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Website Optimisation Part 2 – Cross Channel Tracking
This is the 2nd instalment of a 7 article series on how to accelerate your online sales using the Marketing Results “hybrid” approach to website optimisation.
Tracking Multiple Traffic Sources With the Google Adwords Cross Channel Tracker
In part 1, we looked at how to use conversion tracking to optimise your paid search results.
But how do you track the results of other traffic sources such as banner ads, ezine ads, Yellow Pages Online, TrueLocal ads, text links, directory listings and so on?
There are many tools available that can do this, but one I like because of it’s ease of use and free availability is the Google Adwords cross-channel tracker. According to Google, cross-channel tracking…
…gives you quick and easy access to the performance data for all your online advertising channels – including pay-per-click ads on search, email, banners, and more – all from one convenient location. From your AdWords account interface, you’ll learn which campaigns are producing the highest conversion rates so you can make more informed decisions about where and how to spend your advertising dollars. As an added bonus, this tool is available free of charge.
Reliable third party tool
Many media sources are unable or unwilling to give you reports on how many clickthroughs your ads received.
Others are only too happy to provide you with a summary report of how many clickthroughs you received, but this has two limitations:
- You know how many clicks you received, but have no idea how many converted.
- I have found the reliability of reporting from some 3rd party services to be, shall we say, questionable (and it always seems to overestimate click volume).
The cross-channel tracking tool solves this problem. It’s easy to use – just follow the prompts within the Google Adwords interface.
Cross-channel tracker vs Google Analytics
The other day a client asked me about the relative merits of cross-channel tracking and Google Analytics. My take is this: Cross-channel tracking gives a simple, all-in-one-place overview of important traffic sources. Google Analytics duplicates (and expands on) much of the functionality of CTC, but is slightly more complicated to use and work with.
Conclusion
While it’s probably not necessary to track the clickthroughs and conversions of every traffic source (if that were possible), cross-channel tracking is a useful tool for understanding the ROI on key expenditures.
If you’re spending money on online traffic and lead generation, then why not keep an eye on how your investment is paying off?
Will Swayne
Cross-channel tracker
7-Part Website Optimisation Series
Website Optimisation Series: Part 1 – Advanced Conversion Tracking
It’s been too long since I really put my back into publishing some valuable “how to” information, so I’ve resolved to put together a 7-part series on how to accelerate your sales using the Marketing Results “hybrid” approach to website optimisation.
Here’s Part 1:
Advanced Conversion Tracking of Paid Search
This post on the Unofficial Google Analytics Blog got me thinking about the importance of conversion tracking as a tool for optimising your paid search results.
This article will cover the basics and move on to more advanced concepts, so feel free to skip through to the juicy bits if the first part is too basic.
Conversion Tracking 101 – Cost/Conversion
If you spend money on Pay Per Click search engines such as Google Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing, it’s imperative that you know where that expenditure is leading to desired actions (e.g. enquiries or sales) and where your budget is underperforming. A feature called “conversion tracking” allows you to do this.
Above: Conversion tracking within Google Adwords. The two columns on the right show conversion rate and cost/conversion for each Adgroup. The system also allows you to drill down to the keyword and ad level.
This is elementary, right?
Installing conversion tracking is Adwords 101 stuff and you may well be using it now, but I include this information because I have seen clients with Google Adwords budgets in excess of $100K per year who are not using this invaluable tool.
How to use Conversion Tracking to Boost The ROI of Paid Search
Once you have conversion tracking set up, the next step is optimising your results.
The Google Adwords platform offers a range of testing and tracking tools that facilitate rapid campaign optimisation. These tools allow you to determine:
- Which keywords are producing desired actions and which keywords are wasting your money.
- Which ads are not only generating traffic but also desired actions (conversions).
- Which landing pages are generating the best conversion results (it’s seldom optimal to direct all visitors to your homepage.)
- Which hours of the day or days of the week tend to produce high returns justifying higher budgets, and which time periods tend to be associated with unproductive clicks.
Knowing this information is the first step toward optimising your paid search campaigns. By excising unprofitable pockets of spend while optimising what’s working, it’s possible to dramatically increase the ROI of your Adwords account within a few weeks or less.
Conversion Tracking 201 – Multiple Conversion Goals
For a long time, one of my frustrations with conversion tracking within Google Adwords was the inability to track multiple conversion goals at the same time.
For example, let’s just say 
you sell a high-priced product or service such as termite control. And as part of the conversion process, you also offer a free report on termite control.
Well, conversion tracking within Adwords won’t allow you to track both types of conversions simultaneously.
It’s easy to imagine a situation where your Google Ad does a good job at “selling” the free report, but not such a great job at driving actual enquiries.
Enter Google Analytics for Google Adwords
Adding Google Analytics to your site not only provides you with all sorts of analytical bells and whistles but it also provides you with advanced Google Adwords testing capabilities.
For a start, you can track multiple conversion goals (e.g. free report signup and enquiry form submission).
Above: Analysing multiple conversion goals within Google Analytics. This screen can be accessed via the Content Optimisation > Ad Version Testing > Overall Ad A/B Testing menu.
The only downside, as pointed out in the ROI Revolution blog post cited above, is that ads are listed by headline only within the Google Analytics interface. To differentiate between different ads, you either need to use different headlines OR manually tag ads (for Analytics uber-geeks only!). But there’s still plenty of useful info you can glean from this process without setting up manual tagging.
Clicking on the purple “buttons” just to the left of each headline pops up a menu with more regions to explore. Of particular interest are the “Cross Segment Performance” options which let you slice and dice the data in a variety of new and interesting ways.
Conversion Tracking 301 – Closed Loop Tracking and Beyond
Conversion tracking can be taken as far as you like. By manually tagging ads and adding conversion values, this system can be made very powerful indeed as you build up a fuller picture of how prospects and customers are engaging with your website.
“Closed loop tracking” comes highly recommended if your CRM system can handle it (or your entire business is online and running via Google Analytics). This is where you import Google Adwords data into your CRM system and track results right down to actual sales.
This level of tracking allows you to find the 20% of factors (keywords, ads etc.) that are driving 80% of your sales and then laser focus your energies on those factors – profitable stuff!
At the next level of abstraction, you can look at the Lifetime Value of customers, either using the “To Date Lifetime Value” reports within Analytics or standalone tools. This can yield some very interesting results. For example:
- You may find that the Lifetime Value of customers differs significantly depending on the initial product purchased.
- You may find that the time of day of the initial purchase also influences LTV – this may be particularly relevant if you operate an online store. You will probably find that people who order in the early morning hours have higher return rates and a lower LTV than people who order during other time slots.
Summary
Conversion tracking is an essential tool of good paid search management. As you can see, there’s no limit to how far you can take it. The size of your business and your online spend are two factors to consider as you choose how serious you want to get. If a 1% increase in sales means $1 million dollars to your business, you’ll want to go straight to Conversion Tracking 301!
Will Swayne
Google Analytics enthusiast
7-Part Website Optimisation Series
Attend Business Mastery Secrets in Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney
This is to let you know about an upcoming business seminar series that is designed to get your business going and growing in 2007.
Business Mastery Secrets is a 2-day weekend seminar that features six of Australia’s leading experts in sales, marketing, business growth, cost reduction, tax minimisation and asset protection.
The events will be held in:
Brisbane [Apr 21-22]
Sydney [Apr 28-29] and
Melbourne [May 5-6]
…and promise to deliver a tonne of value that you can put to work
growing your new or established business right away.
Business Mastery Secrets” is unique because…
- There are 6 essential business topics, not just 1.
- All the bases are covered: Sales, Marketing, Business Growth, Cost Reduction, Tax Minimisation, Asset Protection
- The price tag is *very* modest when you take advantage of the “Early Bird” Special.
Normally I would be attending in Brisbane but because of a prior engagement I’ll have to attend in either Sydney or Melbourne – a nice excuse for a few days away!
Apart from the presentations themselves, I’m looking forward to networking with 200+ other businesspeople and entrepreneurs at the seminars and boning up on some of the areas with which I’m not so familiar (e.g. tax minimisation, asset protection).
Will
Brisbane [Apr 21-22]
Sydney [Apr 28-29] and
Melbourne [May 5-6]
1Shopping Cart Affiliate Bug Resolved
I’m pleased to report that the affiliate bug we were experiencing with 1ShoppingCart has been resolved. It seems that the squeaky wheel gets the grease…
Unfortunately, we wasted around 20 hours of time coding an alternative solution, as 1SC were unable to give us a timetable on the fix (the eventual fix took a few minutes, apparently).
But hey – I can’t complain. We have been using and recommending MarketersChoice.com (an OEM version of 1SC) for some time now and I dreaded the prospect of switching all our clients to other solutions.
So it’s fixed! Everyone’s kicked a goal! In future though, I would like to see more proactive support from 1SC to solve glitches like this in the first place.
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