Question

Topic: E-Marketing

How Do You Track Ppc When 80% Of Sales Are Offline

Posted by Anonymous on 3/31/2008 at 3:07 PM ET 125 Points
I am working with an e-commerce client that does extensive PPC advertising. Due to several factors out of our control, many consumers visit the site but then stop shopping and simply dial our 800# to complete the transaction.

There are several reasons for this (some good, some behavioral). I understand this is a fairly typical issue for high-end sales. (Sales are upper-end consumer electronics; >$2,000 ASP).

While this on-line/off-line strategy helps build a “human touch” to the sale (and cuts down on CC fraud), it is difficult for us to track the performance of any individual paid channel to determine ROI, cost per sale.

We’d like to hear from any experts involved in e-commerce with similar problems and creative ideas about how to match a paid consumer click to an order when there is a phone call in place.

Some specifics:

1) Most consumers won’t reliably tell our operators where they found out site. It might work for comparison shopping engines like Pricegrabber and Nextag but it would be impossible with a PPC ad.
2) We’d prefer not to require people to register their e-mail address with us (so we can identify them in abandoned shopping carts), but this is an assumption. Perhaps you’ve had a better experience where asking people to register their e-mail before they can shop has been an accepted practice.
3) While this is, of course, a shopping cart abandonment issue, there are very specific and practical reasons why we want to continue our business process in this way.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by excellira on 3/31/2008 at 3:26 PM Accepted
    Try Voicestar. They provide metrics and a script which will rotate 800 numbers on the page based upon the referrer/campaign. You can then monitor the metrics to determine which referrer is converting best and how well your call center is performing.

    Regards,

    Greg Hill
    Trinity Search Engine Marketing
  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 3/31/2008 at 3:43 PM Member
    Right on. Get unique toll-free numbers for your campaigns.
  • Posted by AdsValueBob on 3/31/2008 at 4:34 PM Member
    Your statement "Most consumers won’t reliably tell our operators where they found out site. It might work for comparison shopping engines like Pricegrabber and Nextag but it would be impossible with a PPC ad." is interesting.

    What data have you acquired that suggests that "Most Consumers won't reliably tell you where they found our site"? How do you know they are not being honest? Why aren't consumers being honest? - what benefit to they gain by telling you that they saw an ad on XYZ site instead of ABC site? Are they being pressured to say some site name even if it isn't the correct site?

    Even if the data for 25% of the calls is suspicious, tag it as such and use the 75% of good data to determine PPC performance. It won't provide exact numbers, however statistically, the performance of a suitable sized sample with generally predict the perfomance of a larger group.

    The 800 number method is fine, however this could be a less expensive method. Add a promotion code to the PPC ad. Provide the code and get free shipping. This method may be more effective if ads are moving around to different sites, or they have 50 ads - you may not want the expense and management of many 800 #s


    Bob
  • Posted by Neil on 4/2/2008 at 1:52 AM Member
    I do not understand why customers will not reliably tell your operators. Are you sure that is the problem or is it that your operators are not reliably asking the question or are they asking the wrong question?

    I think it should be relatively straight forward to get this info over the phone almost every time. Is there any way you can listen in on some calls or call pretending to be a prospective customer a few times?

    You might gain some insight on why the operators are not getting this info. Also, does your database make it easy for them to enter the info without cumbersome steps?
  • Posted by excellira on 4/2/2008 at 2:10 AM Member
    I'm surprised that everyone is surprised that it is difficult to obtain accurate source data from call-in customers. This is an extremely common issue with all businesses, large and small.

    Without doubt, training staff will help. But there is nothing like cold, hard data obtained through an automated process (removing humans from the process).

    Working with a service provider that performs this function is not expensive. What is expensive is not comprehending your cost per acquisition.

    If you're spending thousands of $ per month on advertising (PPC or otherwise) this is, as they say, a no-brainer.

    Regards,

    Greg Hill
    Trinity Search Engine Marketing
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