Cross-Channel Data On The Way

Anneli Ritari

Understanding consumer behaviour and cross-channel complexity is essential to getting the most from web analytics, says Anneli Ritari, senior travel strategist at search engine optimisation and internet marketing agency bigmouthmedia.

When budgets get cut, each advertising pound spent has to go further. Savvy travel companies have begun analysing click paths in pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns in an attempt to stretch budgets, but most still measure the success of marketing channels individually, without understanding synergies across channels.

The true customer journey will not be fully understood without a holistic perspective. Travel research and purchase behaviour is complex, and analysis should be about how to interact with potential customers at different points of engagement- analysing what customers want and how they respond.

While it is still a fairly straightforward to measure the return on investment of PPC acquisitions rather than brand advertising, attribution models are making it easier for marketers to measure the influence of branding. This insight into is prompting marketers to spend more on online media. If you understand the cross-channel influence between display and PPC can be 15% - 20%, it certainly increases its value.

Unified Data Required

Customers have changed the way they research and book travel online. Consequently, marketers have less control, and visibility of how customers interact with brands. Travel companies increasingly interact with users in different channels, and it is difficult to measure the impact of mobile services, blogs and social media.

We will most likely see a convergence of different tracking technologies at some point, as the current mismatch of services leaves marketers unable to execute and analyse multi-channel programs efficiently. The goal is a unified data and technology infrastructure, with programmes tailored for each stage of interaction with the consumer rather than tracking each channel in isolation.

Increasingly advanced measurements are needed in order to achieve this. The logical next step for web analytics would services that integrate web data with both marketing and offline data.

The Problem

The problem is that the growth of online marketing has outpaced the development of accurate measurement tools. Unless we understand the complete path to purchase across channels, it is impossible to optimise each touch point with the consumer, or accurately allocate budgets.

The technologies of online marketing and web analytics continue to overlap. Effective site tagging helps us understand the impact of all other exposures to online advertising, but managing the tags requires valuable IT time.

There is also the issue of duplication, where acquired customers are attributed to multiple sources, resulting in advertisers paying inflated commissions. According to a study by digitl marketing analyst Econsultancy in March this year, 80% of conversions are “assisted” by another.

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Tagging and Tracking

What is the solution for data collection? Hypothetically, a group of vendors could band together to create a universal tag code that can capture data for any service and be configured for whatever vendor solution is being used.

An advantage would be that measurements of visitors, visits and campaigns would be comparable, regardless of the system being used.

There is a battle between the digital giants to own the ‘one tag to rule them all.’ However, the Holy Grail for any media agency would be a tag management solution that allows us to add, edit and remove tags and to track users throughout the path to conversion. There is a standalone tag management system called TagMan created for this purpose that is rapidly gaining ground.

But, there is still the issue of conversion attribution. The process of attributing a conversion to a mix of touch points should not be subjective. Running tests and tweaking the campaigns in order to analyse what leads to higher conversion rates seems like a better approach.

SEO and PPC Synergies

We run for travel campaigns with integrated search, allowing us to coordinate SEO and PPC campaigns, avoid duplication of sales and understand the synergies across channels.

The first thing is to get the analytics set up and tagging right. A TagMan, Floodlight, universal tag or equivalent solution is ideal, as these provide the greatest transparency and flexibility. Alternatively, it may be possible to ensure that the web analytic solution used for SEO identifies PPC traffic and produces separate reports. The tagging is important as it allows the removal of duplication and attribution of sales to SEO or PPC.

For example, if a customer searches a generic travel term while researching a destination and then returns to purchase a package holiday via a brand PPC, neither the PPC nor SEO should be credited with 100% of the sale. Doing so would result in recording two sales – one real and the other a duplicate.

Understanding Keywords

It is important to understand the way in which different types of keywords work. Some perform better in the earliest stages of research, some perform once the consumer has a clear idea of what they want, and others trigger consumers to make a purchase.

Some keywords will be more profitable than others, but all have a role. An integrated search campaign should take account of the characteristics of each keyword so the right channels in the right combination can be used to promote it. At bigmouthmedia we tend to create ‘tiered’ keyword strategies based on importance, current performance and priority.

In order to understand the true relationship between SEO and PPC, and how to maximise their potential, it is advisable o run tests to determine how traffic and revenue are impacted by having keywords in different positions.

For example, using a handful of high volume keywords with high natural ranking, we can analyse if moving the PPC position would save money that can be reinvested elsewhere.

Based on the findings, we can determine if a top-tier keyword might benefit from full PPC support or a low-tier keyword have its PPC spending cut.

Use of SEO and PPC should both determine, and change across, the various stages of campaigns – and also work differently for different brands.

Integrated search requires testing, technology and resources.

However, the rewards are significant and campaigns will work in synergy with investment decisions made with far more intelligence - especially if duplicate sales can be identified and removed.

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