MULTI-TOUCH CONVERSION TRACKING

Path to Conversion and Conversion Attribution

16 April 2009

MEDIA INTERACTION

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MEDIA INTERACTION: Purchase Funnel

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Awareness

Interest

Desire

Action

Are you talking to me?

Why are you talking to me?

Good idea, but do I really need it?

What will I have to do to get it?

In 1898 Elmo Lewis an American

advertising and sales pioneer

created the AIDA model and has

become the back backbone

structure for organizations sales

MEDIA INTERACTION: Traditional

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Different marketing

messages play a different role for

consumers throughout the purchase funnel

Build awareness

and interest

Turn prospects into

customers

MEDIA INTERACTION: Internet

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Ability to track results and return on

investment

MEDIA INTERACTION: Internet

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Awareness

Interest

Desire

Action

How many users saw an ad

How many consumers click through to website

Time of day users convert

What medium drove the final conversion

Internet= Measurement

“Last Ad Clicked”

Through 2007 a Successful Campaign = High Click thru /Conversion Rate

Untapped Measurement

MEDIA INTERACTION: Internet

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The “Last Ad Click” attributes 100% of the credit to the last click

93%-95% of audience engagements with online advertising receive no credit at all when advertisers

review campaign ROI-Atlas, Engagement Mapping 2008

Optimizations for campaigns were based on

the “Last Ad Clicked”

MEDIA INTERACTION: Internet

• The flaws of the “Last Ad Clicked”– What is the interaction between different media? How much, for

instance do search and display advertising interact?– Different ads, messages and media are employed at different points in

the conversion funnel. What touch points make the greatest impact along the way? Which make the smallest?

– How can marketers accurately reach their audience and plan campaigns if they are unable to calculate the return on investment on each of the touch points upstream of the conversion?

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Source: Atlas Institute, “Engagement Mapping”

Interaction 1

Netw

ork

Buy

Example of a Consumer’s Interaction with a Brand

Pre

miu

m

Sp

onso

rship

Searc

h

Port

al B

uy

Interaction 2 Interaction 3 Interaction 4

Conversion

“Last Ad Clicked”

PATH-TO-CONVERSION ANALYSIS

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CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION: Event Breakdown

• Events (interactions, engagements, touch points, etc.) any interaction by user and media that leads to a conversion

― View throughs 14 cookie window

― Clicks 100 day cookie window

― P2C reports only show last 10 views, 10 clicks and 10 search events

• Display view throughs and click throughs accounted for over 88% of all events, while search click throughs made up 12%

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Events/Conversions Summary– Total Events: 27,654

– Total View/Click Through Conversions: 4,929

– Average Events Per Conversion: 5.61

CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION

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Path Size by Number of Conversions and Category

• It take multiple engagements to convert users

• 85% of all conversions had more then 1 event in there path

• 70% of all conversions had more then 2 events in there path

• Over 50% had 5 or more events in the path

CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION: Time Lag

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• It takes time to convert users

• Almost half of all events occurred more than 1 day before converting event

CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION: Category Summary

• With Path-to-Conversion reporting, the typical measure of conversion can no longer be based off of the “last click”─ When looking at the path of media exposure prior to the “last click,”

and attributing each vehicle with the exposures that occurred, the impact of each vehicle shifts when understanding the “events” that took place prior to the actual conversion

─ “Conversion Influenced” is anytime a site generates an impression, view or click event in a conversion path it receives credit for having an influence on the conversion

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CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION: Category Influence

• “Winning Category” refers to the category that received credit for the conversions due to being the last click/view

• Content Finance had an influence on:– 22.8% of the Ad Networks conversions– 16.1% of the Content News Conversions– 39.0% of Search conversions

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CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION: Display/Search/Mail

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There were 4,302 conversions that had at least 1 Display event in their conversion path.

(87.3% of total conversions)

There were 1,878 conversions that had at

least 1 Paid Search event in their conversion path.

(38.1% of total conversions)

There were 879 conversions that had at

least 1 Display and 1 Paid Search event in their

conversion path. (17.8% of total conversions)

There were 3,736 conversions that had

ONLY Display events in their conversion path.

(75.8% of total conversions)

CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION: Site Performance

• SmartMoney generated: – +34.6% of the total impressions – + 1.4% of the total clicks – + 11.8% of the total conversions – + 6.2% of the total cost – + 27.3% of the total events leading up to a conversion (successful events influencing a

conversion) – + Had an influence on 24.5% of the total conversions

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CAMPAIGN PATH-TO-CONVERSION: Bankrate

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398 conversion had this exact

path

Bankrate occurred in 15% of all search

events

Bankrate was only present in 2% of all other sites’ display

events

CONVERSION ATTRIBUTION

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Crediting ROI to Ads

The “Last Ad” Standard– Last Ad Clicked– Last Ad Viewed

The RealityCampaigns reach consumers multiple times, across multiple channels, over extended periods of time

$

$

$

$

$

SearchGoogle

BannerYahoo

Rich Media & Sponsorship MSN

BannerCNet

BannerSky Sports

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TRACK EVERYTHING

• Track as much as you can through one system– Natural Search clicks– Paid Search Clicks– Display – Email– Affiliate– Sponsorships– Video Links– Other Conversion Tags or Pages of Your Site

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EXAMPLE CONVERSION PATH

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EXAMPLE CONVERSION PATH: In Tracking System

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SIMPLE WEIGHTING SYSTEMS

• Last Ad Click = 100%• Even Credit• Simple Models

– Last Ad gets 50%, remaining events split 50%

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BASIC ATTRIBUTION APPLIED

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CUSTOM MODEL: Variables to Consider

• Clicked vs. Viewed• Type of Ad • Ad Size • Messaging • Time Lag/Recency• Event Path• Engagement inside unit• Engagement on advertiser’s site

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EXAMPLE WEIGHTING SYSTEM

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WEIGHTING APPLIED

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KNOWN ISSUES

• Tracking everything takes time and requires a process

• Tracking everything in one system may be difficult based on your current setup

• Cookie tracking discrepancies– Deletion– User behavior

• An accurate weighting system will take time to develop

• Inability to track offline influencers

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CONVERSION ATTRIBUTION: Future Impact

• Impact conversion attribution will have on future marketers– Visibility into what is driving conversions– Under valued traffic from publishers will now

have opportunity to prove their effect in the conversion path

– Marketers will stop mismanaging their accounts

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THANK YOU!

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