Google recently rolled out a beta of a conversion funnel reporting system that allows AdWords users using Google Conversion Tracking pixels to track conversions to see beyond the last click. This allows us to improve our understanding of what the consumer journey within search looks like. We can see the average time lag between the last click and conversion, the number of clicks on our ads before someone converts, the ads and keywords that they are interacting with first, and the different keywords and ads they’re interacting with all the way to the last click.
This is pretty exciting. Previously, we could only get this level of understanding by implementing a costly consultancy project with floodlight tags, using DoubleClicks Click Path Analysis product or similar, or by engaging a search technology that includes path to conversion analysis as part of their pricing. OK, so Google’s Search Funnels tool only works for Google and not with Bing and Yahoo, and it doesn’t yet seem to be reporting on content network activity, but considering it’s free it’s a pretty big step on.
The implications for search advertisers, especially the smaller businesses who have previously run CPA focused activity within strict profitability targets, are signficiant. Being able to see which keywords don’t cost in on a CPA metric, but fuel cost efficient conversions on other keywords has huge implications for the volume of conversions you are able to drive, and will completely alter the way that we analyse success. We will now be able to analyse what each search term is contributing to the campaign as a whole, wheras before we could only see part of the story.
Looking at the data in some of our client accounts, we’re already seeing some interesting things. Some of the “keyword click paths” (this shows all of the keywords that a searcher has interacted with before converting) contain repeat searches for the same search term, up to 5 or 6 times before conversion. This clearly highlights the importance of an always on strategy, as if you’re not there for the last search your consumer will most likely end up somewhere else! Another example of something strange is that we’re frequently seeing some paths to conversion that start with a brand search, then converts on a generic search. This could be where above the line advertising is driving searches, and then people are then shopping around for a better offer and returning to the site on a generic term once they’ve done so. This highlights the importance of not only making sure you have full brand visibility when investing in other channels, but ensuring you have the required visiblity on generic terms.
We’re very excited about the potential to dramatically improve investment models using this data, and will be keeping our ears to the ground on what other practitioners are doing with the data. Not only are we excited about the potential it has for improving search performance, but it signals a step forward in the sharing of the rich data that search engines hold with marketeers. Data is the driver of insight and as such innovation – so the more steps search engines take in sharing this data with us, the more and more we’ll be able to do for clients.
Blog post by Graham Everitt, Search Consultant at Reform
Tags: Click Path Analysis, data insight, Digital audit, Google Conversion Tracking, Google Search Funnels, Path to Conversion, search engine marketing, Search Funnels