BEYOND LAST CLICK- Ways of assessing the PPC journey

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BEYOND LAST CLICK

Without proper attribution and tracking, digital marketers could still find themselves in a situation where they are wasting 50% of their budget.

If you’re not assessing your buyers’ PPC journey correctly, you could be easily pouring resources into the wrong keywords or missing out on opportunities to target your most profitable customers.

GROWTH OF DIGITAL IN UK AD SPENDING

Projected

Source: Strategy Analytics Advertising Forecast (Feb 2015)v

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PPC IS GROWING

Digital advertising now accounts for half of all advertising spend[1] in the UK, up 9.5% year on year. And half of that digital spend goes on search engine marketing.

62% of marketers plan to up their spend on search engine marketing during 2015[2], a trend which will see digital advertising take nearly three fifths of all advertising spend by 2018. Against this backdrop of increasing competition, it’s vital that PPC spend goes into attracting and retaining the right customers at the right point in their user journey.

SHARE OF AD SPEND BY MEDIA TYPE 2015

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WHY MEASUREMENT MATTERS

25% of marketers say that an inability to measure ROI is preventing them from upping their spend, according to Econsultancy[3].

But measurement remains seriously under resourced. Over 50% of businesses say that they haven’t invested enough time in testing, measuring and optimising their digital marketing for optimal ROI.

When attribution is used, PPC spend is often the biggest winner, resulting in a increase in spend of up to 60%.

Attribution plays a vital role, assigning value to each channel (and associated keywords), to help marketers show where revenue is being driven – and where it’s not.

THE VALUE OF EACH CHANNEL WITHIN EACH CONVERSION

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Last Click model

13% of businesses say this model is entirely ineffective; as despite its attractive simplicity, it fails to take into account the complexity of many user journeys with multiple touch points.

It also neglects the role of the essential research stage, continuing brand engagement that comes from social media, and repeated searches on a mixture of brand and non-brand terms.

IS ATTRIBUTION BEING USED EFFECTIVELY

Not all attribution models are created equal.

Although they all have the same purpose - to show which channels and search terms are leading to sales - the way they do this differs. At the moment, many British companies default to a last click model[4] - one where the entire value of the sale is attributed to the last channel clicked on.

“…Last-click attribution… is about as short sighted as crediting a sign outside a store as the sole reason someone came inside and made a purchase”

Adam Singer (attributed) [5]

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First Click

As the name suggests, this is the mirror image of last click, with all credit for the conversion going to the first click in the process. It shares many of the drawbacks of last click and can miss the vital last interaction that results in conversion, although it can be useful to see what drives initial brand awareness.

Linear

This gives equal value to each touch point before conversion. While it offers a more sophisticated picture than either last or first click, and will highlight if any channel is under or over-performing, it doesn’t take into account the necessity of getting that last interaction laser targeted at the right customer.

Another drawback is that it doesn’t always take into account the emphasis of specific campaigns.

HOW DO DIFFERENT ATTRIBUTION MODELS WORK?

Last click is just one possible attribution model. Others include first click, linear, positional and time decay, each with their own benefits and drawbacks.

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Positional

This splits the majority of credit between the first and last touch points before conversion, awarding them 40% each. The remaining 20% goes to each interaction in between. You can adjust the values if necessary to suit your customer journey.

One of its main benefits is that it gives credit to all the channels in the marketing funnel, while acknowledging the importance of those first and last interactions. Without those, neither the initial awareness nor the conversion would happen. The data gathered can suggest ways that the process can be improved and refined.

The major drawback is timeliness. If a month goes by between the initial search and the second brand interaction, how important was that first search?

However, this can also show opportunities for tightening up marketing across various channels. This could be through retargeting, creating a CTA to follow on social media, or sign-up to a mailing list that will provide opportunities to reduce the time taken before the conversion happens.

Time decay

This model increases the weight given to each interaction the closer it is to the conversion. This easily visualises the relationship between each touch point and intent to purchase, as well as giving credit to the importance that a variety of searches and channels play in moving the customer along the marketing funnel.

The only downside is that it can overlook the research phase and the importance of capturing customers at this point.

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Custom

A custom attribution model allows you to assign weighting to each interaction according to the needs of your own business model and marketing activities. Different channels can be given a different weighting and custom time frames can be set depending on how either of these correlate with intent to purchase.

But getting this right takes expertise. You need to know which touch points are the most important, the time scales of your customer journeys, and how to apply this to an attribution model to give each channel the appropriate weighting.

Whichever model you choose, make sure that you have a benchmark. If you have been using a Last Click model for the last 3 years, then make sure you keep that running, adding subsequent comparison attribution models.

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ASSESSING THE USER JOURNEY

Whichever attribution model you choose to use to move on from last click, it needs to answer some fundamental questions about the user journey.

These will not only help you analyse and refine your PPC campaigns, but also provide valuable data about user behaviour and intent, that can inform the whole digital strategy.

Branded vs generic search

Getting the balance between bidding on branded and generic keywords right is essential to any PPC campaign. Using a last click model can make it look as if the branded and unbranded search terms are about equal in terms of generating conversions[6]:

• 47% of conversions came from a last click on a branded keyword• 53% of conversions came from a last click on an unbranded keyword

But if you dig beyond the last click, 28% of brand conversions were helped by a click through from a generic search term in the last month.

Generic search can be particularly important for smaller or newer companies. Their sites may not be mature enough for a top organic SERP ranking, while limited brand visibility means new customers are unlikely to first come to the website by searching specifically for the brand name.

Focusing on upstream attribution means that generic keywords which drive customers that eventually convert using a branded search, or who visit the website directly, aren’t seen as underperforming.

“Historically they would spend budget on big supplier and generic terms but they quickly saw this approach wasn’t returning anything in terms of telephone calls. They were suddenly able to see and understand exactly how they were spending their money and were able to put a return on their advertising spend based on actual data. It drove a big change across their business and how they managed their PPC accounts.”

Chris Fensome, TUI Mainstream (Case Study[7])

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Tracking the customer journey

Pulling together upstream attribution that credits both branded and unbranded PPC keywords, along with activity across other channels, means that the user journey can be tracked on a granular level.

This is particularly the case with mini-conversions, such as signing up to an email list or visiting a particular page. Tracking what happens after a certain goal is met can enable a more efficient marketing spend.

This could take the form of more aggressive bidding on a keyword if customers tend to convert after completing that goal. Alternatively, if it shows that a goal doesn’t lead to sufficient conversions, it might be necessary to refine initial targeting of the goal itself.

PPC“luxury cruises”

Research

PPC“florida cruises”

Supplier Comparison

CONSUMER JOURNEY

SEO“Virgin Holidays Cruises”

Purchase

SALE

Call Tracking

If you’re operating in a market where conversions tend to happen over the phone, for instance selling high-value, high-commitment or specialist products, call tracking needs to be integrated into attribution.

The unstoppable rise of mobile usage and search[8], where it can often be easier for customers to make a quick call than fill in online forms, makes this even more important.

This can pinpoint the initial touch points that lead to successful conversions, enabling more aggressive bidding on those generic keywords and investment into refining messaging, ad copy or bidding on keywords that need to improve performance.

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ATTRIBUTION AND CUSTOMER LIFE-TIME VALUE

80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers: according to Gartner, this is still true.

Customer lifetime values (CLVs) need to influence marketing strategy, otherwise it’s too easy to attract customers whose spend; even if it seems sizeable initially, isn’t justified by the cost of acquisition or retention. According to Econsultancy, better use of data[9] is the second most popular way for companies to increase their CLVs.

Overlaying CLV data with full PPC conversion data, including on and offline, can show which terms draw in highest lifetime value customers. This ensures that PPC and other channels are used to draw in and retain the most valuable customers, with spend being allocated in the most effective fashion.

After identifying the conversion path of high value customers, attribution models can suggest either appropriate platforms for retargeting or what future queries might be.

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REFERENCES

1. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/mar/27/half-ad-spend-digital-media

2. http://marketingland.com/report-70-marketing-executives-plan-boost-social-media-spend-2015-114071

3. https://econsultancy.com/blog/66135-77-of-businesses-plan-to-increase-digital-marketing-budgets-this-year

4. https://econsultancy.com/reports/marketing-attribution-trends-briefing-digital-cream-london-2014

5. http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2241040/3-reasons-to-go-beyond-lastclick-attribution

6. https://ssl.gstatic.com/think/docs/2012-zmot-handbook_research-studies.pdf

7. https://www.infinitycloud.com/blog/case-study-tui-mainstream-cruise-deals

8. http://www.momentology.com/2469-paid-search-trends-2015-top-ppc-predictions-from-the-experts

9. https://econsultancy.com/blog/64724-15-ways-for-companies-to-increase-customer-lifetime-value