As digital marketers, we are too often inclined to measure the success of a campaign by the number of last-click conversions it drove. However when we take our marketing hats off and go back to the perspective of a user, we see more clearly that not every channel is meant to drive that last click conversion but rather contribute to the consideration of that purchase.
As a user, I don’t always follow the “ideal” path to purchase, which as digital marketers we try to set up for our target audiences. Just the other day I saw a pair of workout leggings I really liked through an Instagram ad. I closed my phone, typed their brand name into Google on my laptop, purchased the leggings through a branded search term, and later gave myself a good *facepalm* thinking of the poor digital marketer on the other side of the Instagram campaign that I let down by not purchasing through last click. Still, the ad is what drove me to that final purchase stage after months of word-of-mouth and following them on social media.
Purchase journeys are complicated and include an ever-growing number of touchpoints as users rely more and more on devices for information and communication. Not every touchpoint is going to lead directly to a purchase, but they all contribute to getting that user to the checkout page in some way or another.
In situations where we’ve been told to back a client’s media dollars out of consideration or awareness channels & campaigns, what we’re ultimately left with is fewer purchases generated from our paid campaigns.
So how do we prove that this consideration-based media is actually contributing to the success of our paid media overall? Here are three simple ways to get started.
1. Track your target audiences’ actions
We can often correlate the amount of retargetable users on-site with an increase in investment of upper-funnel media. Within most platform interfaces, there is not usually a way to view the growth of our segmented retargeting lists over time. The simplest way to keep track of this is to keep a log of these audience sizes and analyze the trends: when we began running that traffic campaign on Instagram, did we see our site visitors audience size increase? Are we seeing a higher volume of monthly purchasers? The more data points we have, the more we are able to relate these results back to our campaigns.
If you’re using Google Analytics, another way to measure whether or not you’re bringing in new customers is by reviewing how many new users you are sending from your campaigns.
2. Track interest over time
Plenty of 3rd party tools give us visibility into how users are responding to brands over time. One of the easiest to use is Google Trends. Simpy search for your brand’s name and you can view online interest data over time. In some cases, the data can date back to 2004 (but digital marketers beware: if you’re like me, you may go down a rabbit-hole and find yourself looking at the trend of Haribo flavors over time).
3. Utilize self-service tools within the platforms
The cost of brand lift studies can be hefty when third parties run them, which can discourage some brands from wanting to participate in these tests. Thankfully the technology of these tests has gotten more advanced, and self-serve studies are becoming more and more affordable for advertisers. Facebook & Google particularly have made their platform studies less expensive in the last year or so.
To conclude, not every channel or campaign is meant to drive last-click conversions, but all help to get users to that end goal and grow the user pool over time. What is key is measuring our consideration-based media through the tools and practices we have available to us in order to paint the entire picture.
If you’d like to learn more about how Croud runs impactful consideration-based media and how we can help your brand, get in touch.
