost when user goes from domain to sub-domain

11. Solutions for Saving Lost Conversions • Use cookies with longer pixels • AdWords conversion pixel expires after 30 days • Pixels are available that last up to a year • Integrate offline sales into your online marketing • Dedicated phone number for each channel/campaign/keyword • SalesForce.com App for AdWords • Use conversion tracking that is not cookie based: • Digital fingerprinting • Unique customer ID

12. Agenda Conversion Tracking 101 (5 Minutes) What is Attribution Why You Need Cross-Channel Attribution

13. What is Cross-Channel Attribution • Cross-channel attribution gives partial credit to multiple clicks (and channels) in a conversion process. This enables marketers to give credit to clicks and channels that contributed to the ultimate purchase, and not just the last click • Follow best practices for setting up conversion tracking • Find a technology that offers cross-channel attribution • Instead of one pixel per source, use the one cross-channel pixel on your site for all channels • Tweak attribution settings to reflect your specific business • Option 1: Even distribution vs. weighted distribution • Option 2: Divide credit among all sources, or just paid sources get traffic • Option 3: Include or exclude brand terms

14. Comparing Cross-Channel to Standard Pixel Tracking If you use standard conversion pixels, you only see a small part of the picture

15. Why Standard Conversion Tracking Fails • Giving Too Much Credit • Pixels don’t talk to each other • Conversion is double-counted due to bookmarks • Brand keyword gets all the credit • Paid search or SEO gets all the credit • Misleading data CONVERSIONS Your bid decisions are only as good as the data upon which they are based. Without cross-channel attribution, your data is wrong.

16. Brand or Search Gets Too Much Credit Graphic courtesy of Convertro

17. How Google Uses Multi-Click Attribution to Make You Spend More! • Give Us All The Credit! • AdWords conversion tracking: • Last click, date of click • Multiple conversions per click • “View through conversions” • Google Analytics • Last click, date of sale • Single attribution, more credit for search • Ignore the Bad Clicks Behind the Curtain! • Google AdWords reporting: • Adding negative keywords = exact match; adding keywords = broad match • Geotargeting report runs by day (roll up required) • Easy to copy bids to all keywords, but can’t change match type that way • No conversion data by hour of day!

18. The Importance of Cross-Channel Attribution: Part I, Your Bidding Strategy Last click, multiple pixels Even attribution, multiple pixels, paid only Even attribution, one pixel How you attribute credit can result in changes in CPC bid by 6X or more! Last click one pixel

19. Importance of Cross-Channel, Part II: Creative Decisions • Creative for “Consideration” Stage: • Who are you? • Why should I trust you? • How are you different? • Why should I be interested? • Creative for “Decision” Stage: • What’s the price? • Do you have a promotion? • Why should I buy today?

20. Importance of Cross-Channel, Part III: KPI Goals • KPIs for “Consideration” Stage: • Time on site • Page views • Request for information • KPIs for “Decision” Stage: • AOS • Conversion Rate • ROI

21. Ask Your Campaign Management Company Monthly Spend $100,000+ mo $5,000 to $100,000 mo Under $5,000/mo Bid Management + Campaign Management Tools Bid Management + Full Service Agency Bid Management Only Services Offered

22. Putting it All Together Know your pixels – understand how they track Strive for one pixel, not many Make spend decisions based on the entire purchase funnel, not just “the decision” phase Develop different creative for different stages of the funnel Develop different KPIs for each channel Ask your campaign management company how they deal with cross-channel attribution

23. Thank You! Sean Marshall PPCAssociates.com sean@ppcassociates.com Blog: www.blogation.net (David Rodnitzky, CEO)