The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Search Engine Marketers - SEMCamp

SEAN MARSHALL

DI RECTOR OF SEM


Hey! That’s My Conversion!

•
CONVERSI ON TRACKI NG 101 ( 5 MI NUTES)

•
WHAT I S ATTRI BUTI ON

•
WHY YOU NEED CROSS
-
CHANNEL
ATTRI BUTI ON

Agenda

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)

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


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

•
CONVERSI ON TRACKI NG 101 ( 5 MI NUTES)

•
WHAT I S ATTRI BUTI ON

•
WHY YOU NEED CROSS
-
CHANNEL
ATTRI BUTI ON

Agenda

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

Important Attribution Elements

Pixel
1st Click or
Last Click?
Date of Click or
Date of Sale?
Single Source or
Multiple Source?
Talks to Other
Conversion Pixels?
Google AdWords
Last
Depends
Single
No
Google Analytics
Last
Sale
Depends*
No
Yahoo Search Marketing
Last
Sale
Single
No
MSN AdCenter
Last
Sale
Single
No
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”

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




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

•
CONVERSI ON TRACKI NG 101 ( 5 MI NUTES)

•
WHAT I S ATTRI BUTI ON

•
WHY YOU NEED CROSS
-
CHANNEL
ATTRI BUTI ON

Agenda

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


Comparing Cross
-
Channel to Standard Pixel
Tracking

Pixel
1st Click or
Last Click?
Date of Click or
Date of Sale?
Single Source or
Multiple Source?
Talks to Other
Conversion Pixels?
Google AdWords
Last
Depends
Single
No
Google Analytics
Last
Sale
Depends*
No
Yahoo Search Marketing
Last
Sale
Single
No
MSN AdCenter
Last
Sale
Single
No
Cross-Channel Attribution
All
All
Multiple
No
If you use standard conversion pixels, you only see a small
part of the picture

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



Your bid decisions are only as good as the data upon which they are
based. Without cross
-
channel attribution, your data is wrong.

Brand or Search Gets Too Much Credit

Graphic courtesy of
Convertro

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!





The Importance of Cross
-
Channel Attribution:
Part I, Your Bidding Strategy

Source
Keyword
Revenue
CPC
Google AdWords
widgets
-
$

Yahoo Search Marketing
blue widgets
30.00
$

30.00
$

Google Organic
best blue widgets
-
$

Google AdWords
blue widgets on sale
-
$

Direct Traffic
Bob's Widget Store
-
$

Google AdWords
Bob's Widget Store
$30
30.00
$

Source
Keyword
Revenue
CPC
Google AdWords
widgets
-
$

Yahoo Search Marketing
blue widgets
-
$

Google Organic
best blue widgets
-
$

Google AdWords
blue widgets on sale
-
$

Direct Traffic
Bob's Widget Store
-
$

Google AdWords
Bob's Widget Store
$30
30.00
$

Source
Keyword
Revenue
CPC
Google AdWords
widgets
5.00
$

5.00
$

Yahoo Search Marketing
blue widgets
5.00
$

5.00
$

Google Organic
best blue widgets
5.00
$

5.00
$

Google AdWords
blue widgets on sale
5.00
$

5.00
$

Direct Traffic
Bob's Widget Store
5.00
$

5.00
$

Google AdWords
Bob's Widget Store
5.00
$

5.00
$

Last click, multiple pixels

Even attribution, one pixel

Last click one pixel

How you attribute credit can
result in changes in CPC bid by
6X or more!

Source
Keyword
Revenue
CPC
Google AdWords
widgets
7.50
$

7.50
$

Yahoo Search Marketing
blue widgets
7.50
$

7.50
$

Google Organic
best blue widgets
-
$

Google AdWords
blue widgets on sale
7.50
$

7.50
$

Direct Traffic
Bob's Widget Store
-
$

Google AdWords
Bob's Widget Store
7.50
$

7.50
$

Even attribution, multiple pixels, paid only

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?





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





Ask Your Campaign Management Company

Bid Management
Only

Bid Management +
Campaign
Management Tools

Bid Management +
Full Service Agency

Under
$5,000/mo

$5,000 to
$100,000 mo

$100,000+ mo

Monthly Spend

Services Offered

Putting it All Together

1.
Know your pixels
–

understand how they
track

2.
Strive for one pixel, not many

3.
Make spend decisions based on the entire
purchase funnel, not just “the decision”
phase

4.
Develop different creative for different
stages of the funnel

5.
Develop different KPIs for each channel

6.
Ask your campaign management company
how they deal with cross
-
channel
attribution


Thank You!


Sean Marshall

PPCAssociates.com

sean@ppcassociates.com

Blog:
www.blogation.net

(David
Rodnitzky
, CEO)