Multi-channel tracking: uncovering assists for a conversion
In soccer, an assist leads to a goal; in online marketing, it leads to a conversion. But how can you identify these assists? Multi-channel tracking shows which channels and advertising materials lead to a conversion, thereby enabling the targeted and effective use of advertising budgets.
Even on the web, "advertising seen - product bought" is not the rule, as consumers use different advertising channels and advertising media to make their decisions. Multi-channel tracking uncovers typical channel chains, for example:
Step 1: Banner noticed, but not clicked.
Step 2: Googled the product, clicked on AdWords, visited the website.
Step 3: Googled review, clicked on organic search result, viewed review.
Step 4: Website accessed, product purchased.
If these channel chains are not taken into account when assessing the efficiency of advertising media, the consequences can be fatal.
Holistic assessment of the advertising media
The efficiency of online advertising is still all too often judged according to the principle of "advertising seen - product bought". If, for example, banner advertising is not used due to the low click rate and high cost per order, the decision can have fatal consequences. As banner advertising is the starting point of the decision-making process that ends in a conversion via AdWords and organic search results, important traffic streams can dry up if banner advertising is not used. Which in turn leads to lower conversion values. The use of multi-channel tracking prevents such misinterpretations.
The benefits of multi-channel tracking
Multi-channel tracking helps to use the online marketing budget in a more targeted and profitable way, as it provides answers to the following important questions:
Which online channels and advertising media correlate successfully and therefore achieve the highest ROI?
Which online marketing tools generate initial contacts and which create conversions?
Which advertising media, which channel chains (sequence of advertising media used until conversion) achieve the highest efficiency?
How many contacts are necessary for a conversion?
In the tough competitive environment on the web, tools are needed that enable efficient and cost-optimized action. Multi-channel tracking is one such tool that has only recently become available as a Google Analytics feature and should be used by every professional online marketer.
Imre Sinka
www.dotpulse.ch
Further information: http://blog.dotpulse.ch/web-analytics/multi-channel-trichter-in-google-analytics/
Multi-channel tracking for Google Analytics
In the new version, Google Analytics users can access multi-channel tracking via the "My Conversion" tab. You can see the typical conversion paths, how long it takes to convert and how long the channel chains are
