What happens after the click is often critically important. We're all learning some of the positive lessons offered by social media marketing -- that the relationship with the customer can't always be measured by a one-time click. But social media isn't the only way to foster the relationship.
Here are five tips that will improve your online marketing analytics and help you measure results above and beyond the click.
1. Judiciously set benchmarks and measure against them
In my world, where we've built a content-based advertising network that delivers billions of impressions per month, we see measurement as essential. The beauty of online advertising is that every single step is measurable. But measurement techniques can be spotty. I counsel clients to break down the measurement process into checkpoints. For every user action in your conversion funnel, you need to establish a benchmark or baseline. Then, as you build out your program over time, you can focus on improving each checkpoint by testing every step in isolation. You may start with some guesswork and assumptions, but soon you'll see real, actionable data that will help you drive conversion from traffic.
2. Optimize unique tracking codes
While this is hardly rocket science, every day I am amazed to see companies making sizable online spends without adequate measurement and optimization. One of the most basic things every online marketer needs to do is have a system for assigning trackable codes that allows them to aggregate all their various campaign information into an analytics package. The right metrics allow marketers to differentiate volume from success. Each discrete creative version and traffic source should be tracked to the most detailed level possible. The metrics invariably reveal information that makes the next marketing program even better.
3. Put the technology to work
Smart marketers use technology to make their online ad spending more efficient. The most common examples are retargeting and behavioral targeting. Both allow marketers to place their messages in front of an audience that has indicated an interest. In the case of retargeting, the users have typically visited your site, and you've placed a cookie on their machines that will allow you to serve ads to them for the products for which they've indicated preference. Behavioral targeting uses the same technology but allows marketers to cast a wider net to users that have indicated interest in a category, but not necessarily a particular product.
4. Align social media efforts
We all like what social media is bringing to the marketing party in terms of relationship building. But we're still in the infancy of determining social media's trackability. At this point, a best practice is to scrutinize the emerging measurement applications for social media. Depending on your objectives, some available tools include Radian6, BlogScope, Trackur, Vitrue SMI, Forrester's Social Technographics, SM2 from Techrigy, and search.twitter.com. After all, it's imperative to align social media efforts to your other measurable outcomes, such as driving site traffic, generating leads, increasing SEO ranking, and increasing brand interaction.
5. Pay attention to attribution
I think Google may be getting more credit than it deserves for your work. In other words, when a user enters a search term or even a product name in Google's blank box, what really inspired the action? Through "attribution" studies, you can find more about the user's motivation.
Just measuring the last click is a flawed methodology. Wouldn't you like to know what's happening after the user leaves your site? In my business, where we utilize content-rich articles to attract interest in a brand or product, we don't quit with the last click. An example: If 20 percent of readers of one of our articles about home remodeling click through to a client's website, that's a good outcome. But we also know the other 80 percent of the people who examined the article are interested in remodeling at some point. It will pay dividends to continue the conversation with those users.
Go beyond the last click. Find that sweet spot -- conversion that translates into loyalty.
Scott Severson is president of ARAnet Inc.
On Twitter? Follow Severson at @scottseverson. Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.
