Every business knows what counts as a conversion. It’s the goal that’s trying to be achieved after all. A conversion could be the final, the closure of a sale, the purchase of a product.
In specific campaigns, a business might class a ‘conversion’ as a lead. A second campaign or process then might try to convert that lead again, into the final sale. Knowing what conversion (result) is needed from each marketing campaign that runs is all good and well. If however, those conversions are not tracked accurately and clearly, how can decisions be made on re-investment?
It’s a simple concept, yet it’s amazing just how many businesses spend thousands on marketing without clear tracking. To us, that’s like running in the dark hoping to find the right door.
The specific types of tracking used will depend on each individual campaign. An offline campaign will need different tracking measures to an online one. A multi-channel approach will need an attribution model that gives the clearest picture of ROI.
What Should You Be Tracking?
Phone calls
When a new inquiry is received via a phone call, the source of that interaction should be noted and documented. This could be done as part of a customer service script to ask where the caller located the contact number. Did they call because they received a postcard in the mail? Did they Google search, find the business website and call from the number off there?
Alternatively, varying phone numbers can be assigned to different marketing methods. This way each phone number variation can be tracked.
Sign-up Forms
For online sign-up forms on a website, an analytics platform like Google analytics can be set-up for goal conversion tracking to monitor those sign-ups. For online advertisements that are designed to send traffic to those forms, extra tracking can usually be implemented at the ad level.
E-commerce Sales
Exactly the same approach should be taken as for a sign-up form. You should also consider assigning an attribution model that works for you. For example, in Google Analytics, you can assign a ‘last click’ model or a ‘first click’ model (there are further options). This means you either want to assign the last place a customer came from before the purchase as the source, or the first. If you have a multi-channel approach this is really important to get right.
For example, someone initially saw your Facebook advertisement and then proceeded to search your company a few days later. finding your google ad, where do you attribute the sale? Which one would you attribute the sale to? These are things that make conversion tracking less straight-forward, but without it set-up you would have no idea where your sales or leads were coming from.
Offline marketing which sends people online can also be tracked successfully. A popular way of doing this is with offline coupon codes or special landing pages for offline campaigns.
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