Conventional Source Attribution Isn’t Good Enough
One of the problems with conventional Web Analytics tools such as Omniture, Yahoo! Analytics and even Google Analytics is that they have limited source attribution functions. If a visitor arrives to your website from a Google Search typing in “red shoes”, then 2 days later arrives from Facebook and makes a conversion, conventional Web Analytics systems will associate the conversion to Facebook.
This is miles above the attribution detail available in conventional offline media, but it’s simply not good enough. What about the Google search? It’s completely ignored, and worse yet, your reporting makes it look like it was an junk visit – no conversion, no love. While it may have not produced the conversion, it assisted in creating the conversion and that should count for something. In some ways, it was even more important that the Facebook visit, as the google search was their first interaction with your website or brand. If that interaction didn’t meet the visitor’s expectations, they may have not even come back another time.
What Does This Mean to a Marketer?
As a marketer, you’re simply not getting the whole picture of the your media. What is successful. What is not successful. What is driving quality traffic. What media is cheaper. None of this is reflected in your standard reporting.
A vast majority of web visitors do not convert on their first visit. This is true for B2C, B2B and especially lead generation. Visitors don’t just convert or leave. They may be engaging with the brand, doing research, comparing prices, reading about your features, etc. Rather than just looking at whether or not visitors converted, what if we could look at all the sources converting visitors came in from? Enter Multi-Touch attribution with Google Analytics.
Multi-Touch Attribution
Multi-Touch Attribution answers the above question, and more:
- All sources a converting visitor came from.
- The visit number and associated source (what sources did visitors first find you with?)
- Finding out what sources / campaigns highly valuable visitors came from.
- What sources/campaigns your top 5%, 10% of leads or purchases engaged with.
- How much social media actually impacts your business.
- Building an engagement index – what does the typical interaction path of high value visitors look like? Maybe they find you on search first, they check you out on social media, and then they type in your site and convert?
Please contact us to learn more about Multi-Touch Attribution with Google Analytics.