Dig Deeper Into Your Search Marketing ROI With ‘Path-To-Conversion’ Reporting
While search marketing is one of the most accountable advertising mediums, without sitting next to a customer, there’s still a lot of data left to be desired. The Haystack Digital Marketing Platform’s ‘path-to-conversion’ reporting provides a deeper level of data and a picture into customer intent by showing all of the search terms and display ads that a user clicked on before and after converting to a lead.
Here’s how path-to-conversion works. When a customer clicks on any search or display ad that is run through the Haystack Digital Marketing Platform, a “cookie” is placed on their computer. With each subsequent search or display advertising click, their chain of searches is recorded and correlated as a group. What this allows you to see is all of the different search and display ads a customer clicks on and which ones created a call, email or other action.
Here’s What Path-To-Conversion Reporting Looks Like:
In the image below, you’ll see the Haystack Digital Marketing Platform’s path-to-conversion reporting window. Every entry in this window is a click that converted. Next to some clicks, you’ll see a small plus sign.
The plus sign button indicates a conversion that was part of a larger path-to-conversion. When you click the plus button, all of the other ads (search and display) that were clicked on by the user will display. Here’s a sample of what the path-to-conversion looks like. As you can see, on February 6th, the user clicked on the ad for the 2012 Honda Odyssey. Subsequently, on February 17th – a full 11 days later – the user searched for the dealership’s specific name and ended up converting into a phone call.
Here’s What You Can Learn:
There’s quite a good deal of information you can pull from our path-to-conversion reporting. In the instance above, we see value in how search educated the consumer of Brandon Honda as a retailer when they were searching for a specific product. We can see how close to two weeks later, the user now specifically searches for the dealership. This is good information proving the value in search terms that generate traffic, but might not convert. Those search terms might later prompt a more specific search, in which a user will.
But there’s more information – information that you can act upon. Take a look at the path-to-conversion report below (click the image to see the full report – there are additional columns of data that are important):
In this instance, you can see a user searching for a 2012 Honda CRV. On their second search, (listed number 4 above) they called the dealership. Now, here’s what’s useful in this instance. The next day, that same visitor went back and started searching for USED CRV’s. Was a new CRV too expensive? Were they a value shopper? Did they want to see how much the vehicle depreciated? If you were looking at this report, you could look at the date and time of the phone call, call the customer back and inquire. Perhaps it could make or save a sale.
In Conclusion:
The Haystack Path-To-Conversion report provides insight into user intent and how different searches and display ads are actually related. The simple fact of the matter is that contrary to popular belief – search isn’t just the new yellow pages – people use search to learn about products and retailers, find inventory and offers and find contact information. Understanding how consumers are using your digital advertising efforts will allow you to find the areas of the most value and ultimately increase ROI.
If you don’t currently receive this type of reporting from your search provider, reach out to the Haystack sales team and see if one of our search packages can help you find better ROI.
While search marketing is one of the most accountable advertising mediums, without sitting next to a customer, there’s still a lot of data left to be desired. The Haystack Digital Marketing Platform’s ‘path-to-conversion’ reporting provides a deeper level of data and a picture into customer intent by showing all of the search terms and display ads that a user clicked on before and after converting to a lead.
Here’s how path-to-conversion works. When a customer clicks on any search or display ad that is run through the Haystack Digital Marketing Platform, a “cookie” is placed on their computer. With each subsequent search or display advertising click, their chain of searches is recorded and correlated as a group. What this allows you to see is all of the different search and display ads a customer clicks on and which ones created a call, email or other action.
Here’s What Path-To-Conversion Reporting Looks Like:
In the image below, you’ll see the Haystack Digital Marketing Platform’s path-to-conversion reporting window. Every entry in this window is a click that converted. Next to some clicks, you’ll see a small plus sign.
The plus sign button indicates a conversion that was part of a larger path-to-conversion. When you click the plus button, all of the other ads (search and display) that were clicked on by the user will display. Here’s a sample of what the path-to-conversion looks like. As you can see, on February 6th, the user clicked on the ad for the 2012 Honda Odyssey. Subsequently, on February 17th – a full 11 days later – the user searched for the dealership’s specific name and ended up converting into a phone call.
Here’s What You Can Learn:
There’s quite a good deal of information you can pull from our path-to-conversion reporting. In the instance above, we see value in how search educated the consumer of Brandon Honda as a retailer when they were searching for a specific product. We can see how close to two weeks later, the user now specifically searches for the dealership. This is good information proving the value in search terms that generate traffic, but might not convert. Those search terms might later prompt a more specific search, in which a user will.
But there’s more information – information that you can act upon. Take a look at the path-to-conversion report below (click the image to see the full report – there are additional columns of data that are important):
In this instance, you can see a user searching for a 2012 Honda CRV. On their second search, (listed number 4 above) they called the dealership. Now, here’s what’s useful in this instance. The next day, that same visitor went back and started searching for USED CRV’s. Was a new CRV too expensive? Were they a value shopper? Did they want to see how much the vehicle depreciated? If you were looking at this report, you could look at the date and time of the phone call, call the customer back and inquire. Perhaps it could make or save a sale.
In Conclusion:
The Haystack Path-To-Conversion report provides insight into user intent and how different searches and display ads are actually related. The simple fact of the matter is that contrary to popular belief – search isn’t just the new yellow pages – people use search to learn about products and retailers, find inventory and offers and find contact information. Understanding how consumers are using your digital advertising efforts will allow you to find the areas of the most value and ultimately increase ROI.
If you don’t currently receive this type of reporting from your search provider, reach out to the Haystack sales team and see if one of our search packages can help you find better ROI.
