Comments on: Do you really know how much revenue your online campaigns are generating?

By: Ben Rush

Ben Rush — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:18:56 +0000

Hey Jordan,

Thanks for the comment, I will be sure to look into that and modify the post accordingly if that is the case. I’m looking forward to seeing the latest updates to GA rolled out shortly. The new goals section is a massive improvement!

Cheers,
Ben

By: Jordan McClements

Jordan McClements — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:27:29 +0000

Some very valid points.

Although AdWords does now allow you to see ‘Conversions (one per click)’ – so you don’t have to attribute multiple conversions to one cookie (as I understand it)..

By: Ben Rush

Ben Rush — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:13:28 +0000

Thanks for your comments, though I don’t believe an organic click would ever steal the paid conversion because usually an organic referral wouldn’t over write a paid search cookie. Usually when a customer arrives from organic a cookie is dropped, but it will be a site cookie, not a typical campaign based cookie. You would probably just double count the conversion….once to organic, once to paid.

Unless of course you included campaign tracking codes on the end of all your site URL’s, but I can’t image anyone doing something so dumb.

By: PPC Leeds

PPC Leeds — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:37:33 +0000

I agree with alot of the sentiments your mention however there are a few instances where i believe paid search should be rewarded. Adopting the current Google analytics structure. Basically if somebody accesses the website through a paid search keyword for example: ‘garden water features’. They look around the site, love what they see but decide to shop around before making a purchase.

Upon shopping around they dont find a product as good as the one accessed through the website and decide in their minds they should return to the original website. They remember the name of the original website however they didnt bookmark this page. They make a search on google under the Brand name and access the website through the organic listing which will appear top under the brand name. They then buy the product. This search type would be attributed to ‘organic’ revenue source or too ‘brand’ revenue source.

Although the conversion was made through accessing the route domain, it wouldnt have occured if it wasnt for the paid search exposure previously. Its becomming increasingly common (and annoying at the same time) that the general public and those less web savvy individuals use Google for everything including typing the full URL’s into the toolbar. If they would of come directly to the website then the credit would be with the paid search however through entering the website through organic listings it cancels out the cookie already placed within the paid search.

This for me is the flipside to your excellent arguement. There are times when paid search keywords should be attributed to the results for aquiring new customers and revenue however they are placed upon the organic results.

Just a different side to the argument ive come across recently with freelancing for a client.

By: Ben Rush

Ben Rush — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:06:06 +0000

Hi Gerry, thanks for your comments. You’re absolutely right, most marketing vehicles are challenging each other for the same conversion. I am always left frustrated mainly around internal campaign reporting, for example customer clicks on a merchandising banner, and buys something. Business reports benefit against merchandising, but have no idea what the customer actually bought. Internal campaigns are always targeting specific products or series, so unless a customer buys that product then the marketing team shouldn’t be claiming a successful conversion.

Most organisations just need to recruit more analytical folk who are less concerned with justifying their jobs, and more concerned with giving an accurate picture of what is going on.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:12:10 +0000

CoreMetrics (I think) allows you to setup complex rules to ‘decay’ or proportion attribution – it is quite amazing how often various sources will claim a single sale, this can include newsletters, organic, branding and of course PPC, plus display and affiliate … It is possible and even frequent that two or three will have an impact on a sale. It is almost too complicated for any marketing department to attribute fairly! Many ‘display’ companies also claim that seeing adverts on the web is like seeing adverts on TV, so they will use 3rd party cookies (Atlas etc..) to claim attribution…

Glad I don’t manage advertising budgets!