As has been widely noted, one of the biggest challenges facing marketers today is that of attribution. With so many channels available, how do you ensure efficient marketing buys while also maximizing the channels that provide the most impact? There are many approaches that can be taken, from a simple “last click wins” to a custom attribution model based on in-depth consumer purchase path analysis.
Our sister company, ClearSaleing, specializes in attribution modeling by delivering advanced analytics and attribution solutions customized to each client’s unique needs and channel mix. (Yes, that is right from their site.) Through all of their analysis of paid search, CSEs, display, email and social media, they have created three main segmentations across the consumer purchase path: Introducer, Influencer, and Closer. Here are some basic definitions of these three segments:
- Introducer: the channel that first brought the brand into the customer’s consideration set.
- Influencer: the channels that help educate the consumer on the brand, differentiate it from competitors and move the prospect closer to purchasing.
- Closer: the channel that actually drives the prospect to conversion.
While this isn’t a groundbreaking approach (the AIDA-model has been around for a little while), what it allows you to do is tailor the channel and message according to its role in the purchase path. The key factor to consider is the ROI/ROAS expectation for each segment. By its very nature, a shopping cart abandon retargeting campaign should deliver a high return on ad spend, as the prospect is very close to converting and has actively identified the exact product(s) that they’re interested in. (This is also an area that should be monitored to ensure that conversions that would have happened organically aren’t being unnecessarily credited to a channel.)
Our approach here at FetchBack allows you to monetize your site traffic based on the consumer’s behavior and segment these campaigns accordingly. Our data has shown us that a general rule of thumb is that the farther down the funnel, the greater the return on ad spend, as it costs less to acquire customers as they get closer to converting. Moreover, each campaign should be given appropriate CPA goals to reflect this. Utilizing multiple types of retargeting with this segmentation could look like this:
- Search Retargeting is the introducer, will be much higher in the funnel, and should therefore have lower ROAS expectations. (Think $1-2 for each $1 spent)
- Homepage- and category-level campaigns can help influence the purchase by targeting customers who have been introduced to the brand and only casually shopped the site.
- Product- and cart-level campaigns are your closers; dynamically fired ads that hone in on your prospects that are closest to converting. Minimum expectations should be a $6 to $1 ROAS for most well-run e-commerce campaigns.
As you hone your marketing mix for your busy season, this full funnel approach can provide support at all phases of the consumer’s buying cycle, resulting in greater conversion rates and fewer lost prospects to your competitors. For more info on how FetchBack can help your business, visit FetchBack.com. To learn more about ClearSaleing’s attribution analytics, I encourage you to read their recent online advertising study found here.